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HPE Alletra dHCI vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

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

HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in HCI
5th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
198
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 4.8%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 1.9%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
StarWind Virtual SAN1.9%
HPE Alletra dHCI4.8%
Other93.3%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Antonin Pavlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Effortless upgrades with one-click feature while new server deployment needs a smoother process
I have a data center, and all the servers are connected to HPE Alletra dHCI. I use it for data management with VMware running on the servers The most valuable feature of HPE Alletra dHCI is the one-click upgrade function, which allows all drivers and services to be downloaded to all servers…
Vladimir Simion - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieving seamless cost-saving implementation with exceptional support
The best features that StarWind Virtual SAN offers include the price because comparing to other virtual SAN solutions, this one is the best, and it also has a great support team behind it. My experience with their support has been positive, as their guides regarding the integration are very useful. They have some awesome guides online that show you exactly how to configure the product, how to do the initial setup, and you can speak with them directly. They will be able to connect and verify your setup, run its parameters and see exactly what's working and what is not, and they really help you with that. StarWind Virtual SAN has positively impacted my organization and my customer through initial cost saving. They use this product in a dark site, so I'm not able to provide any additional details about this, but they were really glad about it, they're still using it, and they asked for extending the capacity for it and the support. They really want to use it and are enjoying using it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The nice thing about it is that it truly integrates with the cloud, so I can move my volumes bi-directionally in and out of the cloud."
"The product provides zero downtime."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI has the most valuable features for performance, resilience, and scalability."
"I love InfoSite. That gets you a lot of good detailed information."
"HPE's InfoSight software, which does the comparative analysis and artificial intelligence built-in in the box, and with Nimble they do well against the competition. Additionally, the dashboards are good."
"The solution is easy to use."
"HPE Alletra dHCI is very comfortable with high performance and quick installation."
"With regards to performance, configuration, and longevity it is upgradeable, which means it has a good TCO rate. These are valuable aspects to me."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is a very mature software that supersedes its capabilities with my use cases."
"It also provides a high degree of mobility, as the virtual SAN can be moved relatively painlessly between on-site devices and the cloud."
"The primary purpose of this software is to create a virtual SAN between local storage on Hyper-V hosts. I find this feature most valuable since it accomplishes this quite well."
"The product creates opportunities with hybrid on-premise solutions."
"The configuration is so much simpler than that of a traditional SAN with fewer points of failure to worry about."
"You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."
"The management interface on the software is very simple. It is insanely simple compared to most SANs. The interface is also powerful when used to complete tasks that an IT administrator needs to complete."
"StarWind is very easy to use, even if you have had no experience using a SAN before."
 

Cons

"They could expand product support to Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat Linux platforms."
"Their documentation needs to be simpler to read yet more detailed so it's easy to compare models and easier for clients to pick."
"The product does not support file services."
"The performance of HPE Nimble Storage dHCI could improve. Other solutions, such as Cisco, are better."
"Nimble Storage's integration with the management software could be better."
"I rate Nimble one out of 10 for ease of setup. Setting up Nimble Storage was a nightmare. It took us three months to deal with all the kinks and bugs. We had two people from HPE assisting us and two from our team."
"The solution could improve by providing better file-level restoration and DVX system options."
"This year 2022, we have the possibility to include new kinds of storage with a high disk availability, such as Alletra 6000 and Alletra 9000. Those are the new storage available. If we would like to improve the quality and the capability and the high availability of these products, we can choose between different costs. This is another benefit from this HPE Nimble Storage dHCI solution of hyper-converged."
"I wish the sync after a failure, such as hardware failure or power-related issues, for example, was faster."
"Improvements in documentation and support resources could enhance the user experience."
"Besides not being able to use any filesystem, I do not have any additional cons."
"We don't really have any issues with this product."
"Perhaps the developer should refine the product management through PowerShell."
"It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website."
"Lastly, I think the severity two response time incidents could be improved upon; it's eight hours, and if that could be better, I'd like that."
"While it is possible to implement disk encryption in StarWind using Windows Bitlocker, such a solution can be a little tricky to manage."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The product is very affordable."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"With the features that HPE Nimble Storage dHCI provides, I cannot say its pricing is more."
"The solution’s pricing was very good."
"The prices are very high."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is much cheaper than the competition and has value proposition. Customers can see an ROI in three months. There are no additional costs, and VMware licenses can be reutilized."
"The price of HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is expensive."
"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."
"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."
"Their pricing seems pretty good, and their licensing structure is pretty straightforward."
"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."
"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."
"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."
"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business159
Midsize Enterprise54
Large Enterprise33
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
Pricing is rated at six, which is normal. The price is appropriate for the capabilities and features that the customers receive.
What needs improvement with HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
I would like the HPE Alletra dHCI to provide options to install products separately. When extending or when servers are already present, normal Alletra systems are more suitable. dHCI projects ofte...
What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?
It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
I had experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing through using the free version of StarWind Virtual SAN for testing purposes, so there was no cost involved during my evaluation. That made i...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
One area for improvement regarding StarWind Virtual SAN is the lack of a full-feature trial. At the time I tested it, I had access only to the free version, which required using PowerShell scripts ...
 

Also Known As

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
StarWind SAN & NAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra dHCI vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.