There has been feedback on the FreeNAS forums in the past that network transfer in FreeNAS is slow. HarryD has now tested and compared the performance of FreeNAS 0.7.1 stable (Build 5127) and Nexentastor Community Edition 3.0.2.
From his conclusion it’s apparent that FreeNAS and NexentaStor are very comparable on the performance side. NexentaStor is slitghly faster in most of the disciplines, but the lack of AFP make them both overall equal.
FreeNAS is easy to setup and has a very clear and structured WebGUI. Nexenta has more features (e.g. built in snapshots, deduplication, etc.) At the moment I definitely will stay with FreeNAS as the performance is comparable and I really like the integration of Time Machine via AFP.
Funny all this talk about alternatives, I think people are just getting anxious for OpenMediaVault, and can’t bear to wait any longer.
I myself have researched and tried a few. I may stick with FreeNAS for now, but tempted to just wait for OMV – but with lack of time-lines/schedule it’s hard looking at my new box with nothing to run on it.