Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Microsoft and StarWind are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Microsoft is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.8, while StarWind is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.4. Microsoft holds a 7.3% mindshare in SDS, compared to StarWind’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

StarWind Virtual SAN and Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct are two leading solutions in the hyper-converged infrastructure space, both competing to provide efficient storage virtualization. StarWind seems to have the upper hand in terms of user satisfaction with a simpler setup, while Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct offers strong integration with Hyper-V but may be more complex to configure.

Features: StarWind Virtual SAN is praised for its active-active high availability, interoperability across various platforms, and ease of use. Users appreciate its performance, reliability, and support. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is known for its robust integration with Hyper-V environments, providing a seamless experience for Windows Server users.

Room for Improvement: Users of StarWind Virtual SAN suggest improvements in documentation, the addition of more intuitive monitoring tools, and automation simplifications for tasks like iSCSI management. The need for a web-based management interface is also mentioned. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct could benefit from better integration transparency, improved hardware compatibility verification, and a more intuitive graphical user interface, as reflected in user feedback.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: StarWind Virtual SAN is valued for its straightforward deployment in both on-premises and private cloud environments, complemented by proactive technical support and comprehensive setup guidance. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, although offering strong performance post-deployment, tends to require more advanced technical expertise during the installation and configuration processes, particularly in hybrid setups.

Pricing and ROI: StarWind Virtual SAN is recognized for its cost-effectiveness, competitive pricing, and favorable licensing model, providing ROI through efficient use of existing hardware and minimal setup costs. In contrast, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, despite being integrated into Windows Server licensing, often incurs higher operational costs due to hardware requirements and the potential need for advanced technical support.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

September 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

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.2%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is 7.3%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 6.2%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
StarWind Virtual SAN	6.2%
Pure Storage FlashBlade	4.2%
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct	7.3%
Other	82.3%

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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Stanislaw Mielicki

Solution architect at Netland

Achieve cost-effectiveness with superior performance while needing to address cluster support

I am working with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct for applications, SQL, and VRS. I am an integrator for this solution The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. They introduced the All-Flash array using SSD or NVMe drives without cache drives. It is…

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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 tool's most valuable features are data warehousing, speedy recovery, and analytics. Its latest release is cost-effective."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is user-friendly. It's replication feature is great because it has active replication and active DR. That's the beauty of the product. It's a perfect solution for block storage."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power outages when we need to quickly move data between different data centers. It ensures efficient replication and helps maintain our data centers' uptime."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is performance."

"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"The main feature I have found to be product replication."

"The initial setup is pretty quick."

"It is very easy to use, and it is very fast."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing"

"The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure."

"Its technical support is excellent."

"It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions."

"The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable."

"The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."

"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct pros

"User friendly interface and straight forward implementation."

"Training is also easy as it is just one system to learn."

"It allows you to use ANY consumer or enterprise HDDs and SSDs, and that's a really great thing!"

"The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent."

"The product has improved the ability to mimic physical SAN environments to demo scenarios and troubleshoot problems."

"We test live failovers every week, and so far, everything has been running smoothly without anything unexpected."

"In our case, the cost and high availability are the two most important factors which we were looking for in a solution."

"The most valuable feature is the reliable storage replication, which enables me to create a robust infrastructure to run our business."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

"Its configuration should be easier."

"The features provided for SMB customers are limited."

"The solution is expensive."

"File storage needs a lot of improvement. Mainframe connectivity also needs improvement because it requires additional components to be integrated with Pure Storage FlashBlade. If you want to keep your backup data, then this becomes an even more expensive solution because Pure Storage FlashBlade will not be able to meet your backup needs."

"The documentational aspect of FlashBlade needs improvement."

"I want efficiency. FlashBlade doesn't have efficiency now."

"The speed could be improved."

"There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution."

"Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution."

"Documentation management could be improved"

"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the customer service and technical support of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct a three, as there were issues that the Microsoft team could not pinpoint, leading to delays in finding solutions."

"Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution."

"The integration is not difficult because there is no GUI, but we need to use a PowerShell command. This makes it difficult to monitor and to see the components' statuses."

"It is scalable, but only beyond two nodes. If I go for two nodes it's not scalable. I need to build a complete cluster from the beginning if I'm going for two nodes."

"More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct cons

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

"The gathering of monthly consumption and performance reports for future dissemination to concerned parties is very important. Unfortunately, StarWinds vSAN doesn't offer this functionality."

"The dashboard is functional, but it could benefit from a more modern and visually appealing design."

"If it's possible to make a driver/solution that does not make use of the iSCSI targets of Windows, that would be great. I don't know if that's possible, however, it could make the configuration a little easier."

"They need to invest more in the support documents for real issues happening when integrating the solution with the hypervisor."

"While using StarWind Virtual SAN so far, I have not found anything missing."

"Diagnostics information or alerts on the state of systems could also be implemented to give more visibility."

"Pricing is a bit high."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"It is within reason for what you get. From what we have found comparing it to other vendors, it is in the same range as others. Given the choice, we would definitely redeploy it based on the cost."

"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."

"The product is very expensive."

"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."

"I have seen ROI. It has allowed me to increase the density of my VMs without having to purchase anything additional."

"The price is a little high."

"It's a costly solution, but Pure Storage FlashBlade doesn't require additional licenses. All of the software is combined into one bundle."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."

"Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."

"The solution is expensive."

"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."

"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."

"We are happy with the price."

"We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."

"For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."

"The licensing is straightforward, with free and trial versions available."

"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."

"If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	159
Midsize Enterprise	54
Large Enterprise	33

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The pricing of Pure Storage FlashBlade is expensive compared to other products I used from other companies in the pas...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

I believe there is not much improvement needed because they have everything we need, but the interface is a little bi...

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, b...

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What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Microsoft should improve the management aspect of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, as we have raised multiple recomme...

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) combin...

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 t...

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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,...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 20% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

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VMware vSAN vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 58% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 16% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 8% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 4% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 3% of the time

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VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 22% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 13% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Gluster Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 5% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

August 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

August 2025

Download Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct product report

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

August 2025

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

MS Storage Spaces Direct

StarWind SAN & NAS

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Storage Spaces Direct uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture radically simplifies procurement and deployment, while features like caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, together with the latest hardware innovation like RDMA networking and NVMe drives, deliver unrivaled efficiency and performance.

Microsoft

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

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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