We performed a comparison between KVM and VMware VSphere based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: VMware VSphere is the winner in this comparison. It is a powerful solution with good customer support and a proven ROI. It is, however, more expensive.
"The key aspect is that the KVM directly interacts with the Kronos. There's no clear indication of indirect communication with Kronos. It is not linked to Kronos, and interaction is straightforward without any intermediaries."
"One of the best features of KVM is its user-friendly interface."
"The KVM service is well managed with a central policy interface."
"The initial setup was very easy."
"I appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting."
"KVM is stable."
"The product is really good...One can get good performance because of kernel-based virtualization."
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"It is highly scalable. We can add new hardware and expand the infrastructure easily."
"Vmware vSphere is the benchmark of the visualization market."
"This solution is very stable. It's scalable and simple to set up."
"The virtualization is set by itself. vSphere is the best way to have a non-host based fixed solution. We always try to find an agnostic environment where we can restore agnostics or just say, "I need resources, capacity." That's why VMware vSphere in particular, has been the best in the past but now also with the evolution of their product. Nowadays, you don't have to use any STEM infrastructure anymore because the bandwidth and the land speeds are getting steeper."
"VMware Tanzu (container) is the most valuable addition because you get an efficient solution to manage the VM and container in a single pane of glass."
"The most valuable features are the seamless HA with vMotion and being able to run vCenters in HA mode."
"The ability of a running VM to be quickly relocated to another hypervisor or launched at another site via replicated storage greatly reduces downtime."
"This solution's most valuable feature is its High Availability."
"Support for VF is needed, where you can, for example, export from VMware to KVM."
"KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations."
"The KVM tech support is really bad. They are not very responsive."
"The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery."
"In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs."
"Technical support is not top-notch."
"The solution should be more user friendly. We are struggling with the command lines."
"I believe KVM offers a unified answer, while ProxMark addresses orchestration. KVM lacks orchestration. If the aim is to centrally oversee multiple KVMs – let's say to freeze them – a centralized management solution is absent."
"It lacks a snapshot feature."
"I would like to see improvements in simplifying automation, cloud native deployment, administration, and fault resolution."
"When we talk about the overall private cloud stack, I would prefer for it be a lot more seamless."
"There is still room for improvement with the HTML5 Web Client. They are working on it, as I can see on their blog. However, there is still room for improvement in the newer features that they can push into it."
"It would be useful to have features like micro-segmentation, changing the mix as well as part of vSphere"
"Although vSphere is a nearly perfect product, it does need a little improvement. Datacenter and Cluster structure should be mixed so that the management of clusters would be easier."
"I would like to see DRS for the GPU machines."
"VMware vSphere could be more secure and well-known to everyone."
KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 39 reviews while VMware vSphere is ranked 2nd in Server Virtualization Software with 446 reviews. KVM is rated 8.0, while VMware vSphere is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of KVM writes "Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware vSphere writes "Offers good performance and is useful for banking systems". KVM is most compared with Proxmox VE, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Hyper-V, VMware Workstation and Oracle VM, whereas VMware vSphere is most compared with Hyper-V, Proxmox VE, VMware Workstation, Oracle VM and Nutanix AHV Virtualization. See our KVM vs. VMware vSphere 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.