HPE Hyper Converged vs VMware vSAN vs VxRail comparison

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Broadcom are both solutions in the HCI category. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.9. Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a 2.9% mindshare in HCI, compared to Broadcom’s 10.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

HPE Hyper Converged

Read 38 HPE Hyper Converged reviews

2,854 Views
2,768 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

VMware vSAN

Read 234 VMware vSAN reviews

15,097 Views
9,662 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

VxRail

Read 134 VxRail reviews

13,159 Views
12,501 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

HPE Hyper Converged

VMware vSAN

VxRail

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HPE Hyper Converged, VMware vSAN, and VxRail based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Broadcom, Nutanix and others in HCI.

To learn more, read our detailed HCI Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

HCI

March 2026

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Helped 885,444 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Hyper Converged is 2.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSAN is 10.0%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VxRail is 12.4%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VxRail	12.4%
VMware vSAN	10.0%
HPE Hyper Converged	2.9%
Other	74.7%

HCI

Featured Reviews

GosayeErko

System Engineer at BIOS Engineering

Infrastructure management simplifies for clients with integrated interface and enhanced resource utilization

Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and most clients are skipping VMware because VMware has changed its licensing method. If HPE starts to use its own hypervisor for its HCI solutions, it will be the best solution. We push a different vendor for the backup and replication, so we only use the HCI, then we use Veeam for the backup and replication section.

Read full review

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

Managing mixed RAID workloads has improved data protection and delivers strong performance

VMware vSAN can be improved in certain areas. In cases involving our large data stores with large VMs, we experience some latency, not during normal operation, but during database backup operations. We observed latency due to buffer issues from the top-of-the-rack switches. These issues are mostly network-related because all storage data traffic travels through the network. I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features. VMware vSAN is now providing data locality, but we did not use that option. If VMware vSAN provides additional features in the next release, such as the VM balancing feature called DRS on the cluster that VMware previously had, it would be beneficial. With DRS, VMs can move easily from one node to another within the same cluster. Nutanix does not provide that flexibility. When placing a VM on a cluster in Nutanix, the placement uses a balancing component. After that, the VM remains on the same host. If any contention occurs on the CPU or memory side, the VM stays in place until contention happens. If issues occur, the VM migrates to another host while transferring all objects to the same host. This is how their data locality is maintained. When a VM moves to any host, it moves with all VM objects. VMware vSAN does not currently offer this option. If a VM moves to another host, it accesses the disk object through the network, which increases latency. VMware vSAN now offers an option to select data locality, but it does not function like Nutanix. This is why some latency remains. If VMware vSAN can improve this feature, it would be very helpful and VMware would regain its top position.

Read full review

Saleh Khalid

computer scientist at Imam University

Experience improved integration and cost-efficiency while facing support challenges

The best features of VxRail are its compatibility with VMware, its hyper-converged solution capabilities, and its single line of support. These are the most beneficial aspects of VxRail. I switched from the previous HP solution to Dell solution because it was a good decision. With HP servers, we dealt with a vendor for the compute servers, another vendor for the storage servers, and another vendor for the networking, which required us to manage multiple vendors. Now, we have a single team who can handle VxRail and a single line of support. We don't need anything other than that, and these are the differences we noticed after we switched.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a scalable solution."

"It provides unmatched performance, productivity and reliability, and its HPC technologies and workflow provide downtime and increase the technology."

"For HPE Hyper Converged 380, the added value is not having to buy multiple elements – servers, hard disks, memories, CPU, cables, and software – because you have to unpack it, install it, and update the firmware."

"The features of HPE Hyper Converged that are most effective and beneficial are its simplicity as well as its scalability."

"The HA, which means I have a copy of the VMs always available, and the moment a VM is down, the system tries to power it on again."

"Hyper Converged is highly stable because it's installed on our VMware platform."

"I would say that this solution is good depending on your needs and on budget."

"The scalability of this tool is very good. You can basically add more storage and seamlessly expand the current storage that you have."

More HPE Hyper Converged pros

"It completely removes the need for a storage network and for a storage administrator and all of that infrastructure and the costs that are involved with them."

"The most valuable features are its performance, simplicity, and synchronicity with vSphere."

"We don't have to order a storage system, we can just use whatever we have on hand and roll it into our virtualization system."

"We have found the solution to be very scalable."

"Based on my findings, it seems easier to deploy than the traditional SAN."

"One of the valuable features of vSAN is it has a universal type of technology that allows you to deploy it on any server or hardware. Competitors, such as Nutanix, provides the AOS and can be deployed only on certified hardware. For vSAN, it does not require any kind of certified hardware."

"vSAN is one of the easiest implementations of any VMware product; it's almost like click it to enable it, then you're almost done."

"It scales well. We have plenty of room to grow."

More VMware vSAN pros

"The VxRail is built on two specific platforms that have been in the industry for the last 15 to 20 years: the 1-U socket and the 2-U socket platforms from Dell. They're in their sixteenth generation of those platforms, I believe, so they're very stable."

"There is a single vendor with the hardware, software, and maintenance. Thus, there is a single vendor with whom we can contact."

"What I like the most in terms of features is the fact that the VxRail update can be done in one week, and it takes much less time to do a whole server upgrade and an infrastructure update as well."

"First and foremost, I would advise people to purchase this solution mainly for the simplicity of the system. And it's all managed in one place, which is nice compared to Nutanix where you had to administrate multiple places. And, the support now is so good."

"We have seen ROI using this solution. It has simplified the work of the staff that we have which allows us to do more work with the same number of people, without having to incrementally grow the staff."

"We like the design and that it meets data storage needs."

"The low latency and response times and having a virtualized environment within a single computer are valuable. I have no physical elements, and I can optimize or balance my data depending on the sales volume that I have in a specific store."

"Better performance, smaller footprint, lower heat, and power dissipation, faster to deploy and easier to manage."

More VxRail pros

Cons

"There are some general issues around component failure and raising technical support. Overall, the stability is rated seven or eight out of ten."

"'ve heard from other people that maybe there could be some improvements around technical support."

"Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and many clients are skipping VMware due to its changed licensing method."

"The solution needs to add a module or plugin of vCenter for clear monitoring and insights."

"The downside of the solution is the scalability because they grow using nodes, but it's not desegregate."

"The installation was very complex."

"Scalability requires using additional nodes."

"The solution would be better served if it integrated with other solutions better."

More HPE Hyper Converged cons

"What I would like to see, for the really small customers, is the ability to have two nodes."

"I'd like to see better integration with the Update Manager, in terms of firmware updates for hardware."

"There is room for improvement on the latest version of compatibility with the VMware product, especially for vSAN and with other vendors, like Intel and AMD, on their motherboards and driver configurations."

"I would like to see replication as part of it. I would also like to see direct file access, being able to run SIF shares and NFS and the like. I think that would be critical to continuing the use of it going forward."

"Hardware load balancing is available on the enterprise version of the solution, however, it's extremely expensive and therefore out of our budget."

"The monitoring feature in VMware vSAN could be better."

"I have used the VMware Replication but I can't get it to work properly. The process should be simplified."

"I lose a node in a cluster vSAN, which is also used as a cluster HA. I lose not only the storage part, which is not necessarily serious (depending on the configuration of the vSAN cluster), but on the other hand, I lose also a node of Compute, which can make things complicated quickly."

More VMware vSAN cons

"They're getting better with their one-click upgrade. The success factor is now between 85% to 87% with the latest release. They should just continuously improve on that one-click factor and make it more seamless."

"My advice to anyone looking to get VxRail is to really understand your use case because from our experience this solution doesn't fit certain use cases."

"We do not use the storage part of VxRail, we use Pure Storage to map out the VxRail because the disk performance from Pure Storage was far better than the performance of the disk on the inside of VxRail."

"I would like an easier migration. This way, if a node fails like it did, the data would have been migrated and I would not have had to get up at three in the morning."

"I would like to see Dell take a crack at simplifying the process of moving from a node to a cluster and assembling everything into the appliance. It would be great if Dell could provide a pathway where a customer could actually install it without the certifications. Of course, I can't say how you would dumb down something so complex."

"The licensing needs to be improved upon."

"My only complaint about this solution is that it's vendor-locked with Dell being the only supplier for VxRail."

"I would love to see license migration from one host to another."

More VxRail cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful."

"The solution is expensive - not only the hardware costs but server costs too. And the more you scale, the more expensive it gets."

"With this solution, I buy everything together, pre-packaged, pre-installed, and in just 15 minutes, it's installed."

"Pricing with Dell EMC is double the price which I paid for HPE. However, in the end, Dell EMC is double in performance. This is not an apple to apple comparison though, as I have a four node from Dell EMC and a three node."

"The price per value compared to other solutions, like Nutanix and SimpliVity. (We made the deal before approval of HPE SimpliVity deal)."

"It could be cheaper, everything could be cheaper."

"I would rate the price at seven out of ten. There are no additional licensing fees, but it would be cheaper to go with a dHCI solution."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

More HPE Hyper Converged pricing and cost advice

"vSAN has many versions with standard and advanced including Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Regarding the Enterprise and the Advanced, it could be lower."

"The product's price is not high. The tool is available at a normal price."

"The price of the solution package depends on the nodes and other factors. The cost some of our customers paid was $500,000. The licensing cost for the components is very good."

"I would like to use more advanced models of the solution but the price needs to be reduced. There are some extra costs for this solution including a license."

"The licensing cost is high and should be taken into account."

"The cost is expensive. I purchased two servers. The hardware cost was $19,000. The software cost for these two servers, including the vSAN, was $30,000, which is $11,000 more than the hardware. Then I had to pay another $5,000 for installation and implementation for professional services. In total, it was $54,000 for two vSAN Servers."

"I have been told that if I used VxRail it would be cheaper than the system we are using now with buying the products separately. The solution is expensive overall."

"It could be cheaper."

More VMware vSAN pricing and cost advice

"The VMware licenses are included and we do not have to worry about the license, everything is integrated."

"The cost was cheaper compared to other virtualization solutions."

"The current VxRail pricing structure is quite opaque for me, especially considering the recent changes."

"The real ROI is the benefit of being able to do a true hybrid cloud, not having to move from CAPEX to OPEX in a pure break."

"We were expecting Dell EMC to bring us something that would work very quickly and easily, but also be at a reasonable price point, and they did."

"Though somewhat expensive. But in terms of performance and stability, it's worth it."

"VxRail is not cheap, but it's not expensive either."

"VxRail is very cost-effective and affordable in the long term. It is more recommended when it comes to financial life, but it may depend upon the license. VxRail comes with VMware licensing, which may not be that cost-effective as compared to others. With VMware, it's an auto check competition. VMware is an expensive solution, especially for Nutanix. Nutanix have their own hypervisor called Acronis, which is very cost-effective against the VMware. Nutanix is cheaper for the hardware but not for the software. If you ask the Nutanix partners to deploy Nutanix over Cisco servers or Dell EMC servers, the cost will be higher. Nutanix wants to compete financially. Therefore, they propose their software over the Supermicro server, which is a very cheap Chinese server. In fact, I don't like their terms of service. HyperFlex has the highest price, and it is very expensive. I don't know why. It may be because this is a UCS system, which comes from Cisco and is already expensive. When it comes to HyperFlex, they need the labor to deploy Hyper-V, Citrix, or any other hypervisor."

More VxRail pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user759894

Development and IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 19, 2018

Performance is robust, but Dell EMC VxRail is easier to implement

HPE Hyper Converged handles all the network setup for my servers and data. My experience is in SMBs Before we bought the HPE Hyper Converged servers, we had scattered systems and servers. Our data was scattered. When the solution came into place, we were able to connect all our data and organize…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	100
Midsize Enterprise	58
Large Enterprise	129

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	43
Large Enterprise	56

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HPE Hyper Converged?

The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Hyper Converged?

The product is intermediate in price, neither expensive nor cheap. We are talking about an on-premises solution witho...

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Hyper Converged?

The initial setup of HPE Hyper Converged requires study and a comprehensive understanding of virtualization. The seco...

See all answers

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an e...

See all answers

How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?

HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We resea...

See all answers

How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is bes...

See all answers

How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, z...

See all answers

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?

VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not bein...

See all answers

How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?

VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 16% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 7% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 7% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 5% of the time

Verge.io vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE Hyper Converged Competitors

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware vSAN

Compared 11% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VMware vSAN

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs VMware vSAN

Compared 6% of the time

NetApp AFF vs VMware vSAN

Compared 6% of the time

Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure vs VMware vSAN

Compared 2% of the time

More VMware vSAN Competitors

Dell PowerFlex vs VxRail

Compared 21% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VxRail

Compared 17% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VxRail

Compared 9% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs VxRail

Compared 4% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series vs VxRail

Compared 3% of the time

More VxRail Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE Hyper Converged

March 2026

Download HPE Hyper Converged product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN

March 2026

Download VMware vSAN product report

Buyer's Guide

VxRail

March 2026

Download VxRail product report

Also Known As

HPE Hyper Converged 380, HPE Hyper Converged 250, HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS

vSAN

VCE VxRail

Overview

HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.

Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a single generalist; consume with cloud flexibility to deliver a cloud-like experience, with multi-tenant workspaces that eliminate stranded resources and flexes on demand; and deploy at cloud speed to empower developers and lines-of-business with a self-service portal that can instantly compose and recompose VMs in minutes. Built-in enterprise grade features, such as performance and resiliency enable HPE Hyper Converged systems to easily handle a wide variety of virtualized workloads, including general purpose virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage product that is used in collaboration with VMware ESXi hypervisor and that provisions and manages storage based on policies, regardless of the underlying hardware. The solution enables you to prime your business for growth through its seamless evolution (it is integrated with vSphere and requires no new tools), its flexibility, and its multi-cloud capabilities. As an industry-leading software, VMware vSAN provides high levels of performance with minimal impact on CPU and memory.

VMware vSAN Features

VMware vSAN has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Storage policy-based management (SPBM): VMware vSAN supports storage policy-based management for automated management of storage profiles.

Software-defined data-at-rest encryption: With this VMware vSAN feature, you can prevent unauthorized access of data at rest.

Multiple nodes: VMware vSAN provides clusters that can include as few as 2 nodes or as many as 64 nodes.

High security and availability: VMware vSAN offers stretched clusters, allowing more than one virtualization host server to be used in the same setup, promoting higher security as well as availability.

Deduplication: VMware vSAN’s deduplication compresses data to ensure efficient storage management and security.

HCI mesh updates: VMware vSAN clusters can share storage capacity with non-HCI Sphere clusters and can adopt HCI without having to scale computing resources and storage or replace existing servers.

Simplified file services: With VMware vSAN’s file services, backup of file shares is simplified. You can use APIs that allow backup and recovery software vendors to integrate with your VMware vSAN file services, which enables backup software to track new data and add scalability enhancements to files.

VMware vSAN Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing VMware vSAN. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO): VMware vSAN helps you reduce upfront costs for businesses because it can be easily deployed on inexpensive x86 servers. In addition, its highly scalable infrastructure and quick deployment also save organizations time and money, making it an efficient storage solution.

Good manageability: VMWare vSAN is easy to set up, manage, and provision, without sacrificing performance.

Scalability: VMware vSAN is agile and allows administrators to scale storage on demand, quickly, and efficiently via policies and rules.

Simplicity: VMWare vSAN is simple to configure since it is embedded in the vSphere hypervisor. Installing it using the vSphere Web Client can be done quickly.

Reduced risk: VMWare vSAN reduces the risk associated with digital transformations by utilizing existing tools, skill sets, and solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the VMware vSAN solution.

PeerSpot user Yves S., CEO, Cloud Evangelist at Comdivision Consulting GmbH, says, “vSAN gives us a lot of advantages when we need to expand resources. We have an overall larger host infrastructure, and we split that up for specific customer test and use cases. In that specific scenario, we can easily add more hosts or reduce the number of hosts in the environment.”

A reviewer who works in Infrastructure Security explains, “The ease of use is great. The initial setup and upgrade process was pretty straightforward. And, technical support is great.”

Laurent N., Director at Softlogic, comments, "The feature that I have found most valuable is that it is easy to deploy. It is easy to create and delete virtual servers. It is easy to create the load balancing and the clustering."

Broadcom

VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance co-engineered by Dell Technologies and VMware, designed to optimize VMware environments by simplifying compute, storage, virtualization, and management.

Built on VMware vSAN software, VxRail ensures high performance, reliability, and flexibility. It supports a broad array of workloads, from business-critical applications to next-generation use cases. VxRail simplifies infrastructure management with powerful integration and seamless scalability, offering centralized management and user-friendly interfaces. Streamlined updates, robust lifecycle management, and one-click upgrades facilitate a user-centric experience that minimizes deployment complexity and staffing needs. However, its performance with disk deduplication, integration with public clouds, and processor support can be enhanced, along with pricing and licensing improvements.

What features define VxRail?

High Performance: Optimized for superior efficiency in VMware environments.
Seamless Scalability: Scales effortlessly to accommodate growing demands.
Centralized Management: Simplifies control through unified interfaces.
Effortless Integration: Easily integrates with VMware tools and services.
Automated Updates: Ensures ongoing system availability through streamlined updates.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Resource Efficiency: Reduces staffing requirements and optimizes resource use.
Flexibility: Supports a variety of use cases and workloads.
Reliable Support: Provides robust support to ensure operational continuity.
Reduced Complexity: Facilitates ease of deployment and minimized setup times.

Organizations across sectors such as finance, telecommunications, education, and manufacturing utilize VxRail for its scalability, ease of deployment, and infrastructure management capabilities. It aids in server and application hosting, storage, and virtualization management, often employing VMware integration. The platform is valued for its ability to consolidate IT components, support VDI solutions, and enhance cloud readiness and resource allocation.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha

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World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Broadcom, Nutanix and others in HCI. Updated: March 2026.

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