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Proxmox VE vs RHEV comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Proxmox VE
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
RHEV
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Proxmox VE is 10.2%, down from 17.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Proxmox VE10.2%
RHEV2.4%
Other87.4%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

Juan Barandiaran - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at BCloud Services SAC
Effortless management with robust support enhances performance and cost savings
My primary use case for Proxmox VE focuses on replacing VMware solutions and migrating to a Centric Solution for medium-sized companies. This product serves as a hypervisor in environments where performance is crucial Proxmox VE has provided performance improvements, particularly with its…
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance
In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"So now that you can get all the HA (high-availability) features that VMware has, there are not too many major differences between VMware and Proxmox, and the only difference is you get it for no cost."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage container, LVM, and everything else work out of the box."
"The ability to back up a host and keep it running is valuable."
"Some of the most valuable features of Proxmox VE include great performance, particularly in the container environment, and cost-effectiveness."
"It has a good performance and you can cluster it."
"The clusters are pretty much good and have a high performance and impact."
"You can easily migrate VMs between hosts."
"Proxmox VE is simple to use and it is feature rich. The fact is that it performs,"
"The solution makes migration easy."
"The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan."
"When any organization needs end-to-end infrastructure deployment, configuration management, and automation, then RHEV is the best fit."
"One of the most valuable features of this solution is the popularity of the OS."
"I advise keeping an open mind. It's an excellent solution."
"It is very stable."
"The most valuable features of RHEV are all the tools, such as virtualization, management of cloud platforms, and integration of container environments. The solution has good compatibility between virtualization, content management, and cloud management. Having the full set of these tools is the advantage of it."
"For any application that requires 100% uptime, 100% of data accessibility, I use these servers."
 

Cons

"Some parts of the Proxmox installation are a bit complex. Proxmox relies on the ZFS file system, which can be difficult to understand and configure correctly. There is no documentation or videos to discuss the process."
"Proxmox VE editions should be made available to other Linux distributions because they are only attached to Debian."
"Backup and recovery could be better. It's a bit problematic. If you're not well-versed with Linux, it tends to be a bit of a challenge when setting up and recovering. It's not really GUI-based, and if you're not a good Linux user, it becomes a bit difficult. In the next release, I would like to have something like Hyper-V's Data Protection Manager, where you could do an offsite backup and keep a copy. I haven't seen that incorporated yet, but I'm sure they will do that."
"The only issue I have with Proxmox VE is updating it. You have to manually update it or you have to have a way to update it automatically."
"The availability of the solution could be a bit better."
"The process for deployment is complicated."
"The tool needs to add a lot of containers."
"Proxmox is really missing those kinds of tools right now."
"In comparison to VMware, this solution isn't as stable. We're testing it right now, and we're not trusting the stability of the product."
"Configuring the network interfaces is much better in Ubuntu and should be improved."
"It would be better to have more patches, especially kernel-level updates, live and online so that we can keep the business up and running during this period."
"They don't know how to sell their great products and don’t really seem to be interested in taking care of their partners who trust and really know their products."
"Red Hat by itself is not scalable. But you can have third party add-ons like Ceph to make it massively scalable."
"Specifically, enhancements in managing virtual machine migrations, cloning, and the creation of different VMs could further optimize its functionality."
"When we do a direct comparison, then obviously VMware does better in terms of having Fault Tolerance and doing active disaster recovery and these kind of things. This is something that can be improved within Red Hat."
"The biggest improvement would be more third-party direct support for things like backups and provisioning through third-party portals."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Proxmox VE is free of cost."
"There is no subscription required for Proxmox VE."
"An excellent choice for budget sensitive operations.​"
"The cost is excellent."
"Proxmox is free software, but if you prefer the support and a more rested repository then you can pay for it."
"I cannot subscribe to Proxmox VE's support because it is expensive."
"The product is open-source and I rate its pricing an eight out of ten. You need to pay for support and it is costly."
"The solution’s pricing is very fair."
"This is an open-source solution."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."
"This product has a variety of licensing options available. However, the level of licensing, and therefore the cost of licensing, is dependent on the number of servers being utilized."
"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."
"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."
"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."
"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."
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Comparison Review

VL
CIO at Robusta Technology & Training
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

Proxmox vs ESXi/vSphere: What is your experience?
For me the biggest impact is the cost of licensing in the case of VMware despite its overall intuitiveness and ease of handling and management. However, KVM-based Open Source solutions are becoming...
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...
Proxmox VE or KVM?
I use Proxmox VE and have been very happy with it. In my opinion, it is a complete and stable solution with excellent tools for managing servers. It has a lot of different features, and I also love...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?
It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.
What needs improvement with RHEV?
RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...
What is your primary use case for RHEV?
I have done some consulting where I used RHEV, taking on side jobs to run virtual machines in the financial industry for a startup. The last time I used RHEV was in my home lab, but that has been d...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Municipality of Trento, SwitchMIA, inDenova, Valmeita City Council, Alpha IT AS, Grupo Inversor Veracruzano S.A.P.I. de C.V. (GRIVER), Laut und Schoen, IT-Services - Hamburg e.K., KMI Learning, Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., Serwise AG
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox VE vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.