RHEV vs VMware vSphere comparison

Red Hat and Broadcom are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. Red Hat is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.3, while Broadcom is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.1. Red Hat holds a 2.4% mindshare in SVS, compared to Broadcom’s 19.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

RHEV

Read 37 RHEV reviews

3,545 Views
3,510 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

VMware vSphere

Read 459 VMware vSphere reviews

23,376 Views
20,805 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

RHEV

VMware vSphere

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

RHEV and VMware vSphere both compete in the virtualization platform sector. VMware vSphere holds the upper hand due to its superior features, advanced management tools, and strong support network.

Features: RHEV benefits from its open-source nature, integration with Red Hat solutions, and powerful features like KVM virtualization technology and memory page sharing. VMware vSphere is known for its advanced management capabilities, such as VMotion for real-time movement of virtual machines, and high availability features. It provides comprehensive backup and recovery options, making it appealing for enterprise environments.

Room for Improvement: RHEV could enhance its user interface and integration with third-party applications, broaden its support network, and improve performance metrics in high-demand scenarios. VMware vSphere might benefit from more cost-effective pricing models, clearer licensing terms, and streamlined integration processes with non-VMware applications.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: RHEV features straightforward deployment and seamless integration within Red Hat ecosystems but relies on community-driven support. VMware vSphere, with its extensive documentation and robust support network, is noted for its ease of deployment in large and complex environments.

Pricing and ROI: RHEV offers a cost-effective option appealing to budget-conscious businesses, promising sustainable ROI, especially when integrated with Red Hat solutions. VMware vSphere’s higher initial investment is compensated by its extensive capabilities and tools, offering substantial long-term ROI, suitable for those prioritizing comprehensive solutions over cost.

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

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

March 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

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware vSphere

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

459

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere is 19.4%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
VMware vSphere	19.4%
RHEV	2.4%
Other	78.2%

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.

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IbrahimAysu

IT Director at Def Industry

Has improved infrastructure monitoring and resource management but requires better support and cost efficiency

The high availability feature's resilience is not bad, but it could be better. For example, whenever you lose any hardware, you will have interruptions on the services, and it reboots again on the other hardware host which is available at the crash time. That's good, but we would prefer to have zero downtime instead of the rebooting on the other server. We would prefer to have a zero downtime always-on configuration. VMware vSphere has a built-in feature called Fault Tolerance, but it's very limited for very limited VMs or very limited core count or CPU count, so it's not so useful for all the environment because of the limitations. The Fault Tolerance (FT) feature is very limited to very little core counts or very little VM counts, so you can't run the Fault Tolerance for all the servers or all the VMs, and that's very bad. If VMware vSphere could have any kind of built-in patch management environment with a repository, offline repository option, with test, non-production, and production environment separated, this would be perfect. Management of patch management with operating systems and including third-party applications which are running on the servers would enhance the VMware vSphere environment. VMware vSphere is very expensive. The worst aspect of VMware vSphere is the price. I can't tell you the exact cost at this time because the other team members in my teams are working on it, but I remember that the prices are very high. VMware vSphere is easy to scale, but it could be better, similar to a Kubernetes environment. It should have an automatic scale-out feature when the load gets high; if it gets some scale out automatically, it would be better than this, similar to Kubernetes or OpenShift.

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

"The biggest aspect for me is the disk usage, the virtual manager, and the deployment of machines."

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

"We find the ease of use of this solution to be invaluable. It is user-friendly and integrates well with other software."

"When you purchase RHEV, you are essentially buying a subscription license. This license can be integrated with various client types, including these integrations with the subscription."

"RHEV’s cost is much less compared to VMware."

"The solution has a good licensing module."

"It is very stable."

"The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is its pricing."

More RHEV pros

"I like that it's like a distributed rescheduler. You can move to and use VMotion as well. You can move the server and move the virtual machines around different physical servers. This makes it easier when it comes to redundancy."

"It's easy to use, and it is flexible."

"The emphasis isn't specifically on a particular feature, but rather on the ease of use. For instance, when building a test lab or setting up an entire environment from scratch, VMware products are notably more user-friendly compared to alternatives like Nutanix. I've had prior experience with Nutanix. From my personal perspective, I found it easier to adapt to using VMware than when I started using Dynamics. This ease of use is a strong point. It's largely about how straightforward it is to navigate through VMware's user interface. In contrast, with Nutanix, there's a need to delve into smaller configurations and navigate vendor-specific settings. VMware, on the other hand, offers a more accessible management page. This difference primarily centres around usability and the overall user-friendliness of the interface."

"Its scalability potential is good."

"VMware vSphere is a very stable product."

"The ability of a running VM to be quickly relocated to another hypervisor or launched at another site via replicated storage greatly reduces downtime."

"VMware vSphere is more fault tolerant than Nutanix, which stands out as a benefit."

"It is easy to deploy and find troubleshooting articles as well."

More VMware vSphere pros

Cons

"We would like the dashboard feature of this solution to be improved, as it is not very detailed at present."

"My teammates and I often complain that VMware is well-documented and has a large community since it is the de facto standard. I would love to see better documentation and ease of use."

"With RHEV, the cyberattacks should be fewer. I want RHEV to be better protected."

"It lags behind in that you need to go to something like Fedora to get all the extra bells and whistles."

"RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years."

"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 biggest improvement would be more third-party direct support for things like backups and provisioning through third-party portals."

"The solution has a very small lifecycle."

More RHEV cons

"It's an expensive solution."

"It lacks a snapshot feature."

"I feel that the scalability of the solution should be improved."

"The solution could be a bit more user-friendly."

"The license fee could be more affordable."

"There should be more stability in the updates. They had an issue with the last release."

"These days we have an environment where we are often using clouds as well. A solution that would be a little more cloud-aware would be really helpful. I know there is a product from VMware that is more specifically for the cloud, but it would be nice if VMware Cloud Manager would be cloud-aware. It would simplify certain processes."

"The worst aspect of VMware vSphere is the price."

More VMware vSphere cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."

"Its price depends on the use cases."

"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."

"We buy a license for commercial use, and we also use the free editions."

"This is an open-source solution."

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

More RHEV pricing and cost advice

"I think the cost should be reconsidered. VMware is not the cheapest solution out there, despite the fact that it may be one of the best."

"The pricing is a bit complex."

"The organization pays the licensing fees."

"Our ROI is good."

"There are some competitive vendors out there who are sticking to the original model that VMware seemed to have, which includes a lot of additional features and functionality in the initial pricing, and I think they are gaining a lot of market share based on the fact that they are keeping their licensing simple. The only argument I have with VMware is that, when I ask about a new solution to our VMware team, I hear comments like, "For a nominal fee we can upgrade your license and you can have that." For the large number of Hypervisors and the scale we have, it's frustrating to hear that I have to go ask for additional money for very small, additional features that I think should be included."

"The price is high, but you get back a lot."

"VMware does provide organizations with discounts. The customer service license fee we got discounts on from the supplier in order for us to get the best out of the license fees. That's our experience. We possibly paid less than our partner company. The partner is only local and not global like our firm."

"It is very expensive as compared to other competitive hypervisor solutions in the market today. Its competitors are actually more aggressive. Even though most of them are less established solutions, they have started to catch up in functionality and capacity, and their pricing is extremely aggressive."

More VMware vSphere pricing and cost advice

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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

Answers from the Community

Sridhar Battarusetty

VP-Global Supply Chain Management at mobileum

Feb 7, 2024

What are the differences between RHEV and VMware vSphere?

See 2 answers

Anne Cubarrubia

Editor at PeerSpot

Aug 21, 2023

Here is a comparison of the two hypervisors, RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) and VMware vSphere: RHEV Pros: Open source Highly scalable Cost-effective Cons: Not as mature as VMware vSphere Not as widely supported as VMware vSphere VMware vSphere Pros: Mature and widely supported Wide range of features Easy to use and manage Cons: Not open source Can be expensive Some prefer RHEV because it is open-source and cost-effective. However, VMware vSphere may be the better option if you need a hypervisor with a wide range of features and support. As to which solution consumes fewer resources, RHEV is a lighter-weight hypervisor than VMware vSphere, so it consumes fewer resources. However, you must remember that each hypervisor's resource consumption depends on the configuration and workload.

Read full answer

Rajkumar Gera

Vice President, IT Infrastructure ( DC Operations ) at Vodafone Idea Ltd.

Feb 7, 2024

Hi Sridhar, This is Rajkumar Gera, VP IT in one of the Telecom. Below are some of the points, may help you: FEATURE RED HAT ENTERPRISE VIRTUALIZATION VMWARE VSPHERE Key differentiators Open source solution Proprietary solution Purchased via one subscription Multiple levels of functionality sold in editions with different price points Bare-metal performance for virtualized applications Application high availability (Enterprise Plus version only) Prioritized high availability so critical workloads are restarted first Desktop and server virtualization One infrastructure for managing desktops and servers Add-on products for desktop virtualization: VMware Player, VMware Horizon View, VMware Horizon DaaS, and VMware Horizon Mirage Remote access to virtual desktops through SPICE Full support for multimedia applications Management server Included in the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization subscription Requires purchase and license of VMware vCenter and database support Virtual machine density 40 cores: 4,682@288 40 cores: 3,824@234 160 cores: 14,061@864 160 cores: result not available Self-service portal Allows users to provision and manage VMs and templates with a browser Requires the purchase of VMware vCloud Automation Center Integration with OpenStack technology Supports the open Neutron pluggable networking API Supports VMware’s NSX networking plug-in Supports the OpenStack image service for a unified image repository between virtual and cloud platforms Does not support the OpenStack image service

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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	175
Midsize Enterprise	137
Large Enterprise	259

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about RHEV?

The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan.

See all answers

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 IOMMU?

DEEPEN DHULLA did explain well IOMMU. IOMMU has to be activated at the bios level. It exists on Intel and AMD platforms. It is used a lot inside virtualization platforms like VMware VSphere. It pr...

See all answers

Why KVM??? Help please!

We use VMware and KVM. We find that KVM is a lot simpler to use and it provides the virtualization we need for Linux and Windows. For us, VMware does not offer any advantage. Moreover, KVM is free.

See all answers

Proxmox vs ESXi/vSphere: What is your experience?

For me the biggest impact is the cost of licensing in the case of VMware despite its overall intuitiveness and ease of handling and management. However, KVM-based Open Source solutions are becoming...

See all answers

Comparisons

Proxmox VE vs RHEV

Compared 24% of the time

Hyper-V vs RHEV

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle VM vs RHEV

Compared 10% of the time

KVM vs RHEV

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs RHEV

Compared 7% of the time

More RHEV Competitors

Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere

Compared 55% of the time

Oracle VM vs VMware vSphere

Compared 10% of the time

Proxmox VE vs VMware vSphere

Compared 7% of the time

KVM vs VMware vSphere

Compared 4% of the time

IBM PowerVM vs VMware vSphere

Compared 2% of the time

More VMware vSphere Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

RHEV

March 2026

Download RHEV product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSphere

February 2026

Download VMware vSphere product report

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

No data available

Overview

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, or RHEV, is a leading open standard enterprise virtualization management solution. This solution supports virtualization of servers and desktops using the same infrastructure and a single easy-to-use interface.

Because RHEV is based on open standards, it is vendor-independent and a lot more cost effective and flexible than proprietary solutions.

Red Hat

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?

High Availability: Ensures uptime through automatic failover and load balancing.
vMotion: Facilitates live migration without downtime.
Distributed Resource Scheduler: Optimizes workload distribution across servers.
Centralized Management: Simplifies administration tasks through single-pane control.
Resource Allocation: Allocates computing power and memory efficiently.

What benefits and ROI does VMware vSphere offer?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces hardware requirements and energy usage.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business requirements.
Improved Performance: Enhances application performance and reliability.
Flexibility: Supports integration with other technologies for operational agility.
Ease of Management: Simplifies monitoring and administrative efforts.

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.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.

Abu Dhabi Ports Company, ACS, AIA New Zealand, Consona, Corporate Express, CS Energy, and Digiweb.

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

March 2026

Free Report: RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

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