RHEV vs VMware ESXi comparison

Red Hat and Broadcom are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. Red Hat is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2, while Broadcom is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Red Hat holds a 2.4% mindshare in SVS, compared to Broadcom’s 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

RHEV

Read 37 RHEV reviews

3,888 Views
3,849 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

VMware ESXi

Read 34 VMware ESXi reviews

2,330 Views
2,330 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

RHEV

VMware ESXi

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

RHEV and VMware ESXi compete in the virtualization market. VMware ESXi has an edge due to its rich feature set, offsetting its higher costs.

Features: RHEV is known for strong integration with Red Hat products, efficient cloud management, and significant cost savings. VMware ESXi shines with advanced management capabilities, high scalability, and robust security features.

Room for Improvement: RHEV could enhance its scalability, diversify its management tools, and improve integration with non-Red Hat environments. VMware ESXi could benefit from a simpler deployment process, streamlined documentation, and more supportive open-source integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEV offers streamlined deployment, especially within Red Hat ecosystems, along with responsive customer service. VMware ESXi presents a more complex deployment process but benefits from extensive documentation and community support, making it suitable for integration at scale.

Pricing and ROI: RHEV is competitively priced with a focus on reducing initial setup costs, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. VMware ESXi, although pricier, offers excellent ROI through superior scalability and comprehensive management tools, making it a valuable long-term investment for organizations prioritizing functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed RHEV vs. VMware ESXi Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware ESXi

April 2026

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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

RHEV

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware ESXi

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware ESXi is 2.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware ESXi	2.5%
RHEV	2.4%
Other	95.1%

Server Virtualization Software

Featured Reviews

Mike Neuliep

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.

Read full review

Gourab Das

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Virtualization has transformed our data center and delivers consistent uptime with seamless maintenance

The most valuable feature VMware ESXi offers me is the user interface and the ease of handling operations without downtime, which is the biggest advantage, particularly with capabilities for live patching, and VCF 9 in patching areas; the bundled licensing provided simplifies management as I can utilize resources based on my needs without worrying too much about individual licenses. The zero-downtime patching is the feature that makes the biggest difference in my day-to-day operations, as well as managing hosts with an n+1 configuration, using a buffer host to streamline maintenance within a cluster of hosts. The vMotion feature is another important aspect, as we opt for auto vMotion to optimize resources within the cluster, enabling the underlying VMs to be moved seamlessly from one host to another based on utilization without impacting applications. VMware ESXi has positively impacted our organization significantly in terms of operations and cost optimization, as we optimized our environment under a per-core license agreement, achieving around 30 to 40% cost-effectiveness and maintaining almost 99.99% uptime across our environment, where VMware ESXi is run on about 85% of our setup. Improvements in operations were made possible through visibility provided by VMware ESXi into hardware enhancements, such as virtual storage platforms with vSAN, which we incorporated into our environment supported by VMware ESXi 9 to enable effective live patching without impacting operations, and we regularly utilize RV tool reports to track actual utilization and optimize resources, reducing our footprint from 100 VMs on 100 hosts to 47 hosts, yielding substantial financial benefits thanks to the support from our VMware ESXi TAM.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technically, the main reason why I'm using Red Hat is because of its stability."

"It is easy to deal with when comes to application migration and its compatibility with the multiple component applications."

"The solution is easy for us to deal with when comes to application migration and has good compatibility with multiple components."

"Whenever there's an issue or problem, I contact customer support and they take it seriously."

"The solution is a great all-round product, and the virtualization is especially good."

"It is a very good solution, it works very well, we haven't had any issues with any technical aspects and it works well."

"Customers are moving to open source and Red Hat is the leader in this particular space, and I think customers feel more confident running Red Hat Virtualization than VMware."

"This solution is very stable. Much more so than similar products."

More RHEV pros

"From a technical perspective, VMware ESXi's best advantages are its reliability and high availability features. It's a very mature and good environment."

"All the features of VMware ESXi are very beneficial, particularly for virtualizing our infrastructure."

"The software from GE Healthcare only needs the basic virtualization functions, such as creating VMs, adjusting the resources allocated to the VMs, making backups, restoring, etc."

"In my opinion, the most helpful features in VMware ESXi are vMotion and storage vMotion. Customers really like these features, which allow us to perform IT downtime activities without shutting down the physical server."

"The most valuable features are disaster recovery and vMotion. Those are the most important ones. Moreover, integrating ESI with ID Workflow is quite easy. The product is highly stable. I rate it a nine out of ten. The solution is highly scalable. I rate it a nine out of ten. The initial setup is straightforward. I recommend the product. It’s good and is suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. Overall, I rate this product an eight out of ten."

"VMware ESXi's most proven and beneficial area for our virtualization needs revolves around clustering."

"Using VMware ESXi for server management significantly simplifies the process. Traditionally, procuring physical servers was necessary, but now, we can create virtual machines on VMware ESXi based on our requirements. As long as resources are available, we can create as many virtual machines as needed."

"My customers are satisfied with the solution’s performance."

More VMware ESXi pros

Cons

"The Administration of the Oracle database and the SAP ERP needs improvement."

"The GUI interface needs improvement. Not 90%, but 50% or 60% of the work is done from the command line and so on, so the GUI needs work because people are looking for an easier way to manage the environment."

"There is not any proper documentation on the site to reference."

"Red Hat by itself is not scalable. But you can have third party add-ons like Ceph to make it massively scalable."

"We hope that Red Hat can produce a paradigm edition. We are looking for paradigm computing and paradigm storage. Its scalability can be improved. It is not easy to scale, and we hope that Red Hat can provide a more scalable system. They should also provide local service and support. Our customers are looking for a good software vendor to provide professional services."

"The solution could use network virtualization."

"Specifically, enhancements in managing virtual machine migrations, cloning, and the creation of different VMs could further optimize its functionality."

"Its scalability can be improved. It is not easy to scale, and we hope that Red Hat can provide a more scalable system."

More RHEV cons

"It would be really helpful if there were options to do things in one or two clicks rather than doing everything through more manual interaction."

"The solution’s licensing model could be improved."

"Licensing has become a major issue. The new subscription-based licensing model is problematic."

"I would rate the technical support as six out of ten. The response time could be better."

"The licensing model currently presents challenges. It's not cost-effective for small users and creates a gap for alternatives, while favoring larger clients."

"The main disadvantage is that the tool requires a significant, expensive initial investment. VMware ESXi requires a large upfront investment that depreciates over three to four years compared to cloud solutions with pay-as-you-go models. You should only choose it if you plan to use it for at least three years. Its deployment process is complex and requires an experienced team."

"We often face issues with ESXi that require us to change resources by shutting down the VMs."

"The solution's cost is a concern."

More VMware ESXi cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would say the price is acceptable."

"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."

"This product has a variety of licensing options available. However, the level of licensing, and therefore the cost of licensing, is dependent on the number of servers being utilized."

"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."

"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."

"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."

"We are using the free version of Red Hat."

"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."

More RHEV pricing and cost advice

"The solution is priced on the higher side."

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is high price and ten is low price."

"The tool has become expensive."

"The pricing is expensive, with the cost for customers ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 yearly."

"If one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."

"The solution is expensive."

"VMware ESXi is a costly solution in Africa and other developing countries."

More VMware ESXi pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Comparison Review

Thang Le Toan (Victory Lee)

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware ESXi?

My customers are satisfied with the solution’s performance.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware ESXi?

We recently renewed our VMware ESXi subscription for 14,000 cores, and the total cost was approximately 16 crore for three years. Overall, I found the pricing and licensing process to be very simpl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware ESXi?

While there is nothing particularly frustrating, a quicker response from VMware ESXi for planning existing hardware implementations of VCF 9 would be beneficial, especially for P1 issues where reso...

See all answers

Comparisons

Proxmox VE vs RHEV

Compared 19% of the time

Hyper-V vs RHEV

Compared 18% of the time

VMware vSphere vs RHEV

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle VM vs RHEV

Compared 11% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs RHEV

Compared 2% of the time

More RHEV Competitors

Hyper-V vs VMware ESXi

Compared 20% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware ESXi

Compared 15% of the time

KVM vs VMware ESXi

Compared 10% of the time

Proxmox VE vs VMware ESXi

Compared 7% of the time

More VMware ESXi Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

RHEV

April 2026

Download RHEV product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware ESXi

April 2026

Download VMware ESXi product report

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

No data available

Overview

RHEV offers a cost-effective virtualization platform with support for up to 160 cores and 2 TB of RAM per host, emphasizing open-source accessibility and integration with applications like OpenStack.

RHEV stands out with features such as high performance, stability, ease of migration, and robust security. Its integration capabilities with diverse applications and the self-service Power user portal enhance its appeal for IT environments. While the platform's affordability compared to VMware is noted, areas for improvement include the GUI, user-friendliness, network virtualization, and the need for enhanced pricing and support in regions lacking system integrators. RHEV's ability to facilitate seamless migration from legacy systems to virtual environments is widely adopted in sectors such as government, banking, and IT services.

What are the key features of RHEV?

Open-Source Accessibility: Offers flexibility and customization options.
High Performance: Supports up to 160 cores and 2 TB of RAM per host.
Seamless Integration: Integrates well with applications like OpenStack.
Live VM Migration: Enables continuous operations without downtime.
Power User Portal: Provides self-service capabilities for users.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Cost Optimization: Provides a cost-effective alternative to VMware.
Scalable Computing: Allows flexible resource allocation and scaling.
Migration Efficiency: Facilitates moving from legacy systems smoothly.
Robust Security: Enhances data protection and privacy management.

RHEV is widely used in high-computing tasks like AI and big data analytics within data centers, supporting cloud solutions, AI, and ERP systems. It's implemented in privacy clouds for industries such as government, banking, and IT services to migrate workloads from physical to virtual environments and optimize operational costs.

Red Hat

VMware ESXi serves as a hypervisor enabling virtualization by transforming physical servers into virtual infrastructures, supporting efficient server management, development, and production environments.

Organizations utilize VMware ESXi for its high availability and ability to host diverse workloads effectively. Known for stability and maturity, it efficiently handles server, networking, and storage demands, with integral features like vMotion and memory compression. ESXi integrates well with data center operations, allowing seamless resource allocation and virtual machine migration. Despite impressive capabilities, users encounter challenges with setup complexity, licensing costs, and technical support delays, leading some to explore different solutions.

What are the main features of VMware ESXi?

High Availability: Ensures continuous operation of virtual machines.
vMotion Capabilities: Facilitates easy virtual machine migration.
Clustering: Enhances resource management and efficiency.
Server Management: Offers efficient management with third-party integration.
Resource Optimization: Utilizes memory compression technologies.

What benefits and ROI do organizations see with VMware ESXi?

Cost Savings: Reduces expenses by consolidating servers.
User-friendliness: Offers a stable and manageable interface.
Multi-OS Support: Enables running Linux and Windows environments.
High Performance: Recognized for speed and efficiency.

Industries deploying VMware ESXi benefit in sectors requiring robust IT infrastructure, including finance, healthcare, and education. Its capability to support high availability and diverse workloads proves essential for critical applications, enhancing productivity and agility in dynamic environments.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware ESXi

April 2026

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