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HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs VMware vCenter comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

HPE Integrated Lights Out (...
Ranking in Server Monitoring
10th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware vCenter
Ranking in Server Monitoring
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Server Monitoring category, the mindshare of HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is 1.8%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vCenter is 2.1%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware vCenter2.1%
HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)1.8%
Other96.1%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

AM
Senior Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Positive access capabilities and user-friendly interface empower efficient server management while cost and licensing concerns persist
HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is user-friendly, offering easy navigation and a nice GUI. It provides an alternative network connection, enabling access to servers without physical access. The software is highly valued for its ability to bring servers back up remotely, essential for minimizing downtime in critical situations. HPE iLO is a strong competitor to iDRAC. Being a second network interface physically installed on a server, iLO provides an extra IP to access the server, bypassing other layers such as ESXi or Proxmox, and enabling BIOS-level access. The remote software involved is fantastic for recovering servers quickly and efficiently when they go down, providing significant improvements to organizational operations. Whether dealing with international or local solutions, iLO can save considerable time, reducing downtime from minutes to weeks depending on location. It is particularly useful for integrating with Microsoft Active Directory, simplifying login issues, and mitigating risks of login leaks through Multi-Factor Authentication. The quick response times from HPE support, including shipping parts and sending techs promptly, add to the overall efficiency and reliability of solutions involving HPE iLO. The integration of iLO with vSphere provides a seamless user experience, making navigation feel consistent across platforms.
VinayKumar7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Data Centre at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Centralized control has improved data center virtualization and streamlined DC DR replication
The pricing of VMware vCenter is high. What was earlier, before it was acquired by Broadcom, was different. Now, Broadcom has acquired it, and the earlier arrangement was that we used to bundle the license and purchase it according to our choice. Now, they bundle it with vSAN, which many organizations may not use. Although we purchase it along with the bundled license, we pay for something which is of no use to us because we have our own storage. If they had separate pricing for each module, organizations could purchase only the modules they need, and the price would lower. For smaller organizations, this can become a huge cost issue. For larger organizations, there is no issue, but for medium-sized organizations, they have to shell out a lot.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) has the best features for detecting any kind of hardware failure, such as any DIMM, HDD, system board, or PSU failures, providing real-time alarms with all necessary information."
"HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is user-friendly, offering easy navigation and a nice GUI."
"I integrated with VMware products, which makes integration easy."
"The initial setup for VMware vCenter is very simple because we migrated from open-source to VMware long back."
"The most valuable feature of VMware vCenter is the centralized management that allows us to see resources from different data centers and VMware clusters in a single dashboard."
"We typically manage VMs after the OS is installed. vCenter simplifies VM management by allowing for the configuration and operation of VMs once an OS, like Windows, is installed."
"The high availability feature is particularly valuable when a host goes down or experiences high usage, as it automatically migrates VMs to other hosts to balance performance."
"One feature I really like about VMware vCenter is its ability to change hosts easily. It is highly available and very useful for our operations."
"The product's emphasis on high availability and DRS aligns with our priorities, making vCenter an integral component in our virtualized environment."
"The performance monitoring tools within vCenter help track resource usage, identify performance bottlenecks, and optimize the efficiency of virtual environments."
 

Cons

"Sometimes when the system fails, iLO doesn't get the proper information from the system, so there's a need for improvement so it can provide real-time information for our engineers to give the correct solutions to customers."
"I am currently avoiding HPE in my current build because of the pricing that is almost highway robbery. Service contracts are required to receive firmware updates."
"There is a feature called Fault Tolerance (FT), which has been part of vCenter servers since the product's inception. However, it has a lot of complexity, and when my team tested it, we found it difficult to manage. It also has some bugs. Consequently, we decided not to offer any fault tolerance features to our customers."
"There have been some ongoing conflicts since VMware was taken over by Broadcom."
"Efficiency and redundancy can be increased, minimizing or mitigating downtime."
"The support for the Linux operating system wasn't great when we used it."
"The stability could be better."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"The product should improve its storage. It's not necessarily about needing more storage but improving how it handles technology. We believe there could be more effective ways to manage it in our user environment. It should also look into network management."
"It could display the status of the storage space in terabytes, the number of VMs, etc."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We have purchased monthly licenses for the platform. There are additional costs involved."
"For the healthcare industry, the price is considerably higher than the education industry."
"The solution is pretty expensive for small businesses because there are few lower-scale VMware vCenter solutions."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product's three-year license package is inexpensive."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The platform is expensive."
"The licensing model was a bit complex, but thanks to the vCenter product usage program, which VMware introduced, it's kind of easy for us to use a pay-as-you-go model."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Insurance Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
20%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?
Regarding pricing or set-up costs and licensing, HPE's approach is quite intense compared to Dell, Cisco, Microsoft, Lenovo, etc. Avoiding HPE in the current structure due to high costs would be co...
What needs improvement with HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?
As a reseller, I think HP iLO can be improved in a few ways. HP has a lot of experience with iLO, but they need to work on synchronization between iLO and the system hardware. Sometimes when the sy...
What is your primary use case for HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO)?
HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) is used for monitoring the system; we have almost 115 or 116, around 150 servers, and we use this product to check the server current status with alarms and all othe...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vCenter?
The initial package for VMware vCenter is not less than $10,000, which can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. The licensing model now requires purchasing 96-core solutions, even if fewer cor...
What needs improvement with VMware vCenter?
The pricing of VMware vCenter is high. What was earlier, before it was acquired by Broadcom, was different. Now, Broadcom has acquired it, and the earlier arrangement was that we used to bundle the...
What is your primary use case for VMware vCenter?
My main use case for VMware vCenter is mainly for virtualization and what we call DCDR replication. I can say we are not using all the features. Our main aim is only that we are using it for virtua...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
1. Amazon 2. Apple 3. ATT 4. Bank of America 5. Cisco Systems 6. CocaCola 7. Dell 8. ebay 9. Facebook 10. Google 11. HP 12. IBM 13. Intel 14. JPMorgan Chase 15. LinkedIn 16. Microsoft 17. Netflix 18. Oracle 19. PayPal 20. SAP 21. Siemens 22. Tesla 23. Toyota 24. Twitter 25. Visa 26. Walmart 27. WeWork 28. World Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Integrated Lights Out (iLO) vs. VMware vCenter and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.