NetApp StorageGRID vs Pure Storage FlashBlade comparison

NetApp and Pure Storage are both solutions in the File and Object Storage category. NetApp is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.7, while Pure Storage is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. NetApp holds a 5.5% mindshare in FaOS, compared to Pure Storage’s 5.8% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Pure Storage users who would recommend it.

NetApp StorageGRID

Read 13 NetApp StorageGRID reviews

3,156 Views
2,626 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Read 37 Pure Storage FlashBlade reviews

4,252 Views
3,089 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

NetApp StorageGRID

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Pure Storage FlashBlade and NetApp StorageGRID compete in the storage solutions category. FlashBlade appears to have the upper hand in speed and performance, whereas StorageGRID is favored for its effective storage management and cost-efficiency in larger deployments.

Features: Pure Storage FlashBlade is known for its high throughput, low latency, and easy scalability, making it suitable for environments demanding rapid data access. Customers appreciate its replication features and simple management interface. In contrast, NetApp StorageGRID is recognized for deduplication, compression, and robust data security. Customers value its storage management capabilities and object storage solutions.

Room for Improvement: Pure Storage FlashBlade could enhance its cloud integration and deduplication capabilities. Users recommend improvements in API support and lowering licensing costs. Additionally, there's a call for quicker resolution of issues by support teams. For NetApp StorageGRID, users highlight integration difficulties with Active Directory and suggest better pricing and marketing strategies. Improved metadata management and visibility are also suggested.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Pure Storage FlashBlade and NetApp StorageGRID offer on-premises and private cloud deployment options. FlashBlade stands out for proactive support but has noted a decline in support quality. Meanwhile, StorageGRID provides consistent customer satisfaction with quick support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Pure Storage FlashBlade is considered expensive but delivers excellent ROI due to performance and simplicity in storage management. It is viewed as a valuable investment for its powerful features. NetApp StorageGRID is competitively priced within its market but is seen as mid-range to high in cost. While it achieves effective cost reductions, only some users note significant ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed NetApp StorageGRID vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade

March 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

NetApp StorageGRID

Ranking in File and Object Storage

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Ranking in File and Object Storage

6th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

All-Flash Storage (17th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of NetApp StorageGRID is 5.5%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage

Featured Reviews

Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Object-based storage and offers intuitive management tools, making it easy to configure and maintain

The only thing missing is flexibility in configuration to cater to specific customer requirements. Another area of improvement is marketing. NetApp's marketing of StorageGRID isn't optimal. They should present it more effectively, especially in regions like Pakistan. Here, I haven't seen any marketing campaigns from NetApp for StorageGRID or the Solid State Platform (SSP). While StorageGRID is a globally recognized product, I haven't seen any marketing efforts from NetApp in Pakistan. Even competitors are promoting object storage solutions here, but NetApp seems less efficient in selling StorageGRID. There might be one or two customers, but even as a NetApp partner, I'm not aware of any major sales. I've been trained on StorageGRID, and it is a good product. I'm unsure why it hasn't gained traction in Pakistan compared to other countries. So, I just recommend improving the marketing campaigns in Pakistan. I'm pretty confident that if we have one example of successful StorageGRID implementation in Pakistan, other customers will follow suit.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is good."

"The most valuable feature is tiering."

"The implementation with NetApp went smoothly. It is a 'setup and forget' type of appliance."

"The ability to get to the StorageGRID from anywhere on my network. The solution is remote. You don't have to be at a physical location."

"The backup features are valuable. I've heard from our backup and data protection people that our clients are very satisfied with the performance in junction with the backup, which they archive on this type of object storage."

"The technical support team is reliable and responsive."

"It has enabled us to save money on storage costs. We removed our tape library."

"The management portals have most significantly improved our data retrieval times. They've made it much easier to restore data compared to our previous methods."

More NetApp StorageGRID pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is performance."

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

"Among its most appealing features are its ease of handling and minimal maintenance requirements."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power outages when we need to quickly move data between different data centers. It ensures efficient replication and helps maintain our data centers' uptime."

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

"FlashBlade offers low latency, high throughput, and seamless scalability."

"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."

"I would rate Pure Storage FlashBlade a ten out of ten."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

Cons

"Data retrieval speed could be better."

"The integration with more apps has room for improvement."

"Beyond the initial setup, this product is a little bit difficult to configure."

"The only real issue that we have run into is, when we are cloning, we cannot do a thin provision clone, it has to be a full clone."

"I just recommend improving the marketing campaigns in Pakistan."

"The redundancy and reliability are great, but I also see room for improvement there. I would like to see more efficiency in the storage and dedupe/compression solutions."

"I would like to see them integrate more with the monitoring platforms. It is a bit difficult to get automated monitoring of the system."

"The price is something that NetApp could improve, as with most companies. NetApp is known for not being the cheapest storage option, which is also valid for StorageGRID. There are other storage options on the market which we are aware of and have done proofs of concept for, but you cannot really compare the list prices because, as a big user of NetApp storages, we have totally different prices than some list prices. Still, the price information we got for other options are almost always less expensive than StorageGRID."

More NetApp StorageGRID cons

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

"The features provided for SMB customers are limited."

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

"I would like to see more VM-Aware features in the next release of this solution."

"The feature that we're waiting on is better integration with the cell services."

"It's on the expensive side, as expected for a niche product."

"It would be beneficial if the layer could support the S3 protocol and be container ready in the next release."

"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."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We chose NetApp because of price and performance."

"The pricing is quite flexible and depends on the specific customer requirements. The initial cost is primarily based on the desired capacity, so it's not a fixed price."

"I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances."

"Buying the solution is expensive, but it saves you money down the line when you factor in the logistics of not having to buy tapes."

"While we have been able to save money on storage costs, it could be better."

"The licensing that the S3 service provides them from a FabricPool standpoint is more attractive than the licensing from AWS or Azure."

"Creating your own data stores, backups, or storage grids, helps eliminate all these costs of downloading all the data back after you downloaded to the cloud."

"NetApp is not known for being the cheapest storage option on the market. Almost all of the other storage options we looked at were less expensive than StorageGRID. The price is one thing to criticize, which is what we hear internally and from customers as well. They find the cost of the terabytes in this class of storage a little bit higher than expected."

More NetApp StorageGRID pricing and cost advice

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is a hardware appliance, and it's very expensive if you compare its price with other solutions. You can get the same features and benefits from its competitor, VAST Data, but for half the price of Pure Storage FlashBlade."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

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

"Our customers have seen a reduction in TCO."

"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

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

"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."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

Educational Organization

37%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NetApp StorageGRID?

The management portals have most significantly improved our data retrieval times. They've made it much easier to restore data compared to our previous methods.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp StorageGRID?

I rate the product pricing around five out of ten—it's negotiable, depending on the circumstances.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp StorageGRID?

The product's continual innovation and enhancement in integration capabilities with other NetApp solutions could be better.

See all answers

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 outages when we need to quickly move data between different data centers. It ensure...

See all answers

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 performance it delivers, including quick response times.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

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

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 26% of the time

MinIO vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 26% of the time

Dell ECS vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 23% of the time

Scality RING vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 7% of the time

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs NetApp StorageGRID

Compared 2% of the time

More NetApp StorageGRID Competitors

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 21% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 12% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Dell PowerStore vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 2% of the time

More Pure Storage FlashBlade Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID

March 2025

Download NetApp StorageGRID product report

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

March 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Also Known As

Storage GRID

No data available

Overview

Store and manage unstructured data at scale using NetApp StorageGRID for secure, durable object storage. Place content in the right location, at the right time, and on the right storage tier, optimizing workflows and reducing overall costs for globally distributed rich media.

NetApp

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

Sample Customers

ASE, DARZ GmbH

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

Buyer's Guide

NetApp StorageGRID vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade

March 2025

Free Report: NetApp StorageGRID vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp StorageGRID vs. Pure Storage FlashBlade and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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