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StarWind Virtual SAN vs VMware vSAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
StarWind Virtual SAN offers cost-effective, high-performance data solutions, with quick deployment, reduced downtime, and excellent return on investment.
Sentiment score
4.8
VMware vSAN enhances efficiency and cost savings by reducing hardware needs and administrative time, with varied ROI perceptions.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.4
StarWind Virtual SAN offers highly responsive, 24/7 support with quick resolutions and expert guidance, ensuring a stress-free experience.
Sentiment score
5.6
VMware vSAN support is efficient and knowledgeable, but experiences vary with delays and competency issues in less critical cases.
I am not satisfied with VMware support, particularly with the reaction times, SLAs, and those kinds of issues.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
StarWind Virtual SAN excels in scalable growth with flexible, efficient handling and enhanced performance through licensing for evolving needs.
Sentiment score
6.5
VMware vSAN is valued for its scalability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of expansion despite some limitations compared to competitors.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
StarWind Virtual SAN offers reliable performance and support, excelling in uptime and data management even amidst hardware failures.
Sentiment score
5.7
VMware vSAN offers strong stability, with improvements noted, though occasional hardware-specific and network-related issues may arise.
 

Room For Improvement

StarWind Virtual SAN requires improved documentation, enhanced tools, user interface, management features, and better cross-platform and cloud integration.
VMware vSAN needs better performance, compatibility, UI, integration, scalability, stability, recovery processes, and support for varied hardware configurations.
Maybe incorporation of automation to build clusters in a more automated way would be beneficial.
 

Setup Cost

StarWind Virtual SAN offers flexible, cost-effective pricing with scalable, low-cost setup and valued support, ideal for budget-conscious enterprises.
VMware vSAN offers reliable features but faces criticism for high costs, making it less appealing for smaller businesses.
 

Valuable Features

StarWind Virtual SAN excels in high availability, seamless integration, cost-effectiveness, and performance, ensuring uninterrupted operations and scalability.
VMware vSAN is praised for its scalability, cost-effectiveness, high performance, simplicity, and integration with VMware vSphere.
A one-stack solution from one vendor is the main benefit here.
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
VMware vSAN
Ranking in HCI
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
230
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.3%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSAN is 16.4%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

MIT - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up and maintain with good performance capabilities
Feature-wise we are only waiting for the release of a "planned disaster" feature that would allow us to patch a hypervisor node without having to take the full storage offline. ATM (20220609) is still necessary, since taking a node offline without properly activating the maintenance mode on the vSAN would trigger a full sync of the vSAN nodes. This is fine and a good thing since it ensures data integrity. However, there is something in the making that would ensure integrity without a full sync after a node goes down, which, as stated above, one could "abuse" to patch (and boot = take down) the hypervisors during business hours 😁 Other than that, the thing is rock stable and chugging along without issues. We are an SMB so we "only" have around 50 VMs on our FO cluster, which is a medium load for SSDs. If you plan to go more to the "max" side of performance use, do proper testing!
Lipaz Hessel - PeerSpot reviewer
Expensive solution that requires professional services for installation and implementation
I'm still using a different solution. I only took two servers with vSAN to support one application that needs one feature that only VMware has. If not for that feature, I wouldn't touch VMware. Now, I'm looking at products like Nutanix, Silver Peak, Flexione, and FortiGate. For products that I choose, I don't need a specialist of that vendor. In VMware, I need a specialist in VMware. That's the issue I have with VMware. It's not like I can take any IT person, and they will know what to do. I need to make sure he will do the call, get the certificate and time to practice.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
53%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
Choose StarWind Virtual SAN, it is the most flexible, reliable and cheap solution.
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
While using StarWind Virtual SAN so far, I have not found anything missing. It is true that we are using it in a very strict project in which we were looking for a solution that would satisfy a str...
What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?
While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major fac...
Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We researched VMware vSAN but found HPE was a better option for us. HPE SimpliVity has ...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
vSAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Read Some Case Studies At Home Cloud CaribCINgroupDiscovery Check out the Rest of our Customer Stories Here
Find out what your peers are saying about StarWind Virtual SAN vs. VMware vSAN and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,791 professionals have used our research since 2012.