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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
197
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 5.0%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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."
"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 technical support services are good."
"HPE Alletra dHCI is very comfortable with high performance and quick installation."
"Artificial intelligence is built into the product. If there's a failure, HP support will proactively call the client about the issue."
"We have the ability to increase the storage without any additional costs."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI has the most valuable features for performance, resilience, and scalability."
"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 can improve an organization's storage infrastructure by providing high availability, scalability, cost-effectiveness, performance, and ease of use."
"The iSCSI protocol is quite simple to configure."
"Speed and high availability have been the most valuable for us."
"The product's core feature of virtualizing our storage is by far the most valuable."
"We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment."
"StarWind Virtual SAN has impacted my organization positively by saving a lot of money over purchasing a new SAN."
"They offer top-tier support."
"I like the asynchronous replication and failover features. They are what I'm primarily using it for. The asynchronous replication is helpful because our servers are backed up continuously throughout the day. If anything goes wrong we just fail over immediately. That is a very nice feature to have."
 

Cons

"Sometimes the technical support would get back to us in two hours, but other times it would take them two or even three days to respond."
"The solution could improve by providing better file-level restoration and DVX system options."
"The product is expensive."
"Cost-wise, this solution is slightly more expensive than other hyperconverged solutions."
"They could expand product support to Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat Linux platforms."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI currently is promoting only VMware as a hypervisor, whereas if they can look into other OSs, such as KVM or Red Hat, it would be an improvement."
"Their documentation needs to be simpler to read yet more detailed so it's easy to compare models and easier for clients to pick."
"They should improve just the support."
"I would like them to invest time in reducing the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure."
"The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation."
"I would love to see more vendor selection to be available for the HCA/vSAN appliances."
"While StarWind.com excels in numerous areas, there are a couple of notable functionalities that it currently lacks. One of these is duplication, which could be an invaluable feature for data redundancy and backup purposes. The ability to duplicate data across different storage locations can be crucial for safeguarding against data loss, and its absence is a minor limitation in an otherwise stellar offering."
"Having more support plan options would be nice."
"The configuration can a bit cumbersome."
"It would be helpful to have a little more insight into what kind of performance the VSAN cluster is utilizing; something that would be more proactive on our side, versus their ProActive Support."
"It runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is very affordable."
"The product licensing costs vary depending on whether VMware or other solutions are used."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"The prices are very high."
"The solution’s pricing was very good."
"The product is costly."
"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The cost of the licensing is reasonable."
"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."
"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."
"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
"This is a good, economical solution compared to data storage systems."
"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."
"The cost was ultimately low to implement, which allowed us to be 3-2-1 complaint."
"Once you buy the license, you are free to build your own hardware solution based on your needs."
"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was that it was easy to implement, license, and the cost was very good.
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
StarWind Virtual SAN could be improved, and I wish the management GUI worked better.
 

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: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.