SeaweedFS vs StarWind Virtual SAN
SeaweedFS
seaweedfs.comStarWind Virtual SAN
starwindsoftware.comSide by side
| Figure | SeaweedFS | StarWind Virtual SAN |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.67/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 5 |
| Spec score · Software-Defined Storage Software | 8.0 (#9) | 8.4 (#6) |
| Deployment | The deployment guide offers an official repository binary and the container image chrislusf/seaweedfs-enterprise. | It can run as Windows-native software in a Hyper-V partition or as a Linux-based virtual machine on a chosen hypervisor. |
| Protocols | The cluster supports S3, POSIX mounts, HDFS-compatible access, an Iceberg REST catalog, and WebDAV. | The product supports iSCSI, SMB3, NFS v4.1, VVols iSCSI, NVMe over Fabrics and iSER. |
| Support | Enterprise support is optional and purchased separately from the capacity license; published support channels and response targets vary by plan. | VSAN Free is self-supported or community-supported through StarWind Forums, while the paid edition includes deployment, configuration, integration and responsive technical support. |
| What it does | SeaweedFS is a distributed storage system serving S3 objects, Iceberg tables, and POSIX files from one cluster. | StarWind Virtual SAN is software-defined storage that replaces physical shared SAN hardware by pooling and mirroring internal disks and flash between virtualization hosts. |
Plans
SeaweedFS
- Community supportFree
- Development & testingFree
- Capacity license — Monthly$2 a month
- Capacity license — Yearly$20 a year
- Essential support$2,000 a year
- Small Production support$5,000 a year
- Growth support$15,000 a year
- Standard support$40,000 a year
- Critical support$85,000 a year
- Enterprise 5 PB+Priced on request
StarWind Virtual SAN
- StarWind Virtual SAN FreeFree
- Virtual SAN FreeFree
- DatacenterPriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- StarWind Virtual SANPriced on request
In their own words
SeaweedFS
SeaweedFS is a distributed storage system that serves S3 objects, Iceberg tables, and POSIX files from one cluster. It supports S3, POSIX mounts, HDFS-compatible access, an Iceberg REST catalog, and WebDAV. Its built-in Iceberg catalog supports queries with Spark, Trino, Dremio, and DuckDB. The product describes scaling from gigabytes to petabytes and supporting billions of files. Development and testing under 25 TB are free, but production deployments require a paid license regardless of size. Monthly capacity licensing is $2 a month, based on used storage including replication or erasure-coding overhead; yearly licensing is $20 a year. Enterprise features include deleted-file recovery within a configurable retention window, point-in-time restoration, repair of missing or corrupted erasure-coding shards, and OIDC sign-in with role mapping. The free 25 TB trial limits deleted-file recovery retention to one hour. Enterprise support is optional and priced separately from capacity licensing. Community support is free and has no guaranteed response time. SeaweedFS is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with API access and self-hosted deployment.
StarWind Virtual SAN
StarWind Virtual SAN is software designed to replace physical shared SAN storage in SMB, ROBO, and Edge environments. It provides fault tolerance and high availability starting with two nodes, and supports iSCSI, SMB3, NFS v4.1, VVols iSCSI, NVMe over Fabrics, and iSER. Deployment options include Windows-native software in a Hyper-V partition or a Linux-based virtual machine on a chosen hypervisor. An HTML5 console is used to monitor and manage hardware and software resources. Listed reliability features include ZFS self-healing, AI-powered telemetry, and call-home systems. Supported hypervisor versions include VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0 or later, Windows Server Hyper-V 2019 or later, oVirt/OLVM/RHV 4.4 or later, Proxmox VE 9.1 or later, and XCP-ng 8.3 or later. The free edition is self- or community-supported, and its comparison lists web UI support for KVM only; paid editions list KVM, Hyper-V, and ESXi. A 30-day trial is available, while paid pricing is on request.