We performed a comparison between VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE 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 highly regarded for its extensive range of features, user-friendly interface, and scalability. However, users want improved backup features, integration capabilities, and documentation. Proxmox VE is valued for its simplicity, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. Users recommend automating certain processes, enhancing the user interface and documentation, and addressing compatibility.
"It allows us to create an individual VM along with the GPU for machine learning."
"We had issues with this solution when it comes to resources. We have officially created four to five PMs and it just continues to make more resources even though they are delivered in the main post mode."
"The solution has good high availability."
"It's very user-friendly."
"It's been a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature of Proxmox VE is its storage."
"Its compatibility is most valuable."
"The virtualization is good."
"We primarily use vRealize to troubleshoot any issues that may arise with our virtual machines, which is the main reason why we believe this solution is excellent."
"It's easy to use and very user-friendly."
"The enterprise direction is very complete and the data center provides almost everything you need."
"The fact that we have the ability to easily scale out, and the ability to do maintenance on the underlying hardware without impacting our business applications, are important aspects."
"The scalability is good."
"The stability of VMware vSphere is very good. It has high resiliency, it is one of the best solutions on the market."
"The most valuable feature of VMware vSphere is the ability to work in a big system infrastructure."
"I like stability and the organization of the different functions into the I#M feature which is also quite useful, quite stable."
"The solution can be improved by making it more secure and scalable."
"It is difficult to remove a virtual machine."
"We are facing issues with disk utilization and disk performance."
"We find it difficult to find the root cause of the issues."
"The compatibility with non-English operating systems needs to be improved."
"The process for deployment is complicated."
"The solution needs to move to the cloud. It would be nice if they made it more robust there."
"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."
"An area for improvement is that when comparing VMware to Nutanix, Nutanix has higher availability, like clustering for virtual machines. That is a good idea and VMware could profit from something like that for higher availability installations."
"The quality of support could be better."
"It lacks a snapshot feature."
"I would like to see the configuration simplified."
"There should be more stability in the updates. They had an issue with the last release."
"The UI of VMware could use some improvements, especially in dark mode."
"They can lower the price of its license."
"In terms of what could be improved, we do face some bugs when cloning the virtual machine - it fails sometimes."
Proxmox VE is ranked 1st in Server Virtualization Software with 25 reviews while VMware vSphere is ranked 2nd in Server Virtualization Software with 56 reviews. Proxmox VE is rated 8.4, while VMware vSphere is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Proxmox VE writes "Feature rich, good compatibility, and impressive fuctionality". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware vSphere writes "Strong performance, works well with large infrastructures but it is quite expensive". Proxmox VE is most compared with KVM, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV Virtualization and Citrix Hypervisor, whereas VMware vSphere is most compared with Hyper-V, VMware Workstation, Oracle VM, KVM and Nutanix AHV Virtualization. See our Proxmox VE vs. VMware vSphere report.
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This is just an off the cuff quick response and not a well researched documented and referenced design.
It is, however, a conclusion after time spent in making some choices on stacks with the intent of building a cost-effective cloud platform from open source stacks. This cloud platform should also be able to quickly scale whilst (mostly) compatible and easy to migrate to AWS if and when I suddenly need to expand beyond capability.
I have a bit of a different view than most, but then again maybe not….
Let me clarify; the distinction, with regards to my statement, comes in between the decision making and conduct of operations decision-makers of large corporates and also those from really BIG business, and in BIG I am referring to the significant cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS.
Corporates have more of a conservative consumer (of big brands) approach because of ideas such as “no one has been fired for buying IBM or Cisco “ etc.
Building a business that can scale rapidly depends on cash flow since most businesses that fail is not as a result of not making enough money or even profits but rather due to a lack of cash flow. As a result, the focus should be on calculated risk and managing cash flow, therefore, keeping cost down, especially recurring costs such as licensing and support.
Now I can jump into detail of the different features and functionalities of the two products in question, which is not a bad thing to do, or I can look at lessons learned. I have used both VMWare and Proxmox (hands-on) and mostly it’s pretty much the same.
Proxmox includes CEPH for storage and KVM. A lot of the major cloud providers, including AWS, use KVM including a lot of other Open Source stacks such as docker.
Prior to KVM, AWS was using XEN and it was stated in 2016 that XEN gave better performance, and yet in 2017 AWS switched over to KVM with the cost being the driving force. Now AWS are using KVM, mainly for Linux which is currently the majority of their platform but it seems changes are in the wind for an alternative but not necessarily as a replacement.
I believe it’s a horse for courses thing, some grew up with Microsoft products and they will never use anything else and the same goes for Cisco, HP, and IBM. I am more of a bang for buck kind of guy and yes I have not run large ICT platforms (wrt to hypervisors) but I have worked with VMware and Proxmox alike but in the end it’s just hardware virtualization. Between these two products and with regards to scalability, stability, and ease of use it’s much of a muchness.
Considering my background (architecture and strategy); for me, it is not only about people, process & technology but also complexity, compatibility (which both come at a significant cost if not considered), business impact and ability to execute rapidly. I look at deployments from a “plan - build - run” perspective.
In conclusion; if you are operating at the scale of AWS then your product of choice depends on bang for the back but if your determining criteria is driven by product, say Microsoft or VMWare, because that is what your techies have skilled up on then it’s more complicated.
I am not driven by a product but rather ease of use, scalability, and fit for purpose. Therefore; if I find an opportunity for a solution that is well designed and I believe it will take off really quickly and go really big then I would use Proxmox to launch. Proxmox is an active project with a lot of development going into it, Proxmox remains relevant and are making good choices, alive and kicking.