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Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware vSphere Foundation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
Red Hat OpenShift boosts productivity, reduces costs, enhances scalability, and ensures seamless migration with strong security for organizations.
Sentiment score
4.7
Organizations benefit from server consolidation and VMware vSphere for improved scalability, reduced costs, and enhanced flexibility in infrastructure.
Red Hat OpenShift has proven to be an intelligent product for me, being built on Kubernetes, which is widely recognized and is where many cloud providers are deploying new workloads.
Systems & Storage Engineer at ATOS
Time was the major thing which saved a lot, and in terms of resources, it has reduced resource utilization so the remaining users can focus on other tasks.
Server Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
With OpenShift combined with IBM Cloud App integration, I can spin an integration server in a second as compared to traditional methods, which could take days or weeks.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
In an environment where the infrastructure has to be up for monitoring and controlling physical infrastructure like water plants, it has absolutely returned on its investment.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
There is flexibility and interoperability with multi-mode architectures that accommodate both on-prem and cloud realities.
CIO and Chief Digital Officer at Reliance Industries Ltd
Server consolidation is one return on investment where we can use one server for multiple workloads.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Red Hat OpenShift's customer service is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, but some users report slow response times.
Sentiment score
6.1
VMware vSphere Foundation garners mixed reviews, with strengths in responsiveness but concerns over management, support, pricing, and regional resources.
Red Hat's technical support is responsive and effective.
Infrastructure Manager at Appzone Group
Customer support is really good because so far in our case, we have always received a prompt response, and they have been really helpful to us.
Senior Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The response time for customer support is excellent, and they go deep and can resolve things easily.
Operation Director at Zaintech
There is nonstop support available around the world, which allows issues to be resolved continuously without interruption, regardless of whether the problem occurs in the USA, India, or another location.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
I believe support deserves a rating of ten out of ten.
IT Infrastruture Consultant at Devoteam Management Consulting
Now, with Broadcom's management, I would rate it a three out of ten.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Red Hat OpenShift is praised for scalable capabilities, efficiently handling user demands with features like horizontal pod autoscaling.
Sentiment score
7.7
VMware vSphere Foundation is praised for its scalability and integration, facilitating easy expansion and efficient workload management.
The on-demand provisioning of pods and auto-scaling, whether horizontal or vertical, is the best part.
Director at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
OpenShift's horizontal pod scaling is more effective and efficient than that used in Kubernetes, making it a superior choice for scalability.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Red Hat OpenShift scales excellently, with a rating of ten out of ten.
System Analyst at Freelancer
The return on investment is high because we can maximize the use of one server for multiple workloads.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It's straightforward to procure additional licenses, install them on the host and add them to the same cluster.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
You can simply add more hosts to your VMware stack seamlessly, scaling up vertically or horizontally.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat OpenShift is highly stable and reliable, scoring eight to nine out of ten, with isolated challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMware vSphere Foundation is praised for stability, low management needs, reliable performance, and effective performance monitoring in data centers.
Red Hat OpenShift can scale to thousands of nodes, allowing multiple clusters to be managed in different geolocations and managed by centralized advanced cluster management, ACM.
Operation Director at Zaintech
It provides better performance yet requires more resources compared to vanilla Kubernetes.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I've had my cluster running for over four years.
Infrastructure Manager at Appzone Group
Stability is optimal.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Frequent updates are required due to constant security challenges and attacks.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
It is a standard tool and is considered very stable.
Quality Engineer at KML
 

Room For Improvement

Red Hat OpenShift needs better UX, simplified configurations, improved support, and optimized integrations to enhance user satisfaction and scalability.
VMware vSphere Foundation suffers from licensing complexity, high costs, procurement confusion, limited cloud management, and performance monitoring challenges.
Learning OpenShift requires complex infrastructure, needing vCenter integration, more advanced answers, active directory, and more expensive hardware.
Platform Engineer & Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Red Hat OpenShift's biggest disadvantage is they do not provide any private cloud setup where we can host on our site using their services.
Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
If I could change or improve one thing about Red Hat OpenShift, it would be to provide more information on the web because the information is limited and I need to explore more.
Manager Cybersecurity at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
I highly recommend that continuous support for perpetual licenses be provided.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
VMware needs to improve cost efficiency, especially in Pakistan, as customers often seek more affordable solutions.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
Recently, VMware shifted its licensing models, and they should streamline it.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Setup Cost

Red Hat OpenShift's pricing is high but offers comprehensive support, with cost variations depending on hosting, nodes, and enterprise agreements.
Enterprise users find VMware vSphere Foundation expensive, citing high licensing costs, support challenges, and increased pricing post-Broadcom acquisition.
Initially, licensing was per CPU, with a memory cap, but the price has doubled, making it difficult to justify for clients with smaller compute needs.
Senior Technical Lead at MORO
The pricing for Red Hat OpenShift is considered quite high.
Manager for Middleware at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that Red Hat OpenShift comes out as an expensive solution compared to having AKS, GKE, or EKS.
Lead Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's expensive, however, the stability it offers is optimal.
Enterprise Virtualization Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
In Brazil, we are increasingly using open-source alternatives like Proxmox due to their lower prices in comparison.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
During one project, the price doubled or even tripled before implementation, causing issues with clients.
Cloud Infrastructure Engineer at Safaricom Ethiopia plc
 

Valuable Features

Red Hat OpenShift enhances security, compatibility, and automation for flexible cloud-native deployments, reducing time-to-market for applications.
VMware vSphere Foundation provides scalable, user-friendly infrastructure management with robust features, enhancing IT efficiency, resilience, and cost reduction.
Because it was centrally managed in our company, many metrics that we had to write code for were available out of the box, including utilization, CPU utilization, memory, and similar metrics.
Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The main benefits Red Hat OpenShift provides for me as a final user include the capacity to integrate third-party tools and also the integration between observability, security, and monitoring capacities.
Architect Projects at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
This is one of the main things, in addition to having integration with ACM and ACS, where we can have the ability to manage multiple clusters and to secure them, deploy them, manage them, run GitOps and day-two operations, as well as upgrades and other functionality which is made easy using these tools.
Operation Director at Zaintech
vSphere Foundation is valuable due to its scalability, reliability, and ease of management.
Technology Solution Consultant at DWP Technologies
VMware provides the tools needed to move environments between private and public clouds seamlessly.
Product Manager at MSiT Technology
The virtual stack of vCenter, its distributed resources system, high availability engines, and the ability to move VM workloads from one host to another are outstanding.
Senior System Administrator at Interactive Group
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Hat OpenShift
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
PaaS Clouds (3rd), Container Management (5th), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th), Agile and DevOps Services (1st)
VMware vSphere Foundation
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Red Hat OpenShift is 3.5%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere Foundation is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Red Hat OpenShift3.5%
VMware vSphere Foundation1.0%
Other95.5%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Operation Director at Zaintech
Platform has transformed our cloud into a secure, unified home for diverse modern applications
One of the best features of Red Hat OpenShift is that it has the catalog, the application catalog, and the operator hub, which allows us to deploy things easily and straightforward without going into a lot of hassles. This is one of the main things, in addition to having integration with ACM and ACS, where we can have the ability to manage multiple clusters and to secure them, deploy them, manage them, run GitOps and day-two operations, as well as upgrades and other functionality which is made easy using these tools. Red Hat OpenShift also provides virtualization capabilities, and I am currently working with Zain to make a project where we will convert F5 appliances to virtual machines and to manage them through Red Hat virtualization, OVE. Red Hat OpenShift is a unique platform because it provides the features for both worlds, containerization, and VMs at the same time, requiring you to learn one skillset in order to manage all of this at the same time. In the beginning, our cloud depended only on virtual machines, so I introduced this to our management to start to work with microservices and with containerization. This was adapted in our cloud, providing us the capability to sell more of these features and to reduce the hardware requirement by about thirty percent, following the trends of using containerization for all modern applications. In addition, it reduced the time to develop and to deploy a new application; all we need is using Jenkins for CI/CD. Once we commit any code, it gets triggered, and it will implement the new container in a very flexible and easy way, within seconds. This decreased the time to market and increased agility, allowing us to capture new opportunities very fast.
AY
Consultant at Tenaga Nasional Berhad
Optimized resource usage and ensured high availability with consistent support
If VMware vSphere Foundation can maintain their pricing, it would be beneficial since Broadcom has acquired their shares. This means that if Broadcom can provide more value to VMware vSphere Foundation, they can invest more, as previously many customers used the platform. The biggest issue is pricing due to the Broadcom acquisition. In terms of features and readiness, we can achieve consolidation and save money. The support is satisfactory, and we hope they continue their momentum to ensure they can support their existing users.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise56
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

How does OpenShift compare with Amazon AWS?
Open Shift makes managing infrastructure easy because of self-healing and automatic scaling. There is also a wonderful dashboard mechanism to alert us in case the application is over-committing or ...
Which would you recommend - Pivotal Cloud Foundry or OpenShift?
Pivotal Cloud Foundry is a cloud-native application platform to simplify app delivery. It is efficient and effective. The best feature is how easy it is to handle external services such as database...
What needs improvement with OpenShift?
I hope that the interface and dashboard can become more user-friendly to assist in creating clusters and managing network interfaces easily, as opposed to relying heavily on command lines, which co...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware vSphere Foundation?
I don't know the exact pricing for the VMware vSphere Foundation, but I think the last license model to upgrade is three or four times more expensive.
What needs improvement with VMware vSphere Foundation?
It is not the best because something is bothering me and could be enhanced. I want to discuss disadvantages because I have covered some positive things. There are potential areas that could be better.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UPS, Cathay Pacific, Hilton
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat OpenShift vs. VMware vSphere Foundation and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.