

VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE compete in the virtualization management category. VMware vSphere seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced functionalities and strong support for complex enterprise environments.
Features: VMware vSphere offers advanced memory management, Vmotion technology for seamless server migration without downtime, and high availability. It is ideal for resource optimization and system robustness, suitable for complex enterprise settings. Proxmox VE, as a cost-efficient solution, provides open-source scalability with robust virtualization through KVM and LXC containers. It's beneficial for hybrid deployments and has strong community support, appealing to budget-conscious users seeking flexible deployment.
Room for Improvement: VMware vSphere's primary challenges include pricing and the complexity of its licensing model, with calls for enhanced fault tolerance capabilities and better integration with non-standard devices. Proxmox VE could benefit from a refined GUI and more enterprise-level features like robust backup solutions and an intuitive management interface.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware vSphere's deployment complexity is offset by comprehensive customer support and extensive technical expertise, although its premium pricing might deter smaller businesses. Proxmox VE provides a straightforward deployment, easier for Linux-savvy users, but relies heavily on community-driven support instead of formal customer service.
Pricing and ROI: VMware vSphere's higher price tag and complex licensing entail recurring costs and high charges for advanced features, offering substantial ROI in large-scale deployments through optimized hardware usage and reduced operational costs. In contrast, Proxmox VE presents significant cost savings as a free, open-source solution with optional paid support, providing an excellent ROI for smaller businesses adept at utilizing community support for troubleshooting.
We can say 10% is the approximate amount of savings because most of the things are automated and streamlined, so the manual work is eliminated in most cases.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
Recently, support has been less friendly and slower, especially after the company was acquired by Broadcom.
If we have issues, the support tends to be unreliable
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
VMware vSphere is highly scalable in terms of the number of users and the number of servers it can handle.
It is a highly scalable solution.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
While they are generally stable, if outages occur, they tend to be due to brands like HP or Dell, not VMware vSphere itself.
Mostly we don't have issues, but sometimes we have faced some stability issues because of some bugs and some CPU compatibility issues with Intel CPUs.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
Many customers are trying to avoid it due to its high cost.
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
The solution is too expensive.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
The tool is highly available, which is crucial for implementing critical applications requiring 24/7 availability.
I always use VMware vSphere vMotion; we work with this feature all the time. vMotion is very useful; that's why we use the virtualization.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| VMware vSphere | 18.9% |
| Proxmox VE | 13.0% |
| Other | 68.1% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 44 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 11 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 175 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 137 |
| Large Enterprise | 259 |
Proxmox VE is a complete virtualization management solution for servers. It is a powerful open-source platform and supports two virtualization technologies - KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for virtual machines and LXC for containers. Proxmox VE has a central user interface that allows you to manage not only VMs and containers, but also storage resources, network configuration, and high availability for clusters. It is enterprise-ready and is valued for its scalability and maximum flexibility, enabling you to virtualize very demanding workloads. Proxmox VE makes it possible for you to easily install, manage, and monitor hyper-converged (HCI) data centers.
Proxmox VE Key Features
The Proxmox VE platform has many powerful features, including:
pen-source software, high-available clusters, command line, fencing, a web-based management interface, flexible storage options, REST API, live/online migration, storage replication stack, software defined storage, virtualized networking, backup and restore, two-factor authentication, role-based administration, and VM templates and clones.
Proxmox VE Benefits
Some of the biggest benefits of Proxmox VE are:
Reviews From Real Users
Here is some feedback from some of our users who are currently using the solution:
A PeerSpot user who is a director at a tech services company says, “The most valuable features of Proxmox VE are the ease of containerization. Overall the solution is generic, feature-rich, and has compatibility.”
Another PeerSpot user who is a head of IT operations at a tech services company mentions that "In addition to the virtualization, the firewall and the routing functions that it provides are valuable."
Deepen D., director and CTO at TechnoInfotech, expresses that "The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage container, LVM, and everything else work out of the box."
VMware vSphere offers robust virtualization capabilities with features that enhance data center performance and optimize workloads. Centralized management and ease of deployment make it a cost-effective choice for many industries.
VMware vSphere is recognized for its high availability, vMotion, and Distributed Resource Scheduler, essential for efficient server infrastructure management. Users value its virtual machine management, seamless live migration, and strong resource allocation across data centers. Though the web client can be slow, and individual management of multiple ESXi hosts is challenging without central management, vSphere remains popular due to its flexibility and integration capabilities. While fault tolerance and free version features have their limitations, the product supports private clouds and hybrid cloud deployments effectively.
What are the key features of VMware vSphere?VMware vSphere is widely used in industries to manage server infrastructure effectively, hosting mission-critical applications like ERP and SQL servers. It supports development, testing, and backup environments, contributing to data center consolidation and cost reduction while enabling private and hybrid cloud setups.
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