We use vSphere for production work on defense projects.
IT Supervisor at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
It's stable and easy to scale
Pros and Cons
- "VMware vSphere is easy to scale. We haven't had any problems scaling what we're scaling now."
- "We'd always like to see the price drop, but I realize that may not be realistic."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
There's a lot of things they can improve on, but it's just a matter of where they are at in their development cycle right now. I wish they would have been able to handle Apple at this point, but they can't. So it's just one of those things. They've got features I'm still trying to understand. We haven't gone to containers yet, and I'm trying to find a use for a container.
For how long have I used the solution?
My company has been using vSphere for four years, but I've been using it since about 2003.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Everything has been stable.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is easy to scale. We haven't had any problems scaling what we're scaling now.
How are customer service and support?
I have contacted VMware support in the past, but I haven't needed to in a couple of years. They got back to me. Once you actually get in the queue and they actually talk to you, you're fine. It took me 48 hours to get in the queue because it wasn't a life or death issue. It was just a question. I've called them for more urgent stuff before, and they picked right up and answered the questions. They got us back online within a few hours.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This department happens to run VMware. Other departments run VMware and also use Citrix for certain things. We're looking at running BDI rather than Citrix.
How was the initial setup?
It depends on how you're setting vSphere up and deploying it. They've added some products recently like vSAN and a few other things to the base loads. You have to know what you're doing with those, but it works beautifully if you're doing a standard deployment with general IP storage.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
On a government contract, everything's just a base price. You don't get much of a choice. We'd always like to see the price drop, but I realize that may not be realistic.
What other advice do I have?
I rate VMware vSphere nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

IT Manager at pioneers
Feature rich, easy to use, and simple initial installation
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has many valuable features. Virtualization is flexible and it has simple clustering. However, the most important feature is the ability to move between VMs. The vMotion features are very good."
- "The monitoring is not good in vSphere, many times you have latency or you cannot find what you want. The events should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are using VMware vSphere on all of our servers in all environments.
What is most valuable?
The solution has many valuable features. Virtualization is flexible and it has simple clustering. However, the most important feature is the ability to move between VMs. The vMotion features are very good.
What needs improvement?
The monitoring is not good in vSphere, many times you have latency or you cannot find what you want. The events should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good, but the performance is not good. If you have a large workload, you have to go to a physical service.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, to add storage is easy.
We have approximately six administrators that use the solution in my organization.
How are customer service and support?
I have needed the support of VMware on one occasion. The first level of support is not good but the second level is better and overall the response times tend to be poor.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation of the solution myself. We do the regular maintenance ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm satisfied with the VMware vSphere price. They have a bundle that is priced well. However, any advantage feature is very costly.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate VMware vSphere an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Software and Systems Engineer at SAMU.IT
Reliable, scalable, with good support and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "This solution's most valuable feature is its High Availability."
- "The support is good, but it's slow."
What is our primary use case?
We are an IT company and VMware partners.
VMware vSphere is used for virtualization in all situations and for all businesses.
What is most valuable?
This solution's most valuable feature is its High Availability.
What needs improvement?
The only concern I have with VMware vSphere is that the level of support is inadequate. It's not very fast. The support is good, but it's slow.
When we need help, we require someone to answer the phone quickly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been selling VMware vSphere since it was launched.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have no issues with the stability of VMware vSphere. It is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware vSphere is a scalable product.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good but not very fast.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have customers who use Sangfor, as well as customers with VMware.
vSphere is used by all VMware customers.
How was the initial setup?
A small infrastructure installation can take up to eight hours.
The teams are always the same. We have five technicians, three of whom specialize in networking and virtualization, and one who is a management engineer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our customers have the option of paying the licensing fee when they purchase the solution or renting it from us.
If a customer chooses to rent the solution, the customer pays us and we purchase the solution.
What other advice do I have?
The vSphere serves as the system's control center for managing virtual machines (VMs). VMware vSphere is present in all installations.
Our solutions are all deployed on-premises.
As a company, we advise, supply, and install products for our clients. We provide two solutions, one of which is Sangfor and the other is VMware.
As a reseller of vSphere, I would recommend this solution to anyone who is interested in using it.
I would rate VMware vSphere an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
VMware Software Engineer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Reliable with good performance and helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The pricing of the product is reasonable."
- "The latest version of the solution has a few bugs."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for virtualization.
What is most valuable?
The solution offers a very stable performance.
It's a scalable product.
The solution is extremely reliable. It's an excellent product.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
Technical support has always been great.
The pricing of the product is reasonable.
What needs improvement?
The latest version of the solution has a few bugs. This may be due to the fact that they moved to web-based management. There are some problems in that web-based management, however, it's a minimal issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for seven or eight years at this point. I've used it for a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and very reliable. The performance has been great. In the version we are using, there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so.
I'm not sure of the exact number of users, however, we do have the solution installed on 4,000 machines.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been excellent. They are helpful and responsive. We have no complaints. Their level of service is always good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward and not overly complex. Although it took us a couple of weeks before we installed it, the deployment only took about one day or one and a half days.
We had three engineers that handled the deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We handled the initial setup ourselves. We did not need the assistance of an integrator or consultant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There's a yearly licensing fee, however, it isn't overly expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Up until now, we use the product on-premises, however, currently, we are developing a hybrid cloud. We are moving to the cloud solution and the base, the transition system is, VMware vSphere.
While we use the solution's 6.7 version, the latest version is version 7.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. I've been very happy with the capabilities of the product.
I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
A solid platform that's constantly innovating and has very helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The latest innovation always comes from VMware."
- "The installation is complex and you need to have a good understanding in regards to what you are doing when you are setting it up."
What is our primary use case?
We provide basic VMware virtualization platforms basically for private clouds and hybrid clouds.
These are being used in the case of server consolidation for reducing the hardware sprawl and also, for a lot of the monitoring solutions now, so that companies can have their own virtual machines. For that, many of the clients need a virtualization platform. That's where we recommend vSphere.
What is most valuable?
It's the de facto leader in the virtualization market as of now and it's been the pioneer and it's got the maximum breadth of the features available across the virtualization sphere.
It has got almost all the features that one can expect to find in a solid platform. It has good features performance-wise and offers a very small footprint. They're top-class security-wise.
The latest innovation always comes from VMware.
The stability is very good.
The scalability is excellent.
What needs improvement?
While they have got enough integration as of now, they definitely need to get more cybersecurity integration as that is always beneficial.
The installation is complex and you need to have a good understanding in regards to what you are doing when you are setting it up.
The solution is relatively expensive. It's a big downside.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six to seven years. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is excellent in terms of stability. There aren't issues around bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. the performance is reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is top-notch. There is nothing to complain about. It scales quite well.
We have about 50 to 60 customers that use the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The tech support is world-class and we are very happy with their level of service.
How was the initial setup?
Virtualization is always a challenge. It's never a straightforward task as there are so many variables and parameters to consider. There's nothing straightforward about virtualization. Having said that, vSphere is so widespread and available, that you get access to the knowledge and the resources you need to implement it very easily. In that sense, you don't really have to struggle too much regarding the installation. You get a lot of help, however, you need to know what you're getting into and what you're doing.
We have about three to four engineers who support VMware and then a couple of guys managing customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The biggest pain when it comes to VMware is that licensing costs are pretty high.
The product itself has been around for so many years, I'm sure they can offer much better terms.
The licensing is paid on a yearly basis.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten.
I'd recommend the solution. Most people cannnot ignore VMware unless they are looking for something very, very, very, very minimal. It's best in class.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Principal Consultant at Absolute Precision
Great ability to redistribute loads, re-spin failed processes and monitor resource utilization
Pros and Cons
- "The ability to monitor resource utilization."
- "Inability to get to a single hypervisor environment to support a container environment."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for integrating data feeds from multiple applications.
What is most valuable?
The ability to redistribute loads, to re-spin failed processes, monitor resource utilization, and such are all valuable features in VMware. In industrial IoT, most elements end up being terrestrial. With VMware, especially when you're working with niche products, you can manage the integrated solution and multiple systems from a single pane of glass.
What needs improvement?
We're moving towards containerization and it was unclear what I'd have to do to support containerized environments alongside multiple systems of Linux and Windows. My aim was to get to a single hypervisor environment in which I could support a container environment as one of the array of other applications. Whether due to a lack of training or information, I was unable to get to that. Some people look at VMware as being an alternative to containerization, enabling them to dispense with solutions like Kubernetes and Docker in order to do away with VMware. That's not the reality and I'd like to have a transparent platform that can support all of them.
Aside from cost, I'd like to see some simplification in the solution. The main issue is manageability or scalability of skilled resources, the degree to which the product delivers a stable environment that can be managed by a less technical person.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very easy to scale, especially when you are trying to scale resource availability and the management of the solution. You need to have a degree of transparency across all those environments.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't personally had any contact with technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've deployed Docker as a standalone using Linux, multiple servers, etc. I'm currently learning Kubernetes so that I can create a new island in the chain and do a container, but I still have the other systems that continue to run in environments best suited to VMware.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward for a computer savvy guy. I haven't experienced any bugs or glitches. Our customers are generally small to medium size organizations.
What other advice do I have?
For now, I would go with VMware for the Windows and Linux environment and do Kubernetes as a new island in the chain for containers. For most organizations, the ideal is the number of other users of a solution, because they're the ones that find the problems before you. Going off into some experimental environment may sound great and you might have a good initial experience, but if you're going to be the only person walking the minefield, it may not be a good ending.
I rate VMware nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head Tim Infrastructure, and IT Security at Lembaga Penjamin SImpanan
Helpful load balancing, reliable, and responsive technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The most important feature is the ability to balance the servers with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). It is a very useful feature and should be mandatory for vSphere to have but it is only available in the enterprise edition. It should be available in all versions."
- "We are provided with a mini dashboard that has been improved in the latest version but it still could be better. The monitoring is now available on the vCenter dashboard and the vROps has been added to the basic version that had to be purchased separately before. A complete dashboard has always been provided with some competitors, such as Nutanix."
What is our primary use case?
Previously, we were using the conventional physical server but we now use the enterprise version of VMware vSphere to virtualize all of our servers. All of the servers in our company are now virtualized servers. In 2016, we do not know that virtualized servers can be monitored, we have implemented monitoring for the virtualized systems and management allowing us to create DR for the solution.
What is most valuable?
The most important feature is the ability to balance the servers with Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS). It is a very useful feature and should be mandatory for vSphere to have but it is only available in the enterprise edition. It should be available in all versions.
What needs improvement?
We are provided with a mini dashboard that has been improved in the latest version but it still could be better. The monitoring is now available on the vCenter dashboard and the vROps has been added to the basic version that had to be purchased separately before. A complete dashboard has always been provided with some competitors, such as Nutanix.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is reliable.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have purchased the platinum technical support and they are responsive. They answer emails and telephone calls quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Hyper-V previously.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy but the security configuration is complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are on a perpetual license for VMware vSphere and the price can be expensive compared to other solutions, such as Hyper-V. They should lower their price.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated Nutanix.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. I advise those wanting to use the solution to test it out and compare it to competitors.
I rate VMware vSphere a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Chief Enterprise Architect at Alinma Bank
Converts our physical assets into virtualized assets
Pros and Cons
- "It affords us different views of the VMs created by vSphere so we can control them better."
- "There are some challenges around ESXi hosts — converting them into VMs."
What is our primary use case?
We mainly use this solution to create hosts and convert them to virtual machines. We convert our physical assets into virtualized assets. We need to convert ESXi hosts into VMs.
Our entire operating team has access to vSphere. They can log into vCenter — vSphere's dashboard. We have multiple IDs and roles created. In total, we have more than 600 users. Out of our 600 users, we have around 50 admin users who can administer the entire map.
We definitely plan to continue using this solution.
What is most valuable?
All of the features are great. It affords us different views of the VMs created by vSphere so we can control them better. It provides us with a single view into VMs as an asset. We create thousands and thousands of VMs using vSphere.
We have created more than 6,000 VMs. With this solution, through a single pane, we can see inside the vCenter. We can see our VMs that are running on-premises, the data center, and the ones that are in the Cloud.
What needs improvement?
There is some room for improvement but if we're not satisfied converting all of our physical assets into virtualized ones, since we have a scope for other technologies, we can always go for containerization.
There are some challenges around ESXi hosts — converting them into VMs. Also, it could definitely be more secure, overall.
It would be nice if other users could see or accept the VMs that we create — this has to do with the cluster.
The cluster should be able to be viewed by multiple sets of users apart from the operating team. If a developer also wants to have access to the cluster, it's complicated. Role-based access should be available to make this easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware vSphere for more than 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's quite stable. I haven't experienced any issues as such. We have support available from an extended team of VMware professionals. It's aligned to the GTI, global technology infrastructure. VMware is a big area in our organization.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's quite scalable. You can keep scaling up the number of VMs you want to create. As I mentioned, we create thousands of VMs, so yes, we can scale easily. That's a capability I would look at from a business goal perspective. Any business leader will want to scale up their hypervisor. vSphere is pretty much the hypervisor.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am satisfied with the support. There's a separate team for maintenance and a separate team for support. Whatever upgrades need to be done, it is all taken care of by the maintenance teams.
How was the initial setup?
There are two ways of installing it, depending on your deployment topology. Overall, it's quite fast and easy to install. It only takes a couple of days to install it.
What about the implementation team?
An extended team of VMware professionals helped us with the installation, but we mostly did it ourselves. It was onboarded into our organization in 2009 — the very first version. You could say that we're one of the earliest adopters.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing has become cheaper over time. As there are multiple offerings, it depends on how you are leveraging.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Edge containerization a while back, but we didn't notice any tools that would help us grow, so we decided to stick with VMware vSphere.
What other advice do I have?
I would absolutely recommend this solution. It's better than Microsoft Hyper-V. Hyper-V has some problems. VMware vSphere is the industry leader by far when it comes to the hypervisor sector.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of nine.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Product Categories
Server Virtualization SoftwarePopular Comparisons
Proxmox VE
Hyper-V
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Red Hat OpenShift
Nutanix AHV Virtualization
Oracle VM
Citrix XenServer
IBM PowerVM
XCP-ng virtualization platform
OpenVZ
ISPsystem VMmanager
Virtuozzo Hybrid Server
Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSphere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- VMware ESXi or VMware Workstation?
- What is the biggest difference between KVM and vSphere?
- VMware vs. Hyper-V - Which do you prefer?
- How does VMware ESXi compare to alternative virtualization solutions?
- VMware has been positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for four years. Agree/Disagree? Why?
- Proxmox vs ESXi/vSphere: What is your experience?
- Oracle VM vs. latest VMWare?
- Which is the most suitable blade server for VMware ESXi?
- What do each of the VMware and Citrix products do?
- What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?