FreeNAS vs HPE 3PAR StoreServ comparison

FreeNAS and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the NAS category. FreeNAS is ranked #14, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.8. FreeNAS holds a 3.7% mindshare in N, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of FreeNAS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

FreeNAS

Read 9 FreeNAS reviews

1,395 Views
1,395 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

HPE 3PAR StoreServ

Read 304 HPE 3PAR StoreServ reviews

12,432 Views
3,108 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

FreeNAS

HPE 3PAR StoreServ

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

HPE 3PAR StoreServ and FreeNAS compete in the storage solutions category. HPE 3PAR StoreServ holds the upper hand due to its enterprise-grade features and strong customer support, though FreeNAS is more cost-effective, attracting smaller operations.

Features: HPE 3PAR StoreServ offers all-flash arrays, remote copy functionality, and ease of use with deduplication and compression. FreeNAS excels in dynamic disk management and supports integrated services like SMB and S3, though it lacks some advanced enterprise features.

Room for Improvement: HPE 3PAR StoreServ could improve its cloud integration and automation, focusing on better InfoSight functionality and documentation clarity. FreeNAS could enhance clustering capabilities and provide better documentation, especially for technical issues and backup operations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: HPE 3PAR StoreServ is deployed on-premises with strong technical support, though response times vary. FreeNAS is deployed on-premises and in private clouds, appreciated for its simplicity and open-source nature but lacks robust professional support.

Pricing and ROI: HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a premium option with higher costs covering licensing and maintenance, offering good ROI through performance and reliability. FreeNAS, being open-source, primarily incurs hardware costs, appealing to those prioritizing cost-efficiency over advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed FreeNAS vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ

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:

Categories and Ranking

FreeNAS

Ranking in NAS

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE 3PAR StoreServ

Ranking in NAS

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

304

Ranking in other categories

Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (2nd), All-Flash Storage (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the NAS category, the mindshare of FreeNAS is 3.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE 3PAR StoreServ is 4.1%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

NAS Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
HPE 3PAR StoreServ	4.1%
FreeNAS	3.7%
Other	92.2%

NAS

Featured Reviews

Vincenzo D'Aniello

Software developer at TREXON S.R.L.

Open-source with great disk management and task synchronization

The system itself allows you to add any feature. The only bad thing is that this maybe depends on FreeBSD, and sometimes finding documentation is difficult. For example, we knew that previous versions automatically enabled the Linux kernel, yet with the recent version, this was no longer the case. Now, there was the possibility of being able to create Debian-based jails, and finding the documentation was not easy or fast. That said, in the end, we succeeded. If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented.

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Cyril Omatsola

Information Systems & Security Administrator at a government with 501-1,000 employees

Ease of use in data center boosts resilience and infrastructure efficiency

I find the HPE 3PAR StoreServ valuable for its ease of use and resilience, which is beneficial. The main benefits I have seen from having HPE 3PAR StoreServ include its use at a small branch I managed for about three years with around 60 users. It operates effectively because it is an HPE product we use there. I have not experienced any significant issues besides occasional IT-related ones, such as local database problems. Since handing over the administration of the system to someone else and moving to another department, there have not been any issues. There are many features that exist but I haven't needed to try. Before moving out of that role in my organization, I knew it was a product I enjoyed working with for infrastructure purposes. After completing my new role, I intend to return to infrastructure.

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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

"It has the best storage capacity."

"The stability is quite good; our system is in production and we have not had any problems with it, and when a drive fails, we don't really have any disruption because we can easily rebuild the disk, even if it is very large."

"The solution has been very stable so far."

"FreeNAS is much simpler and easier to use than other solutions, but we don't have the complete range of features that come with the full version."

"The program is fast, fun to work on and easy."

"After using FreeNAS I will never spend money for commercial products like Dell or 3Par."

"The ease of use of the 'jail', the management of backups, and copies to easily create test and pre-production scenarios have speeded up the development and distribution of business apps."

"The fact that no data are lost when a hard drive fails is extremely reassuring, as I have had two of five drives fail at one time and no data were lost."

More FreeNAS pros

"We're hosting virtual infrastructure on the 3PAR storage and it's been very good for that."

"The speed is very good."

"Its stability is the most valuable. It has soft alerts. When an alert is raised, we get a call from HP saying that there is this type of alert, and they need to do a remote session to check things. Similarly, for firmware updates, they get in touch to say that a firmware upgrade is required on your storage. They schedule a time and take control remotely to upgrade the firmware. In all such cases, there is no downtime. Everything is done when a full-fledged operation is going on. Its user interface is also quite good. We are quite accustomed to this user interface. We can easily take a look at the current usage or the amount of storage. It is quite easily understandable, and I can present those things to my seniors or other people who are not that tech-savvy, and they can easily understand what we are trying to tell them. We can easily show them that we are using around 87% of the storage, so we need to plan for another tree and things like that."

"Provides amazing performance all day in multiple workloads."

"There are several valuable features, including the easy-to-use application and straightforward end-user tools."

"We do not have to take the whole system down to do upgrades."

"The system has been up and running for almost four years now and there has not been an issue anywhere."

"3PAR's product team has demonstrated a level of ambition and advancement over the past year that makes me happy to endorse the product and organization behind it."

More HPE 3PAR StoreServ pros

Cons

"Make it easier to find out how to fix things when something goes wrong."

"They can improve the integration with PSA systems. This functionality could be better."

"The latest version of the dashboard doesn't work as good as the previous version. Sometimes we change our dashboard back to the previous version because the latest version just doesn't work as good."

"If you find the documentation, it is always incomplete and fragmented."

"They can improve the integration with PSA systems. This functionality could be better."

"One of my hard drives has failed and the documentation that I've been able to find has not helped."

"The one thing that I find difficult to do which is very time-consuming is that I like to have a backup of the important files."

"FreeNAS should be better prepared for clustering."

More FreeNAS cons

"There were one or two small issues where it would have been more helpful to talk directly to a subject matter expert."

"We have had a few issues with it. We had our virtual environment lock up a few times on storage-based things."

"HPE has a product that I am very interested in, but it lacks of integration with 3PAR - HPE SimpliVity."

"The initial setup was complex, due to calculating the amount of performance that we needed for the floor."

"It increased performance for a while, but then, as we grew, and we did not grow significantly, performance dropped down."

"It's a very complex platform to manage and it's not cheap either. It didn't really give us the level of flexibility we had for very, very small workloads."

"It is suitable for medium-sized businesses and data centers with less number of users and less important data. It is not really an enterprise-level solution. It needs more capacity. It is also not really stable. It should be more stable. It should also support any server model. It is really weak in this area."

"I would like to see it cheaper to increase the cost effectiveness."

More HPE 3PAR StoreServ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is okay. It suits our needs."

"For our configuration, we pay a little bit less than €10,000 ($12,000 USD) per year."

"Its licensing cost is based on the hardware capacity."

"We use the free version of the program."

"The price of the license depends. Some people expect more from the hardware. Some expect more from the licensing, and that is because you can receive several licenses nowadays, such as the terabyte license. You buy the storage, and you pay extra for the terabyte license for the software. There is a one-time purchase for the license and you pay annually for the maintenance."

"We purchased the solution as CapEx and we only pay support now. I find the pricing fantastic."

"The main issue with 3PAR right now is its cost problem. Right now, there are some other storage cabinets that can do what 3PAR can do. Now, they can do it as well with a more revised budget."

"For the price that we were able to acquire it, we have seen it give us the performance and stability that we require to run our enterprise."

"We had to go back and purchase iLO licenses and brocade switches for the flex fabric to have a complete solution."

"This licensing fees for this solution are merged with all of our HP annual costs, which in total are a couple hundred thousand dollars."

"They have added features, such as the compression and duplication, which have further increased our ROI."

"It makes for less administrative overhead."

More HPE 3PAR StoreServ pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user182013

Federal Civ/Intel Engineering Lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 1, 2015

Measuring Up: EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR

Leading up to EMC World 2015, IT Central Station asked how I would compare EMC XtremIO and HP 3PAR. Until recently, the flash storage conversation in my organization and many others has centered on XtremIO and Pure Storage, the leaders of the all-flash array (AFA) space. To that end, I've written a…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

13%

Performing Arts

12%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	73
Midsize Enterprise	74
Large Enterprise	170

Questions from the Community

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What's the difference between HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE Primera?

HPE Primera has many great features but one of the best is that it is very easy to deploy. From an overall perspective, it is reliable, easy to set up, stable, and offers quality block storage. All...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE 3PAR StoreServ?

As a customer, I always prefer to have a lower price. Any customer will always ask for the cheaper price.

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What needs improvement with HPE 3PAR StoreServ?

I have no specific ideas for improvement at present. We just need to verify whether our current virtual server setup is acceptable to the RBI, as they had raised questions about the VSO, ISO config...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS

May 2026

Download FreeNAS product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE 3PAR StoreServ

May 2026

Download HPE 3PAR StoreServ product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE 3PAR Flash Storage, InServ, Storeserv, 3PAR Flash Storage, HP Enterprise Storage, 3PAR Flash Array, HP 3PAR Flash Storage

Overview

FreeNAS, an open-source storage platform, offers easy setup with intuitive management for network-attached storage. It's known for stability and compatibility across Windows and Linux. FreeNAS integrates with CIFS, NFS, and iSCSI while maintaining efficient virtual machine support.

FreeNAS stands out in the realm of network-attached storage by providing robust performance with dynamic disk management and task synchronization. Its container integration enhances versatility, coupled with comprehensive storage options like CIFS, NFS, and iSCSI. Users find value in its capabilities to manage virtual machines and integrated services such as SMB and S3. A vital feature includes data protection during drive failures, maintaining compatibility with both Windows and Linux environments. However, users encounter challenges with backing up large files due to slow network speeds, fragmented documentation, and integration with PSA systems or Hyper-V clusters. Scalability and clearer guidance are areas for improvement. Despite these, FreeNAS is widely utilized for its simplicity in creating users, managing permissions, and offering privacy-focused storage, especially beneficial for organizations with significant data handling needs.

What are some of the key features of FreeNAS?

Easy Setup: Streamlined installation process with minimal technical barriers.
Stability: Reliable performance in managing storage needs.
Dynamic Disk Management: Flexible handling of storage configurations.
Task Synchronization: Efficient task management for optimized operations.
Container Integration: Supports diverse applications effortlessly.
Comprehensive Storage Options: Integrates CIFS, NFS, and iSCSI for varied storage needs.
Virtual Machine Support: Efficient management of virtual environments.
Data Protection: Ensures security during drive failures.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Use: Intuitive interfaces for managing large-scale storage.
Compatibility: Seamless integration with Windows and Linux systems.
Scalability: Potential to expand storage capabilities as needs grow.
Cost Efficiency: Open-source nature reduces license expenses.
Security: Protects sensitive data in research and corporate settings.

FreeNAS is implemented across diverse industries for network-attached storage, primarily serving as a backup for massive files like video files and research data. Organizations employ it for transferring and storing large datasets, and some utilize its 'jail' services for hosting applications such as JavaEE, nodejs, and GitLab. Researchers appreciate the privacy-focused storage and interim backups offered by FreeNAS, suiting their needs for both large-scale data handling and practical application hosting.

FreeNAS

HPE 3PAR StoreServ offers unparalleled performance and flexibility for enterprise storage needs. It is highly valued for its manageability and advanced capabilities, making it ideal for mission-critical workloads.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ is a high-performance storage system known for its ease of use and robust architecture. It supports seamless upgrades and is adaptable to evolving technology, making it an excellent choice for electronic medical records, virtualization, and centralized data management. With integration capabilities supporting applications like SQL Server, VMware, and SAP, it effectively meets diverse business needs.

What are the key features of HPE 3PAR StoreServ?

Ease of Use: Simplifies management tasks with an intuitive interface.
Reliability: Offers high availability and robust architecture for mission-critical workloads.
Flash Storage: Provides fast data access and improved performance.
Dynamic Provisioning: Enhances scalability and resource allocation.
Data Deduplication: Reduces storage costs by eliminating duplicate data.
Tiered Storage: Optimizes data storage with automated tiering.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating HPE 3PAR StoreServ?

Performance: Handles demanding workloads with efficiency.
Scalability: Grows with enterprise needs without compromising performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with existing systems and applications.
Proactive Support: Ensures smooth operation with timely updates and support.

HPE 3PAR StoreServ is employed in industries like healthcare and finance, supporting applications such as Oracle databases and SAP. It enhances data processing and provides essential storage for virtual and real-time applications, meeting the rigorous demands of sectors requiring reliable and high-performance storage solutions.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations

Just Energy, Latisys, team AG, DreamWorks, BlueShore Financial, Erasmus MC

Buyer's Guide

FreeNAS vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ

April 2026

Free Report: FreeNAS vs. HPE 3PAR StoreServ

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