Nexenta vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Nexenta by DDN and StarWind are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Nexenta by DDN is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0, while StarWind is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.5. Nexenta by DDN holds a 1.0% mindshare in SDS, compared to StarWind’s 8.8% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of Nexenta by DDN users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.

Nexenta

Read 2 Nexenta reviews

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98 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN

Read 191 StarWind Virtual SAN reviews

3,193 Views
1,163 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nexenta

StarWind Virtual SAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Nexenta and StarWind Virtual SAN compete in the software-defined storage market. StarWind Virtual SAN may have the upper hand due to its advanced features, making it a worthy investment despite higher costs.

Features: Nexenta offers robust data management capabilities concentrated on scalability and enterprise compatibility, alongside flexible deployment options. StarWind Virtual SAN provides advanced data protection, seamless integration, and focuses on high availability, making it suitable for businesses emphasizing reliability and manageability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nexenta allows flexible deployment with various hardware configurations, aiding in integration. It offers responsive customer service for efficient setup. StarWind Virtual SAN simplifies its installation process to minimize downtime and provides comprehensive support, highlighting its streamlined approach.

Pricing and ROI: Nexenta is known for being cost-effective, offering lower setup costs and satisfactory ROI. StarWind Virtual SAN requires a higher initial investment yet justifies the expense with a broad feature set and reliability, often delivering a substantial ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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

Nexenta

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

15th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

StarWind Virtual SAN

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

1st

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

191

Ranking in other categories

HCI (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Nexenta is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 8.8%, up from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Anil Rahulwar

Storage Engineer at Movate

Offers good features like Fusion and stable product with better customer service

Fusion is the only best feature, but it's a very good feature. Nexenta is a very old product. Nexenta is a well-established product used in the UK, US, India, Dubai, Qatar, and other countries. It is very good. The interface is up to date. Everything is up to date. The OS version was recently upgraded to 5.5 FP3. AI features: DataDirect Networks owns Nexenta and has won awards for AI. They continuously work on AI features. DDN also has a product called Tintri Infinia with AI features. And NVIDIA product also has AI features. I look forward to working on those products.

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WJHG

Soporte IT at Sildan Security

Seamless integrations, high availability, and offers a free version

Although I am generally satisfied with VSAN and its performance, there are some areas that could be improved to enhance its effectiveness even further. One area that could benefit from improvement is scalability. While the tool works well in its current configuration, allowing for greater ease and flexibility in adding new nodes to the cluster without complications would be very beneficial, especially in growing environments. Additionally, I would like to see additional features in the next version, such as better support for automated resource management. This could include proactive suggestions for optimizing storage and memory usage, as well as preventive alerts about the health status of the servers. A more intuitive interface or an improved dashboard for monitoring the cluster would also be helpful, as it would facilitate performance tracking and help identify potential issues before they affect services.

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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 a feature called Fusion that makes it more secure and productive."

"The StarWind Virtual SAN management console is intuitive and easy to use."

"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."

"You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."

"The price was right."

"This solution made it possible to deploy a new infrastructure in the shortest amount of time, at a low cost without purchasing expensive hardware storage, and use unused servers."

"In addition to the main functions of the software, I want to note the excellent work of technical support."

"It's very easy to resize disks and they show up in VMware almost instantly."

"It's quite easy to manage."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

"There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved."

"It would help us if the vendor continues to release software updates for earlier versions of the Windows operating systems."

"If there was one feature I would like to see it would be a built-in subsystem for managing UPS backups shutdown procedures providing a way to initiate VM shutdown on all host servers, shut down the host servers, then put the fault-tolerant mirroring in standby, and finally shut down the StarWind SANs."

"Sometimes documentation on their site can be out of date."

"I think the setup could be streamlined a bit."

"Ongoing improvements in read and write performance would help meet increasingly demanding workloads."

"Scalability should be further improved, especially considering the possibility that environments may grow exponentially."

"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"

"I'd love to see more clarification for us folks who are smart enough to do some damage yet not smart enough to use CLI."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The cost, including OPEX, is lower compared to other solutions."

"This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."

"We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."

"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."

"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."

"The pricing is fine for the work that it does."

"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."

"The Price/Performance ratio for this solution is outstanding!"

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Nexenta?

There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved in the latest version. Four to five customers faced intermittent issues with the SMBs. So, it got resolved in version 5.5 FP3. In future releases,...

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What is your primary use case for Nexenta?

It's for file systems. It's a NAS solution, and it has flexibility. There shouldn't be any outages because if one node goes down, the other nodes take over and take care of everything. It has a fea...

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What advice do you have for others considering Nexenta?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. I would recommend using it.

See all answers

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?

It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...

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

I can't give a sincere opinion on the installation and licensing costs because, as I have mentioned repeatedly, I am currently using the free version. However, I can say that I have submitted a req...

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

See all answers

Comparisons

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Nexenta

Compared 100% of the time

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Compared 25% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 18% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 11% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 9% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

March 2025

Download Nexenta product report

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

March 2025

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

StarWind SAN & NAS

Overview

Nexenta is the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage - what we call Open Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS).We uniquely integrate software-only "Open Source" collaboration with commodity hardware-centric "Software-Defined Storage" (SDS) innovation.

Nexenta by DDN

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

StarWind

Sample Customers

GMO, Northern Backup, Cox Communications, University of Toronto, ScaleMatrix, Wipro, Ruhr University, Drillinginfo, George Washington University, Walton Electric, Faculty of Physics, NAU, ServerCentral

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

March 2025

Free Report: Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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