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IBM PowerVM vs RHEV comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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

IBM PowerVM
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
RHEV
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of IBM PowerVM is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
RHEV2.4%
IBM PowerVM2.2%
Other95.4%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2014950 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Delivery Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Virtualization has simplified partitioning and currently supports secure multi-tenant workloads
The ease of use of IBM PowerVM provides key benefits such as the installation being very easy, and the VIOS is really, really stable. IBM PowerVM is performing very well in supporting complex workloads. It's simple regarding the initial setup for IBM PowerVM. We always create two VIOS servers in IBM PowerVM to be compliant for security and to be compliant also for redundancy.
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance
In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of IBM PowerVM is the performance of the database workload."
"Active Memory Sharing dynamically reallocates memory of running partitions based on changing workload demands. The memory for the pool is carved out from Physical memory and is made logical memory. The said memory is not available to be assigned to partitions as dedicated memory. A min, max and desired as well as weight is assigned to the memory of each lpar to help hypervisor make a decision in case a condition where priority is to be given to a certain lapr to use the memory form shared pool."
"IBM PowerVM on Power 922 server gave twice the performance of the legacy Oracle SPARC server."
"We always recommend PowerVM to our customers; it is better than most solutions."
"IBM technical support is always good and quick."
"It's scalable. Whenever we buy another product other than hardware, it's easily integrated into the virtualization software that we download."
"The valuable feature of the solution is the technical aspects, focusing on elements like processor infinity."
"PowerVM is one of the most stable platform in the market."
"The price is the solution's most valuable aspect; it's much cheaper than, for example, VMware, so companies can save money using it if they need to."
"Technically, the main reason why I'm using Red Hat is because of its stability."
"The most valuable features of RHEV are all the tools, such as virtualization, management of cloud platforms, and integration of container environments. The solution has good compatibility between virtualization, content management, and cloud management. Having the full set of these tools is the advantage of it."
"What they provide is way beyond the essential requirements of customers."
"It's a very good platform to build your virtual machines on and highly integrated with Red Hat itself and its satellites."
"The solution is a great all-round product, and the virtualization is especially good."
"RHEV’s cost is much less compared to VMware."
"It is a scalable solution."
 

Cons

"This solution is lacking the ability to have servers act as a cluster, such as in VMware. IBM has come out with a feature similar to VMware's vCenter but it is not as mature. They need to add LPM shared-nothing feature, such as in vMotion."
"The hardware licensing model could be improved because the licensing model is a bit different from the standard hardware procured."
"The only problem with the IBM system is improving its hardware licensing model."
"From a product perspective, I would like to see faster certification of open-source products on IBM Power Systems. While the product has robust features and functionalities, the availability and certification of certain open-source products could be improved to avoid potential challenges."
"The solution is quite pricey."
"In terms of the technology used in the product, I feel that there are some areas where improvements are required. The tool should offer better clustering options."
"PowerVM should integrate some capabilities of VMware vCenter to improve its management features."
"PowerVM's platform build and performance could be improved."
"The solution could use network virtualization."
"The documentation is not as good as it should be. There is a need for making it descriptive and in sequence."
"We have found the technical support for this solution to be very slow in responding to our requests for assistance."
"When we do a direct comparison, then obviously VMware does better in terms of having Fault Tolerance and doing active disaster recovery and these kind of things. This is something that can be improved within Red Hat."
"We'd like it if it would be possible on Red Hat Virtualization to possibly connect two or three VMs to the same disk."
"The RHEV management plane could be improved, particularly the management interface."
"I would love to see better documentation and ease of use."
"They don't know how to sell their great products and don’t really seem to be interested in taking care of their partners who trust and really know their products."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license cost is bundled with IBM Power Systems as it is limited to RISC-based IBM systems only."
"IBM PowerVM costs more than other products but the customer does not need to pay additional money for the licenses. In VMware, you need to license everything. With IBM PowerVM it is unlimited and all-inclusive in the price you pay."
"The price of the solution could improve, it is expensive."
"The pricing for PowerVM is on the higher. Regarding the license, it can be on a monthly or annual basis, depending on the deal. Customers may choose to pay annually, one-time, or monthly based on their agreement with the sales team. As for additional costs, customers need to pay for support if they opt for it. If not, they only pay for the hardware cost as per the agreement."
"The tool is competitively priced, especially right now."
"The price varies from case to case and you have to negotiate it for every project."
"The cost is on the higher side. Typically, we invest in the machine and support for two, three, or five years."
"We have to purchase the product's licenses."
"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."
"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."
"Its price depends on the use cases."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"I would say the price is acceptable."
"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."
"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."
"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."
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Comparison Review

VL
CIO at Robusta Technology & Training
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM PowerVM?
IBM’s licensing model offers flexibility in subscription terms, now allowing one- to five-year options. They have introduced a subscription-based model for some systems, creating a more cost-effect...
What needs improvement with IBM PowerVM?
Maybe an automatic installation of patches would be great to see as an additional functionality in IBM PowerVM. I don't see any point to improve IBM PowerVM. For me, it's okay, and I don't have any...
What is your primary use case for IBM PowerVM?
For storage, we mainly work with FlashSystem FS5200 and with IBM Power Systems with IBM i. We are using PowerVM for the creation of partitions on the Power Systems. I'm using the VIOS in PowerVM, a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?
It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.
What needs improvement with RHEV?
RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...
What is your primary use case for RHEV?
I have done some consulting where I used RHEV, taking on side jobs to run virtual machines in the financial industry for a startup. The last time I used RHEV was in my home lab, but that has been d...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

PowerVM
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sto, Soitec, SNO, Bundesrechenzentrum GmbH, Al Mansour Holding, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Huhtamaki, ELK Group, IT-Informatik, Arkansas Tech University, Pneuhage
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM PowerVM vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.