No. 6 of 28 ·Software-Defined Storage Software

StarWind Virtual SAN

Web · Windows · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

StarWind Virtual SAN is ranked #6 of 28 in software-defined storage software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan. A free trial is offered.

StarWind Virtual SAN plans and pricing

All plans

Virtual SAN Free Free self-supported · functionality limitations · Linux KVM version may have no limitations starwindsoftware.com · 1 Oct 2026

Enterprise Not published per-node licensing · minimum two nodes · unlimited nodes · no storage-capacity limits · asynchronous replication available starwindsoftware.com · 1 Oct 2026

Datacenter Not published single site/datacenter · unlimited nodes · unlimited capacity · asynchronous replication starwindsoftware.com · 1 Oct 2026

Compared on software-defined storage software

Free plan: Yes
Storage protocols: iSCSI, SMB3, NFSv4.1, NVMe-oF, iSER

Best StarWind Virtual SAN alternatives

See all 12

Two bars JuiceFS Free tier No. 1Free6.6 Two bars MinIO AIStor Free tier No. 2Free6.6 Two bars MooseFS Free tier No. 3Free6.6 Two bars SeaweedFS Free tier No. 4$1.67/mo6.6 One bar Ceph Free tier No. 5Free6.5 One bar VMware Workstation Pro Free tier No. 7Free6.5

The record

Purpose: StarWind Virtual SAN is software that replaces physical shared SAN storage and targets Enterprise ROBO, SMB and Edge environments.
High availability: StarWind says Virtual SAN provides fault tolerance and high availability starting with two nodes.
Protocols: The product supports iSCSI, SMB3, NFS v4.1, VVols iSCSI, NVMe over Fabrics and iSER.
Deployment: It can run as Windows-native software in a Hyper-V partition or as a Linux-based virtual machine on a chosen hypervisor.
Management: Hardware and software resources are monitored and managed through an HTML5 console.
Self-healing: StarWind lists ZFS self-healing, AI-powered telemetry and call-home systems as automated reliability features.
Hypervisors: 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.
Free-edition limit: The free-versus-paid comparison lists the free edition's web UI as KVM only, while the paid edition lists KVM, Hyper-V and ESXi.
Support: VSAN Free is self-supported or community-supported through StarWind Forums, while the paid edition includes deployment, configuration, integration and responsive technical support.
Trial: The full-force StarWind VSAN free trial lasts 30 trial days.
Pricing model: StarWind states that pricing scales with usable storage capacity and that the quoted license includes all features, professional technical support and assisted deployment.
Security advisories: StarWind publishes security advisories, including September 2026 advisories for Mbed TLS, rsyslog and an OpenZFS vulnerability in StarWind products.
Target users: StarWind says Virtual SAN is designed and priced for SMB, ROBO and Edge deployments.
Product history: StarWind says its Native SAN product was released in 2011 and later rebranded to Virtual SAN.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Software-Defined Storage Software in 2026#6 of 28
Best Storage Management Software in 2026#5 of 26

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Sources

starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/free-starwind-vsan-trial· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/system-requirements· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/vsan-free-vs-paid· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-free· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/pricing· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/security/· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/company· checked 1 Oct 2026
starwindsoftware.com/platform-as-a-service-%28paas%29-and-fi· checked 1 Oct 2026