Portworx Enterprise vs Rancher Labs comparison

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Portworx Enterprise

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Portworx Enterprise and Rancher Labs based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Storage for Kubernetes solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Portworx Enterprise vs. Rancher Labs Report (Updated: July 2025).

Portworx Enterprise vs. Rancher Labs

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

Portworx Enterprise

Ranking in Data Storage for Kubernetes

1st

Average Rating

9.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Software Defined Storage (3rd)

Rancher Labs

Ranking in Data Storage for Kubernetes

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Management (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Storage for Kubernetes category, the mindshare of Portworx Enterprise is 44.6%, down from 45.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rancher Labs is 6.0%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Storage for Kubernetes

Featured Reviews

Paulo Jose Bosco Otto

Consultant at PBOservicos-Informatica

A solution backed by strong customer support, that is stable and scalable

As a company managed in a Kubernetes environment, being trusted by a Kubernetes vendor, Red Hat creates barriers against using other certified solutions that work. Because IBM is a competitor of Pure Storage, things seem to be getting worse. I don't have plans to use Portworx Enterprise in the future because, at the moment, I am working with Ondat, and I have to follow NetApp's direction on that. When evaluating Portworx, one should make sure their company has already chosen Pure Storage. Still, if they are evaluating the solution on Ondat or Dell or other platforms, they should get a roadmap statement from Pure Storage, that they will continue to develop storage hardware diagnostics. I rate Portworx a nine out of ten.

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RyanVassallo

Head of Systems and Infrastructure at Booming Games

Offers an open-source version along with a good UI

The product has multiple good features. One of the solution's good features is that it is the GitOps functionality known as Rancher fleet, which is used for continuous delivery. The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or on-premises, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations. The tool also has a feature that is still kind of maturing, but I think it has very good potential. This new feature is named Harvester, which is allows users to have virtual machines managed by Kubernetes engine. This is very new technology in the market. I think that Harvester needs to mature as a product, and I think that in the future, it will be very powerful. You have one tool that does many things for you.

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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

"Portworx is a simple solution. It's similar to Pure Storage products. They're all easy to use and install. You need to have a little expertise with containers to use Portworx, but it will be no problem for you if you understand containers."

"I like that you have a small dedicated file system that is fast and resilient for containerized workloads."

"Portworx virtualizes the aspects of the underlying block storage. That is good because they can also use block storage for their future deployment instead of just NFS."

"The solution is user-friendly."

"A custom IBM script is designed to tackle the storage management challenges within containerized environments, providing crucial data services and features required for enterprise applications."

"The best thing about Portworx is the Stork, they have called the VPS (Volume Replacement Strategy) and they also have topology awareness, and these are the three features I like."

"The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations."

"A great UI with very good integrations."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an open-source solution that is easy to deploy."

"The most valuable feature is its comprehensive support, easy resource scaling, compatibility with various OEMs, and seamless service integration."

"This solution is not vendor-locked, which means that we we are able to use it across all of our resources; this feature is of great value to us."

"The solution is stable."

"Rancher Labs is a very user-friendly tool."

"The solution has a lot of good features, such as you can access the console and edit through the GUI. The dashboard and the UI are designed well, user-friendly, and easy to manage, and access."

More Rancher Labs pros

Cons

"The documentation could be better."

"The integration has room for improvement."

"I would like to see a more native mapping to mainframe-type systems."

"It would be highly advantageous to include an integrated backup solution within the same license, rather than purchasing backup separately."

"I think the vendor could provide more training for new users who may not be familiar with containers."

"They have not integrated Portworx with Ondat since they are too focused now on Pure Storage APIs and not on users like us."

"There needs to be an improvement in observability and microservice monitoring tools in Rancher Labs."

"The biggest room for improvement in Rancher Labs would be to have a proper upgrading plan."

"I can't migrate to the newer version."

"If you have poor infrastructure, you will have issues with the tool."

"They should improve application visibility along with code visibility."

"While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust."

"Could be more intuitive."

"We'd like their monitoring tool to be integrated by default."

More Rancher Labs cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is competitive, but it is too expensive when paired with Red Hat IBM."

"I'm not sure how the licensing was broken out, but I don't think our offering of the Portworx was more than USD $20,000."

"The price of Portworx Enterprise is high."

"It has two offerings. One is free, which is limited to only five nodes. The other is enterprise, which is a bit pricier."

"Although Rancher Labs is an open-source solution, they also offer a paid version, where you buy the support when needed."

"There is an annual subscription. The price of the solution should be cheaper and have better pricing flexibility."

"The pricing of the solution sits in the mid range, not high and not low. It has a fixed price that you pay every month."

"This is an open-source solution, so there are no licensing costs involved."

"There are no hidden charges attached to the product unless a user opts for the premium support offered by the solution."

"The cost is reasonable since it's open source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge."

"The solution is free and open source but there is a fee for support."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

39%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Portworx Enterprise?

A custom IBM script is designed to tackle the storage management challenges within containerized environments, providing crucial data services and features required for enterprise applications.

What needs improvement with Portworx Enterprise?

It would be highly advantageous to include an integrated backup solution within the same license, rather than purchasing backup separately. It would ensure a comprehensive and streamlined approach ...

What advice do you have for others considering Portworx Enterprise?

I would recommend ensuring that you perform regular backups, specifically the TX backup, which is essential for Portworx. It's crucial to note that no other backup software is suitable for this pur...

What do you like most about Rancher Labs?

The tool's UI is very convenient enough to help you manage multiple clusters in the cloud or the company, making it a product with which you can manage different clusters and locations.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rancher Labs?

The cost is reasonable since it's open-source. Rancher effectively addresses container orchestration trends, especially for those with some Kubernetes knowledge.

What needs improvement with Rancher Labs?

While Rancher Labs provides some level of security, it's not considered very robust. We found it to offer basic security features, which met some of our requirements, but we also relied on other op...

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Product Reports

Cloud Software Defined Storage

June 2025

Download Portworx Enterprise product report

Download Rancher Labs product report

July 2025

Overview

Portworx is the solution for running stateful containers in production, designed with DevOps in mind. With Portworx, users can manage any database or stateful service on any infrastructure using any container scheduler, including Kubernetes, Mesosphere DC/OS, and Docker Swarm. Portworx solves the five most common problems DevOps teams encounter when running stateful services in production: persistence, high availability, data automation, security, and support for multiple data stores and infrastructure.

Pure Storage

Rancher Labs build innovative, open source software that makes it easy to deploy and manage containers in production on any infrastructure. We enable organizations to accelerate all aspects of their software development pipeline, from writing and testing code to running complex microservices-based applications.

Rancher, our flagship container management platform, allows users to easily manage all aspects of running containers in development and production environments, on any infrastructure. With well over four million downloads, Rancher has quickly become the tools of choice for teams serious about running containers in production. This includes large enterprises such as Sony, IBM, Tyco, Align Technologies and more.

Sample Customers

NIO, GE Digital, DreamWorks Animation, Lufthansa, beco, NEW CONTEXT

Albert Heijn, Bell, BMC, Samsung, WindStream, Johnson & Johnson