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VMware vSphere vs VMware vSphere Foundation 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
6.7
VMware vSphere boosts efficiency, lowering costs and hardware needs, ensuring rapid ROI and long-term financial benefits despite initial investment.
Sentiment score
5.3
VMware vSphere Foundation improves scalability, recoverability, and cost management through server consolidation and infrastructure optimization for hybrid architectures.
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.
Sr. Technical Architect at StarOne IT Solutions
In an environment where the infrastructure has to be up for monitoring and controlling physical infrastructure like water plants, it has absolutely returned on its investment.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
There is flexibility and interoperability with multi-mode architectures that accommodate both on-prem and cloud realities.
CIO and Chief Digital Officer at Reliance Industries Ltd
Server consolidation is one return on investment where we can use one server for multiple workloads.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
VMware vSphere's support is mixed: knowledgeable yet inconsistent, with delays and concerns on language and availability post-Broadcom acquisition.
Sentiment score
5.9
VMware vSphere Foundation's customer service is mixed, praised for availability and support but critiqued on costs and response times.
Priority one issues are usually addressed by engineers within one to two hours.
Server Support Engineer at CIPL - Corporate Infotech Pvt Ltd
Recently, support has been less friendly and slower, especially after the company was acquired by Broadcom.
Revenue Operations Specialist at KK AGC
If we have issues, the support tends to be unreliable
Technical Assistant at EOCD
There is nonstop support available around the world, which allows issues to be resolved continuously without interruption, regardless of whether the problem occurs in the USA, India, or another location.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
Now, with Broadcom's management, I would rate it a three out of ten.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Most of the time, VMware operates smoothly without requiring support.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
VMware vSphere offers excellent scalability and flexibility, enabling seamless growth despite potential licensing constraints, adapting to diverse infrastructures.
Sentiment score
7.7
VMware vSphere Foundation is scalable, supports third-party integration, but users note potential limitations in specific configurations.
Scaling is easy, whether it is hyperconverged or a three-tier architecture.
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
VMware vSphere is highly scalable in terms of the number of users and the number of servers it can handle.
Revenue Operations Specialist at KK AGC
It is a highly scalable solution.
Technical Assistant at EOCD
The return on investment is high because we can maximize the use of one server for multiple workloads.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It's straightforward to procure additional licenses, install them on the host and add them to the same cluster.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
You can simply add more hosts to your VMware stack seamlessly, scaling up vertically or horizontally.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
VMware vSphere is reliable, with issues mainly due to third-party hardware, and frequent updates enhance stability and performance.
Sentiment score
7.5
VMware vSphere Foundation is reliable, minimally managed, requires updates, effectively monitors performance, and is highly praised for stability.
It is a very stable hypervisor solution.
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
While they are generally stable, if outages occur, they tend to be due to brands like HP or Dell, not VMware vSphere itself.
Revenue Operations Specialist at KK AGC
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.
IT Director at Def Industry
Stability is optimal.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Frequent updates are required due to constant security challenges and attacks.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
It is a standard tool and is considered very stable.
Quality Engineer at KML
 

Room For Improvement

VMware vSphere is costly and complex, facing performance, integration, and upgrade challenges, limiting accessibility for smaller enterprises.
VMware vSphere faces issues with access, pricing, language support, and multi-cloud management following Broadcom's merger, requiring better solutions.
The cost changed from perpetual to subscription, and there is a need for alternative solutions.
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Another area is the stability during upgrades from older versions to newer versions, where we face issues.
Manager of Systems at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology
Sometimes, it is difficult to find documentation for specific tools and solutions.
Server Support Engineer at CIPL - Corporate Infotech Pvt Ltd
I highly recommend that continuous support for perpetual licenses be provided.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
VMware needs to improve cost efficiency, especially in Pakistan, as customers often seek more affordable solutions.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
Recently, VMware shifted its licensing models, and they should streamline it.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Setup Cost

VMware vSphere's complex pricing offers flexibility and features, but businesses should evaluate needs to avoid unnecessary costs.
VMware vSphere costs, especially post-merger, are high, leading organizations to consider open-source alternatives for cost-effectiveness.
Many customers are trying to avoid it due to its high cost.
Technical Assistant at EOCD
Costs significantly increased from perpetual to subscription, with prices rising by two to three times over three to five years.
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
The solution is too expensive.
Revenue Operations Specialist at KK AGC
It's expensive, however, the stability it offers is optimal.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
In Brazil, we are increasingly using open-source alternatives like Proxmox due to their lower prices in comparison.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
During one project, the price doubled or even tripled before implementation, causing issues with clients.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
 

Valuable Features

VMware vSphere is praised for centralized management, cost efficiency, strong performance, scalability, and advanced features like vMotion and HA.
VMware vSphere Foundation provides scalable virtualization, efficient management, robust security, and facilitates seamless cloud integration with high availability.
The vMotion feature is beneficial for online migration of virtual machines from one host to another without downtime.
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
The tool is highly available, which is crucial for implementing critical applications requiring 24/7 availability.
Revenue Operations Specialist at KK AGC
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.
IT Director at Def Industry
vSphere Foundation is valuable due to its scalability, reliability, and ease of management.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
VMware provides the tools needed to move environments between private and public clouds seamlessly.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
The virtual stack of vCenter, its distributed resources system, high availability engines, and the ability to move VM workloads from one host to another are outstanding.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Categories and Ranking

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
VMware vSphere Foundation
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of VMware vSphere is 18.1%, up from 18.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere Foundation is 0.6%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware vSphere18.1%
VMware vSphere Foundation0.6%
Other81.3%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

IA
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.
RB
CIO and Chief Digital Officer at Reliance Industries Ltd
Hybrid cloud integration provides seamless management while multiple cloud optimization is needed
I have concerns regarding VMware's strategy, particularly about how it manages multiple cloud environments since clients and my company need to navigate multiple clouds. The ability to manage all these environments through a single management interface has become increasingly important. Additionally, companies often arbitrage between different cloud environments, which means we need to optimize workloads based on varying computational abilities and cost points—something I haven't seen fully addressed in your product yet, but which I believe will be necessary. When discussing improvements for VMware vSphere Foundation, many people bring up cost as an issue, but I don't consider that to be the main concern. A key aspect to consider is that we often lack a comprehensive understanding of all the moving parts related to how the product evolves. The conversation we've had illustrates that we may not fully recognize or appreciate all the new features and updates being rolled out.
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Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant, ASEAN at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
May 10, 2015
Hyper-V 2012 R2 vs. VMware vSphere 5.5
I was won with Hyper-V 2012R2 recently and the table below based on customer RFP (edited). This articles all about technical, there is not related with TCO/ROI, licensing cost, “political”, etc. Another to noted is the Windows Server 2012 licenses is based on 2 socket CPU, meanwhile…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business175
Midsize Enterprise137
Large Enterprise258
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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.
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vSphere Foundation?
I don't know the exact pricing for the VMware vSphere Foundation, but I think the last license model to upgrade is three or four times more expensive.
What needs improvement with VMware vSphere Foundation?
It is not the best because something is bothering me and could be enhanced. I want to discuss disadvantages because I have covered some positive things. There are potential areas that could be better.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Abu Dhabi Ports Company, ACS, AIA New Zealand, Consona, Corporate Express, CS Energy, and Digiweb.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about VMware vSphere vs. VMware vSphere Foundation and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.