What Alternatives to VMWare Are People Exploring?

Proxmox has been our go-to. We repurposed existing hardware and avoided the hefty costs associated with Hyper-V licensing. Going mostly with Linux also made Proxmox a comfortable fit for us. We're migrating over 1000 VMs and so far, it’s been going well.

If you're planning on reusing hardware, consider Hyper-V if you already have Windows licenses. Otherwise, Proxmox and XCP-NG are solid picks. Nutanix can be great for a brand new setup but expect high renewal costs down the line. On the other hand, if you're diving into containers, you might want to look into OpenShift, although it's not the easiest option.

We actually moved away from VMWare but found it to be the only solution that consistently worked well for us. After trying out Nutanix and running into sky-high renewal costs and performance issues with Hyper-V (especially its S2D), we decided to stick with VMWare because it just worked for our needs. Hyper-V can be managed effectively but you’ll find yourself juggling multiple management tools, which gets cumbersome. And avoid S2D at all costs—our team suffered greatly with it. If you're set on exploring other options, I'd recommend looking into separate shared storage solutions alongside Hyper-V.

We have both VMWare and Hyper-V, and honestly, the biggest factor for us in moving away from VMWare was cost. We're looking into replacing it completely with Hyper-V by 2025, primarily because it integrates better with our existing applications. But, I've also tinkered with Hyper-V and it seems just alright—good enough to run VMs but not something I love.

I think XCP-NG is a great choice for VMWare users if you're considering migrating. The support is solid and it has features like built-in site replication and 3-2-1 backup, which are really beneficial. It seems like a lot of folks overlook it in favor of Proxmox without giving it a fair shot.