Ceph vs Gluster
Ceph
ceph.ioGluster
gluster.orgSide by side
| Figure | Ceph | Gluster |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Storage Software | 8.8 (#2) | 7.9 (#10) |
| Spec score · Distributed File System Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Deployment | Ceph runs on commodity hardware and can be installed and managed with cephadm or deployed on Kubernetes with Rook. | The documentation describes scaling capacity, performance, and availability across on-premise, public cloud, and hybrid environments. |
| Installation | The maker offers Ceph packages, container images, GitHub source clones, and tarballs; cephadm requires Python 3, systemd, and Podman or Docker. | The official install page provides source downloads and links to Ubuntu PPAs for Linux packages. |
| Intended users | The maker identifies SMEs, global organizations, academic institutions, startups, and developers as Ceph audiences. | The project says Gluster is used in production at organizations in media, healthcare, government, education, web 2.0, and financial services. |
| Support | The maker directs users to documentation, the ceph-users mailing list, community channels, and the bug tracker for help. | The project points users to consultancies for design, performance, and additional support; Red Hat says it does not support community versions. |
Plans
In their own words
Ceph
Ceph is free, open-source distributed storage software for object, block, and file storage in one system. Organizations run clusters on commodity hardware that they choose and manage. Its RGW object storage supports the S3 API and Swift-compatible applications. RBD provides thin-provisioned disk images, snapshots, writable clones, and asynchronous mirroring to remote Ceph clusters. CephFS is a POSIX-compliant distributed filesystem with snapshots, quotas, and multi-cluster mirroring. The system can replicate data across devices, racks, and geographic locations, then redistribute it following hardware or connectivity failures. For Kubernetes, the project recommends Rook to run Ceph or connect an existing cluster; its CSI driver can provision block and file volumes. Installation choices include packages, container images, source clones, and tarballs. The cephadm tool requires Python 3, systemd, and Podman or Docker. Production guidance calls for at least three monitors, two managers, three OSDs, and 10 Gb/s networking between hosts. The project publishes a stable release annually and supports each series for approximately 24 months.
Gluster
Gluster is free, open-source distributed file-system software for Linux and self-hosted deployments. It combines disk storage from multiple servers into one global namespace, with the project describing scale to several petabytes and thousands of clients. Gluster is POSIX compatible and can use on-disk filesystems supporting extended attributes. Listed capabilities include replication, quotas, geo-replication, snapshots, bitrot detection, and erasure coding. Access options include native GlusterFS, NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, and a Swift REST API. The project describes workloads such as media streaming, data analysis, and other data- and bandwidth-intensive tasks. Capacity, performance, and availability can scale across on-premise, public-cloud, and hybrid environments, using common off-the-shelf hardware. Installation resources include source downloads and Ubuntu PPAs, while documentation covers AWS deployment, SSL, and access-control lists. The project points users to consultancies for additional support and notes that Red Hat does not support community versions.