Gluster vs MooseFS
Gluster
gluster.orgMooseFS
moosefs.comSide by side
| Figure | Gluster | MooseFS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Storage Software | 7.9 (#10) | 8.5 (#5) |
| Spec score · Distributed File System Software | 7.8 (#13) | 8.4 (#4) |
| Security | Gluster documentation includes an SSL guide and access-control-list administration guidance. | MooseFS 5 adds cluster-wide authentication that gates data access through the master and prevents storage-layer bypass of export permissions. |
| Support | The project points users to consultancies for design, performance, and additional support; Red Hat says it does not support community versions. | Commercial Pro includes 24/7 support from the developers, while Community support is community-driven discussion and documentation. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
MooseFS
MooseFS is distributed storage software that combines data held across multiple servers into one resource. It can be mounted as a POSIX filesystem, used as a block device, or accessed through the C API. Reads and writes run across multiple chunkservers, so adding servers can increase both storage capacity and bandwidth. MooseFS replicates data chunks and restores missing copies after disk or node loss. The Community edition is open source under GPLv2, with one active master and single-parity erasure coding. Personal provides the full Pro feature set for non-commercial use, free up to 20 TiB of used raw space; beyond that, the listed price is €9 as a one-time purchase for each TiB. Pro adds synchronized master failover and support for clusters spanning locations. MooseFS 5 adds cluster-wide authentication. Official packages are offered for Linux distributions, FreeBSD, Raspberry Pi OS, and macOS; macOS requires macFUSE and macOS 12 or later. The native Windows client is included with Pro.