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FreeNAS vs NetApp FAS Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Customer Service

No sentiment score available
FreeNAS technical support is praised for excellence, stability, reliability, and effective issue resolution with consistent quality assistance.
Sentiment score
7.1
NetApp FAS Series provides efficient support with expertise, though some users experience delays and desire quicker resolutions.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
3.4
FreeNAS needs improved Hyper-V cluster support, documentation clarity, better dashboard, S3, PSA integrations, and efficiency for backups.
Sentiment score
5.0
NetApp FAS Series requires enhanced performance, integration, cloud compatibility, management, documentation, and efficiency while improving cost-effectiveness and technology support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
FreeNAS scales well for some users, though challenges with hardware costs and storage expansion are noted by others.
Sentiment score
7.1
The NetApp FAS Series offers scalable storage solutions with seamless expansion, praised for flexibility and minimal downtime despite cost challenges.
 

Setup Cost

No sentiment score available
FreeNAS is a free, open-source solution with significant hardware costs, suitable for enterprises with technical expertise.
Sentiment score
7.5
NetApp FAS Series pricing varies widely, seen as costly by some but offering competitive bundled packages and discounts.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
FreeNAS offers high stability and reliability, efficiently handling drive failures and maintaining 99.9% uptime with proper hardware.
Sentiment score
8.2
NetApp FAS Series is praised for reliability, consistent performance, and effective redundancy, with few minor issues swiftly resolved.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
7.6
FreeNAS provides reliable, user-friendly storage with seamless integration, robust management, and effective data protection across multiple platforms.
Sentiment score
7.8
NetApp FAS Series delivers high availability, efficient data management, and seamless VMware integration on a unified storage platform.
 

Categories and Ranking

FreeNAS
Ranking in NAS
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetApp FAS Series
Ranking in NAS
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Deduplication Software (5th), Modular SAN (Storage Area Network) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the NAS category, the mindshare of FreeNAS is 3.0%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp FAS Series is 16.2%, up from 15.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
NAS
 

Featured Reviews

Vincenzo D'Aniello - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Paweł Jabłoński - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for VMs with replication a feature, but need upgraded SSDs
We use this solution. I configured and updated it. Of course, I was also a user of applications that store data on that storage. We already have an SSD solution. So, rather than planning to go with an SSD solution, we are focusing on expanding it. If a company wants to deploy something new, it should choose a product with SSD, and NVMe disks. Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
61%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FreeNAS?
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.
What needs improvement with FreeNAS?
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 versi...
Which SAN product would you choose: IBM FlashSystem (FS9500) vs PureFlash Array/X NVMe vs PureFlash Array/XL NVMe?
Have you considered a NetApp FAS Storage for your NAS needs? I am sure it fits very well.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp FAS Series?
The pricing depends on the disks we choose. We got quite a good price compared to Huawei Dorado because we compared the prices between NetApp SSD and Dorado, and the price was quite similar.
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Morroni Technologies Inc., Creative Integrations
Children's Hospital Central California, Plex Systems, PDF PNI Digital Media, Denver Broncos, PDF KSM Legal, Clayton Companies, Virginia Community College
Find out what your peers are saying about FreeNAS vs. NetApp FAS Series and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.