HPE ProLiant DL Servers vs HPE Synergy comparison

The compared HPE ProLiant DL Servers and HPE Synergy solutions aren't in the same category. HPE ProLiant DL Servers is ranked #2 in Rack Servers , with an average rating of 9.3, and holds a 21.7% mindshare in the category. HPE Synergy is ranked #1 in Blade Servers , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 21.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of HPE ProLiant DL Servers users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of HPE Synergy users who would recommend it.

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Read 156 HPE ProLiant DL Servers reviews

9,691 Views
7,256 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HPE Synergy

Read 90 HPE Synergy reviews

2,531 Views
1,784 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

HPE Synergy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 23, 2025

HPE ProLiant DL Servers and HPE Synergy compete in the server and infrastructure management space. HPE Synergy has the upper hand due to its advanced composability and flexibility, allowing it to adapt dynamically to changing workloads.

Features:HPE ProLiant DL Servers are renowned for reliability, scalability, and performance, featuring Hyper-V, SmartArray, and iLO for management and redundancy. They are recognized for cost efficiency and competitive pricing. HPE Synergy's noteworthy feature is its composability, allowing resource reallocation as needed. It offers centralized management via HPE OneView, simplifying infrastructure management for evolving environments.

Room for Improvement:HPE ProLiant DL Servers could improve in faster boot times, streamlined configurations, and better iLO integration. Users seek enhancements in global support, power efficiency, and licensing processes. HPE Synergy needs better third-party integration, simplified networking configurations, and efficient storage options. Enhancements in manageability and firmware updates are also desired.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:HPE ProLiant DL Servers are praised for straightforward deployment and reliable support, although response times can vary. HPE Synergy emphasizes modularity with management tools like OneView for seamless integration, offering proactive support similar to ProLiant but with room for localized service improvement.

Pricing and ROI:HPE ProLiant DL Servers offer competitive pricing, despite not being the cheapest, with worthwhile value in terms of reliability and low total cost of ownership. HPE Synergy presents higher upfront costs due to its comprehensive features but often justifies this investment through reduced complexity and operational costs in larger environments, delivering good ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Rack Servers Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rack Servers

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 856,873 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:

Categories and Ranking

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

156

Ranking in other categories

Rack Servers (2nd)

HPE Synergy

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Blade Servers (1st), Composable Infrastructure (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are IT Hardware and Infrastructure solutions, they serve different purposes. HPE ProLiant DL Servers is designed for Rack Servers and holds a mindshare of 21.7%, up 21.8% compared to last year.
HPE Synergy, on the other hand, focuses on Blade Servers, holds 21.3% mindshare, down 21.8% since last year.

Rack Servers

Blade Servers

Featured Reviews

SHIVAKUMAR A P

Country Manager - Emerging Business at Orbit Techsol

With an easy setup phase in place, it is suitable for small and large-sized businesses

When you speak of any enhancements in the product, you need to shift to the tool's commercial mode. You get more features in the solution if you pour in more money. If a customer needs some features in the solution, they will have to buy it since certain features are not loaded by default in the server. With entry-level licenses, servers are shipped to customers free of cost. Customers need to pay if they want more and more features in the solution. Every OEM solution in the market, including HPE ProLiant DL, operates similarly. The overall cost of the product needs to be lower, as it is one of the areas of concern in the product.

Read full review

CarlosArdila

Project Manager, Information Technology at Telelago

Helps grow horizontally or vertically within one box or chassis

The initial setup is very easy. We deployed this in two days, including installation, system setup, firmware upgrades, configuration, and network connection. By the next day, we were already deploying virtual machines. We initially began with the Blade system. As the migration to SAP HANA approached, it seemed prudent to upgrade our hardware. Consequently, we facilitated their transition from the Blade system to Synergy. Subsequently, we collaborated closely with the SAP consultancy company to oversee the migration process, ensuring seamless integration of all workloads and sub-environments. We have four people working on the deployment, including a project manager, two specialists, and one tech support.

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

"Where there is a need to actually expand on the capacity, it's easily done, especially when more memory is needed."

"This solution is perfect. From the time of purchase, it was state-of-the-art, and still, after five, 10 years, they still meet our demands extremely well."

"The most valuable feature is stability."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is scalability."

"I am impressed with the tool’s stability."

"The setup was easy and not complicated."

"It is stable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is HPE Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pros

"Support is very helpful."

"As we purchase and install more Synergy chassis, then we will be able to manage them together as one entity, as opposed to multiple separate cabinets."

"It's a bit easier to manage than the C7000s."

"The single pane of glass management is huge, because in all our previous systems, depending on what we were managing, we would go to a different management point. Being able to go to one spot to get everything is helpful. I find that server profile creation is a lot easier in OneView than it was previously. We are able to stay compliant with firmware and updates, because we are assigning server profiles and reapplying them when there are changes. This makes everything a lot simpler."

"The Synergy environment provides us with one view. We're able to manage the entire stack, top to bottom, from that single view."

"We're able to provision different applications, different demonstrations, add cloud-like speeds on-prem, which is unheard of in the industry."

"It is helping us sort of bridge a gap that we are having moving off of old legacy systems, like HP-UX systems and trying to move over to x86. So, it is helping fill a hardware gap that a lot of our platforms have needed in the past."

"OneView is head and shoulders above the competition in this space."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers are not scalable."

"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."

"The technical support could be a little faster."

"The speed of the solution could be increased."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive to be more competitive."

"Most of the servers we use are okay. However, sometimes, you need to change the parts. We'd like the solution to be more robust."

"They should work with Microsoft to make licensing costs better. That's because the physical servers have processors with all these cores, and Microsoft now licenses Windows virtual server desktops based on the number of cores and the serving servers. So, if you got to build 10 or 20 servers on that desktop, you got to license them all with Microsoft. They should have a partnership with Microsoft to decrease the virtual licensing of servers in partnerships so that when you purchase the servers, you also get licensing for Microsoft on top of them. That's because it gets very expensive to license virtual operating systems to run on physical servers."

"It would be great if HP could use a ProLiant Server to run HP-UX, the Unix build from HPE. Right now, HP-UX cannot run on the ProLiant architecture."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers cons

"Product documentation is disorganized."

"The pricing can be improved as it is a costly solution due to sanctions in Iran."

"We haven't seen any ROI, and it hasn't reduced our cost of operations."

"Gen 11 is being released. That's going to have a lot of advantages over Gen 10 and previous generations in terms of the cooling modules in the servers to keep them cooler and run with more efficiency and better performance. There are more management features with iLO 6 and the latest OneView management."

"The only issue that we had was our rack was too small. The product is heavy, so it took a lot to get it in there."

"The power consumption is very high, and there should be a more efficient way of reducing the power requirements while maintaining high performance."

"HPE Synergy could improve by developing the chassis to allow for more drives or disks. Currently, it supports only two drives in the blade server, which can be limiting."

"The main challenge we faced was that when it was installed it just did not work. There were faulty components and it took weeks of troubleshooting to find the faulty components, get them replaced. Getting help from HPE was difficult. Nobody knew about the product. It was a brand-new product and people had not been trained on it. That part was not a great experience."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product is within our budget."

"The price is a little too high; it could be reduced."

"I give the pricing a six out of ten."

"The hardware should be cheaper."

"The solution's pricing is high. It needs to be more flexible. The flexibility would be beneficial for our clients, especially in a competitive market. Adding additional features and addressing complex requirements on top of the price can be challenging for us as a reseller."

"An investment in DL380 is worth it."

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers are one of the best-selling solutions in this industry. There is not a license required for this solution."

"It is just too expensive."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pricing and cost advice

"When we made the purchase of the hardware, we added Professional Services to it."

"We have already paid once. It is just the price for the permit and its use. It seems you don't have to keep paying for it, but I am not sure."

"There is a perpetual license given when you purchase HPE Synergy."

"The Nutanix platform came in a little more expensive than the Synergy."

"Nutanix was really hard to implement, and it was very pricey compared to what we get from Synergy."

"We are satisfied with its price."

"The licensing is more around the software for RGS, because we are deploying bare metal installs. It is mainly the operating system and any lights-out management. So, licensing is minimum. We are licensing it annually."

"We pay about £500 for the solution."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Rack Servers solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How do Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers compare with HPE ProLiant DL servers?

Lenovo ThinkSystem rack servers offer flexibility and efficiency in order to meet mission-critical demands. I like that Lenovo blends outstanding performance, reliability, and manageability. The bi...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE ProLiant DL Servers?

The most valuable feature of the solution is HPE Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE ProLiant DL Servers?

The product is expensive. I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price. On the needs of the customers, the product offers a lot of suppor...

See all answers

How would you choose between HPE's Bladesystem and Synergy?

For me, choosing between HPE’s Bladesystem and Synergy came down to which solution was more powerful, reliable, and stable. It turns out Bladesystem was the winner. Bladesystem is excellent because...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE Synergy?

It is a good product for hypervisors.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Synergy?

Pricing in the blade server market is very competitive, with HPE offering a competitive price. Competitor products include Dell's MX series and Cisco's UCS X series.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 47% of the time

Lenovo ThinkSystem Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 23% of the time

IBM Power Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs HPE ProLiant DL Servers

Compared 5% of the time

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers Competitors

HPE BladeSystem vs HPE Synergy

Compared 22% of the time

Dell PowerEdge M vs HPE Synergy

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco UCS B-Series vs HPE Synergy

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Superdome X vs HPE Synergy

Compared 4% of the time

HPE Apollo Systems vs HPE Synergy

Compared 4% of the time

More HPE Synergy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HPE ProLiant DL Servers

June 2025

Download HPE ProLiant DL Servers product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Synergy

June 2025

Download HPE Synergy product report

Also Known As

HP ProLiant DL series, HP ProLiant DL

No data available

Overview

HPE ProLiant DL Servers are utilized by organizations for tasks like virtualization, database hosting, and application hosting, deployed both on-premises and in private clouds for diverse needs.

Organizations depend on HPE ProLiant DL Servers for stability, performance, and reliability. They are essential for running active directories, enterprise applications, and handling high-performance computing. These servers are known for their easy setup, scalability, and extensive management capabilities like iLO. Offering compatibility with many components and energy efficiency, they provide reliable hardware and good performance under demanding conditions. However, there is a need for improved price, stability, scalability, airflow, and power consumption. Enhancements in controller cache, port sizes, SAN connectivity, support availability, and management interface are also required. Faster technical support, better documentation, simplified configurations, and enhanced monitoring features and security integration would benefit users.

What are the key features?

Easy Setup: Quick and straightforward deployment.
Scalability: Adaptable to growing business needs.
Extensive Management: Features like iLO for advanced control.
Energy Efficiency: Optimized for lower power consumption.
Compatibility: Works well with various components.
Reliable Hardware: Robust and dependable technology.
Redundancy: Ensures high availability and minimal downtime.

What are the benefits and ROI?

High Performance: Excellent for demanding computing tasks.
User-Friendly: Easy to maintain and operate.
Flexibility: Versatile for different applications.
Good Technical Support: Access to professional assistance.

HPE ProLiant DL Servers are implemented across industries like finance for active directories and payment solutions, education for virtual desktops, healthcare for database synchronization, and IT firms for high-performance computing and application hosting.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

HPE Synergy, the first platform built from the ground up for Composable Infrastructure, offers an experience that empowers IT to create and deliver new value instantly and continuously. It is a single infrastructure that reduces operational complexity for traditional workloads and increases operational velocity for the new breed of applications and services. Through a single interface, HPE Synergy composes physical and virtual compute, storage, and fabric pools into any configuration for any application. As an extensible platform, it easily enables a broad range of applications and operational models such as virtualization, hybrid cloud, and DevOps. With HPE Synergy, IT can become not just the internal service provider but the business partner to rapidly launch new applications that become the business.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

AmeriPride Services, iSource, Bolagsverket, BlueShore Financial, British Columbia Assessment Authority, National Stock Exchange, Cardlytics

HudsonAlpha, Virgin Media, EMIS, United

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and others in Rack Servers. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Rack Servers reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.