We performed a comparison between Proxmox VE 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: Of the two solutions, Proxmox VE comes out on top. When compared to VMware VSphere, it is easier to deploy and more affordable.
"I like that it's secure, and I find its Software RAID very useful. It's way better than the Hardware RAID I was used to. I'm really impressed by their Software RAID feature."
"The virtualization is good."
"The solution is open source and free to use."
"The most valuable features of Proxmox VE are the ease of containerization. Overall the solution is generic, feature-rich, and has compatibility."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage container, LVM, and everything else work out of the box."
"It's been a stable solution."
"The whole solution is good. It has good tools that help me in managing the servers. It is also stable."
"Proxmox is free, very stable, and doesn't require more resources for memory RAM. It's fine for a small data center."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to manage."
"Its scalability potential is good."
"It affords us different views of the VMs created by vSphere so we can control them better."
"The ability to monitor resource utilization."
"The solution is very scalable."
"It is a very stable solution. Integration with other environments was simple to achieve."
"Our customers opt for virtualization because it's cheaper and better than non-virtualized solutions. VMware is probably the best on the market now."
"I don't see any challenges in using this product."
"I can't speak to any improvements. It is not lacking features."
"One issue with Proxmox is that some processes are not automatic. For some processes, you have to do it manually by command line."
"It is a good solution, but it is very complicated in some ways. It is not easy. You must have experience in the console mode to do some configurations. A lot of documentation and YouTube videos are available that you can use to learn about it."
"A feature which should be added is the ability to encrypt the main installation."
"We are using servers individually, and we are looking for a reliable application that allows us to hop between servers with high availability."
"The documentation in Proxmox VE could improve."
"We find it difficult to find the root cause of the issues."
"The availability of the solution could be a bit better."
"The challenge that we have is keeping the system up to date, as well as having the internal resources to maintain that platform. We're not an IT company, so it's challenging for us to keep the IT resources in-house."
"Its performance is an issue in version 6.5, but with the inclusion of HTML files in vSphere version 6.7, the experience is seamless. In version 6.7, VMware has included the HTML file protocol for the web browser or web console, which has changed the console's response and improved the performance. We are using the trial version of vRealize Operations. It would be nice if some of those capabilities could be included in future versions of vSphere, not as a part of vRealize Operations, but in vSphere itself. It can provide some kind of forecast about your resource consumption based on the actual workload and modeling or testing scenarios. It can give you some advice or tips for the future growth of your infrastructure."
"Sentencing has changed a lot."
"VMware vSphere could be improved with cheaper costs."
"I would like to see improvements in simplifying automation, cloud native deployment, administration, and fault resolution."
"The support for VMware vSphere can be fast or it can be slow. Recently it has been slow, they need to decrease the wait time and quality of their support."
"The solution could improve by having more integration."
"They can lower the price of its license."
Proxmox VE is ranked 2nd in Server Virtualization Software with 17 reviews while VMware vSphere is ranked 1st in Server Virtualization Software with 119 reviews. Proxmox VE is rated 8.6, while VMware vSphere is rated 8.8. 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 Hyper-V, KVM, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Nutanix AHV Virtualization and Citrix Hypervisor, whereas VMware vSphere is most compared with Hyper-V, VMware Workstation, KVM, Nutanix AHV Virtualization and RHEV. 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.