# StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews **Vendor:** StarWind, Inc. **Category:** [Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions ](https://www.g2.com/categories/hyperconverged-infrastructure-hci-solutions) **Average Rating:** 4.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 194 ## About StarWind Virtual SAN StarWind is the pioneer of hyperconvergence and storage virtualization, offering customizable SDS and turnkey (software+hardware) solutions to optimize underlying storage capacity use, ensure fault tolerance, achieve IT infrastructure resilience and increase customer ROI. StarWind has over 150 employees and caters to more than 400,000 customers worldwide. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) eliminates any need for physical storage by mirroring internal hard disks and flash between hypervisor servers. Thanks to its unique features, StarWind VSAN can be deployed on or integrated in any existing IT infrastructure. By acquiring a single solution, you will get a robust fault-tolerant storage pool, constant application uptime and endless scalability options with just 2 nodes. Key Features: - Allows to achieve high availability - Eliminates any downtime even if 1 or more nodes fail - Ties the cluster into a single storage pool - Overcomes HCLs and has no restrictions on sockets or features - Offers flexible scalability, up and out - Easy management through a web console or thick client ## StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews ### 1. Seamless Hyper-V High Availability with Clear, Repeatable VM Replication Recovery **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dylan F. | Systems Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I liked best about StarWind Virtual SAN was how well it fit into our normal Hyper-V operations. It gave us a straightforward way to keep VMs replicated to the other cluster as part of our standard deployment process, and when we needed to rebuild replication, the recovery steps were clear and repeatable. The biggest value for us was having practical high availability and easier recovery built into everyday infrastructure management. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I disliked most was the troubleshooting complexity when replication or checkpoints ran into problems. In normal operation, StarWind fit well into our Hyper-V workflow, but when something broke, recovery could involve multiple manual steps like stopping replication, removing stale cluster objects, deleting replica-side storage, and reconfiguring replication through the replica broker. That made it powerful, but not completely simple during exception handling. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN is solving our need for highly available, recoverable VM storage across our Hyper-V cluster environment. It helps us avoid having workloads depend on a single host or storage location, and it makes replication to the other cluster part of our standard VM deployment process. The business benefit is better uptime protection, more consistent resilience across systems, and faster recovery when replication or host issues occur, because we can re-establish protection through a documented process rather than rebuilding services from scratch. ### 2. StarWind Virtual SAN: Synchronized NVMe Storage with Easy Web-Based Management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Francesco I. | IT Administrator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We implemented StarWind Virtual SAN in our environment, starting with VMware and later transitioning to Proxmox. This setup let us fully leverage our servers’ NVMe storage while keeping it synchronized across just two nodes. After moving to Proxmox, we also benefited from the free version’s web-based management interface, which is particularly helpful if you’d rather not manage volume creation through PowerShell. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** With the free version, there’s no web GUI for management when running it as a VMware virtual machine. Support is handled through the community forum, which is understandable and expected for a free product. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Most other VSAN products require a three-node cluster, while StarWind allowed us to build a two-node cluster with full synchronization. ### 3. Cost-Effective vSAN Solution with Outstanding Support **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patrick D. | Director, Corporate Technology, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2020 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I find StarWind Virtual SAN to be a cheaper solution as a vSAN compared to VMware. I really like the support; they are simply great with fast responses and will work through an issue non-stop. During the initial setup, which was of medium difficulty, the support was very helpful and guided me until completion. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** There is nothing really to answer here. They are a great software with great support. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN provides a cheaper VSAN solution than VMware. The support team is great with fast responses and non-stop problem-solving, making the initial setup manageable. ### 4. Enterprise-Grade High Availability Without Traditional SAN Complexity **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Harish D. | Infrastructure support engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 25, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I like best about StarWind Virtual SAN is how it delivers enterprise-grade high availability without the cost and complexity of traditional SANs. The ability to mirror storage between just two nodes and provide seamless failover for critical workloads is incredibly valuable—it gives peace of mind knowing that if one server fails, our VMs keep running without interruption. I also appreciate how straightforward it is to deploy and manage. Unlike some larger, more complex storage platforms, StarWind integrates cleanly with our existing virtualization environment, doesn’t require a separate storage specialist, and allows us to expand storage or tweak settings without complicated processes. Finally, the performance is impressive. Even with synchronous replication running between nodes, our SQL servers, file shares, and line-of-business applications run smoothly, which shows that the software is well-optimized for real-world workloads. In short, it combines reliability, simplicity, and performance in a way that truly meets our business needs. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I dislike most about StarWind Virtual SAN is that the management interface can feel a bit dated and not as intuitive as some modern platforms. Certain advanced settings are buried in menus, and it’s not always obvious what the impact of a change will be without consulting documentation or support. Another point is that alerting and monitoring could be more detailed. While the system notifies you of issues, the messages are sometimes generic, so troubleshooting requires digging into logs or external tools to understand what’s really happening. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN solves one of the biggest headaches in our environment: providing high availability and shared storage without requiring expensive SAN hardware. Before implementing it, our virtual machines were tied to local storage on individual hosts, which meant that if a server failed, workloads went down until we could manually restore them elsewhere. That created risk for critical services like file servers, SQL databases, and internal applications. With StarWind, our two-node cluster mirrors storage between hosts and presents it as shared storage to the hypervisor. This solves multiple problems at once: Eliminates single points of failure – If one node goes offline, VMs automatically fail over to the other node. Reduces downtime risk – Planned maintenance or unexpected hardware failures no longer interrupt business operations. Cuts infrastructure costs – We avoided purchasing a separate SAN, instead leveraging the hardware we already had. Simplifies management – It’s software-defined, integrates with our virtualization stack, and doesn’t require a storage specialist to maintain. ### 5. Exceptional Support Makes StarWind vSAN Stand Out **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tyler L. | IT Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 03, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Their Professional Support is what I like best. They are great! Within minutes of your StarWind vSAN going offline, they respond with immediate Support and assistance through remote sessions. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The only thing I disliked was parts of the documentation that were not detailed enough or hard to understand. The majority of the documentation was wonderful. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** By using this software, we were able to set up a two-node cluster without needing any extra storage. We successfully built a hyperconverged cluster with complete failover capabilities, relying solely on two servers. This setup now provides us with highly available storage, and our virtual machines can migrate seamlessly between the two nodes. What truly stands out is the Professional Support they provide. Whenever a node goes offline, their Support team contacts us within minutes to ensure everything is under control and to offer help in restoring the cluster. ### 6. Reliable and Cost-Effective Virtual SAN for High Availability **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tayre R. | IT support, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 12, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I appreciate most about StarWind Virtual SAN is its impressive high availability and reliability. The solution offers synchronous replication between nodes, which guarantees continuous operation without downtime, even in the event of hardware failures or during maintenance. Furthermore, the management console is user-friendly and intuitive, simplifying both storage setup and ongoing monitoring. I also value its broad compatibility with various hypervisors, which enables smooth integration in both VMware and Hyper-V environments. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** One aspect I find less appealing about StarWind Virtual SAN is that certain advanced configurations can become quite complex and require significant time, particularly when working in multi-site environments. I have also noticed that resource consumption tends to be high during replication processes or when rebuilding large volumes. Furthermore, the limited native cloud integration makes deploying in hybrid or public cloud scenarios more difficult. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN addresses storage availability and redundancy issues by offering synchronous replication and high-availability clustering. This guarantees that essential applications and virtual machines stay operational, even in the event of hardware failures or during maintenance periods. Additionally, it removes the necessity for costly physical SAN hardware, which helps lower expenses. The intuitive management console streamlines storage administration and enhances overall operational efficiency, enabling our IT team to dedicate more time to strategic initiatives instead of routine storage upkeep. ### 7. Robust, Enterprise-Ready Storage with a Clean, Wizard-Guided UI **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind Virtual SAN is a powerful and technically solid storage solution. After deploying it on Windows Server, it became clear that the product is designed with enterprise environments in mind. The architecture itself is robust, and once configured, iSCSI targets work reliably and predictably. The commercial version as i've seen from the software documentation is very easy to use and new user friendly. Every step is guided with wizards and have a very clean UI so there's not much clutter on screen. For organisation that are in nedd of shared storage and have a budget for a licensed version of this software, the StarWind Virtual SAN solution is probably the one to consider first. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Free edition of the StarWind Virtual SAN is not at all new user-friendly. Just to configure the basics of the ISCSI in my case, person, that is trying to figure out how to make a target, how to attach a volume to it will face a really hard reality of free software. To configure a free version you would at least know not the basics, but a bit advanced parts of Microsoft PowerShell, and even with some skills you will face lots of syntaxis errors, etc. As i think, if a person wants to for example show the potential of software to his boss, he will definitely face lots of troubles and spend a significant amount of time. But, even that is kind of benefit, because that is invaluable experience. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN provides a flexible way to deploy shared storage over iSCSI. It is suitable for lab environments, proof-of-concept testing, and for understanding how enterprise-grade software-defined storage solutions operate. The experience helped validate the product’s technical capabilities and overall design philosophy. ### 8. Stable, Reliable StarWind vSAN with a Generous Free Option **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 10, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Once it’s set up, StarWind vSAN is a stable, reliable alternative to a dedicated SAN server, and it also offers a generous free option. It's great for repurposing old servers for a failover cluster. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** With the free version, I found the setup a bit complicated, and the documentation was hard to locate. I assume this is better in the paid version, which provides access to a GUI for setting up and managing the software, instead of relying on a collection of PowerShell scripts. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Starwind vSAN is a software-based alternative to a dedicated SAN server that mirrors storage across multiple servers. It can help cut costs by removing the need for an additional storage server, while also improving redundancy and reducing the risk of a single point of failure that would otherwise sit in the SAN server. ### 9. Easy to deploy vSAN software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patrick S. | IT systems administrator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 10, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We were looking for a vSAN solution as an alternative for the highly priced VMware vSAN. We tested the software on older server hardware and were able to fully install and configure the solution - without the support team. The documentation was very helpful. We simulated several hardware and network issues during bigger replication scenarios and did not experience any unsolvable issues. The performance of the running VMs and replication speed was what we expected - very good. The management of the software is in a small installed software GUI which provides all the needed functions: Adding new server, adding new storage, configuring replication, replication status, overeall system status and reporting functions (eventviewer or E-Mail alerts) After the test period we bought the software for a customer of us and deployed the software on his new server hardware (two node Hyper-V cluster). The solution is now running for almost a year without any Starwind issues. We had the need for the support only once (it wasn't a Starwind issue, it was a driver issue for the Intel NICs) - the support was very fast in response and did check the replication status to make sure there were no issues. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** You need to know which license version you want to use beforehand. Sadly it's not possible to upgrade the existing license afterwards, you have to rebuy it. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since Broadcom increased the price for VMware vSAN heavily we were looking for an alternative vSAN solution. Starwind offers a cheap solution for our scenario (smaller Hyper-V clusters with two to three nodes) . We also are able to use hardware RAID (which is not possible with Microsoft Hyper-V, here only S2D is supported which is basically a software RAID). ### 10. Effortless Deployment and Reliable Performance with Outstanding Support **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Juan C. | Senior Consultant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind Virtual SAN is a product that is simple to install, easy to manage, and highly reliable. The implementation process is extremely straightforward, and many of the configuration steps are automated, making the overall deployment time very short. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The performance is truly impressive, but the advanced configuration options are limited compared to other solutions. If you don’t have experience with its console, you may have trouble finding the options you need. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN solved one of the most important challenges in our infrastructure. It allowed us to use some of our existing servers with available storage capacity as a high-availability storage system. These servers were no longer meeting the organization’s processing needs, but for storage they perform exceptionally well thanks to this Virtual SAN solution. All of this was achieved with minimal hardware investment, allowing us to keep operating costs low and under control. ### 11. migration of physical servers to virtual servers with SolarWin SAN **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tayre José R. | Analista de soporte para TI, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2023 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The StarWind Virtual SAN is a very robust and resilient product. The synchronization between nodes works well and was able to recover and synchronize without any issues when we lost power to our facility during a lightning storm **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind Virtual SAN consists of proprietary software that is not easily understandable. Given this, having a great support team and a plan is essential for the proper functioning of the system. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** With StarWind Virtual SAN, I solved the problem of physical servers, I have more space in the racks, I can make clones of the virtual servers and recover them at any time ### 12. Flexible, Cost-Effective Virtual SAN That Works with Most Hardware **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 20, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The Virtual SAN software plays well with most any hardware, and is very flexible. Keeping our costs down is always a top priority for small organizations such as ours. Virtual SAN is a much more cost effective option than new hardware by a large margin. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The learning curve to implement can be very steep. Solid knowledge and understanding of advanced networking is needed in most cases. I found myself going over the documentation very frequently. Support is also limited. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Controlling costs, and keeping existing older hardware functional in our production environment. ### 13. Affordable High Availability Platform for Virtualized Environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adam F. | Technical Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 28, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** VSAN provides enterprise grade high availability without the cost of traditional SAN hardware. The support team is fantastic and was there to guide me through the setup and with the pro active support is also available 24/7/365 in case of any issues. Ongoing day to day management is pretty simple too. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We purchase it through the SAAS model which is fine but the license renewal procedure is not the greatest as it has to go through distribution which always takes ages and we are waiting around for a manual license file which then needs to be uploaded into VSAN **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN solved the challenge of providing high availability without investing in expensive physical SAN hardware. It allowed us to use existing servers and storage, reducing capital expenditure significantly. The solution also simplified storage management and eliminated a single point of failure, improving uptime for critical workloads. As a result, we’ve achieved better resilience, cost savings, and operational efficiency. ### 14. Many features, but the GUI is missing in the free trial mode **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nikola R. | Systemadmin, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 12, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Clarity and variety of functions **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** GUI is not available in Free-Trial mode **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Many IT environments require high availability and reliable data storage, but traditional SAN systems are often expensive and complex to implement. ### 15. Free Version of StarWind Virtual SAN Provides Quality Testing and Lab Functionality **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Warehousing | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 27, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Using the free version is amazing, as it's quality, works well, is easy to setup, and... free.... **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** There's honestly not much to dislike, especially the free version. The full fat version could be cheaper, but that's true of everything :D **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** "Virtual SAN is one of those products you think should be easy, and available, and then you realize it is, but only because of StarWind. The Free version is great to test and lab with, and I've used the paid version at sites while working for an MSP, and it's just a great product." ### 16. Great enterprise ready low price entry on prem storage **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 14, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Me and my team use StarWind VSAN as a datastore for our virtual machines, we used a previous product by a competitor which changed their cost/license model and sought out a replacement. We found SW Vsan to be just a capable at a fraction of the cost enabling us to keep business operations within budget. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** response times on severity 2 incidents acoustic noise from supermicro hardware cannot install directly onto tin **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We faced significant challenges with our existing virtual machine datastores, primarily due to unexpected licensing changes from our previous vendor. The new licensing model led to a sharp increase in costs—something we hadn’t budgeted for and couldn’t justify moving forward. This prompted us to explore alternative solutions. Switching to StarWind Virtual SAN allowed us to overcome these financial and operational hurdles. Not only did it reduce our capital expenditure, but it also provided greater storage capacity and flexibility. The transition enabled us to maintain a modern, scalable infrastructure without compromising performance or reliability. ### 17. Great Shared Storage Solution, but Free vs. Paid Feels Unbalanced **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** bogdan m. | it specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 12, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** it is a best solution for shared storage **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** it is unbalanced between free version and paid version free version don't have gui and paid version is too expensive **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** it help to create a shared storage without having a real storage ### 18. If you're currently not virtualizing your SAN, you should be **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 08, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** With no physical device onsite to maintain, update, or fail, uptime is at an all time high. As well, overall costs seem to be a bit cheaper. Cheaper product, higher uptime, it's a win all around. Implementation was simple with the help of Starwind, and customer support seems to be great so far, Integration into our current system was seamless. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I'm old school and I like to have my hands on a physical device. I do realize that virtualization is definitely the way all things are going, but for me, the lack of having a physical device will take a bit of getting used to. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Any issues with failing components, maintenance etc., have been taken away from IT so that we can focus our time elsewhere. After the initial setup and configuration were complete, the time we need to spend working with the virtual SAN is minimal. So we no longer have any major downtime issues from failed components, or maintenance. ### 19. Virtual SAN Recommendations for Small Clusters **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ahmad I. | Lead Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind Virtual SAN allows me to create shared storage using existing commodity hardware. It has high availability features, flexibility in deployment options, and compatibility with major hypervisors like Proxmox **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** There is overhead if you use StarWind VSAN with Proxmox VE. You must install it as VM and do passhtrough for the disk (PCI) **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN can be installed on existing commodity hardware. Can be integrated with Proxmox VE. So, I can do live migration or HA from Proxmox ### 20. 10 Years of StarWind Experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** john p. | Senior IT Specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We have been working with StarWind for over 10 years now. We have deployed their SAN software on physical Windows storage servers, Virtual Windows Storage Servers and as a storage appliance on VMware. We have deployed it as a single box solution for small customers and 2 and 3 way HA storage clusters for VMware environments for larger customers. In every scenario we have deployed StarWind, it has been the best solution we have found to push the full potential of the hardware for maximum data throughput and IOPs, while maintaining data integrity and availability with HA. We have worked with their support staff on many occasions. They are always quick to respond and they have always come through with a solution to our issues. They are always committed to ensuring the performance and functionality of their product. I would highly recommend StarWind to anyone! A+ **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** It needs better reporting and more detailed email alerts. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We need high availability of our data to prevent costly downtime while maintaining performance requirements for our applications. ### 21. High availability made simple by StarWind Virtual SAN **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christian N. | IT Support Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I like best it's scalability, it is easy for us to add disk to our servers to increase our storage capacity. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** What I dislike is the fact that the synchronization process take too long sometimes. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solve unexpected downtime as electrical power is unstable in our country, business can continue working even if one of our host server is down. ### 22. great software at its best! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** High Availability with simplicity, which enabled us to build a resilient infrastructure just using the two physical servers we have, hardware agnostic and flexible, it integrates smoothly with our existing hardware stack, including the storage array and NAS and lastly straightforward deployment and management, the initial setup was quick, with clear guidance from the documentation **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** all was fine, up to now there is nothing a can dislike about it **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** we have combined on-prem storage and a NAS storage to build up a unified storage space for our VMs ### 23. Excellent product! WIll continue to use and recommend! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julian C. | Solution Architect, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Affordable and compatible with all the Windows Server editions and server hardware options we use at our client. Support services are responsive and competent. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I haven't determined that there are any drawbacks with vSAN yet. It has always operated as designed and intended for me and my clients. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Just like virtualisation, vSAN helps us to maximise the utility and capacity of the server hardware in our environments for over 10 years now, while giving us reliable performance and availability for our server workloads. vSAN has been easy to configure and administer and we have had almost no need to escalate any issues to technical support. It just works and keeps on working. ### 24. Effortless Setup and Outstanding Support **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Titouan P. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I really like the simplicity of installation, implementation and the support that is very responsive, it's a pleasure ! **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I'm not a default to say, the solution meets our needs **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We needed to have a redundant cluster without a huge budget and StarWind responds to that ### 25. A Cost-Effective & Reliable VMware vSAN Alternative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dara A. | IT, Information Security, and Network Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 10, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** When we decided to move to a hyperconverged setup, VMware vSAN was the obvious first choice, but once we dug into the licensing and overall costs, it just didn’t make sense. That’s when we started looking at alternatives and landed on StarWind VSAN—easily one of the best decisions we’ve made. We set up a 3-node cluster, and it’s been rock solid. No weird failures, no performance dips—just stable and reliable storage that does exactly what we need. What really stood out was the cost savings compared to VMware vSAN. Licensing alone was a huge relief, but on top of that, StarWind’s simplicity meant less time spent managing and troubleshooting, which saved us even more in the long run. Support has been another big win. They’re quick, professional, and actually know what they’re doing. No scripted responses, no useless back-and-forth—just real solutions when you need them. Right now, everything is running smoothly, and we’re already looking at expanding. If you’re on the fence about VMware vSAN and want a flexible, cost-effective alternative that just works, StarWind VSAN is absolutely worth considering. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Small installation hiccups which were resolved quickly by their support. The fact that the software is ported from Windows **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Storage high availability of our application servers together with VMware vSphere stack making a perfect cost efficient service ### 26. A great product that allows many use cases **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** JC D. | CIO, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Starwind allowed us to set up a DRP with our own hardware while achieving high availability and performance. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I have nothing to dislike, it works as it should and is cost effective. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We had to set up a DRP with our existing servers, and they were not listed on other products HCLs. Starwind allowed us to set them up and get them working easily. ### 27. Straightforward high-available storage solution **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I used StarWind Virtual SAN a few times in small and lab environments, and it's been a straightforward software-defined storage option. The setup process is easy, performance is good and it works well for creating highly available storage without needing dedicated SAN hardware. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Pricing is not on the website, requires sales contact. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** High-available storage solution on own hardware / no hardware vendor lock-in ### 28. Very Responsive and Flexible to Our Needs **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 05, 2026 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Very responsive and flexible to accommodate our needs. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** My experience has been short so I have nothing negative to offer. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hardware support on aging servers in our Houston Data Center. ### 29. Stanwind Virtual SAN: High-Speed Transfer and Cost-Effective Storage Solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ridda J. | SOC Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 25, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** It is very easy to manage and as there is no need to manage hardware so ongoing maintenance cost is almost zero and we can manage it by ourselves. Support is very good and available all the time. Installation is very smooth and you can easily configure the cluster environment. If you need high speed data transfer and zero latency then it can be used with SSD to achieve faster results. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The only limitation is that there is less documentation publicly available and in case you want to learn or experience it before purchasing it then you don’t have a trial version with all features. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Stanwind Virtual SAN is a very good and cheap solution that will provide high-speed data transfer and stable database virtual SAN storage. We used this solution to manage our databases and to reduce the overall cost of storage needs. It will also save hardware costs and it is very easy to manage while running in cluster data replication between nodes was almost real-time so you have data availability all the time. ### 30. Amazing product with great stability and performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pēteris S. | Acting Head of IT, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 10, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind vSAN has provided our organization with a more reliable, scalable, and cost-effective storage solution that not only meets our current needs but also positions us for future growth. It has improved performance, reduced complexity, and ensured the high availability of our critical workloads, ultimately contributing to the overall efficiency and agility of our IT operations. A very big bonus is that the solution is not tied to specific hardware, therefore it offers a lot of flexibility in the long run. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** One key area is the PowerShell documentation, which could be much more detailed. Currently, it’s somewhat lacking, particularly when it comes to advanced configurations or troubleshooting. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind vSAN has significantly improved our infrastructure. Its High Availability ensures continuous uptime with automatic failover, minimizing downtime and keeping critical applications running smoothly. The performance with SSD drives is exceptional, making virtual machines and workloads much more responsive. The scalability of StarWind vSAN allows us to easily expand storage as needed without major hardware costs, offering flexibility as our needs grow. It also leverages existing hardware, reducing infrastructure costs while maintaining performance. Overall, StarWind vSAN has optimized our performance, reduced costs, and provided reliable data protection. ### 31. StarWind Virtual SAN for reliable and fast data transfer solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aysha j. | IT Security & Risk management, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Starwind Virtual SAN is a very cost-effective solution especially in terms of licensing, while it will also boost the database performance by providing a high-speed data transfer rate. it can easily scale as per need and while running it in the cluster you have the assurance of 100% uptime. when we used it with SSD the data transfer speed was very impressive and latency for our user application was very low which was very beneficial for us. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** There were some issues during installation but they were not major issues you can resolve them by contacting support and they will immediately resolve your issues. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have an application that users use daily. We experienced high latency for users due to slow data transfer in the backend. We also pay a very high cost for data storage, so we are looking for a solution that will be cost-effective in terms of licenses and easily scaleable. In the meantime, it will also provide a high data transfer rate to reduce latency. All these issues were resolved after we evaluated and used the StarWind virtual SAN. ### 32. A Solid Option for Homologation and Lab Environments **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Networking | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 29, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The ability to create a shared storage environment without physical SAN hardware, enabling cost-effective testing of failover and high availability scenarios. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The lack of a full-featured trial at the time made it harder to evaluate all capabilities. Also, the free version required manual configuration via PowerShell, which increases the learning curve for less experienced users. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN allowed me to simulate shared storage for a Hyper-V cluster without requiring expensive SAN hardware. I used it to build a lab environment to validate solutions and plan change procedures for production environments using clustered virtualization. This approach helped ensure safer rollouts by testing high availability and failover scenarios beforehand. ### 33. StarWind Virtual SAN: A flexible and reliable option for SAN **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Muhammad w. | Manager IT Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We used trial and licensed verions both, before purchasing it we use the trial version and we found solution is very reliable and stable and with its server deployment structure it is very easy to manage the solution as per your needs. In the paid version, there is a good option as it offers server-based licenses which are very cost-effective, on top of that we achieve high-speed performance results. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** In the trial version there is a limitation of all features along with that there is no detail documentation available for the deployment of the trial version so if you want to use and get hands-on experience on a trial version before using the live environment than you might face difficulties. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our application response for the user is very slow because of low-speed data transfer from storage to application, Starwind provide high-speed results interm of storage especially when we use SSD drivers than it will easily manage workload while haveing it deployed in HA model it ensures up-time of database. You can easily minimize your downtime for critical applications. That why now our application and storage are both stable and reliable while using Starwind SAN storage. ### 34. Simple, Stable, and Highly Recommended **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 04, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** StarWind Virtual SAN exceeded my expectations. It delivers a powerful software-defined storage experience that's remarkably simple to deploy and manage. The interface is intuitive, and the overall performance has been consistently reliable. Whether for SMBs or larger environments seeking cost-effective high availability, StarWind is a smart choice. I definitely recommend it for organizations looking for a solid virtual SAN solution without added complexity **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I don't have any negative points to mention—StarWind Virtual SAN has fully met my expectations so far. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN is helping us reduce infrastructure costs while maintaining high availability and performance. It provides an excellent technical and financial alternative to VMware vSAN, with a simpler licensing model and lower resource requirements ### 35. Enterprise level software, Mom n Pop (The good way) of service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chris O. | IT Consultant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The company was very engaging and supportive as soon as I hit the trial. Making sure to let me know i had help around the corner. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The price wasn't cost effective for the current application. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was trying to resolve a storage retention issue regarding a loc nvms ### 36. StarWind Virtual SAN for stable and Cost effective database environments **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Muhammad R. | IT Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 28, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The software is very reliable and especially when we run and use it in a cluster of 2 nodes, the sync speed of data is very fast almost in real-time so there is no heartbeat issue we faced. In case of any failure you have a complete real-time backup of the solution and the data transfer speed is very high so you can easily manage large databases without any issue. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The free version of the solution has very limited features. Also, there Is no detailed documentation available so if anyone wants to explore the solution before acquiring the product then it is difficult to learn everything about the solution. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our issue is latency during data replication and data transfer between nodes and applications, after the Starwind we have very low latency rate and our overall uptime for databases is almost 100%, as data sync between nodes is very fast so solution is very reliable for us. ### 37. The Best Virtual SAN Solution **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ahmed H. | Senior Security System Engineer (ELV Systems), Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Create virtual storag pool and make it shared for all hosts **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Deficult installation but after that easy to use and handle **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our use case is for an oil and gas site with 200 ATEX cameras and 30 administrative buildings that have 400 indoor and outdoor cameras. All of the cameras are connected to a VLAN switch in each area. All of the switches are connected to the core switch in the data center through a fibre network between buildings. We add all cameras to management servers and they are divided to recording servers. There are 30 cameras for each recording server. We create a Microsoft failover cluster to achieve redundancy between management servers. Another use case is to create a storage pool (4TB) to store SQL DB to achieve database stability and make it reachable to each server. ### 38. Efficient & Reliable Software Defined VSAN **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Charles o. | Tech Support Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** I love that is it's easy to setup and that it reduces hardware foot print in server rooms. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Nothing really, however people should note that it's inherently dependent on one's network performance since it mirrors data over the network. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Provided virtual VSAN solution for our environment. With this we have found no need to acquire new hardware storage cos the solution leverages existing server infrastructure. ### 39. Integration of Starwind VSAN as HA in Proxmox **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wuilliams H. | Soporte Tecnico IT, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 03, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The feature I have found most valuable in VSAN is its high availability capability. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** While the tool works well in its current configuration, it would be very beneficial to allow greater ease and flexibility in adding new nodes to the cluster without complications, especially in growing environments. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since I started using VSAN to create high availability servers in my Proxmox environment, even referring to the free version, the services we provide in the company have achieved a high percentage of effectiveness throughout the year, significantly reducing downtime due to hardware issues with any server in the cluster. This has resulted in a notable improvement in the services we offer, and as a company that provides security in various areas, the difference between before and after is enormous. ### 40. VP of IT, LLC initial StarWind VSAN product review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lawrence F. | Sr. Consultant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 04, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Ease of download and integration/implementation of the StarWind Virtual VSAN went without a hitch. Follow up email with serial number and offer for product support quick. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Possible scalability for large scale implementations still being reviewed for completeness of design. Success stories on Starwind site could be flushed out with additional scaling methodologies to support failover requirements. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simple network storage solution for the cost/effort. ### 41. Great product with great support **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vladimir S. | Tehnical Pre-Sales, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 23, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Great product for a fair price, with great support and documentation. Deployed for over 5 year with great customer feedback, **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Not that well known in my contry, not that many Admins know how to use it. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Perpetual license, easy to use, and faired priced. ### 42. StarWind Virtual SAN Database Solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zeeshan A. | IT Secops Analyst, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 06, 2025 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The product interface is user-friendly and it is easy to manage most importantly database replication is very fast which will provide stability to our applications. it is easy to manage daily operations on the interface and in case of connectivity issues troubleshooting is very easy and can resolve issues easily. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** In HA deployment it is complex and it is not very easy. it will take time to make sure that your HA deployment is up and smooth. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have multiple applications running and before this we aleays found issue in data transfers and stability of all databases. But Starwind provide better and fast replication rate which ensures database stability that's why we use it for all of our databases, ### 43. Great Sync Software for Hyperconverged Environments **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eren C. | Senior IT-Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2022 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** We run StarWind in our HC Cluster. - We like the reliablility of the software. - In a cluster of 2 nodes, never a sync issue, stable heartbeat - Fast sync syncronizes data after a node reboot, no need for full sync - Full utilization of interfaces, in our case 2x 25GBit Fiber connection, which results in 750MB/s Fileserver VM Performance - Fantastic forum and mail support, even without support license **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** - Setup with a free-license StarWind Management Console goes via PowerShell Templates but the documentation online is mainly with the licensed version. This was not like that before so StarWind changed the licensing options, which means the free version is basically only for monitoring. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind is solving our HC storage in a 2 node cluster. We mainly focus on sync performance and low latency and that's where StarWind shines. 384 days of uptime without any issues. ### 44. Solid and scalable solution, but documentation is decidedly lacking **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Games | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** VSAN is very scalable, starting with one node and about as little storage as you want. Scaling up and out can be done from the start, or later on, which gives VSAN a huge amount of flexibility for use cases. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Documentation is lacking for the scripted install and configuration. If you're using the scripts to configure and install, be prepared for a lot of digging, forum searching, forum posting, and trial and error. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Moving storage to one platform, and being able to boot multiple servers from the VSAN system. Storage has been all over the place, and needed to be more flexible than it currently is. This will bring more reliability, higher storage availability, and more storage flexibility. ### 45. StarWind Virtual SAN is cost-effective and integrates well with vSphere. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kader B. | Infrastructure Architect, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The most helpful aspect of StarWind Virtual SAN is its ability to extend the life of existing hardware while reducing costs. Here are the key upsides of using StarWind Virtual SAN: Cost-Effective Repurposing of Old Servers: StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to repurpose older servers with significant disk capacity, transforming them into valuable resources rather than letting them go to waste. This significantly cuts down on hardware expenses, aligning with both budgetary constraints and sustainability goals. Seamless Integration with vSphere: The solution integrates effortlessly with vSphere, enabling efficient storage virtualization within a three-node cluster. This integration supports a wide range of environments, from proof of concept (POC) setups to full production workloads, providing the flexibility and scalability needed for diverse IT needs. Linux-Based Operation Reduces Licensing Costs: Running on CentOS Linux instead of a Windows-based system further reduces costs by eliminating the need for additional software licenses. This makes StarWind Virtual SAN not only economical but also suitable for organizations looking to optimize their IT infrastructure without incurring high software expenses. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Complex Setup and Configuration: The initial setup and configuration, especially with the free version, require a deep understanding of vSphere and virtualization concepts. This complexity can be a barrier for organizations without in-house expertise, leading to longer deployment times and potential errors during implementation. CentOS End of Life (EOL) Risk: StarWind Virtual SAN runs on CentOS, which has reached its end of life. This presents a significant downside as it introduces potential security vulnerabilities and the need for future migration to a supported Linux distribution. This uncertainty could impact system stability and require additional resources to manage the transition. Limited Out-of-the-Box Usability: Unlike some other virtualization solutions, StarWind Virtual SAN does not offer a simple, plug-and-play experience. It requires careful planning, and customization, and may involve a steep learning curve, particularly for smaller teams or those without specialized IT skills. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN solves the problem of repurposing old servers by turning them into efficient storage resources, significantly cutting hardware costs and reducing licensing expenses. This benefits us by maximizing our existing hardware investment and aligning with our sustainability goals, all while integrating seamlessly with vSphere for flexible and scalable storage solutions. ### 46. Great Product, Excellent Customer Service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kyle B. | Systems Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 22, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Starwind's customer service is exceptional. From day one, their support team has been responsive, knowledgeable, and proactive. They quickly address issues, minimizing downtime, and offer tailored solutions that fit our specific needs. The team's professionalism and courtesy make even complex problems manageable. Extensive documentation and resources further enhance our experience. Starwind's commitment to customer satisfaction is evident in every interaction, making their support truly outstanding. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** While StarWind Virtual SAN offers many advantages, one area of improvement could be its initial setup and configuration, which can be somewhat complex for users unfamiliar with virtualized storage solutions. Additionally, while the documentation is comprehensive, it can sometimes be challenging to navigate for specific troubleshooting needs. Enhanced, more intuitive user interfaces and more streamlined setup processes would significantly improve the overall user experience. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** StarWind Virtual SAN has had a significantly positive impact on our overall business objectives, particularly in terms of ROI. By virtualizing our storage infrastructure, we have reduced our capital expenditure on physical SAN hardware by approximately 40%, leading to substantial cost savings. Operational efficiency has improved by 30% due to reduced maintenance and faster provisioning of storage resources. This solution has also enhanced our data availability and resilience, resulting in a 25% reduction in downtime and associated costs. These improvements have not only streamlined our IT operations but also allowed us to allocate resources more effectively toward strategic initiatives, driving overall business growth and profitability. ### 47. Exploring Starwind VSAN as an iscsi Server Solution **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consulting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** There are various reasons which lead us to pick Starwind VSAN for our implementation. Firstly, because it offers a robust iscsi-based virtual server which is software-defined and comes at the fraction of the cost, as compared to buying an expensive hardware Storage Area Network (SAN). Secondly, because it is compatible with KVM. We do implementations based on the KVM hypervisor besides HyperV and VMware, and Starwind VSAN is among a limited number of platforms which offer native support for KVM . Last but not least, because it offers a fully functional trial license to test the product in a lab environment in a variety of deployment options, including both Linux-based virtual appliance and Windows-based executable. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** The Starwind VSAN solution is versatile and offers broad support of different hypervisors and deployment formats. During our evaluation in our on-premises setup, we did not find any significant flaws. One point for improvement is to increase the performance capabilities of the Windows-based executable, as compared to its Linux Controller Virtual Machine (CVM) equivalent. Another point for improvement would be to incorporate a more granular Role-based access control system (RBAC) natively inside the software to allow for more granular administration. Yet another point would be to achieve tighter integration and automation with cloud-based platforms, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have utilized Starwind Virtual SAN (VSAN) as an iscsi server alternative in a Hyper-V based installation. We ran a 30-day trial license in a lab environment. The Starwind VSAN solution was used as a software-defined iSCI storage solution for an imminent SQL Server cluster installation. This allowed us for a fairly quick integration solution for our SQL Server Cluster shared disk requirements, without the need to invest in a high-cost Storage Area Network (SAN) solution. ### 48. Starwind virtual SAN **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marian L. | Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Is a very reliable storage solution, many features. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Actually there is nothing to dislike. I implemented over 5 years ago, no issued so far. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hyper-V converged with 2 nodes using as storage Starvin Virtual SAN ### 49. StarWinds has the best support! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matt C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 14, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Overall it was a great experience dealing with the various StarWind team members from the pre-sales all the way through to implementation. This was our first experience with a hyperconverged failover cluster and the team at StarWinds made it easy for us. Before making the choice we were weighing out all the cluster options and everything kept coming back to StarWinds. I'm glad it did as we definitely feel we made the right choice. We test live failovers every week and so far everything has been running smooth without anything unexpected. A special thank you to Hanna from the implementation team who was not only friendly and extremely patient through the process but also very knowledgeable. **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** Pricing is a bit high but the support is worth it. It's really hard to point out any other negatives. I do think the licensing and support pricing structure could have been laid out a little simpler and then pricing could have been less of course but the truth is the support really does make up for the cost in our opinion. We did decide to go with 3 years of 24/7 support due to implementation in a critical communications center, but feel like we won't need to use them for much at all since the products just works. Because of this the pricing could have been better especially with us purchasing all 3 years at once. **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** We built a 2 server hyper-V failover cluster. We build typical servers like we normally would with NVME drives and plenty of storage. This software works hand in hand with Microsoft hyper-v failover manager for a seamless setup that has not given us any issues since implementation. Live failovers are tested every week and the customer does not even notice when the failovers are tested. The performance is exceptional and everything works as expected. We went ahead and got the 3 year 24/7 support contract since it's a critical customer. While the price is a bit steep this process and product has given us a lot of peace of mind that the servers will continue running even if one of the physical hosts go down. ### 50. Hyperconverge software system fantastic **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luca C. | Senior Back Office, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 27, 2024 **What do you like best about StarWind Virtual SAN?** This cloud solution can eliminates any need for physical shared storage by mirroring internal hard disks. It's has many features and it works very well. It's a great success for our customers. Top Job!! **What do you dislike about StarWind Virtual SAN?** maybe the maintenance a little expansive **What problems is StarWind Virtual SAN solving and how is that benefiting you?** easy management ## StarWind Virtual SAN Discussions - [Is StarWind Free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-starwind-free) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What is virtual SAN in Hyper-V?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-virtual-san-in-hyper-v) - 1 comment - [How does StarWind virtual SAN work?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-does-starwind-virtual-san-work) - 1 comment - [View StarWind Virtual SAN pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/starwind-virtual-san/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+12%3A07%3A17+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=5f39d7f1-137a-4806-822d-dad9efab6850&secure%5Btoken%5D=7f597fd3f8a02c130a92f4254e957d9933622c991f4fdc4545699757f3fe8a1a&format=llm_user) ## StarWind Virtual SAN Integrations - [Microsoft Windows Server 2019 with HyperV](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-windows-server-2019-with-hyperv/reviews) - [Proxmox VE](https://www.g2.com/products/proxmox-ve/reviews) - [VMware vSphere](https://www.g2.com/products/vmware-vsphere/reviews) - [Windows Server](https://www.g2.com/products/terracloudx-windows-server/reviews) - [Windows Server](https://www.g2.com/products/tidal-media-inc-windows-server/reviews) ## StarWind Virtual SAN Features **Core Functions** - Server Virtualization - Storage Virtualization - Network Virtualization **General Functionality** - Dynamic Scaling - High Availability - Data Security - Backup and Recovery **Configuration** - Appliance Independence - Hardware Integration **Agentic AI - Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions** - Autonomous Task Execution - Adaptive Learning - Decision Making ## Top StarWind Virtual SAN Alternatives - [Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)](https://www.g2.com/products/nutanix-cloud-infrastructure-nci/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (281 reviews) - [Scale Computing Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/scale-computing-platform/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (265 reviews) - [Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/acronis-cyber-protect-cloud/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (1,263 reviews)