Hyper-V vs Nutanix AHV Virtualization comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 1, 2022

We performed a comparison between Hyper-V and Nutanix AHV Virtualization based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Reviewers find both solutions to be quick, easy, and straightforward to deploy.
  • Features: Users find Hyper-V easy to use and manage, robust, and very stable. It does not use too many resources so it will not cause any latency issues. The solution offers great replication features and is very easy to customize. The performance is great, and VMs can easily move across push servers seamlessly without incident. Many users suggest that some disaster recovery capabilities need improvement and that cloud integration should be expanded beyond the Azure ecosystem to make the solution more attractive to more users.

    Users feel Nutanix AHV Virtualization’s central management control is intuitive and easy to use, making the entire solution easy to manage. Many users would like to see better integrations with other third-party solutions. Nutanix AHV Virtualization can consume too many organizational resources and slow processes down.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel that they are reasonably priced and cost-effective.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions share that the support and service they have received is very responsive and very good.

Comparison Results: Hyper-V came out on top in this comparison. It is easy to manage and customize, and has very low resource usage, resulting in very little downtime. It is robust, stable, and provides many desired next-generation features. As a Microsoft product, it integrates well with many solutions in the Microsoft ecosystem, in addition to many other popular third-party solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Hyper-V vs. Nutanix AHV Virtualization Report (Updated: March 2023).
687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is stable.""One of the most valuable features of Hyper-V is ease to use.""I like that Hyper-V comes for free with Windows Server. You don't need to buy the license, and you only have to pay for the management aspect in System Center.""The solution is stable and the cost is reasonable.""I like that it's easy to use.""Hyper-V is much easier to deploy because Hyper-V is already installed inside Windows Server OS. You only need to turn on Hyper-V as a service, and then you can use it. The most convenient thing about Hyper-V is the operating system.""Microsoft has documentation that is easy to find, helpful, and readily available.""We've probably seen a 50 percent speed increase on our SQL server. Hyper-V has also significantly reduced our downtimes with faster boot-up and reboot. If we have to reboot a server, there is maybe two or three minutes of downtime. When we were on a bare-metal server, it could be five to ten minutes due to the total boot time."

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"It's user-friendly.""The most valuable feature of Nutanix AHV Virtualization is the user-friendly environment. The integration, implementation, and training for the solution are good.""You don't need any other instruments for control, AHV. You only need to look at the prism to control all infrastructure.""The solution is stable.""Using AHV, we have a built-in VR solution. It operates using a reduplication-based unique package transfer process.""If we want to move the virtual machine from one host to another, it's simple, straightforward, and stable.""The feature that has had the most impact is data locality. That is a feature that makes Nutanix different from other hypervisors. It helps us to get application performance that is probably double what we got with the legacy, three-tier architecture.""Nutanix's customer support is good, one of its biggest selling points."

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Cons
"The biggest problem with Hyper-V is that the virtual machines are mostly running on top of the Windows Server, so we often need to reboot the machine and virtual machines when updating the host level. That's why we prefer VMware. It's much easier to patch the host. Also, Hyper-V has security vulnerabilities. It's easy to attack and compromise the host.""The technical support is good but it could improve by being faster.""If a person has never implemented the solution before, they might find the process difficult.""The operating system is very, very heavy.""I would like Microsoft to put more effort into the Admin Center interface and make it much easier. It is customizable, but you have to be a PowerShell expert to customize these things. That is a limitation.""When one server or one virtual machine fails, or one is turned off, the virtualization stops, and we have to initiate again with human intervention.""Hyper-V's management platform falls short in terms of scalability, especially when handling multiple Hyper-V servers. VMware has a central console to pull in all your VM servers, so you can easily manage them all through one console. You can manage servers in Hyper-V's admin centers, but it's not as scalable. It's doable with a couple of Hyper-V servers, but it becomes harder to manage when you get over two or three Hyper-V servers.""Failure capabilities are insufficient for disaster recovery."

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"If we have to opt for a high level of capacity planning and need more analytics—like deciding on new purchases or budgeting, or if we need additional resources in the near future—we need to pay for Prism Central. I would suggest that Nutanix improve a bit on the analytics part of Prism Element so we can calculate those kinds of things within that flavor.""The solution can be pricey.""VMware does tend to have more features than AHV. It's more of the leader in this space.""The solution could improve the call logging system to HPE, it is a bit tedious.""I would like to see more automation of Day One operations, such as DRS, and HA.""An improvement would be for Nutanix AHV to support VMDK, AOS, Hyper-V, and VMware.""The initial installation is complex. It took approximately four days.""The price of Nutanix AHV Virtualization could improve."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "If you have the standard edition of Windows server then with each copy of the operating system, you have two virtual machines for free."
  • "Because we're an NGO or a charity, we get discount rates from Microsoft. The costs are not astronomical for us. To give you an example, Office 2019 would only cost 30 or 45 for us. We tend to use the on-premises version rather than the cloud version. The reason is that the subscription service works out more expensive after a few years than the on-premise version. We're not worried about having the bleeding edge stuff. We just want it to be functional."
  • "Hyper-V is cost-effective and is a one-time purchase. Microsoft has multiple licensing options available, such as a subscription model and an outside purchase model that customers can choose as per their requirements."
  • "There is a perpetual license to use the solution and there are additional fees for support."
  • "There is a license required to use Hyper-V and there are bundle packages you can purchase making it cheaper than other solutions, such as VMware. Additionally, if there is a lot of guest OS that requires Windows, then Microsoft becomes cheaper."
  • "Thanks to our enterprise agreement with Microsoft, Hyper-V is free for us."
  • "I think I'm okay with the cost. There are no monthly or yearly costs or additional costs."
  • "I recommend Hyper-V to customers with budget constraints."
  • More Hyper-V Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of the solution is fair and if you want support there are additional fees."
  • "The price of the solution can always be lower. However, the price of the solution is reasonable."
  • "Nutanix AHV is free."
  • "The price of Nutanix AHV is reasonable."
  • "The licensing overall from Nutanix AHV is very good compared to other solutions."
  • "Nutanix AHV is low cost."
  • "I would rate the pricing a three out of five. It is expensive, but it also provides the value for money and performance that you require as a hyperconverged and virtualization software."
  • "When comparing this solution to others on the market, such as VMware and Citrix, the price could be reduced."
  • More Nutanix AHV Virtualization Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:KVM is better. But let's just look at the software instead of judging. Hyper-V was a free solution from Microsoft to virtualize Server or Client OS as it is a feature on Windows Server since 2008… more »
    Top Answer:One of the best things about Proxmox VE is that it is open-source and very inexpensive. You get all of the same features as with the more well-known products. Proxmox VE is very easy to deploy - it… more »
    Top Answer:To understand which is better - Nutanix AHV or VMware vSphere - you need to do a product comparison. Both products support hypervisors. However, Nutanix supports some of the most popular ones and more… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature is manageability.
    Top Answer:We don't have to pay extra for Acropolis because it is built into Nutanix. If we were using another product, like VMware, then we would need to have a separate license for the hypervisor.
    Ranking
    Views
    52,748
    Comparisons
    43,988
    Reviews
    44
    Average Words per Review
    457
    Rating
    7.6
    Views
    13,129
    Comparisons
    8,808
    Reviews
    14
    Average Words per Review
    594
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Hyper-V is a hardware virtualization tool that allows users to create virtual computer environments with multiple operating systems on a single physical server. Each virtual machine has computer parts, such as memory, processor, storage, and networking, and acts like a standard computer - running its own operating system and software programs. Each component of the virtual machine can be configured to meet your specific requirements.

    Hyper-V creates a cost-effective, stable, and productive server virtualization environment by running multiple operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and more, in parallel on one machine or server. Each virtual machine runs in its own isolated space, which means you can run many virtual machines simultaneously but independently of each other. This helps prevent problems such as a crash affecting the other workloads and enables different users to separately access various systems.

    Benefits of Hyper-V

    • Simplify application testing: With Hyper-V you can easily add and remove operating systems from your virtual machines, enabling you to run and test your applications on each of them all from one single computer.

    • Minimize resource usage and scalability: Virtual machines are easier to manage than physical hardware and less expensive. You can also maximize your server use by allocating its resources more efficiently than you can with physical hardware alone.

    Hyper-V key features:.

    • Replication and migration: Hyper-V can replicate virtual machines for backups onto different sites. Hyper-V also provides a migration tool for moving a virtual machine from one Hyper-V host to another without causing any downtime.

    • Remote connection: Hyper-V’s remote connectivity tool allows administrators to remotely access a virtual machine.

    • Security: Hyper-V keeps virtual machines secure from malware attacks, unauthorized access, and data breaching attempts.

     Reviews from Real Users

    Hyper-V stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its flexibility, its replication capabilities, and the fact that its virtual machines utilize a small amount of resources..

    Liam L., the owner of a tech services company, writes, “It is actually very low on resources. It doesn't use many resources. It is also very easy to tailor. You can change things like the amount of memory and storage on the fly. It is very stable and reliable. I like its replication feature, which is very good. It is also very easy to move the virtual machines across push servers without any difficulty. Its performance is also very good. Now with this pandemic, a lot of workers are working from home. A lot of workers have been using laptops as their desktop computers, and they would remote into a virtual PC. There is no difficulty, and they can't tell the difference between this and the real one. It is much easier to manage.”

    Kevin E. an IT director at Homeland Technology Group, LLC, notes, “We've probably seen a 50 percent speed increase on our SQL server. Hyper-V has also significantly reduced our downtimes with faster boot-up and reboot. If we have to reboot a server, there is maybe two or three minutes of downtime. When we were on a bare-metal server, it could be five to ten minutes due to the total boot time.”

    Nutanix AHV is a secure, enterprise-grade solution for intuitive virtualization and container management. It streamlines operations and simplifies management for all your workloads and environments.
    Offer
    Learn more about Hyper-V
    Learn more about Nutanix AHV Virtualization
    Sample Customers
    Large customer base from all industries, all over the world. Two major Hyper-V customers are Telefonica and EmpireCLS.
    JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Outsourcing Company9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Government9%
    Educational Organization8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company33%
    Financial Services Firm25%
    Retailer17%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Educational Organization9%
    Government8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise26%
    Large Enterprise26%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business34%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise34%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise58%
    Buyer's Guide
    Hyper-V vs. Nutanix AHV Virtualization
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Hyper-V vs. Nutanix AHV Virtualization and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    687,256 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Hyper-V is ranked 3rd in Server Virtualization Software with 46 reviews while Nutanix AHV Virtualization is ranked 6th in Server Virtualization Software with 18 reviews. Hyper-V is rated 7.6, while Nutanix AHV Virtualization is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Hyper-V writes "It's a low-cost solution that enabled us to shrink everything down into a single server ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Nutanix AHV Virtualization writes "Lightweight, integrates well, and the technical support is responsive". Hyper-V is most compared with VMware vSphere, Proxmox VE, VMware Workstation, Oracle VM VirtualBox and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), whereas Nutanix AHV Virtualization is most compared with Proxmox VE, VMware vSphere, KVM, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Oracle VM. See our Hyper-V vs. Nutanix AHV Virtualization report.

    See our list of best Server Virtualization Software vendors.

    We monitor all Server Virtualization Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.