Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Hyper-V vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 7, 2022
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyper-V
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
137
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (3rd)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Hyper-V is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 14.5%, down 18.1% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 16.7% mindshare, up 13.7% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Timur Assembayev - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 12, 2022
Good functionality, works well on Windows, and offers useful virtualization capabilities
I use it personally for training. I do some testing for myself. I use it for virtualization and have used it to compare testing functionality.  It has not helped my organization. I just use it for testing. The solution works well on Windows. The product, overall, works well.  I like the…
CH
Jul 11, 2024
Helps minimize noise and clutter in common office spaces
When setting up VMware, you have to install the software and virtual machines. The speed of the underlying hardware affects how long the setup takes. Typically, the team creates one configuration and then duplicates it across as many virtual machines as needed. Each virtual machine setup takes about ten minutes, but the initial configuration can take a few hours to tweak and ensure everything is working properly, including network addresses. Aside from a few manual changes after each copy, it's straightforward. It's less complicated than keeping your Windows machine at home up to date. You can deploy updates in bulk to all the virtual machines overnight from a single location without anyone needing to intervene. This ensures everyone is on the same version with the same patches, which brings a lot of consistency.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The initial setup was very easy."
"The solution is stable."
"It utilizes the hardware so there are multiple applications running on one hypervisor."
"Hyper-V's technical support is good - they're responsive and sort cases based on criticality and category, so they get dealt with quickly and by the correct team."
"It is an affordable platform."
"It's good for what it does. If you have a small or medium-scale acclimatization, it's an excellent solution."
"I value the simplicity of configuration because it has worked as expected for my client."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is snapshot."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"The most valuable features of the VMware Workstation solutions are the ESXi and vCenter."
"The features are good."
"We can undo some changes using the snapshot feature."
"Because the setup is so easy, this is a solution that can be used at a moment's notice."
"It's stable."
"Having ten people working off a single piece of hardware reduces costs."
 

Cons

"In an upcoming release, they can improve by having better cloud integration. We are all moving towards the clouds and the integration is only through the Azure Stack, there should be tools built in to move the VMs natively to the cloud and infrastructure. Additionally, they could provide some form of multi-cloud integration."
"It would be nice if they provided a free management console that we could use to manage all of the hosts for no additional fee."
"We have our cluster connected to a Dell EMC VNX (SAN). The Hyper-V nodes are on Cisco UCS blades, and everything is interconnected via fiber. I attempted to use a virtual Fibre Channel connection to present a SAN volume to a VM but was not able to make that work."
"They can hot add NICs to the VMs. However, there is still not the ability to hot add virtual processors to running VMs."
"They could work on lowering the cost of the solution."
"I would love to see other options for connecting VMs to large data storage."
"We have our scientific network, and it's run off the university sever, and we need two servers to optimize our scientific work, such as the mathematics work. Then you have to work with Python and Java, and Microsoft isn't the best option for this kind of work"
"Storage via SMB3."
"It would be great if VMware Workstation had more networking options and compatibility, that would be great. I would like to deploy virtual switches and play around with networking a bit more. Otherwise, I have to deploy ESXi Virtual Edition and emulate it, which is painful and clunky."
"The solution freezes sometimes."
"The tool can improve network storage technology."
"The price should be reduced."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
"They could add more integration between them, and compatibility with the standard virtualization format."
"The big issue that we've always had with VMware, was the disparity between what was presented for a Windows-based client and a Linux-based client. The Windows client was always two or three releases ahead of the Linux client. We always wanted VMware to change and improve the feature sets between the client connector on Linux and on Windows."
"Installing VMware Workstation isn't so easy. It's highly complex compared to Windows. I rate it four out of 10 for ease of installation. Setting up a remote desktop only takes a minute or so, but the Workstation itself takes some time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is competitive, and a bit less than other options on the market."
"Licensing needs to be a lot easier to manage with Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware is easier."
"The product's price is low."
"I do not have experience with pricing or licensing of the product."
"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."
"It's not expensive."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"Hyper-V is part of Windows Server, so there are no extra costs for the product."
"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."
"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."
"The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."
"It has the best licensing modules."
"With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
"The price of the solution per workstation is approximately 200 Francs annually. We pay a total of 800 francs. Everything is included in the price such as the support."
"With a VDI solution, there is always extra cost running a VDI solution but it's not for cost purposes anymore. In the beginning, it was to save money on hardware but at the moment it's other aspects that are more important why you should use a VDI solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Virtualization Software solutions are best for your needs.
800,905 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Educational Organization
34%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does KVM compare with Hyper-V?
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 a...
How does Proxmox VE compare with Hyper-V?
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...
What do you like most about Hyper-V?
The initial setup is not difficult at all. It is very easy.
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Comparisons

 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Large customer base from all industries, all over the world. Two major Hyper-V customers are Telefonica and EmpireCLS.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: August 2024.
800,905 professionals have used our research since 2012.