Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

vSphere VS Proxmox VE

Compare vSphere VS Proxmox VE and see what are their differences

vSphere logo vSphere

Get started with VMware vSphere editions, the world’s leading server virtualization platform and the best foundation for your apps, your cloud, and your business.

Proxmox VE logo Proxmox VE

Proxmox is an open-source server virtualization management solution that offers the ability to manage virtual server technology with the Linux OpenVZ and KVM technology.
  • vSphere Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-25
  • Proxmox VE Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-16

vSphere features and specs

  • High Availability
    vSphere offers built-in high availability (HA) features that ensure continuous availability of applications by minimizing downtime and providing quick failure recovery.
  • Scalability
    vSphere can scale both horizontally and vertically, meaning it can handle increasing workloads by adding more servers or by enhancing the capabilities of existing servers.
  • Advanced Resource Management
    Provides sophisticated resource management capabilities including Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and Network I/O Control, enabling efficient distribution and utilization of resources.
  • Security
    Incorporates numerous security features such as encryption, secure boot, and role-based access control (RBAC) to safeguard sensitive data and ensure compliance.
  • Ease of Management
    Comprehensive management tools like vCenter Server facilitate streamlined administration, monitoring, and automation of virtual environments.
  • Backup and Recovery
    Supports robust backup and recovery solutions, including integration with various third-party backup software for disaster recovery planning.
  • Performance Optimization
    Optimizes performance through features like VMotion and Storage VMotion, enabling live migration of virtual machines without downtime.

Possible disadvantages of vSphere

  • Cost
    vSphere is often considered expensive, with high initial licensing fees and ongoing maintenance costs, which may not be affordable for smaller organizations.
  • Complexity
    The platform can be complex to deploy and manage, necessitating skilled personnel for setup, configuration, and ongoing administration.
  • Hardware Compatibility
    Requires specific hardware for optimal performance and compatibility, which may necessitate additional investments in new hardware or upgrades.
  • Resource Intensive
    Resource-hungry environment that can impact performance if not properly managed, particularly in terms of CPU, memory, and storage requirements.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Heavily relies on VMware's ecosystem, creating potential vendor lock-in issues, making it difficult to switch to other solutions without significant effort.
  • Learning Curve
    Steep learning curve for new users, requiring extensive training and experience to utilize all the features and capabilities effectively.
  • License Compliance
    Complex licensing model can result in compliance challenges, necessitating rigorous tracking and management of licenses to avoid penalties.

Proxmox VE features and specs

  • Open-Source
    Proxmox VE is completely open-source, allowing users to inspect, modify, and distribute the software as needed. This fosters a large community and encourages collaboration and transparency.
  • Cost-Effective
    There are no licensing fees for Proxmox VE, making it a cost-effective solution for enterprises, small businesses, and home labs.
  • Comprehensive Feature Set
    Proxmox VE offers a wide range of features, including clustering, KVM and LXC virtualization, high availability, backups, and integrated disaster recovery.
  • Integrated Web-Based GUI
    It provides a powerful and user-friendly web interface for managing VMs, containers, storage, and network configurations, which reduces administration complexity.
  • Enterprise Support Options
    While the software itself is free, Proxmox VE offers paid support plans that provide professional assistance, updates, and enhancements.
  • Scalability
    Proxmox VE supports clustering, allowing users to scale their virtualized environments across multiple physical servers with ease.

Possible disadvantages of Proxmox VE

  • Learning Curve
    For users new to virtualization or Linux-based systems, there may be a significant learning curve to fully utilize Proxmox VE’s features.
  • Hardware Compatibility
    Though generally broad, some specific hardware might not be fully supported, requiring additional configuration or workarounds.
  • Community-Based Support
    Free support is generally community-based, which can sometimes lead to less timely or reliable assistance compared to paid, vendor-provided support.
  • Updating and Upgrading
    While updates and upgrades are regular, they might occasionally introduce compatibility issues or require manual intervention.
  • Feature Gaps with Proprietary Solutions
    Even though Proxmox VE is feature-rich, there might be specific advanced features available in proprietary solutions (like VMware vSphere) that Proxmox VE lacks.
  • Integration with Third-Party Tools
    Integrating Proxmox VE with certain third-party tools and systems can sometimes be challenging, necessitating custom solutions or additional configurations.

vSphere videos

What is VMware vSphere ESXi and vCenter?

More videos:

  • Review - VMware vSphere Review (Real User: Stewart Hardy III)
  • Review - VMware vSphere Review (Real User: Marcelo Garcia)

Proxmox VE videos

Proxmox Virtual Environment 5.2 - Review and Installation

More videos:

  • Review - Homelab / Office Lab Open Source Virtualization XCP-NG & Proxmox Compared
  • Tutorial - Virtualize Everything! - Proxmox Install Tutorial
  • Review - Proxmox VE Full Course: Class 1 - Getting Started

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to vSphere and Proxmox VE)
Cloud Computing
36 36%
64% 64
Virtualization
40 40%
60% 60
Virtual Machine Management
Cloud Infrastructure
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare vSphere and Proxmox VE

vSphere Reviews

Best Server Virtualization Software for 2021
VMware is the vendor to beat in server virtualization with VMware vSphere. It is likely to be on all shortlists as it has dominated the market for so long. It top all competitors on overall user ratings.
10 Open Source/Commercial Control Panels For Virtual Machines (VM’s) Management
VMware vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform for building cloud infrastructure. With tons of its different powerful features, vSphere is a truely state-of-the-art software virtual machines management software. It is an ideal solution for large VPS providers with appropriate budgets and professional staff.
Source: www.tecmint.com
Best Server Virtualization Software
The wide range of capabilities vSphere offers has made it popular for a long time. For instance, the signature tool in VMware is compatible with the hybrid cloud, enables big data virtualization across multiple hosts, and makes it easy to migrate legacy Unix infrastructures to virtual Linux machines. The many tools within vSphere provide support for load balancing and live...
2020's Ultimate Guide to Virtual Machine Management Software for Web Hosts: SolusVM vs. VMware vSphere vs. VMmanager vs. Others
A leading platform for server virtualization and building cloud infrastructure, VMware vSphere is an ideal, state-of-the-art solution for enterprises and large VPS providers. You’ll pay a premium — a basic, 1-year subscription with support costs $273 each year — but vSphere serves up streamlined automation, comprehensive security, a universal app platform, along with...

Proxmox VE Reviews

Explore Top VestaCP Alternative: Find the Perfect Control Panel for Your Hosting Needs
Proxmox Virtual Environment is an extensive and user-centric Open Source virtualization platform designed specifically for managing Virtual Appliances and Virtual Machines with ease. This formidable solution seamlessly integrates the KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, along with software-defined storage and networking functionalities, within a unified structure. Proxmox VE...
Source: cyberpanel.net
10 Best VMware Alternatives and Similar Software
Proxmox runs on a modified Linux Kernel that is based on Debian Linux/GNU. You can run Linux and Windows under VMs using Proxmox, with each VM having its own virtualized hardware and components. Proxmox is best for personal servers, whereas VMware is best for businesses.
Best Server Virtualization Software for 2021
Proxmox is a lower-cost alternative to Red Hat in Linux-rich environments. It has carved out a niche in Germany and other parts of Europe, particularly among SMBs with IT staff experienced in open source software. Its combination of server virtualization, containers and software defined storage in one product makes it especially attractive to organizations wishing to...
12 Best FREE Virtual Machine (VM) Software in 2020
Proxmox VE is another platform for virtualization. It helps you to integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers and networking functionality on a single platform.
Source: www.guru99.com
Best Server Virtualization Software
Like Red Hat, Proxmox VE has earned a reputation as a reliable and effective virtualization tool for Linux workloads and environments. Proxmox is known for bringing server virtualization, containerization, and software-defined storage capabilities to a single, open-source product, making it a direct competitor to Virtuozzo.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Proxmox VE seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

vSphere mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of vSphere yet. Tracking of vSphere recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Proxmox VE mentions (9)

  • Adventures in Homelabbing: From Cloud Obsession to Self-Hosted Shenanigans
    Now that I know I do enjoy homelabbing, I have moved forward with purchasing the last computer parts I need for a basic home server before these tariffs skyrocket the prices even further. For that machine, I will most likely set up Proxmox, and either set up CasaOS on the mini PC or set it up as a node in a Proxmox cluster to serve as a sandbox environment. - Source: dev.to / 21 days ago
  • Setting up the home lab: Terraform
    When I worked for CBS, I discovered Terraform, which is tool that allows you do define infrastructure as code ("IaC"). I just recently purchased a home lab server (the details of how I have that set up will be discussed in a future article) and installed Proxmox on it. I'd like to improve my DevOps skills, so I thought I'd play with Terraform for my home lab. Eventually I'd like to get my entire home... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • VMware Kills Off 56 Products
    Proxmox [1] will see a boost in popularity, good. I'm using the free version in combination with the backup server on both small (several RasPi 4's spread over several countres running the 'PiMox' [2] port) as well as medium (DL380) sized systems and find it to be a stable as well as practical platform. [1] https://proxmox.com/en/ [2] https://github.com/pimox/pimox7. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Deadbolt & QVPN (OpenVPN)
    Have a look at Proxmox if you decide on running containers and have any old hardware laying around. Source: about 2 years ago
  • A little help with table structure?
    Hey everyone! I'm making a server management panel with Laravel using Proxmox (https://proxmox.com/en/) as the API for directly managing the virtual machines. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing vSphere and Proxmox VE, you can also consider the following products

Hyper-V - Install Hyper-V on Windows 10

VirtualBox - VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as...

Azure Virtual Machines - Build Linux and Windows virtual machines (VMs) and save up to 80 percent with Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances and Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server.

VMware Workstation - VMware Workstation is a multiple operating system handler to easily evaluate the any other type of new operating systems.

Evolve IP Virtual Desktop - Evolve IP has been enabling businesses to deploy both cloud computing and cloud communications services on a single, unified platform.

OpenNebula - OpenNebula is an Open Source Cloud & Edge Computing Platform to build & manage Enterprise Clouds. OpenNebula provides unified management of IT infrastructure, avoiding vendor lock-in & reducing complexity, resource consumption, & operational costs 🚀