VMware vSAN vs VxRail comparison

Broadcom and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the HCI category. Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Broadcom holds a 9.3% mindshare in HCI, compared to Dell Technologies’s 11.3% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

VMware vSAN

Read 234 VMware vSAN reviews

15,767 Views
10,091 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

VxRail

Read 135 VxRail reviews

13,421 Views
12,750 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

VMware vSAN

VxRail

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

VMware vSAN and VxRail compete in the hyperconverged infrastructure market. User feedback gives VxRail an edge due to its seamless integration and advanced features, making it more favorable for VMware users.

Features: VMware vSAN is appreciated for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and efficient storage policies, offering benefits like vMotion and Distributed Resource Scheduler. It works well with commoditized hardware, providing easy management and impressive performance. VxRail, on the other hand, is noted for comprehensive performance and streamlined integration, particularly for VMware environments. Its advanced automation tools and ease of deployment make it a preferred choice for simpler integration into existing systems.

Room for Improvement: vSAN users report limited deduplication and encryption, wanting better monitoring, hardware compatibility, and stability. They seek more protocol support and customization for improved usability. VxRail users mostly praise performance but suggest support scalability and cost enhancements, alongside smoother VMware update integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deploying vSAN is praised for its simplicity and cloud compatibility, but technical support responsiveness needs improvement. VxRail offers a unified deployment with reliable, immediate support, crucial for implementation, though installation may involve complex coordination in large deployments.

Pricing and ROI: Pricing is critical; both solutions are costly. vSAN attracts scrutiny for licensing costs, increasing with scale, despite reducing hardware needs and IT costs long-term. VxRail's pricing, though high, is more predictable in financial planning, offering clear ROI through reduced operational costs and better infrastructure efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware vSAN vs. VxRail Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN vs. VxRail

April 2026

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

3.2

VMware vSAN reduces hardware costs, increases efficiency, and boosts ROI despite high operational expenses and upfront costs.

Sentiment score

3.8

VxRail significantly reduces costs and manpower needs while enhancing efficiency, scalability, and deployment ease for improved infrastructure management.

Starting with a smaller infrastructure and scaling as required allows us to save costs initially.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I have seen a return on investment; it's satisfactory in the long run.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

4.9

VMware vSAN support is knowledgeable but response times vary, with resources helping reduce direct contact needs for clients.

Sentiment score

7.2

Dell's VxRail support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, with minor concerns about delays and VMware-dependent issues.

I would rate their support nine points.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I am not satisfied with VMware support, particularly with the reaction times, SLAs, and those kinds of issues.

reviewer1687299

private cloud team at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Sometimes the issue is that you don't get the best experience, whether it's the response time or first-level support quality.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

A key area for improvement for VMware would be response time.

AlexOltean

Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Dell has good technical support in Saudi Arabia.

AhmedEdwan

Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The support is all provided by Dell, and it is quite good.

Peter Braack

Principal Consultant at Sycor GmbH

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

4.8

VMware vSAN offers seamless scalability, enabling efficient node addition and storage expansion to meet evolving business capacity demands.

Sentiment score

7.4

VxRail efficiently supports business scalability despite hardware constraints, making it ideal for medium to large enterprises' scaling needs.

It supports up to 64 nodes in a cluster, allowing us to add nodes and expand the cluster as needed.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

If you have already bought it, you need specific servers, and it is easier with a SAN.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

There are limitations, such as the inability to upgrade from a single to dual CPU in certain configurations.

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Scalability is easy with VxRail.

AlexOltean

Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Scalability is good with VxRail.

AhmedEdwan

Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

5.9

VMware vSAN reliability improves with updates, strong support, and adherence to hardware compatibility lists, ensuring stable performance.

Sentiment score

8.4

VxRail offers exceptional stability with minimal disruptions, consistently praised for reliable performance and strong data protection capabilities.

In terms of stability, I give VMware vSAN nine points.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

From my perspective, I would rate VMware vSAN's stability as extremely high, perhaps a nine.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

It is a very stable and mature product, with centralized management and upgrades being perfect for us.

AlexOltean

Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The product is very stable, and I rate its stability as nine out of ten.

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Room For Improvement

VMware vSAN requires better management tools, integration, and hardware support, with improved stability, scalability, and enhanced disaster recovery features.

Users criticize VxRail for limited flexibility, high costs, complex upgrades, and desire better integration, UI, support, and cloud capabilities.

A proper monitoring tool that encompasses both applications and infrastructure would help in quickly resolving issues.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features.

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

Discussing the pricing model is significant as Broadcom creates many discussions worldwide regarding pricing.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

It requires a very clean environment to proceed without issues.

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

VxRail could be enhanced through additional integration with NVMe technology.

AhmedEdwan

Presales + Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For the fourth year and fifth year, I have to buy separately for the licensing from VMware and from VxRail.

John Kevin

Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Setup Cost

VMware vSAN offers long-term savings, but initial costs and licensing complexity concern small businesses, especially post-Broadcom acquisition.

VxRail pricing is high but offers value; negotiation and discounts can reduce costs, despite variable licensing fees.

This has resulted in a slight cost increase.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Previously, the cost was higher, however, recent changes in VMware pricing have reduced it.

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The cost varies for us as a large company because we receive special offers from Dell.

AlexOltean

Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Purchasing VxRail is quite expensive compared to a simple Dell server.

Peter Braack

Principal Consultant at Sycor GmbH

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Valuable Features

VMware vSAN provides high-performance, scalable storage with cost-effective integration, using existing hardware and offering advanced features.

VxRail offers seamless integration, centralized management, automated updates, and high performance, streamlining IT operations with ease and flexibility.

Hot add features are available by default in vSphere, allowing us to immediately increase memory, CPU, and hard drive without any downtime.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The performance is excellent, handling workloads better than direct-attached or legacy storage solutions.

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

The VMware vSAN feature that has had the greatest impact on operational efficiency is the basic software-defined storage functionality.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

The lifecycle management capabilities of VxRail have benefited my organization's maintenance and update processes.

John Kevin

Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

The most valuable feature of VxRail is the VxRail Manager, which centralizes resources like storage built with vSAN.

AlexOltean

Technical architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VxRail report

Categories and Ranking

VMware vSAN

Ranking in HCI

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

234

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VxRail

Ranking in HCI

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

135

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of VMware vSAN is 9.3%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VxRail is 11.3%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VxRail	11.3%
VMware vSAN	9.3%
Other	79.4%

HCI

Q&A Highlights

Miriam Tover

Service Delivery Manager at PeerSpot

Sep 28, 2021

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

Quite simply, VxRail is a vSAN appliance. It's a Dell based server node fully integrated with a pre-loaded VMware vSphere and vSAN software stack. Since it's integrated, the hardware is optimized to take full advantage of all the features and functions associated with vSAN.This is the best choice for someone who is interested in deploying hyper-converged infrastructure but doesn't currently have one in place. The VxRail nodes can be simply slid into the racks, connected and zoned. vSAN, on the other hand, is purely a software solution. It's best for a data center that's already using VMware and would like to introduce storage management elements into their infrastructure. The benefit of this approach is that the configuration is customizable and feature elements can be added as needed.

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Featured Reviews

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

Managing mixed RAID workloads has improved data protection and delivers strong performance

VMware vSAN can be improved in certain areas. In cases involving our large data stores with large VMs, we experience some latency, not during normal operation, but during database backup operations. We observed latency due to buffer issues from the top-of-the-rack switches. These issues are mostly network-related because all storage data traffic travels through the network. I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features. VMware vSAN is now providing data locality, but we did not use that option. If VMware vSAN provides additional features in the next release, such as the VM balancing feature called DRS on the cluster that VMware previously had, it would be beneficial. With DRS, VMs can move easily from one node to another within the same cluster. Nutanix does not provide that flexibility. When placing a VM on a cluster in Nutanix, the placement uses a balancing component. After that, the VM remains on the same host. If any contention occurs on the CPU or memory side, the VM stays in place until contention happens. If issues occur, the VM migrates to another host while transferring all objects to the same host. This is how their data locality is maintained. When a VM moves to any host, it moves with all VM objects. VMware vSAN does not currently offer this option. If a VM moves to another host, it accesses the disk object through the network, which increases latency. VMware vSAN now offers an option to select data locality, but it does not function like Nutanix. This is why some latency remains. If VMware vSAN can improve this feature, it would be very helpful and VMware would regain its top position.

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Saleh Khalid

computer scientist at Imam University

Experience improved integration and cost-efficiency while facing support challenges

The best features of VxRail are its compatibility with VMware, its hyper-converged solution capabilities, and its single line of support. These are the most beneficial aspects of VxRail. I switched from the previous HP solution to Dell solution because it was a good decision. With HP servers, we dealt with a vendor for the compute servers, another vendor for the storage servers, and another vendor for the networking, which required us to manage multiple vendors. Now, we have a single team who can handle VxRail and a single line of support. We don't need anything other than that, and these are the differences we noticed after we switched.

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Answers from the Community

Miriam Tover

Service Delivery Manager at PeerSpot

Sep 28, 2021

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

2 out of 20 answers

it_user849069

Senior System Engineer with 51-200 employees

Feb 6, 2019

VxRail is an complett and Automatiatet Solutions and is Build on vSAN Vmware and is a part from the Solution , This Solution will build your complet VMware Infrastruktur incl. Hardware. and iDRAC. This is the Software defined Datacenter. You ned special Hardware from DellEMC vSAN is just the Software defined Storage Solution from VMware, this can build with vSAN Ready Hardware nodes.

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Siku Philip

Enterprise Solutions Consultant with 51-200 employees

Feb 6, 2019

While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major factors – • Skillsets available internally for validating, testing and roll out. • The time available for an organization to roll out the infrastructure. Given the above two criteria, if an organization has lot of internal skillsets within the organization and enough time to choose the relevant hardware and test/validate each in terms of type of processor, memory, hard drives, HBA, NIC etc and have the relevant drivers and patches, then vSAN would be a more economical options. The advantages with vSAN is that you have more flexibility in choosing your brand and hardware and more economical compared to a pre-engineered system. The disadvantages are time to roll out will be more as lot of testing and validation needs to be done. Secondly, upgrade to future vSpehre versions might involve lot of complexities and time consuming forcing many customers to stick with the current version. Of course, there are exceptions to this where customers have also migrated successfully but the journey was not an easy one. On the other hand, VxRail comes as an pre-engineered system that is plug and play. Few clicks and input of IP address gets you up and running in few minutes. Roll of the infrastructure is fast as no testing and validation from a hardware perspective is needed as it is already done by Dell EMC at the factory. Management and upgradation to new vSphere versions are very easy and not complicated. Disadvantages will be the flexibility to choose your brand or choice of hardware is very limited and would be slightly more costlier than building your own vSAN nodes. In conclusion, if you have the budget and want less headache in management, automation and up-gradation, choose VxRail. If you have limited budget and is ready to spend long time in solving complexities - you can opt for vSAN.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	100
Midsize Enterprise	58
Large Enterprise	129

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	43
Large Enterprise	57

Questions from the Community

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

See all answers

How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?

HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We researched VMware vSAN but found HPE was a better option for us. HPE SimpliVity has ...

See all answers

How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load bal...

See all answers

How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, zero rule. That means I need three copies of my data on two different types of me...

See all answers

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?

VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...

See all answers

How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?

VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if you are working with a limited budget, this platform offer...

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Comparisons

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VMware vSAN

Compared 10% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VMware vSAN

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs VMware vSAN

Compared 6% of the time

NetApp AFF vs VMware vSAN

Compared 5% of the time

Everpure FlashArray vs VMware vSAN

Compared 5% of the time

More VMware vSAN Competitors

Dell PowerFlex vs VxRail

Compared 21% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VxRail

Compared 16% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VxRail

Compared 9% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs VxRail

Compared 4% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs VxRail

Compared 4% of the time

More VxRail Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN

April 2026

Download VMware vSAN product report

Buyer's Guide

VxRail

April 2026

Download VxRail product report

Also Known As

vSAN

VCE VxRail

Overview

VMware vSAN is renowned for scalability, speed, and management ease. Its performance equals traditional SANs, offering fast speeds with diverse disk types at a reduced cost, ensuring VM access amidst hardware failures, and integrating effortlessly with VMware tools for straightforward setup.

As a leader in virtualization solutions, VMware vSAN offers high-performance storage comparable to traditional SANs, allowing SSD-like speeds with a mix of disk types. It integrates into VMware tools, leading to easy setup and policy-driven management, leveraging diverse storage policies, deduplication, and compression for enhanced efficiency. It's especially valued for its ability to scale storage and applications affordably, supporting growth without heavy initial investments. Despite the advantages, areas for improvement include encryption, UI, hardware compatibility, and affordability for SMBs, with notable resync and performance monitoring challenges. Compatibility issues with non-VMware environments and complex updates and support are critical points highlighting a need for improved management interfaces and troubleshooting to enhance user experience.

What are the key features of VMware vSAN?

Scalability: Allows easy scaling of storage and applications without significant initial investments.
Speed: Rivals traditional SANs, offering SSD-like speeds.
Management: Seamless management through integration with VMware tools and policy-driven frameworks.
Resilience: Ensures VM access during hardware failures.
Efficiency: Offers deduplication and compression to optimize storage use.

What benefits or ROI should organizations consider in reviews?

Cost-Effectiveness: Supports horizontal and vertical growth without heavy costs.
Integration: Enhances cloud infrastructure and VDI with easy integration.
Automation: Provides automation for storage and compute consolidation.
Availability: Ensures high availability for VMs and workloads.
Performance: Known for strong performance suited for diverse workloads.

VMware vSAN is implemented across industries for virtualization and cloud infrastructure enhancements, being a cornerstone for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and the management of VMs. It supports major workloads like ERP and hyperconverged infrastructure, widely respected for its performance, seamless integration into VMware's ecosystem, and cost-efficiency, particularly appealing to small and medium businesses without extensive storage infrastructure investments.

Broadcom

VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance co-engineered by Dell Technologies and VMware, designed to optimize VMware environments by simplifying compute, storage, virtualization, and management.

Built on VMware vSAN software, VxRail ensures high performance, reliability, and flexibility. It supports a broad array of workloads, from business-critical applications to next-generation use cases. VxRail simplifies infrastructure management with powerful integration and seamless scalability, offering centralized management and user-friendly interfaces. Streamlined updates, robust lifecycle management, and one-click upgrades facilitate a user-centric experience that minimizes deployment complexity and staffing needs. However, its performance with disk deduplication, integration with public clouds, and processor support can be enhanced, along with pricing and licensing improvements.

What features define VxRail?

High Performance: Optimized for superior efficiency in VMware environments.
Seamless Scalability: Scales effortlessly to accommodate growing demands.
Centralized Management: Simplifies control through unified interfaces.
Effortless Integration: Easily integrates with VMware tools and services.
Automated Updates: Ensures ongoing system availability through streamlined updates.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Resource Efficiency: Reduces staffing requirements and optimizes resource use.
Flexibility: Supports a variety of use cases and workloads.
Reliable Support: Provides robust support to ensure operational continuity.
Reduced Complexity: Facilitates ease of deployment and minimized setup times.

Organizations across sectors such as finance, telecommunications, education, and manufacturing utilize VxRail for its scalability, ease of deployment, and infrastructure management capabilities. It aids in server and application hosting, storage, and virtualization management, often employing VMware integration. The platform is valued for its ability to consolidate IT components, support VDI solutions, and enhance cloud readiness and resource allocation.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

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World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN vs. VxRail

April 2026

Free Report: VMware vSAN vs. VxRail

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