Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs Zadara comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind HyperConverged App...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
9th
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
HCI (12th)
Zadara
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
16th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (32nd), Compute Service (11th), Public Cloud Storage Services (16th), File and Object Storage (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is 2.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zadara is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
 

Featured Reviews

Russ Le Puill - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 17, 2024
Proactive support with improved speed and resilience
We desperately needed to update yet downsize our data centre. We had six hosts for only approximately 14 or so Virtual machines and two old SANs. All of this was running on 10+ year-old refurbished hardware!  As part of our upgrade, we wanted to improve the speed and manageability of our virtual…
Giovanni Mantelli - PeerSpot reviewer
May 17, 2022
Helpful support, simple initial setup, and easy configuration
We use services on Zadara for our customers in Brazil The most valuable features of Zadara are its visibility and simplicity to use. In the next release, there can be some improvements to the web console by adding more features because the console is simple. Additionally, the calculator could…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The hosts came preconfigured, and it was plug-and-play."
"Product functionality and performance are wonderful."
"The sales process is easy."
"StarWind is very resilient and built off of quality vendor hardware."
"The initial setup seems to be very straightforward."
"With proactive support, StarWind deploys and configures the solution for you."
"The presence of built-in storage saved the company from having to purchase a separate storage array and related network equipment."
"The initial setup is straightforward once you know what you're doing."
"The most valuable features of Zadara are its visibility and simplicity to use."
"Being able to scale on demand, and being able to get out of our security operation center, and not having to purchase hardware upfront, has drastically reduced the overhead that was required to maintain our information. We have also gained additional capabilities in terms of speed of replicating that information."
"The most valuable feature of Zadara is its ease of use and safety. Overall the solution is a complete package, it has all the features needed."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility in terms of deployment options."
"The processing is much faster with this product."
"Zadara Storage Cloud having 24/7 management saves me support and engineering costs because the storage and computing are managed by a third-party. We are able to focus more attention on the customer, which is truly our core business. Even at 1:00 AM or 2:00 AM at night, someone will answer, which is important."
"It provides very satisfactory storage performance."
"A nice feature is the immutable object storage, which can be used in conjunction with Veeam."
 

Cons

"If I had to pick something to add to the product, it would be nice if you could have more than one user account on their command center VM."
"The overall product documentation and knowledgebase articles could use some rewriting and clarification."
"It would be nice to have some kind of GUI interface implemented to give you an overall view of the system's health at a glance."
"An emphasis on security can be improved."
"It would be nice if it were possible to do the ISCSI setup that you do on Windows directly in the management GUI of StarWind."
"The response time is usually several hours after the issue occurred."
"I'd like a better UI and some limitations on "breaking it.""
"The only thing I have run into is that I did want to add more hard drives into the host, so that we could look at doing a RAID 10, and the hard drive prices were pretty expensive... that's pretty nit-picky and I don't think it has anything to do with StarWind itself. I think it's more on whomever they work with for their hardware."
"There are still some storage features that they lack. For example, other vendors implemented the auto-tiering feature a long time ago, while Zadara Storage Cloud is just coming out with this feature today. So, they are a little bit late compared to the market."
"The range of support of VMware could be better. It can support Windows, however, it cannot support other operating systems like IBM AIX. This needs to improve."
"Cost-wise, because it's a pay-per-use model, it may ultimately end up costing us more in the long run than something we developed ourselves."
"Having iSCSI over the internet using a VPN, the IPSec tunnel is really the only thing that I find missing from this product."
"Currently, when we do firmware upgrades, it sometimes causes issues and is not as nondisruptive as desired."
"The initial setup of the solution is complex."
"The management interface is more geared towards end-users rather than a service partner like ourselves, and there are improvements that can be made around that."
"Some of the features are a little bit slow to come to market."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We didn't have any issue with pricing or any of the sales process."
"There is a bit of a start-up cost. Having never used HCAs before, I was reluctant to buy it. I would suggest that you jump in and do it, as I wish I hadn't wasted so much time."
"I honestly feel that there's no one else in the market doing what they're doing for the price point that they're doing it at. That's why I asked them about investing in their company. I think that the options they're providing and the software that they have is sort of revolutionary for the price point... The total cost was $24,400."
"This was all completed at an affordable price point for an SMB, which was also a key element for an NPO."
"Our entire package was around $35,000 for everything, including three years of support."
"In terms of cost, a storage array is more expensive... For half the cost of Compellent, I got two hosts, more storage, and redundancy."
"A desired feature or service would be the ability to have a hardware subscription plan that ensures routine hardware updates in conjunction with hyper-converged software."
"It's an all in one package, making it very easy."
"It is a nice licensing model and it makes it quite simple because we just pay for what we use, and the bill that comes shows us exactly what customers are using what resources."
"If you just take the street price of Zadara Storage Cloud and look up the price or cost per hour, then you could think that Zadara Storage Cloud is extremely expensive or a solution only for enterprise use. That is not true. You need to compare the entire system. This means that you don't stop looking at just the street price, but you need to consider all the features, requirements, and costs of support as well as the extra cost that other vendors have. Other players just play with hidden, additional costs. Everything is included in Zadara Storage Cloud's licensing cost; what you get is what you pay for."
"One of the factors that ruled out several providers was cost. They were way too expensive for the volume of data that we needed and the speed at which we needed to be able to manage it. There aren't a lot of providers that can do that."
"The pricing is very competitive and the fact that they have very compelling discounts for multi-year commitments is great."
"The price of Zadara is very good and it covers everything. There is no subscription needed."
"The pricing and licensing are very simple and the cost is predictable, although, like everything that you pay for as you use, you have to be mindful of what you're using."
"For our use, it's appropriately priced and overall, it's proved to be very cost-effective against other tier-one vendors."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?
StarWind's proactive support is my favorite feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?
It's not the cheapest, however, the solution works incredibly well and is so simple to licence and maintain.
What needs improvement with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance?
There was a long delay with shipping, which we weren't expecting, but we were kept updated throughout. It wasn't made clear to us that we needed to provide our own SFP modules to connect to our inf...
What needs improvement with Zadara?
Every time they do a firmware upgrade, it should be nondestructive. Currently, when we do firmware upgrades, it sometimes causes issues and is not as nondisruptive as desired. It would be beneficia...
What is your primary use case for Zadara?
We are using Zadara for our non-critical storage needs. We use both their block storage and also their NAS capabilities.
What advice do you have for others considering Zadara?
Within certain constraints, users should use it only for their nonproduction workloads. Alternatively, for production, it should only be for noncritical workloads. I'd rate the solution seven out o...
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sears Home and Franchise Business
Time, Inc. A&E Network, The Washington Post, News UK, McGraw Hill, Gilt, Toshiba, Deloitte, VMware
Find out what your peers are saying about StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs. Zadara and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.