StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs SteelFusion comparison

StarWind and Riverbed are both solutions in the HCI category. StarWind is ranked #14 with an average rating of 10.0, while Riverbed is ranked #27. StarWind holds a 1.0% mindshare in HCI, compared to Riverbed’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of StarWind users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Riverbed users who would recommend it.

StarWind HyperConverged App...

Read 66 StarWind HyperConverged Appliance reviews

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1,136 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

SteelFusion

Read 2 SteelFusion reviews

465 Views
428 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

StarWind HyperConverged App...

SteelFusion

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

SteelFusion and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance are competing solutions in the infrastructure space, each offering unique strengths. SteelFusion excels in features, making it an appealing option for those prioritizing advanced capabilities. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance stands out for its cost-effectiveness and robust deployment model, providing high value for investment.

Features: SteelFusion's most valuable features include seamless data mobility, impressive integration capabilities, and strong data security measures. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance offers high-performance storage, simplified virtual environments, and efficient resource utilization. SteelFusion's strength lies in its expansive feature set, while StarWind is noted for streamlined operations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: StarWind HyperConverged Appliance provides a straightforward deployment model with excellent customer service, emphasizing clear guidance and support throughout the process. SteelFusion, while offering comprehensive support, presents a more complex deployment path that may require additional technical expertise. StarWind's deployment ease and supportive customer service make it a preferred choice for efficient implementation.

Pricing and ROI: SteelFusion involves higher initial setup costs yet promises significant long-term ROI due to its advanced features and functionality. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance offers more accessible pricing, leading to a quicker ROI through its efficient resource management and reduced operational costs. SteelFusion's potential ROI is driven by its robust features, while StarWind provides a faster return with its lower cost structure.

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Buyer's Guide

HCI

August 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

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)

SteelFusion

Ranking in HCI

27th

Average Rating

9.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelFusion is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Featured Reviews

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.

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it_user866178

Chief Technology Officer at MAZZETTI+GBA

Sync to Central and edge protection mitigate my risk in our branch offices

The level of tech support depends on who you get. There are some techs that just read the script and ask you if you’ve rebooted, but once you get past that - or if you have a very technical issue - the support is great. They really know the product and get you up and running again ASAP.

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

"StarWind's proactive support is my favorite feature."

"The product runs wonderfully and has already gone through several failure tests."

"The redundancy of two identical nodes that can run alone allows us to have truly "no single point of failure" in our computing and primary storage infrastructure."

"We no longer need multiple staff members performing small, mundane tasks."

"We run probably 16 virtual machines, and all of them are now highly available, and highly redundant."

"Servers came pre-configured for our environment and as soon as they were in the rack, Starwind got them up and running."

"The initial setup is straightforward once you know what you're doing."

"Overall, the solution has improved our system's performance. I was concerned about the physical-to-virtual conversion of our database server. It's actually much faster now, as a virtualized host on this Hyper-V cluster."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance pros

"Sync to Central and edge protection mitigate my risk in our branch offices. All services that need to be local to the user exist on local servers. Users run applications and access data locally while the data is constantly being synced to Central, and protected. If an edge device fails, we can recover quickly."

Cons

"The only issue we have seen is with the StarWind Server Manager. We have had to continually reboot the server in order to use it."

"I had some initial difficulties understanding the solution which could have been solved via additional documentation aimed at newcomers."

"Multi cluster support for their Command Console would be very beneficial. Currently, you can only work with a single cluster at a time. The console is new so I expect much growth in this area in the near future. The other area that could be improved is the tech support locale."

"We have to pay for support, which is high-end support. That can be expensive, at least for us."

"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."

"One area for improvement of the solution is that I had to get Windows, which I really didn't want because of the extra maintenance or overhead, as well as viruses, etc. It's going to take time for them to get their Linux to that point. They already have Linux but it's not as mature and they don't really support it on HCAs. They have it for individuals who want to use it on their servers, but not on HCAs."

"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 only area that the product could improve would be user training."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance cons

"Setting up disks for use is a multi-step process that could use some refinement. Setting up a core-to-core replication or DR strategy is also cumbersome."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"A desired feature or service would be the ability to have a hardware subscription plan that ensures routine hardware updates in conjunction with hyper-converged software."

"Its cost was reasonable."

"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."

"We didn't have any issue with pricing or any of the sales process."

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

"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."

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance pricing and cost advice

"Price is an issue – this is expensive stuff. My advice is to beat up Riverbed as much as possible on price. These things are expensive and there is room for negotiation."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

17%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Non Profit

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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.

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What needs improvement with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?

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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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Comparisons

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Compared 27% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Compared 20% of the time

Azure Stack HCI vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Compared 18% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Compared 13% of the time

VxRail vs StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Compared 13% of the time

More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Competitors

Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure vs SteelFusion

Compared 54% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs SteelFusion

Compared 46% of the time

More SteelFusion Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

July 2025

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report

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Buyer's Guide

HCI

August 2025

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Overview

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

Riverbed SteelFusion is the first and only hyper-converged infrastructure for branch IT, enables 100% consolidation of branch data and servers from remote sites into data centers, delivering complete data security and centralized data protection, without compromising on any of the benefits of running branch services locally for your users. SteelFusion eliminates the need for physical servers, storage and backup infrastructure at branch locations, creates the ability to instantly provision and recover branch services, and provides full visibility and superior performance of on-premises and cloud-based applications, leading to dramatic increases in data security, business continuity, agility and operational efficiency.

Riverbed

Sample Customers

Sears Home and Franchise Business

Roxtec, Engen, Bobst, CBP, IUCN, Mahoning County, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

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