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Oracle VM vs VMware ESXi comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.5
Oracle VM provides cost savings and scalability, but ROI varies with mixed user experiences and sometimes challenging value quantification.
Sentiment score
4.7
VMware ESXi boosts efficiency and eases management, but rising costs lead to interest in more cost-effective alternatives.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Oracle VM support is generally rated positively, despite some initial issues and varying user experiences with response times.
Sentiment score
6.9
VMware ESXi support is generally praised for expertise, despite mixed response times and quality post-Broadcom transition.
The response time and quality of support could be improved.
Architect at Infinite Computer Solutions
I rate the technical support from VMware as nine or ten out of ten.
SAP B1 Support Consultant at Abacus Consulting
In the last three or four years, we did not require any support from VMware engineers, indicating its high reliability.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
Customer service and support are good; they are reachable, and at times remote support suffices.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Oracle VM provides scalability and adaptability, though licensing and configuration challenges persist despite supporting diverse CPU generations.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware ESXi is praised for its vertical scalability and management efficiency, despite challenges in horizontal scalability and licensing.
The solution is scalable, allowing us to scale up or down regardless of infrastructure size.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
vCenter Server can manage up to 1,000 ESXi servers within a single UI interface, allowing extensive deployment and management capabilities.
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
My customers are highly satisfied with its scalability.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Oracle VM is stable in later versions, with issues resolved through certified hardware, enhancing reliability despite upgrade challenges.
Sentiment score
8.3
VMware ESXi is highly stable and dependable, often rated 8-10, with minimal issues and effective recent updates.
Not every upgrade goes smoothly, and after an upgrade, it sometimes stops working.
Owner at Inforex
ESXi is stable, and our business operations depend on it year after year.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
Stability rates a perfect 10.
Managing Partner at evercloud
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle VM users seek enhancements in performance, interfaces, integration, functionality, disaster recovery, user permissions, and Apple compatibility.
Users are concerned about VMware ESXi's pricing, support, and complexities post-Broadcom, desiring simpler licensing and improvements.
If I have limited systems and there is maintenance on the hardware, the Oracle systems are impacted.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Not every upgrade goes smoothly, and after an upgrade, it sometimes stops working.
Owner at Inforex
Oracle VM provides automation capabilities in the new version.
Architect at Infinite Computer Solutions
Providing a mobile application for remote access to ESXi servers would be beneficial.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
It's not cost-effective for small users and creates a gap for alternatives, while favoring larger clients.
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
The cost of VMware ESXi is very high, especially after the acquisition by Broadcom, which led to price increases.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Oracle VM cost-effective with manageable support fees and flexibility in server sizing for IT growth.
Enterprise evaluators find VMware ESXi pricing high, with complex licensing and costs exceeding competitors, challenging smaller users' budgets.
Oracle VM is not a very expensive solution.
Owner at Inforex
The product is very cost-effective, though not fixed, as pricing tends to fluctuate over time.
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
The solution is moderately priced, not exactly cheap yet not overly expensive either.
SAP B1 Support Consultant at Abacus Consulting
The pricing is expensive, with the cost for customers ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 yearly.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
 

Valuable Features

Oracle VM enhances network, storage, and resource management, supporting diverse OS integration with cost efficiency and high availability.
VMware ESXi provides cost-effective server consolidation, seamless migrations, high availability, resource optimization, and centralized management with strong compatibility.
If there is an issue with the operating system running on top of it, there's no primary and secondary domain, rather segregated I/Os, disks, memory, everything assigned to a logical domain.
Senior Infrastructure Specialist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
It is easy to copy or clone one Oracle workstation to another.
Owner at Inforex
Oracle VM's features perform better on Windows compared to iOS.
Cybersecurity and Ethical Hacking at NUPAT TECHNOLOGIES
Its capability to move virtual machines to physical machines is very efficient for our live environment.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
As a level one or bare metal hypervisor, its unmatched scalability depends on underlying hardware, capable of managing large numbers of physical servers with one management platform.
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
vMotion is a daily used technology that allows us to have machines distributed across different sites while maintaining redundancy between the sites.
Managing Partner at evercloud
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle VM
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware ESXi
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Oracle VM is 5.9%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware ESXi is 2.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle VM5.9%
VMware ESXi2.1%
Other92.0%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

Chimdi Profitearne - PeerSpot reviewer
Cybersecurity and Ethical Hacking at NUPAT TECHNOLOGIES
Has supported ethical training effectively but configuration needs to be more user-friendly
When evaluating Oracle VM, I have concerns about the configuration being too complex and not user-friendly. It doesn't perform optimally on iOS, which is an Apple laptop, but works very well on Windows. To improve Oracle VM, the configuration needs to be more user-friendly and less rigid. Additionally, compatibility with Apple laptops needs improvement as it currently doesn't work well on that platform.
Ion Boni - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Partner at evercloud
Has improved daily operations and provides solid performance but recent licensing changes have created challenges
Licensing has become a major issue. The new subscription-based licensing model is problematic. They have dropped all the support services for small partners and cut all small partners. The last two years have been challenging - after building stability, we received an email announcing they dropped the current model. It used to be cost-efficient. Now, when compared with Red Hat OpenStack, it is more expensive, but our knowledge and client awareness is with VMware ESXi. At this moment, we still prefer VMware ESXi.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Oracle VM or KVM?
I would prefer if KVM was easier to scale and not so limited. Overall the product has been helpful. It is easy to use, and was quite straight-forward to set up. Since I have been using KVM, I have ...
Which is better - Oracle VM or VMware VSphere?
Oracle VM seems to me to be kind of outdated. Nevertheless, it is fairly straightforward to use and maintain. The solution can just be set and you can forget about it, and the scalability is consid...
What do you like most about Oracle VM?
If you want to access the VM from anywhere over the Internet, you put it in a public subnet. So, VMs are linked to that. The subnets are linked to it. So, it's perfectly secured if it's a private n...
What do you like most about VMware ESXi?
My customers are satisfied with the solution’s performance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware ESXi?
VMware ESXi is extremely expensive now compared to a few years ago. It's a core-based license now. We have bought VCF for about more than 2,000 cores. It's not a user-based license, and when you co...
What needs improvement with VMware ESXi?
Licensing has become a major issue. The new subscription-based licensing model is problematic. They have dropped all the support services for small partners and cut all small partners. The last two...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ambulance Victoria, Australian Finance Group (AFG), Avnet Technology Solutions, CERN, cloudKleyer, Danish Tax Authority (SKAT), Data Intensity, Dubai World, Engineers Australia, Enkitec, Groupe FLO, Guerra S.A. Implemento, s Rodovišrios, Interactive One, IT Convergence, Jesta Digital, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, KT, Kyoto Prefecture, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory / National Ignition Facility, Multinet Pakistan, National Australia Bank (NAB), Navis LLC, Overhead Door, Overstock.com, Paragon Data, Parks Victoria, Pella, Sunway Shared Services, St. Louis Metro, Terminales Ro de la Plata S.A., University of Massachusetts, Versace,
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle VM vs. VMware ESXi and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.