FreeNAS vs Nasuni comparison

FreeNAS and Nasuni are both solutions in the NAS category. FreeNAS is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while Nasuni is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.2. FreeNAS holds a 2.0% mindshare in N, compared to Nasuni’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of FreeNAS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Nasuni users who would recommend it.

FreeNAS

Read 9 FreeNAS reviews

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614 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nasuni

Read 36 Nasuni reviews

5,631 Views
1,858 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

FreeNAS

Nasuni

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Nasuni and FreeNAS compete in the enterprise file storage category. Nasuni seems to have the upper hand for large enterprises due to its scalability and cloud integration, while FreeNAS is preferred by small to medium-sized implementations for its flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Features:Nasuni offers a centralized management console, unlimited capacity, and continuous versioning. FreeNAS emphasizes strong integration with Linux or Windows environments, disk management, and container integration.

Room for Improvement:Nasuni could improve in areas like replication speed and monitoring capabilities, and users suggest better mobile access tools. FreeNAS needs enhanced documentation, better clustering features, and improved backup processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Nasuni supports hybrid and public cloud environments and is praised for responsive customer service. FreeNAS is user-friendly for on-premises deployment, but relies heavily on community support.

Pricing and ROI:Nasuni has pricing based on data usage per terabyte with annual licensing, advantageous for larger enterprises due to its cloud integration. FreeNAS is open-source with minimal costs, appealing to budget-conscious users with technical expertise.

To learn more, read our detailed FreeNAS vs. Nasuni Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. Nasuni

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

FreeNAS

Ranking in NAS

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Nasuni

Ranking in NAS

7th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

File System Software (1st), Cloud Migration (3rd), Cloud Storage (4th), Cloud Backup (14th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (10th), Cloud Storage Gateways (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the NAS category, the mindshare of FreeNAS is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nasuni is 5.1%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS

Featured Reviews

Vincenzo D'Aniello

Software developer at TREXON S.R.L.

Open-source with great disk management and task synchronization

The system itself allows you to add any feature. The only bad thing is that this maybe depends on FreeBSD, and sometimes finding documentation is difficult. For example, we knew that previous versions automatically enabled the Linux kernel, yet with the recent version, this was no longer the case. Now, there was the possibility of being able to create Debian-based jails, and finding the documentation was not easy or fast. That said, in the end, we succeeded. If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented.

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Barry Sunanan

Senior Architect - Data and Solutions at Wipro Limited

It helped us save 40 to 45 percent on some types of data

It can provide a 360-degree view of your data, depending on how you implement it and whether you're storing your data in Nasuni. However, if you're working with multiple cloud providers, I don't think it's mature enough to provide a 360-degree view of what's in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. I think it can do it, but it's still a lot of scope and range fitting. Given that Nasuni storage is actually cheaper in some areas, it made sense for us to move a lot of our data away from Microsoft. Nasuni gave us more of a 360 view of that particular data type. Other data types are a little different because the company went in a direction where they wanted to store some stuff in an AWS S3 bucket rather than a file storage system. An S3 bucket has its advantages, but if you were to store more of your data in Nasuni, you would get a wider 360-degree view of it rather than on several cloud providers. I have data in AWS, Google, and Azure, and I would like to see a wider view of all the data stored across these three top providers. Currently, I use it for AWS and Azure, but I couldn't use both of them at the same time. I think Nasuni could have better visibility across these different areas. I had to take my data out and then do some analysis to get the costs. It would be helpful to have more built-in analytics tools to compare the storage costs between the various cloud providers. I would also like some graphing capabilities. We had a tool called Grafana that we used for graphing. I think some more visual analytics like that would be nice.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It has the best storage capacity."

"Its stability is the most valuable. It is reliable, and we don't have to worry too much about it."

"The ease of use of the 'jail', the management of backups, and copies to easily create test and pre-production scenarios have speeded up the development and distribution of business apps."

"The solution has been very stable so far."

"It integrates well into either Windows or Linux environments."

"What I like about it is that I can work on it from any computer or any device. The initial setup is very simple. The setup wizard is really helpful."

"FreeNAS is much simpler and easier to use than other solutions, but we don't have the complete range of features that come with the full version."

"The snapshot functionality and the unified file system are definitely the most valuable features for us. The UFS allows everybody across the organization to see the exact same data at the same time, instead of having different file servers with different structures on them, and that's mission-critical. We have different branches throughout our organization that have to act on that data."

"The disaster recovery capabilities are very easy because their virtual appliances are just like OVFs or images. You put in a code and it collects all the configuration from the cloud and then builds up the cache. But that doesn't preclude the device from easily being restored or recovered at short notice."

"I particularly like the restore process. Our financial teams make changes to spreadsheets and other files, and we've got teams using Photoshop files. They make mistakes and need to recover files, and we can do that instantly. We also have users who manage to delete folders, and we can bring them back instantly within a few seconds."

"Nasuni has helped to eliminate on-premises infrastructure. We were using about eight to 10 different types of vendors or small storage boxes for provisioning and shared access for users. We got rid of all those. That has eliminated operational overhead and footprint at our data center. We don't have to worry about any hardware or monitoring particular devices, and hundreds of devices have been decommissioned. Now, for provisioning, everything is on Nasuni. I assume this has made a big difference in costs."

"Nasuni Management Console (NMC) is super valuable, and both physical and virtual filers are also valuable. NMC is the one-stop place for all our filers, both virtual and physical filers. They are definitely doing a great job in housing all our documents and surveillance videos."

"Continuous File Versioning is one of the best features because it helps you to restore at any point in time. That means you don't have to worry about a ransomware attack. Even if that attack happens, you can restore all the data to five minutes ago and save everything."

"Its dependability and auditing capabilities are very important to us to be able to maintain a chain of custody of the information."

"It has the ability to do end-user recovery, or a user can simply contact an admin who can perform a recovery from the management console. The versioning has simplified everything. Now we don't have to worry about those components."

More Nasuni pros

Cons

"The one thing that I find difficult to do which is very time-consuming is that I like to have a backup of the important files."

"They can improve the integration with PSA systems. This functionality could be better."

"They should include clustering for the solution."

"FreeNAS should be better prepared for clustering."

"The support for S3 needs to be improved."

"The latest version of the dashboard doesn't work as good as the previous version."

"If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented."

"Nasuni recently implemented a health system for filers. However, it needs better visibility because it lacks data and an explanation, or reasoning as to why a particular filer may be unhealthy."

"The customer portal could be improved, but it has been a while since I've used it. They might already have improved it."

"One area that we've recently spoken to Nasuni about is single sign-on. Another is integrating Nasuni with Azure Active Directory. In our particular case, that would allow for third-party consultants to access our Azure Active Directory environment as opposed to coming to our on-premises environment."

"I would like to see Nasuni provide the ability to mirror a Nasuni appliance from one site to another. They could maybe have a standby appliance that is mirrored in a different location for disaster recovery purposes. We can recover if data and a Filer are lost because of a possible ransomware event, but even that takes time to recover. If we had the ability to have a mirrored appliance, we could flip over to that mirrored device and resume instantly rather than repopulate the local appliance with data from the snapshot history in the cloud. This is another feature that we would really like to see, if possible."

"As administrators, we are used to having control equal to managing an on-prem device. In terms of log analysis and other things we want to do, Nasuni has some limitations limitation on what you do on the Nasuni. Nasuni could add some features to the GUI that make administration a little easier. It's tough when I have to move from one filter to another because there is no way to search it. We have to scroll up and down to find the name of it."

"The user-friendliness of its access needs improvement. When I log into the console, I see all the files that we handle globally. There are hundreds of Nasuni files that I can see on the console, but no way that I can filter them down. While this is a small thing, I need to scroll down and select the ones that I want. "Control F" doesn't work nor is there a dropdown menu that I can click on and select the ones that I want."

"There are some issues with multiple users accessing the same file simultaneously. There would be times when the global file would lock when several people tried to access it, so that could be optimized more."

"We've had some organizational changes that Nasuni has not been able to keep up with, mainly from a data or file system perspective. Moving a filer from one management console has been a challenge. It lacks the flexibility to move files in and out of the management console. We have six management consoles now, and we're constantly telling Nasuni, "Hey, please allow us to move a filer from management console A to B." They can't do that."

More Nasuni cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its licensing cost is based on the hardware capacity."

"For our configuration, we pay a little bit less than €10,000 ($12,000 USD) per year."

"We use the free version of the program."

"Its price is okay. It suits our needs."

"Nasuni pricing is average; it's not too high or too low."

"Its price is fair and reasonable. I don't have anything negative about its pricing and licensing. For us, there is also the cost of monitoring. We are monitoring through Xenos and not through Nasuni. That is another cost for us from the monitoring perspective, but as far as Nasuni goes, we don't have any other cost apart from the licensing fee."

"The pricing is fair. It's an enterprise-level solution so it's not inexpensive... The cost is pretty stable year over year."

"It is around $850 per terabyte per year. Any additional costs that you would incur are for the local caching devices that you'll need to access Nasuni. You kind of provide your own virtual machines or compute to access the data. You also pay for the object storage. So, there are three parts to it. There is the Nasuni license per terabyte. You would also pay for the actual object storage in the cloud, and then you would pay for virtual machines to access the storage."

"Our agreement is set up such that we pay annually per terabyte, and we buy a chunk of it at a time. Then if we run out of space, we go back to them and buy another chunk."

"There are annual costs that we pay for maintaining all of the snapshot history in the cloud. That is the primary cost that we pay. We occasionally buy newer Nasuni appliances or deploy them to new offices when the need occurs. That capital equipment expenses is less than the cost of buying new file storage systems. For the most part, you are trading a CapEx cost of storage equipment for an OpEx cost for management of all the snapshot data in the cloud."

"It has a license fee as well as hardware costs, which we would incur if we want to use Nasuni Cloud Storage Gateway for upgrades."

"There are cheaper forms of storage, but Nasuni is fairly priced for the functionality it offers. I can get basic file shares provisioned in Azure and pay for the storage and the CPU. The overall cost would be much less than Nasuni, but I would need to build the management console and encryption process, so it would cost a lot to develop that kind of functionality."

More Nasuni pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

13%

Performing Arts

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FreeNAS?

The ease of use of the 'jail', the management of backups, and copies to easily create test and pre-production scenarios have speeded up the development and distribution of business apps.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FreeNAS?

The core version is free and open-source.

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What needs improvement with FreeNAS?

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Does Nasuni have a good pricing model?

Based on the experience of my organization, Nasuni is definitely worth the money, since it gives you an all-in-one solution where you'd usually need several programs. About the cost, there isn't a ...

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Is it easy to restore files with Nasuni?

As someone who has used this feature of Nasuni I can tell you - yes, it's good for file recovery and you'll definitely benefit from very quick times. I can't tell you if it's the best one because I...

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What features and services does Nasuni offer?

Hi, if you pick Nasuni, you'll be benefiting from many services for a good price. Well, it's a personalized price you get after an agreement with the company but in my organization's case, it is a ...

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Compared 18% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs Nasuni

Compared 10% of the time

Qumulo vs Nasuni

Compared 8% of the time

Rubrik vs Nasuni

Compared 6% of the time

More Nasuni Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS

August 2025

Download FreeNAS product report

Buyer's Guide

Nasuni

August 2025

Download Nasuni product report

Overview

FreeNAS is an operating system that can be installed on virtually any hardware platform to share data over a network. FreeNAS is the simplest way to create a centralized and easily accessible place for your data. Use FreeNAS with ZFS to protect, store, backup, all of your data. FreeNAS is used everywhere, for the home, small business, and the enterprise.

FreeNAS

Nasuni is a file data services enterprise focused on assisting firms with their digital transformation, global expansion, and information awareness. The Nasuni File Data Platform is a suite of cloud-based services designed to enhance user productivity, ensure business continuity, provide data intelligence, offer cloud options, and simplify global infrastructure. This platform and its auxiliary services are projected to replace conventional file infrastructure such as network attached storage (NAS), backup, and Disaster Recovery (DR), with an expandable cloud-scale solution. By storing file data in scalable cloud object storage from multiple providers, Nasuni positions itself as a cloud-native alternative for traditional NAS and file server infrastructure. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Nasuni serves sectors like manufacturing, construction, technology, oil and gas, financial services, and public sector worldwide, offering its services in more than 70 countries.

Reviews from Real Users

James J., IT Manager at a marketing services firm, says Nasuni’s management dashboard is helpful because he's able to view all of the different filers at once rather than check each one of them individually. He values the software’s security, reliability, good performance, helpful alerting, and responsive support.

According to a Server Engineering Services Lead at a mining and metals company, Nasuni offers good OR and DR capabilities, performs well, offers data security, and continuous file versioning helps recover from hardware failures.

The Managing Director of IT at a construction company appreciates Nasuni because it eliminates a lot of work that was previously done when managing backing up and restoring data files.

Nasuni

Sample Customers

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations

American Standard, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, E*TRADE, Ithaca Energy, McLaren Construction, Morton Salt, Movado, Urban Outfitters, Western Digital

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. Nasuni

July 2025

Free Report: FreeNAS vs. Nasuni

Find out what your peers are saying about FreeNAS vs. Nasuni and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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