NetApp E-Series vs VAST Data comparison

NetApp and VAST Data are both solutions in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category. NetApp is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5, while VAST Data is ranked #13. NetApp holds a 3.0% mindshare in N, compared to VAST Data’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VAST Data users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

VAST Data and NetApp E-Series are competing solutions in the storage management category. NetApp E-Series holds the upper hand in data management due to its extensive features, while VAST Data is more favorable regarding pricing and support.

Features: VAST Data uses advanced architecture, ensuring high-speed performance and efficient data reduction technologies, making it stand out for its cutting-edge infrastructure. NetApp E-Series is notable for scalability, broad integration with enterprise environments, and a comprehensive set of features that enhance the adaptability of storage solutions to varied business needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VAST Data simplifies deployment with its modern infrastructure, reducing setup time and system management complexity, supported by responsive customer service. NetApp E-Series, although traditional in deployment, offers a comprehensive service framework that supports more complex environments with robust service support.

Pricing and ROI: VAST Data has lower initial setup costs, presenting a compelling ROI by reducing long-term operational expenses through efficient management and lower ownership costs. NetApp E-Series involves higher upfront expenses but offers extended enterprise features and integration advantages, justifying its price through increased long-term value and resource optimization.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp E-Series vs. VAST Data Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NetApp E-Series vs. VAST Data

December 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 FlashArray X NVMe

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays category, the mindshare of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is 3.6%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp E-Series is 3.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VAST Data is 6.2%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pure FlashArray X NVMe	3.6%
NetApp E-Series	3.0%
VAST Data	6.2%
Other	87.2%

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

Featured Reviews

Jaehoon Oh

Chief Technology Officer at Lambda256

Supports efficient storage management through volume snapshots and offers reliable non-disruptive upgrades

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could be enhanced. I can see the performance statistics in the Pure Storage console, but it does not show the performance by 4K byte unit. It displays IOPS and bandwidth, but IOPS is about real use, and I want to know how many IOPS are currently running in 4K byte units. I cannot see that IOPS because most storage systems report their performance by 4K byte unit. I want to see Pure Storage performance by 4K byte unit to compare with other storage or other internal NVMe SSD.

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Milan Budimir

IT-Techniker at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Have struggled with timely expert support and faced communication challenges during critical maintenance tasks

As an AZ3 technician with experience in that direction, when I call them, I do not call the first-level support as it is something I do not need. I call them because I am not able to resolve that mistake or when the behavior of the machine is not normal. If you need an auto support message from the customer machine, you can get them from the first level, but most of the time, they do not know what an auto support message is, and everything stops there. You have a few of them when you call, and when we are replacing something in NetApp E-Series. StorageGRID is different, but with NetApp E-Series, you need to grab information from the node that is actually down; in most cases, the node is not in loader. It is entirely gone. You can try to reseat it, maybe boot it up, but in most cases, when it is down, it stays down. You call support for that, and that is when you lose two or three hours.

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Alan Powers

HPC CTO at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Stability-wise, a device that has been up and running for years

The failover capability and resiliency are some of the solution's valuable features. The big thing is resilience because it has richer coding in it, so multiple devices can't fail. Also, one can still access a number of CBoxes that can allow one to access their file system. Once a device fails, it fails the transparency of the end-user, and it just starts using another resource. The encryption capability, the snapshots, along with a whole bunch of features make the tool valuable. VAST Data keeps adding more and more features all the time.

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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

"I appreciate the performance."

"The high availability of the product is the most valuable feature."

"The tool's valuable features are speed, security, data compression, and reliability. Its data compression feature is the best that we have ever seen. It helps us to save money and resources."

"FlashArray has some fresh efficiency features. I've never seen a storage solution with a compression rating this high before. It's at least 4-to-1 on Oracle databases. It's the best flash storage for Oracle."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use."

"We're able to get higher-density workloads on the same infrastructure, and we have a smaller physical footprint. The performance is excellent – during our test the bottlenecks are never on the X array, it just keeps picking up the pace to match what you need. The real-time visibility is a differentiator in my opinion."

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

"The best features of Pure FlashArray X NVMe include the volume snapshot capabilities, which allow us to save most of the storage space by volume snapshots periodically."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pros

"Customers go for the E Series if they need backup storage because it is cheap."

"The overall experience has been positive."

"My customers are satisfied with the performance."

"If we select the best use case for NetApp E-Series based on its intended purpose, I would rate it a ten."

"The product is easy to use."

"The Snapshot feature is actually widely used; it is a feature that only NetApp E-Series has and it is quite good."

"The solution is useful for machine learning and scientific applications, including computer simulations."

"This has been one of the most reliable storage systems that I have ever used."

Cons

"Maybe the price can be reduced since the solution is very expensive."

"I would like to see some AI features that would allow arrays to intelligently identify threats or unusual behavior in the data pattern and give an alert."

"Every time I think of something that needs to improve, they're one step ahead, which I love. The only area I wish to see improve, I believe is coming, is in the FlashBlade product. Blade implementation fell short on a few of the services."

"Our use cases require more multi-tenant capabilities and additional VLAN interfaces for separating different customers. We currently use it to provide storage, sometimes shared storage, to different customers, but it is less flexible in comparison to a dedicated solution."

"The tool's pricing is higher than competitors."

"Managing data isn't difficult for me. The performance is usually perfect, but we sometimes have capacity problems."

"We would like to see more visibility into garbage collection and CPU performance in the GUI."

"We need better data deduplication."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe cons

"The solution must provide more training courses."

"NetApp should add more production lines to the E series so we can make flexible solutions more easily."

"Regarding error handling in NetApp E-Series, because it is a cost-effective but not an intelligent storage solution, the error handling is not sufficient."

"With NetApp E-Series, when we are running active-active NAS4, sometimes due to either an issue or a bug, we experience failures. At least twice yearly, we have seen this issue. When it occurs, we lose critical systems such as MQ."

"Getting through first level to second level takes two hours minimum."

"Though the performance is there, if NetApp wants to be competitive with the others, it must improve their business continuity."

"The write performance could be improved because it is less than half of the read performance."

"The read/write ratio is an area in the solution with some flaws and needs improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With Pure Storage, we would like to continue seeing price reductions with flash storage. I don't think we're any different than anybody else when we continue to look to the industry for price reductions of both NVMe and traditional SSD storage. We would like to see these prices continue to decline and erode, even displacing large spinning disks."

"Its price could be better. It is not too expensive, but it is the high-end cost. It is kind of a Rolls-Royce. You pay a lot, but you get a lot out of it. So, the price pressure on the way down would be great, but at the end of the day, if you need to do the work, you just pay for it."

"As far as the licensing costs, everything is included in the license."

"Given its price, Pure is not the first option."

"With VMware, we pay $300,000 annually."

"Our licensing fees are $500,000+ USD."

"Pretty much everything that you need is licensed when you buy the product. Licensing to me is different than the maintenance cost, but they can bleed into one another. We buy the product, and we expect three years of support bundled into what we negotiate on our storage arrays. I would start to see maintenance costs going into the fourth year, but we're not there yet."

"Pure FlashArray X NVMe’s pricing is cheaper than other products."

More Pure FlashArray X NVMe pricing and cost advice

"The price is reasonable for NetApp E-Series."

"We acquired VAST Data as a one-time, capital purchase."

"Price-wise, VAST Data is not the cheapest, not the most expensive one."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

21%

Comms Service Provider

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	12

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

Pure FlashArray X NVMe helps to improve our processing speed. It is user-friendly and easy to use.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

The price of Pure FlashArray X NVMe is very expensive, though I do not know the actual price because I am using the E...

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What needs improvement with Pure FlashArray X NVMe?

I have no specific improvements to suggest for Pure FlashArray X NVMe at this time. The performance statistics could ...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp E-Series?

The product is easy to use.

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What needs improvement with NetApp E-Series?

Regarding scalability, I think there is no problem. While there is always room for improvement in any product, to my ...

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What is your primary use case for NetApp E-Series?

We sell NetApp E-Series as engineered machines like FlexPod, which is used where high throughput and native storage p...

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Comparisons

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Compared 19% of the time

Dell PowerMax vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

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TrueNAS R-Series vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

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HPE Alletra Storage vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

Pure Storage FlashBlade vs Pure FlashArray X NVMe

Compared 9% of the time

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Seagate Exos X Series vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 25% of the time

NetApp ASA vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 22% of the time

NetApp AFF vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 16% of the time

TrueNAS R-Series vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 12% of the time

NetApp NVMe AFF A800 vs NetApp E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

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NetApp AFF vs VAST Data

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs VAST Data

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs VAST Data

Compared 8% of the time

MinIO vs VAST Data

Compared 7% of the time

Databricks vs VAST Data

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure FlashArray X NVMe

December 2025

Download Pure FlashArray X NVMe product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp E-Series

December 2025

Download NetApp E-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays

December 2025

Download VAST Data product report

Also Known As

Pure FlashArray//X NVMe, Pure FlashArray//X, FlashArray//X

No data available

Overview

Pure Storage FlashArray//X is the world’s first enterprise-class, all-NVMe flash storage array. It represents a new class of storage – shared accelerated storage, which is a term coined by Gartner – that delivers major breakthroughs in performance, simplicity, and consolidation.

Pure Storage

NetApp E-Series offers a flexible, high-performance storage solution ideal for handling intensive data requirements. Designed to optimize capacity and improve data availability, it supports diverse sector needs.

NetApp E-Series is a purpose-built system engineered to deliver fast, consistent performance. It is best utilized in environments requiring high-performance workloads where speed and efficiency are crucial. Users appreciate its reliability and scalability, which contribute to effective data management. The system is known for its efficient storage capabilities, providing robust data protection and seamless integration with existing infrastructure.

What are the key features of NetApp E-Series?

Scalability: Supports expansion to accommodate growing data needs seamlessly.
Performance: Delivers high-speed processing for demanding applications.
Integrations: Easily integrates with existing IT environments, enhancing operational efficiency.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Cost Efficiency: Offers competitive pricing with long-term savings through energy-efficient designs.
Reliability: Provides consistent uptime, minimizing disruptions and improving productivity.
Flexibility: Versatile deployment options cater to specific performance and capacity requirements.

NetApp E-Series is widely implemented across industries ranging from healthcare to finance, where it supports critical data-intensive applications. Its deployment in environments such as scientific research and media production highlights its capacity for handling high-speed data access and reliable performance.

NetApp

Innovation to break decades of data storage trade-offs.

VAST Data

Sample Customers

Fremont Bank, Judson ISD, The Nielsen Company

Information Not Available

Norwest Venture Partners, General Dynamics Information Technology, Ginkgo Bioworks

Buyer's Guide

NetApp E-Series vs. VAST Data

December 2025

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