Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Lenovo and StarWind are both solutions in the HCI category. Lenovo is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.0, while StarWind is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.4. Lenovo holds a 0.9% mindshare in HCI, compared to StarWind’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Lenovo users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Read 3 Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series reviews

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100% willing to recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN

Read 198 StarWind Virtual SAN reviews

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100% willing to recommend

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

StarWind Virtual SAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

StarWind Virtual SAN and Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series both offer software-defined storage solutions. StarWind Virtual SAN often gains an edge in pricing and support, whereas Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series is often preferred for its robust features and integration capabilities.

Features: StarWind Virtual SAN provides hyperconvergence, simplified management, and practical functionality for efficient storage solutions. Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series offers advanced integration with Nutanix, scalability, and enhanced performance suitable for larger enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructures, offering proficient customer service for faster deployment. StarWind Virtual SAN relies on straightforward installation guides and responsive support, facilitating practical deployment for diverse business sizes.

Pricing and ROI: StarWind Virtual SAN stands out with lower setup costs and quicker ROI, appealing to businesses with tight budgets. Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series demands a higher initial investment but provides significant ROI through advanced capabilities and scalability for substantial long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

July 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

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Ranking in HCI

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

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 August 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 1.9%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Featured Reviews

Adeel Hashmi

IT Technical Advisor at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees

With an easy deployment phase, the tool offers good scalability and stability

Suppose you don't compare Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series with the newest features available in the other variants of the product, then everything is pretty standard, so I cannot pinpoint any areas of issue in particular. With Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series, the firmware from VMware or Nutanix takes time to be made available compared to other products that we use in our company's IT environment. If you want to go to a certain version of VMware and check what Nutanix offers, you see that both the offerings don't go hand in hand, and you have to wait for a quarter or two quarters until you see the same versions of both being made available for the other products, like Dell or HPE. There is a delay in the availability of similar versions of firmware from both the products, which are VMware and Nutanix for Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series, due to the delayed releases from both products, maybe by a quarter or so. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in a solution. In future releases of the product, I may want some improvements to be made in the products from Nutanix and VMware.

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Vladimir Simion

Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series are the ease of use and simple configuration."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the product's deployment phase is pretty easy."

"The initial setup is simple. We were able to deliver the hyper-convergence solution in a very good time."

"The support team is available to solve any problem efficiently."

"This product now allows us to migrate virtual machines between nodes as if we had a dedicated $100,000 SAN in the mix without the additional cost and management of the SAN."

"Having the ability to scale horizontally if needed is a huge plus for future growth."

"Having the ability to migrate machines live in our environment was made possible by this software."

"The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection."

"It integrates (fully) with VMware and Veeam, my hypervisor, and backup vendors, so for me, all the puzzle pieces simply fit and work smoothly."

"The backup is readily available for use, and the restoration process is easy."

"The configuration is so much simpler than that of a traditional SAN with fewer points of failure to worry about."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

"Here in Nigeria, the only challenge that we have, which I think is also experienced globally is the delay in bringing in the spare parts. This is a challenge facing our country, such as the Forex market. However, this is beyond the control of Lenovo themselves."

"There is a delay in the availability of similar versions of firmware from both the products, which are VMware and Nutanix for Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series, due to the delayed releases from both products, maybe by a quarter or so."

"Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series could improve by having better integration with the solutions from VMware and vCenter"

"I wish the sync after a failure, such as hardware failure or power-related issues, for example, was faster."

"Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limited vSphere expertise."

"The console is something that I feel could be improved. There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it can be jazzed up and/or made to be a little more intuitive."

"This product would benefit from having automated alerting functionality."

"It would be helpful if StarWind provided more precise and detailed documentation explaining how to configure the solution in various scenarios, including the advantages and disadvantages of each."

"More comprehensive reporting and educational resources for error resolution would enhance the user experience."

"Performance when in storage-separate configuration needs to be improved."

"Management of VSAN itself could be improved. A Web UI for management would be great rather than an application installation. StarWind is testing a command center virtual appliance that I have installed in my environment."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, it is a pretty good product. The product's price was one of the main criteria that made my company choose it over the other products in the market."

"When comparing this solution to other OEM solutions it is relatively inexpensive."

"The pricing is more than reasonable."

"I would suggest that you download the free version, deploy in your lab, and play with it."

"The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."

"The Price/Performance ratio for this solution is outstanding!"

"The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."

"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."

"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."

"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Retailer

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that the product's deployment phase is pretty easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series?

Price-wise, it is a pretty good product. The product's price was one of the main criteria that made my company choose it over the other products in the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series vs Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Compared 40% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Compared 14% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Compared 14% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile MX Certified Node vs Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Compared 13% of the time

VxRail vs Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series

Compared 10% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series Competitors

VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 24% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 16% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 14% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 14% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 11% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HCI

August 2025

Download Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series product report

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

July 2025

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

Lenovo HX Series, ThinkAgile HX Series

StarWind SAN & NAS

Overview

Designed for easy deployment and manageability in scale-out clusters, the Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series combines Nutanix software with Lenovo’s highly reliable and scalable servers. These appliances ship fully integrated, tested, and configured so that you can dramatically accelerate your time to value and reduce your infrastructure maintenance.

Lenovo

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

StarWind

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Buyer's Guide

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

July 2025

Free Report: Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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