StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs StorPool comparison

StarWind and StorPool are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. StarWind is ranked #11 with an average rating of 10.0, while StorPool is ranked #19. StarWind holds a 1.3% mindshare in SDS, compared to StorPool’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of StarWind users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StorPool users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

StorPool and StarWind Virtual Tape Library are competing products in the data handling and storage solutions category. StorPool appears to have an advantage in terms of performance and scalability, while StarWind excels in feature variety and perceived value.

Features: StorPool offers high performance, scalability, and seamless integration with various cloud environments. Its notable features include efficient storage performance and the ability to expand storage almost without limit. StarWind Virtual Tape Library provides robust backup and recovery features along with compatibility with numerous server environments. It enables virtual tape creation and archiving to cloud platforms, making it a flexible solution.

Room for Improvement: StorPool could enhance its traditional deployment options and offer more comprehensive documentation for on-premise environments. Additional cost transparency could also benefit potential users. StarWind Virtual Tape Library may improve by simplifying its deployment process and making its technical management less complex. It could also work on integrating newer cloud services for broader compatibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: StorPool features an easy deployment process with strong cloud integration and responsive customer service. StarWind Virtual Tape Library has a more traditional deployment model, backed by extensive technical documentation and supportive customer service tailored towards detailed backup solutions.

Pricing and ROI: StorPool's pricing model is designed to be cost-effective, offering favorable ROI thanks to its scalable performance-based pricing. StarWind Virtual Tape Library may entail higher initial setup costs, but users find these justified by its extensive feature set and long-term reliability.

To learn more, read our detailed StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs. StorPool Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs. StorPool

April 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 May 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.2%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual Tape Library is 1.3%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StorPool is 2.4%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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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KellyVon Der Heyden

Sales Director at CLOUD READY SOLUTIONS

Scalable solution with a good technical support team

We use the solution for data backups and ransomware protection The solution is compatible with cloud storage platforms, such as Amazon S3. Also, it efficiently reduces the storage cost for archiving. The solution's training process and online documentation could be more thorough. We have been…

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it_user689271

President at eApps Hosting

Enabled us to increase both our gross margins and performance while also decreasing latency

We initially started using StorPool at three locations with a capacity of 250+ TB.By implementing StorPool, we managed to increase both our gross margins and performance, while decreasing the latency to 0.19-0.26 ms up to 125,000 IOPS We now deliver all-flash performance and improved uptime with…

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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 solution provides many controllers."

"We can capacity plan at a greater level than we used to."

"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."

"The onboarding and integrated monitoring tools are pretty good."

"The product is scalable and easy to expand."

"I like its size. It is smaller than the other competitors. We can plug in many blades, and we can have data up to one terabyte."

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

"The most valuable features of FlashBlade include its replication capabilities, reports, and easy allocation. Everything is user-friendly."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The solution made our backups way more reliable."

"It is a stable solution."

"StarWind VTL allowed us to back up to virtual tape that was created within Veeam and upload the tape to the cloud."

"I like the fact that we can simultaneously upload the virtual tapes to different cloud providers, and the settings can be adjusted to speed up the upload times even further."

"The most valuable feature of the StarWind Virtual Tape Library is the archiving to the AWS cloud."

"With StorPool we were able to build live failover on top of our LXC infrastructure. This allows us both to live-migrate containers between compute nodes without any downtime and, in case of an entire node suffering any type of failure, we can bring all containers back online within a minute on a spare compute node."

"Creating snapshots within seconds for big disks has helped our different migration projects since it allows us to perform them in a short period of time."

"Performance, redundancy, scalability and cost-effectiveness. StorPool delivers superbly in all of these areas."

"The team behind it was very engaged and had the skills and ability to support a service provider."

"The two 10GE networks provide redundancy and increased performance as they serve as two separate networks doubling the throughput and doing multipathing and load balancing. We now have a high performance shared storage system which enables us to run on private cloud. Our previous system used bare-metal hardware, which provided high performance but inflexible management. Now we have best of both worlds, SSD-class performance with flexibility of a private cloud system."

"The speed of the storage solution also allows us to provide service to applications that are very I/O intensive."

Cons

"Recently, while upgrading the version code, one of the controllers failed. Replacing the controller took between 14 to 20 days."

"Its configuration should be easier."

"In the realm of micro-services, I think that Pure Storage can do well if they start getting in there and making their arrays more micro-services ready."

"In terms of scalability, it doesn't expand out quite as robustly as some of the others, but it covers 90% of the market in what it does."

"I would also like to see better support for CIFS workloads."

"We haven't been able to use much of the cloud area of Pure Storage. We have a storage server and it would be better if it could integrate with other cloud features of this solution."

"Compared to, for example, Hitachi NAS, the solution is not mature at all. It's just in its infancy as far as technology goes."

"An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"I am not sure if this is a limitation of my physical hardware or if it is the software itself. However, I would like the throughput to be faster."

"The initial installation can be complex and should be simplified."

"The solution's training process and online documentation could be more thorough."

"The main thing that I felt could be improved was having an estimated time of completion for the virtual tape uploads to the cloud."

"I have personally met with multiple Storpool engineers and spoke about different options and features. There are too many features that we don't know or use yet. My recommendation would be to promote the new features and give users different examples of how they can be used and how we can benefit from them."

"Live and historical performance statistics would be useful, though my understanding is that this is on the way in a future release."

"Monitoring and statistics UI is a bit clumsy."

"At times we need to check the disks and do some minor operations. A friendlier user interface would be useful in such cases."

"he only place we feel they could improve is the time it takes to bring new features to production."

"It would be good if, with next releases, StorPool provide a better GUI for monitoring and statistics. This would make our experience even better and complete."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Support is a separate line item. Support is a different cost, but whatever your support is now, that's what you're going to pay forever. If your support's $100 today, six years from now it's $100. It doesn't fluctuate unless you upgrade it, or change it, etc."

"The price could be cheaper."

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

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

"The pricing is relatively expensive due to the FlashBlade technology. However, for companies needing quick and reliable data access, the cost is justified."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

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

"I feel that the price could always be lowered."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"The solution is cost-effective."

"The pricing of the solution could be more flexible to meet the needs of smaller to mid-market size companies."

"The initial setup and deployment are also covered in the purchase at no additional cost."

"If you currently have Veeam there is no other solution that is as easy and affordable as StarWind."

"StorPool's pricing and licensing model is very transparent. As always, one has to due his due diligence when choosing a product like distributed storage solutions."

"It provides us with a significant reduction in TCO due to their pay-as-you-grow licensing model, which means we don’t have to pay upfront for hardware and licensing for capacity thStorPoolat we don’t yet need to use."

"StorPool software is cost-effective and gives us a pricing advantage over our competitors."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

29%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Healthcare Company

13%

Media Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

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

The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and per...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.

See all answers

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual Tape Library?

The solution made our backups way more reliable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual Tape Library?

The pricing is surprisingly reasonable, and that includes the help to get it set up and running. They really want you...

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What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual Tape Library?

I am not sure if this is a limitation of my physical hardware or if it is the software itself. However, I would like ...

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Comparisons

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Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

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Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual Tape Library

Compared 100% of the time

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Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StorPool

Compared 58% of the time

LINBIT SDS vs StorPool

Compared 20% of the time

VMware vSAN vs StorPool

Compared 11% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs StorPool

Compared 11% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

April 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

April 2025

Download StarWind Virtual Tape Library product report

Buyer's Guide

StorPool

April 2025

Download StorPool product report

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

For SMB and Enterprises, who either look to get rid of backup tapes completely, or are willing to accelerate backup process and add an extra level of protection, our solution is StarWind Virtual Tape Library (VTL). It is an appliance that eliminates the need in physical tape and “pretends” to be a supported tape drive or autoloader, keeping all data on inexpensive, fast and high-capacity spinning disks.

Even with explosive data growth, StarWind VTL fits the backup into backup window by accelerating it, so the process does not overlap with production time. Optionally, it creates additional copy of backup data for better safety. It is also available in a software-only form, as part of StarWind VSAN functionality.

StarWind VTL targets those, who need to replace existing tape backup infrastructure or accelerate it if regulatory requirements prohibit replacement. In case the goal is just virtualizing tape backup or creating a stretched backup infrastructure, StarWind Tape Redirector will come in handy.

StarWind

StorPool is intelligent storage software that runs on standard servers and builds scalable, high-performance storage system out of these servers (software-defined storage). It focuses on the block-level storage and excels at it. It is incredibly flexible and can be deployed in both converged setups (on compute nodes, alongside VMs and applications) or on separate storage nodes.

StorPool has advanced fully-distributed architecture and is arguably the fastest and most efficient block-storage software on the market today. It is the best storage system when building a cloud.

StorPool

Sample Customers

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

Volvo, Sony, Samsung, Hitachi

CloudSigma, Kualo, Togglebox, Neterra, Serveo, Superhosting.bg, GroupOne, DRFortress, Metanet, Dia, Server Storage Solutions

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs. StorPool

April 2025

Free Report: StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs. StorPool

Find out what your peers are saying about StarWind Virtual Tape Library vs. StorPool and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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