TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Red Hat OpenShift vs. Scale Computing Platform vs. XenServer

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Red Hat OpenShift

    Score9.1 out of 10
    N/AOpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

    $0.08

    per hour

    Scale Computing Platform

    Score9.3 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Scale Computing offers edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions for customers around the globe. Scale Computing HyperCore software promises to eliminate traditional virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage, replacing these with a fully integrated, highly available system for running applications. The vendor says that, using patented HyperCore™ technology, the SC//HyperCore self-healing platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and…

    $249

    per year per core

    XenServer

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/AXenServer (formerly Citrix Hypervisor) is a virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.N/A
    Pricing
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Standard
    $249
    per year per core
    Professional
    $312
    per year per core
    Professional Essentials
    $5,600
    one-time fee
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Pricing shown in U.S. Dollar. Pricing for other regions available on request.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Considered Multiple Products
    Red Hat
    No answer on this topic
    Scale Computing
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    As mentioned previously, not having to worry about the compatibility between your hardware, hypervisor, and VM OS is a great help. On the downside, there is less ability to get deep in the weeds with your own system. Much of the Scale HyperCore OS is locked down intentionally, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    Easier to use, better performance.
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    HC3 blows XenServer out of the water. The backup process is so much easier, the interface is much easier to follow, and Scale has a built-in portal in the background to remote in and help with issues.
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    We have built out several test environments and have demoed all of these products and we were not able to build out or purchase an environment that performed as well or had the features as Scale HC3 for the same investment.
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    Citrix was our oldest virtual environment and it was tired when we retired it fully. But when testing newer systems it would have taken more time and was not as easily adaptable to grow our system. Hyper-V may be the basic MS virtual environment but the configuration of LUNs …
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    We previously used XenServer and had constant issues with reliability and management of the VMs. It was a pain dealing with three different entities when an issue came up. We had the server vendor, Citrix, and the NAS vendor. When there was an incompatibility issue or an issue …
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    We've used VMWare and Citrix in the past. We recently attended a GMIS conference in South Carolina and enjoyed the overall simplicity of the product. Performance is up by about 30% over Citrix Xen-Server and the cost of the products is significantly less. We had purchased 5 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    For us, the ease of use, affordability and support from Scale are the main reasons we chose to go with them.
    Incentivized
    Chose Scale Computing Platform
    I have experience with VMware and XenServer. These products were overkill and quite a bit pricey for the very basic functionality we needed.
    Incentivized
    Cloud Software Group
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    315 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    75 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    268 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    74 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    322 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    75 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    218 Answers
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    73 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    90%
    Implementation went as expected
    255 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    69 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Platform-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Platform-as-a-Service features of Red Hat OpenShift and Scale Computing Platform and XenServer
    Feature
    Red Hat OpenShift
    8.4
    324 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Scale Computing Platform
    -
    Ratings
    XenServer
    -
    Ratings
    Ease of building user interfaces8.6275 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scalability9.3309 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform management overhead8.3290 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow engine capability8.6262 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform access control8.3291 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Services-enabled integration8.5273 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Development environment creation8.6283 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Development environment replication8.3270 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Issue monitoring and notification7.9284 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Issue recovery8.1279 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Upgrades and platform fixes8.5285 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Red Hat OpenShift and Scale Computing Platform and XenServer
    Feature
    Red Hat OpenShift
    -
    Ratings
    Scale Computing Platform
    -
    Ratings
    XenServer
    7.6
    12 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings00 Ratings7.011 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings00 Ratings7.012 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings00 Ratings8.012 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Small Businesses
    IBM Cloud Foundry
    Score8.5 out of 10
    StarWind HCA
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Cloud Private
    Score9.6 out of 10
    StarWind HCA
    Score8.6 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (339 ratings)
    9.7
    (245 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.3
    (26 ratings)
    9.4
    (22 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (10 ratings)
    7.5
    (40 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (125 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.0
    (9 ratings)
    9.1
    (245 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    2.7
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Red Hat OpenShiftScale Computing PlatformXenServer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Red Hat
    Red Hat OpenShift, despite its complexity and overhead, remains the most complete and enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform available. It excels in research projects like ours, where we need robust CI/CD, GPU scheduling, and tight integration with tools like Jupyter, OpenDataHub, and Quiskit. Its security, scalability, and operator ecosystem make it ideal for experimental and production-grade AI workloads. However, for simpler general hosting tasks—such as serving static websites or lightweight backend services—we find traditional VMs, Docker, or LXD more practical and resource-efficient. Red Hat OpenShift shines in complex, container-native workflows, but can be overkill for basic infrastructure needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Scale is best suited to environments that do not have excessive external or proprietary peripherals. Integrating with tape drive backups or robot tape libraries can be problematic. The most effective use of Scale systems is for companies running multiple instances of the same operating system. The hypervisor's code/file-sharing nature does an excellent job managing new instances while keeping the increase in storage to a minimum.
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    It can be really helpful & useful if we are using Citrix Hypervisor with other provisioning tools. Here are some specific scenarios where Citrix Hypervisor (formerly Citrix XenServer) is well-suited: Server Consolidation, Virtual Desktops, Disaster Recovery, Development & Testing Environments. On the other hand, there are some scenarios where Citrix Hypervisor may be less appropriate: Small-scale Deployments, Highly Heterogeneous Environments, and Limited Virtualization Requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Red Hat
    • We had a few microservices that dealt with notifications and alerts. We used OpenShift to deploy these microservices, which handle and deliver notifications using publish-subscribe models.
    • We had to expose an API to consumers via MTLS, which was implemented using Server secret integration in OpenShift. We were then able to deploy the APIs on OpenShift with API security.
    • We integrated Splunk with OpenShift to view the logs of our applications and gain real-time insights into usage, as well as provide high availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    • Simplicity - I do not have to create storage buckets or micromanage anything.
    • Efficiency - Lower power use since moving to a hyperconverged environment.
    • Scalability - Adding additional hardware is easy, and increasing things like the amount of RAM or number of cores is easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • Citrix hypervisor does price very well for small organizations. It is free.
    • Since this product is open source it does not have any type of vendor lockdown issues.
    • Allows live migration of VM's so you can keep systems up and running when changes are needed to the hardware in the background.
    • The GUI management tools are quite easy to learn.
    • Has Snapshot capability which is a great way to protect against malware as well as do risk-free upgrades.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Red Hat
    • I wouldn't necessarily say there is look everyday technology transform. I can see a trend wherein Red Hat OpenShift is adopting all the new technology trends and helping their customers align with their priorities and the emerging technology trends. I wouldn't call out various scope for development every day. There is scope for development. It is all how the organizations adopt it and how they deliver it to their customers. I don't want to call out there is scope for development. It's happening. It is a never ending process.
    • At the moment, I don't have anything to call out. We are experiencing Red Hat OpenShift and we can see every day they're coming up with new features as and when they come up with new features, we want to experience it more and more. We are looking for opportunities wherein this can be leveraged to help our users and partners.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    • Dedicated Lights-Out Solution for low-end systems
    • Ability to replace smaller storage drives with larger ones, rather than requiring the addition of an entire node for storage increases
    • Different UI views for VMs: ability to minimize certain groups and have that persist through log-ins
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • Adding or presenting additional storage to the host can often be a task that is far more involved than competitive products.
    • The product can require reboots more frequently than competitors due to the DOM kernel getting "hung up".
    • Sometimes when a virtual machine is deleted it still leaves behind orphaned vdisks.
    • Recovering from the loss of a host can sometimes cause virtual machines to require lengthy command prompt scripting to fix so they can be powered back on from another host.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Red Hat
    This is the current strategy for the company, most of the products in the organisation are aligning to Openshift and various use cases it support. Also lot of applications are being developed for AI use case, openshift.AI provides opportunity to host and leverage the AI capabilities for these applications
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Since I have had no issues with downtime; easier management of my cluster and the ability to lower the number of devices in my Infrastructure, I will gladly renew my support contract with Scale Computing HC3 and upgrade my equipment with them when it comes time for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    With the knowledge and usage of solutions from VMware and Microsoft offering more compelling cloud integrated options it makes it more compelling in many environments which I consult. XenServer is a good product and fits the bill in many smaller environments but as clients look to the cloud or a hybrid cloud it can in some cases make it a bit more difficult.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Red Hat
    As I said before, the obserability is one of the weakest point of OpenShift and that has a lot to do with usability. The Kibana console is not fully integrated with OpenShift console and you have to switch from tab to tab to use it. Same with Prometheus, Jaeger and Grafan, it's a "simple" integration but if you want to do complex queries or dashboards you have to go to the specific console
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Everything you need to do is point-and-click easy. If you are the kind of admin who wants to edit every config file and endlessly customize your environment, then Scale may not be for you. On the other hand, if you just want it to work really well, and do what they told you it will do, then Scale is the ideal system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    XenServer is a good product in its use and probably free if you have the right Citrix licenses already. However, it does require specific knowledge to manage, which makes it harder to manage if you don't have that knowledge in house.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Red Hat
    Redhat openshift is generally reliable and available platform, it ensures high availability for most the situations. in fact the product where we put openshift in a box, we ensure that the availability is also happening at node and network level and also at storage level, so some of the factors that are outside of Openshift realm are also working in HA manner.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Never had an outage or an error. Once a hard drive failed, but Scale kept on working flawlessly without interruption.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    It's been a little problematic in the past at larger VDI deployments requiring a bit more care and feeding than other vendors. But the latest releases (6.5.x) have brought about huge improvements in the stability and availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Red Hat
    Overall, this platform is beneficial. The only downsides we have encountered have been with pods that occasionally hang. This results in resources being dedicated to dead or zombie pods. Over time, these wasted resources occasionally cause us issues, and we have had difficulty monitoring these pods. However, this issue does not overshadow the benefits we get from Openshift.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Performance has been just as outstanding as reliability. I have never experienced delays in any aspect of usage.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    When running like a top XenServer is a fantastic hypervisor. There is relatively low overhead on the Dom0 so workloads get the most of the resources.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Red Hat
    Their customer support team is good and quick to respond. On a couple of occassions, they have helped us in solving some issues which we were finding a tad difficult to comprehend. On a rare occasion, the response was a bit slow but maybe it was because of the festival season. Overall a good experience on this front.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    They are very knowledgeable about their own products and hardware addressing my concerns or issues very quickly and on the first contact. Calls concerning VMware migrations and Acronis backup took a little more time for more complicated issues, but the Scale Computing Platform techs were diligent to stay on top of issues until they were resolved. Most of my issues have been with the initial setup/migration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    The staff I've worked with are very knowledgeable or able to get a very well articulated and capable support team member on the phone or helping them if necessary and they always want to ensure the best experience possible for you on the platform. The ability for the support team to reach out to hardware vendors for assistance is a nice plus too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Red Hat
    I was not involved in the in person training, so i
    can not answer this question, but the team in my org worked directly
    with Openshift and able to get the in person training done easily, i did not
    hear problem or complain in this space, so i hope things happen
    seamlessly without any issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    I did not do in-person training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Part of a training for certification to become a trainer for Citrix included an in-person training with a Master CCI. The XenServer training at this time was pretty simplified due to the product primarily being installed however you did have to work with it and mildly configure the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Red Hat
    We went thru the training material on RH webesite, i think its very descriptive and the handson lab sesssions are very useful. It would be good to create more short duration videos covering one single aspect of openshift, this wll keep the interest and also it breaks down the complexity to reasonable chunks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    Because Scale is so simple, the training is just as quick and easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Haven't given it a real go with any online training however there are some options out there. I have taught a course following Citrix material for XenDesktop which leverages XenServer and it is pre-built so not the best for XenServer specifically for installation but configuration is mildly touched on
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Red Hat
    No answers on this topic
    Scale Computing
    The implementation was very easy. We had Scale support on standby and they were ready and eager to help if needed. The process went so fast the employees in the organization did not even know it was done.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Ensure you review the HCL (hardware compatibility list) and reach out to the hardware vendors to ensure they support the platform and in case they have documentation that can be followed for the implementation. Also ensure the prerequisites are completed prior to implementation so that as few unexpected delays occur as you can control.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Red Hat
    The Tanzu Platform seemed overly complicated, and the frequent changes to the portfolio as well as the messaging made us uneasy. We also decided it would not be wise to tie our application platform to a specific infrastructure provider, as Tanzu cannot be deployed on anything other than vSphere. SUSE Rancher seemed good overall, but ultimately felt closer to a DIY approach versus the comprehensive package that Red Hat OpenShift provides.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    We previously used Microsoft Hyper V and VMWare and, before that, a room for single-purpose servers. My satisfaction with Scale is because it is a more straightforward product to install and use; it has incredible speed and reliability. In the past, getting support from Microsoft was labor intensive, and with VMWare, there was a language accent barrier.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    Feature for feature they are neck and neck. I have used Hyper-V 2012 and 2016, VMware ESXi and XenServer evenly. XenServer is a fast install, good documentation, with enterprise features out the box that compare or exceed what VMWare offered with a higher cost of entry.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Red Hat
    It's easy to understand what are being billed and what's included in each type of subscription. Same with the support (Std or Premium) you know exactly what to expect when you need to use it. The "core" unit approach on the subscription made really simple to scale and carry the workloads from one site to another.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    No answers on this topic
    Cloud Software Group
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Red Hat
    This is a great platform to deployment container applications designed for multiple use cases. Its reasonably scalable platform, that can host multiple instances of applications, which can seamlessly handle the node and pod failure, if they are configured properly. There should be some scalability best practices guide would be very useful
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    HC3 is one of the best products I have purchased for our district. It is unbelievably reliable to the point that they shoot themselves in the foot on support contracts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    The servers latest versions have made massive improvements to scalability. But from past experience there have been issues when running workloads for extended periods of time without reboot on the hosts. I would need to run similar workloads on the 6.5 release which has changed much of the bottlenecks or issues so I'd imagine its far more capable now, Perhaps able to stand near the best in the market.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Red Hat
    • That is a complicated question and one that's not easy for me to answer. There's a lot of factors that go into all of the stuff that we just don't have an easy way of measuring. And we realize that while we're implementing Red Hat OpenShift, we've tried to start measuring some of that stuff, but we don't have a baseline to go on. So it's hard to say. What I can tell you is general experience with the platform has been extremely positive from the development aspect. Teams have been very, very happy with the speed at which they're able to do stuff. They've been happy with that. The way it works in one environment is exactly the way it works in the next environment because we don't have configuration drift, that type of thing, and has had very positive impacts. But we didn't have a baseline to start with. So I can't talk about getting there faster or anything like that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scale Computing
    • With the high cost of the leading competitor the savings starts day one and saves every year after.
    • Scale can be administered by a tier one technician so cost of labor is reduced.
    • If there is a problem like a cyber attack, the savings kick in with the least amount of downtime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cloud Software Group
    • Xenserver is easy to learn. We paid for support only for installation and deployment in the first three years, and now our team has the knowledge to solve most problems.
    • Low CAPEX if you have a team that uses open source software day by day.
    • But paid support is necessary to solve critical problems. The open source community is not enough. Actually, we have difficulty solving some bugs without paying for support.
    • Medium OPEX if you have a team that uses open source software day by day.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Scale Computing Platform Screenshots

    Screenshot of Scale Computing Fleet Management Dashboard - 
At-a-glance summary of the health of the fleet upon login.Screenshot of Cluster Details -
Details of a particular cluster, including health, fleet manager connectivity, nodes, and VMsScreenshot of Scale Computing Fleet Manager -
Manages an organization’s fleet of Clusters.Screenshot of Hypercore UI -
Simple Web Interface for Local Management of the Cluster and its Workloads