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

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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

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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

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

"The robustness of the design of the server is the most valuable. HP servers are easy to use and user-friendly. The server is not complicated, and it is easy to use ILO systems."

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

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers are easy to use and the GUI is rather simple and intuitive. The Americans know how to make things beautiful. Their Japanese counterpart has outdated GUIs. There is a lot of other services and software that HPE provides for the server. The software can connect all the infrastructure to form a unified management or monitoring system."

"HPE's iLO server management software is a handy tool to install and deploy."

"The most valuable features of HPE ProLiant DL Servers are convenience and the interface is good."

"HP ProLiant servers provide redundant solutions for almost everything. You can set up multiple power supplies, with a primary power source and a secondary power supply connected on UPS. If the power goes out in the building, the UPS will supply power to the host at all times. The solution can run on batteries for many hours, depending on your battery and UPS capacity."

"The initial setup was easy."

"The hardware is reliable."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pros

"We've found the scalability to be reasonable if you are ready to invest in it."

"In terms of the productivity of our deployment team, the amount of time has been decreased a lot. In the past, to deploy one c7000 chassis with 15 or 16 blades, we literally used to spend two to three weeks. But with a Synergy, it's very quick. Within three days we can do the deployment."

"The most valuable features are the converged network adapters."

"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."

"Being able to connect my 3PAR arrays to the Synergy platform is the most valuable aspect to me."

"The centralized management of HPE Synergy is beneficial because it is easy to manage and administer."

"Synergy is much easier to use, which is saving us time. We are able to set the profiles for firmware upgrades. This makes the process for the care and feeding of the IT environment much simpler, quicker, and cleaner."

"We bought it with the intent to replace the c7000 workstation blades. It is bigger than the workstation blades in core count, memory, and graphical capabilities. So, it has broadened us in that regard, and we have more capabilities."

More HPE Synergy pros

Cons

"The initial configuration process could be simpler."

"If they could put a SAN storage or resend it in the same product, it would be very helpful and more powerful."

"The installation could be simplified."

"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."

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

"There are concerns about the HPE team in the Southeast Asia region, suggesting a need for improvements in terms of responsiveness. There have been instances where the response time was slow, causing challenges during urgent situations. Its stability also needs to improve."

"I would like to replace a hard drive that might be saved on the fly, on the server that I'm using currently, but I can't do that. I'm forced to power off my virtual machine, turn off the server, disconnect it from the power, replace the drive, rebuild the storage, and power it on again."

"The documentation for HPE ProLiant DL Servers has room for improvement. For example, it says on the documentation that this specific product or part number is supported. Still, when you ask the HPE team, the reply is that it's not supported, so HPE should update the information on the documentation."

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers cons

"This solution could be improved by increasing the speed on the conversion adapters. It should be 100 gigs."

"After delivering the contract, they became a little less active. So, it needs some pushing from my side sometimes."

"It has affected the productivity of our development team in a bad way. When we first stood the hardware up 18 months ago, the image streaming capacity and capability were not very good at all. We had hoped that it would allow us to be more composable and be able to switch over from one version of an operating system to another version of an operating system. However, it wasn't ready for prime time yet. Therefore, we had to go back to a deployment of bare metal install. We are still waiting and trying to figure out how we can do the composable infrastructure."

"The initial setup was complex. We had a couple of bright engineers working on it, and they figured out a lot of things that they don't know... The problem was that they couldn't find documentation easily, to walk them through setup when they just didn't know the platform."

"The cost is quite high."

"The speed in OneView and how it updates the entire configuration needs improvement. If they can do that, and it could be a little more clear on what impact different actions will have for certain things, that would be good."

"One of the issues that we that we have been having is with the firmware baselining. So, we need to just making sure that we get that working. However, we are in the early stages. It may well be that we just tweak a few things."

"It would be nice if the updates were not accompanied by downtime."

More HPE Synergy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"We have ILO licenses. We use this feature."

"HPE ProLiant DL Servers have a higher price than Dell servers. However, the Japanese counterpart has the lowerest priced servers. The price of the HPE ProLiant DL Servers could improve, it could be less expensive."

"The price of HPE ProLiant DL Servers is reasonable, but because of covid and other factors, the price could be reduced. The license is paid annually."

"The price of HPE ProLiant DL Servers is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"The pricing of these servers is fair. It is in the mid-range."

"This is an expensive product and there is licensing required for iLO, which is the HPE monitoring system."

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

More HPE ProLiant DL Servers pricing and cost advice

"We don't have to pay for Synergy because it's part of our plan."

"We bought everything outright to start with. We don't do much consumption-based stuff."

"We pay about £500 for the solution."

"The biggest cost is the VMware licensing."

"The platform that we run Synergy on is all virtualized. Our primary cost is likely VMware."

"Synergy has lowered our total cost of ownership significantly. I would say ballpark around 25 percent, maybe more."

"We do CAPEX."

"The solution has reduced our IT infrastructure costs because we have had to buy less services than we used to."

More HPE Synergy pricing and cost advice

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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...

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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

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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

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