Scale Computing Platform vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance comparison

Scale Computing Platform vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

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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

Scale Computing Platform

Ranking in HCI

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Edge Computing Platforms (1st)

StarWind HyperConverged App...

Ranking in HCI

14th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Defined Storage (SDS) (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Scale Computing Platform is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance	1.1%
Scale Computing Platform	2.0%
Other	96.9%

HCI

Featured Reviews

AbdulSattar

Channel Sales Manager at Softech Microsystems

Extremely easy to learn and use for beginners

Some features go well with other tools like VMware, where making something on the fly or making some changes on the fly in the area of memory or something is possible. On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area. Being able to make some changes on the fly is very risky, but even then, you see customers saying since it is an area that is not possible with Scale Computing HC3, it is better to go with some other tools. My company convinces our customers that opting for another solution is not required since a tool that allows us to make some changes on the fly can be very risky, and it is also not something that fits in according to certain policies or good practices.

Read full review

Russ Le Puill

IT Manager at St Peter's Church of England Aided School

Proactive support with improved speed and resilience

There was a long delay with shipping, which we weren't expecting, but we were kept updated throughout. It wasn't made clear to us that we needed to provide our own SFP modules to connect to our infrastructure, so that could have been a bit clearer. It would be amazing if there was, perhaps, a more automated process for updating the hosts themselves, although the maintenance mode works well. Our StarWind command center doesn't seem to have all the options available currently, which support is investigating for us.

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 initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"It gives the ease of management for a small IT department."

"The product's initial setup phase is too easy."

"I like that Scale Computing HCR is slimmed down and gives me the features I need and not features that I don't need."

"The most valuable feature of Scale Computing HC3 is if one of the devices fails, you won't even notice, the service maintains operation. The customers don't have to waste two, or three days on delays. Additionally, you do not have to waste time with recovery software, it is a lot easier."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI."

"I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive."

"The solution is scalable."

More Scale Computing Platform pros

"The most valuable feature is the high-availability. We have three nodes, and all data will be synched instantly through all the nodes. Even if we had a disaster where two nodes failed, containing dozens of critical machines, almost automatically, all the loads would be run on the remaining node."

"StarWind is very resilient and built off of quality vendor hardware."

"However, StarWind HCA won us over in two areas: price and support. We were actually able to install an all-flash StarWind HCA for less than other vendors' spinning rust solutions! We were able to roll five years of warranty and support into the purchase price and still save thousands of dollars upfront."

"The low cost of this solution has also made a big difference in our budget, which has been very helpful."

"Being able to upgrade machines and software during business operations just by switching nodes has been a huge improvement. We"

"We have found the live migration to be the most valuable feature. It allows us to seamlessly maintain our servers, as well as have peace of mind if something goes wrong."

"The added speed of using standard HDD and SSD meant we could increase what services are stored on the servers without having to have additional servers."

"It did not hurt that the price for the hardware and three years of support cost less than the disparate hardware the cluster used to run on."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance pros

Cons

"On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area."

"Scale Computing HC3 said in an announcement they were going to integrate with a backup service which would be good. If they could do this it would be beneficial."

"The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions."

"Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication."

"I've had so many issues with the sales team when I was looking to make some improvements, and improve the performance. They would create so many excuses to force me to buy new nodes all the time and not let me add more memory to each node."

"I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."

"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added."

"There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node"

More Scale Computing Platform cons

"The only issues are when Hyper V itself has limitations and I'd love to see support or enhancement in the area of direct-attached GPU cards."

"The StarWind Command Center web portal could use some work."

"I wish I understood what goes into the StarWind software a little bit better. To me, it's kind of magic the way some of it works. As an IT professional, you don't really want things to be magic. I do wish there was a little more "Here's how it works." There could be more documentation given to administrators..."

"What would have to be done urgently is the adaptation of the hardware to the configuration."

"We'd like an easier setup for Windows updates on the Hyper-V servers so you don't have to use a script to ensure auto-updating is done."

"The monitoring and report software is a bit hit and miss."

"The only real flaw that I have seen so far is this hard drive that was accidentally ejected because when it was received and added back into the RAID. There was an error there. It was not added back into the RAID correctly, so I have an outstanding hard disk. Apparently, a guy just knocked it with his hand as he was in my office, so it was just a small eject. He said that he didn't crash into anything. That is the only thing that has reared its head."

"The only area that surprised me had to do with the fact that each host runs a StarWind virtual machine used to maintain the health of the vSAN, which individually uses 24GB of memory per host. You should keep this in mind when determining the resources you will need when selecting hardware and components for your specific setup. If I knew that, I would have chosen to add more memory per host to make up for the use."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"rate HC3's pricing a five out of ten since it is affordable."

"The product is worth the money, but I would not say it's very cheap or very expensive."

"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."

"I pay for Scale Computing HC3 and it includes customer service for one year. We paid for an additional year for customer service but that includes the updates and everything for the software. Additionally, the licensing is for Windows, which is the same for everybody."

"When I researched they came the most cost-effective."

"I was able to bring the price per year down by going out to a five-year plan."

"The other solutions we were looking at were priced much higher than this and they didn't necessarily have full redundancy... Nutanix and VxRail were in the final running... but it came down to our price point."

"This was all completed at an affordable price point for an SMB, which was also a key element for an NPO."

"I honestly feel that there's no one else in the market doing what they're doing for the price point that they're doing it at. That's why I asked them about investing in their company. I think that the options they're providing and the software that they have is sort of revolutionary for the price point... The total cost was $24,400."

"It's an all in one package, making it very easy."

"There is a bit of a start-up cost. Having never used HCAs before, I was reluctant to buy it. I would suggest that you jump in and do it, as I wish I hadn't wasted so much time."

"We looked at Nutanix and found it did almost the same thing but for more money. In fact, StarWind was nearly one-third of the price; it cost us £36,000. That includes five years of monitoring... The Nutanix was near enough £110,000 for relatively the same amount of performance and storage."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

16%

Government

Educational Organization

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Hospitality Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Scale Computing HC3?

The product's initial setup phase is too easy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Scale Computing HC3?

It fit our budget, so it was great.

What needs improvement with Scale Computing HC3?

There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node. It shows you a small graphical interface, but you have to see them all, and you have to really struggle to figure out which nodes...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?

It's not the cheapest, however, the solution works incredibly well and is so simple to licence and maintain.

What needs improvement with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?

What is your primary use case for StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?

We desperately needed to update yet downsize our data centre. We had six hosts for only approximately 14 or so Virtual machines and two old SANs. All of this was running on 10+ year-old refurbished...

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Product Reports

HCI

Download Scale Computing Platform product report

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Download StarWind HyperConverged Appliance product report

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report

Also Known As

Scale Computing HC3

No data available

Overview

Scale Computing Platform is renowned for swift setup, stability, and performance. It provides a seamless user experience with integrated licenses and efficient management, catering to small IT departments.

Scale Computing Platform offers a user-friendly GUI and delivers superior performance with exceptional read/write speeds, outperforming competitors like Nutanix. It eliminates the need for additional recovery software and simplifies licensing. Users note its simplicity and efficiency over VMware, Nutanix, and HPE SimpliVity. However, there is a need for improved support, better upgrade processes, and more integration with external backup services. The platform faces challenges with larger workloads, with snapshot technology requiring optimization. Enhancements are needed in dashboard usability and node visibility, and users seek flexibility for on-the-fly changes.

What are the key features of Scale Computing Platform?

Ease of Setup: Simplifies installation, making it accessible for small IT teams.
Fast Performance: Provides superior read/write speeds compared to others.
Built-In Licenses: Integrates necessary licenses, reducing complexity.
User-Friendly GUI: Facilitates efficient management for IT departments.
Scalability: Adapts easily to growing business needs without hassle.

What benefits or ROI should users anticipate?

Stability: Ensures reliable system performance for continuous operations.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces need for additional software, offering a cost-effective solution.
Resource Management: Enhances prioritization and management of virtual machines.
User Satisfaction: Provides an appliance-like experience with minimal hassles.

Implementing Scale Computing Platform in industries supports virtualization needs for organizations operating with fewer than thirty VMs. It's commonly used for hosting internal servers, executing POCs, and running applications like SAGE Computer and QuickBooks. The platform aids businesses in creating private clouds, supporting efficient resource management and enhancing server operations, particularly with Acronis Backup.

Scale Computing

For SMB, ROBO and Enterprises, who look to bring in quick deployment and operation simplicity to virtualization workloads and reduce related expenses, our solution is StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA). It unifies commodity servers, disks and flash, hypervisor of choice, StarWind Virtual SAN, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct or VMware Virtual SAN and associated software into a single manageable layer. The HCA supports scale-up by adding disks and flash, and scale-out by adding extra nodes.

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance consists of StarWind Virtual SAN, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct or VMware Virtual SAN “Ready Nodes”, targeting those, who are building their virtualization infrastructure from scratch. In case there is an existing set of servers, we offer a “software only version”, which is essentially our years proven StarWind Virtual SAN. Basically, it’s the fuel powering StarWind HCA.

StarWind

Sample Customers

Resorts World Las Vegas, Stena, Telford Offshore, Goodwill, Sandals, Jerry's Enterprises, Mendard's Royal Farms, Delhaize, Benchmark Electronics, Classic Hotels, Genting Casino, Lindt, Sainsbury's, Landmark Cinemas, Golden Queen Mining, Coca Cola. Holiday Inn, Iron County School District, Sevier County Bank, City of St. Cloud Minnesota, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, KIB Electronics, Brake Masters, Lincoln County Hospital, Ohio Summit County Board of Elections

Sears Home and Franchise Business

Scale Computing Platform vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance