RHEV vs VMware vSphere comparison

Red Hat and Broadcom are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. Red Hat is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2, while Broadcom is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. Red Hat holds a 2.7% mindshare in SVS, compared to Broadcom’s 17.0% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

RHEV

Read 36 RHEV reviews

3,695 Views
3,695 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

VMware vSphere

Read 457 VMware vSphere reviews

23,039 Views
20,274 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

RHEV

VMware vSphere

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

RHEV and VMware vSphere are competing products in the field of virtualization solutions. VMware tends to have an upper hand because of its comprehensive feature set, though RHEV is preferred for its affordability.

Features: RHEV integrates well with heterogeneous environments and is open source, offering flexibility. It supports KVM for virtualization and includes features like SELinux for security and NIC bonding for network redundancy. VMware vSphere provides robust management tools, high scalability, and advanced memory management features like vMotion and high availability, designed for large enterprises.

Room for Improvement: RHEV could improve in areas like user-friendliness and reducing the need for specialized technical expertise. It might also enhance its graphical interface and documentation. VMware vSphere could reduce its cost structure as its pricing can be prohibitive. Also, integration with open-source solutions could be more seamless, and its support could be improved for mid-sized businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware vSphere stands out due to its simplicity in deployment, backed by extensive documentation and professional customer support. RHEV is relatively easy to set up but may demand more technical expertise, which can complicate deployment for smaller teams.

Pricing and ROI: RHEV offers a low initial setup cost with significant ROI for smaller businesses. VMware vSphere, despite a higher cost, often promises considerable long-term ROI through its adaptable and rich feature set, appealing to enterprises seeking robust virtualization solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed RHEV vs. VMware vSphere Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

September 2025

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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

RHEV

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware vSphere

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

457

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of RHEV is 2.7%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere is 17.0%, down from 19.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Virtualization Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware vSphere	17.0%
RHEV	2.7%
Other	80.3%

Server Virtualization Software

Featured Reviews

Sujeet-Kumar

Project Manager Cloud Infrastructure at Path Infotech ltd

The solution is scalable and affordable, but it lacks features, and it is not easy to manage

Management of RHEV is not as easy as VMware. Some features do not work. The product does not provide features similar to VMware’s VMotion. After creating the cluster, the VM is moved to another node if we move down. However, the VM does not move the parent node automatically. It has to be moved manually. VMware moves it automatically. RHEV moves it to the parent node only if we restart. Everything can be handled in VMware through the GUI. However, in RHEV, some things can be managed through UI, and others cannot. We have to troubleshoot and use CLI. A few features of the product do not work as well as those in VMware.

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Neeraj Mehra

Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Streamlines virtualization and has features like high availability and vMotion

The primary use case is for virtualization, including the implementation of vSphere, vCloud Foundation, vCloud Director, and cloud automation with vSphere My customers, particularly SMBs, mainly utilize High Availability (HA), DRS, and vMotion features. The vMotion feature is beneficial for…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We find the ease of use of this solution to be invaluable. It is user-friendly and integrates well with other software."

"The solution is a great all-round product. The virtualization is especially good."

"Technically, the main reason why I'm using Red Hat is because of its stability."

"Customers are moving to open source and Red Hat is the leader in this particular space. I think customers feel more confident running Red Hat Virtualization than VMware."

"What they provide is way beyond the essential requirements of customers."

"The solution is 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."

"Red Hat is the most stable system."

More RHEV pros

"The virtualization, the remote management user interface, and the web console are most valuable."

"In the past, we struggled with VM encryption. We couldn't encrypt the virtual machines with older versions of vSphere without some kind of third-party tool. Now, with 6.7, it's all in the application itself, in vSphere. We no longer have to procure additional products to meet that requirement. We can just do it on the fly, and pass our audit with no issues."

"VMware vSphere is a very stable product."

"Virtualised automation is a useful feature."

"Most valuable features of vSphere 6.7, for us, at the management level would be: VCHA is a nice redundancy feature that they added in v6.7. I like the quality of life improvements with the VMFS-6 for using auto UNMAP on the data stores. And we really appreciate the improvements to the Clarity UI where we can manage Update Manager (VUM) and our vSAN stack within the modern interface."

"Technical support is very good. They are very helpful."

"Some of the most valuable features are: the ability to Snapshot so that when we do updates we have a layer of protection for simplified rollback; the replication that we can leverage for data center failures and data center downtime; the ease of migrating workloads from physical device to physical device for maintenance that we have to do on physical servers."

"The solution is scalable."

More VMware vSphere pros

Cons

"We'd like it if it would be possible on Red Hat Virtualization to possibly connect two or three VMs to the same disk."

"The availability of technical expertise with the solution may be limited in some areas."

"Red Hat by itself is not scalable. But you can have third party add-ons like Ceph to make it massively scalable."

"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 support is tricky in a few places. We're facing some challenges within Malaysia where we don't really have the system integrators available who can provide extended support. When we need personnel on-site, we can't get them."

"The solution could use network virtualization."

"I heard that there are big differences between Red Hat eight and seven, but it's still quite difficult for me to judge it. I found it a bit more difficult to manage than version seven, which was much easier. In term of features, though, it is still not yet clear which is better. I have no clear idea of which features need to be changed at the moment."

"We hope that Red Hat can produce a paradigm edition. We are looking for paradigm computing and paradigm storage. Its scalability can be improved. It is not easy to scale, and we hope that Red Hat can provide a more scalable system. They should also provide local service and support. Our customers are looking for a good software vendor to provide professional services."

More RHEV cons

"I would like to see improvements in simplifying automation, cloud native deployment, administration, and fault resolution."

"OS templates should be readily available, so there is no need to get an OS separately. Only the activation part should be different, which is not presently available due to the need to get the OS from a different location, then create VMs."

"Its price should be better. Their support should also be more customer-friendly, and they should train people like us so that we know more about the latest technologies and features. If there is some program and drive from their side to teach us, it is definitely going to help us. Pricing and support are the most important features for mid-level companies. We are not implementing this solution for big tech companies."

"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."

"The solution could be more stable."

"The initial setup could be better. It manages all the setups, but it's not very straightforward, and it takes time."

"I would like to see AI in future releases."

"When it comes to cross-regional (e.g., someone in the US managing the China vSphere implementations), it can be a somewhat slow. I would recommend increasing the speed. While there has already been improvement there, I would like to see more."

More VMware vSphere cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."

"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."

"We are using the free version of Red Hat."

"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."

"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."

"We buy a license for commercial use, and we also use the free editions."

"This is an open-source solution."

"Its price depends on the use cases."

More RHEV pricing and cost advice

"Compared with other vendors’ products, the pricing of the license is slightly lower. The annual S&S price is very affordable."

"Pricing needs to be competitive since Microsoft Hyper-V has come a long way; they are both around the same price range."

"In my opinion, the essential version is a good price."

"It's a monthly subscription model."

"Our customers typically use permanent licenses, not subscription-based. However, there are subscript-based licenses."

"Pricing is the one "ding" I have against it. Except for VMware vSphere Essentials, it would be pretty challenging for anything but a medium or large size company to use."

"The pricing is reasonable and you are able to purchases licencing for certain time frame intervals, monthly, yearly etc."

"We are on a perpetual license for VMware vSphere and the price can be expensive compared to other solutions, such as Hyper-V. They should lower their price."

More VMware vSphere pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Thang Le Toan (Victory Lee)

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…

Read full review

Answers from the Community

Sridhar Battarusetty

VP-Global Supply Chain Management at mobileum

Feb 7, 2024

What are the differences between RHEV and VMware vSphere?

See 2 answers

Anne Cubarrubia

Editor at PeerSpot

Aug 21, 2023

Here is a comparison of the two hypervisors, RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization) and VMware vSphere: RHEV Pros: Open source Highly scalable Cost-effective Cons: Not as mature as VMware vSphere Not as widely supported as VMware vSphere VMware vSphere Pros: Mature and widely supported Wide range of features Easy to use and manage Cons: Not open source Can be expensive Some prefer RHEV because it is open-source and cost-effective. However, VMware vSphere may be the better option if you need a hypervisor with a wide range of features and support. As to which solution consumes fewer resources, RHEV is a lighter-weight hypervisor than VMware vSphere, so it consumes fewer resources. However, you must remember that each hypervisor's resource consumption depends on the configuration and workload.

Read full answer

Rajkumar Gera

Vice President, IT Infrastructure ( DC Operations ) at Vodafone Idea Ltd.

Feb 7, 2024

Hi Sridhar, This is Rajkumar Gera, VP IT in one of the Telecom. Below are some of the points, may help you: FEATURE RED HAT ENTERPRISE VIRTUALIZATION VMWARE VSPHERE Key differentiators Open source solution Proprietary solution Purchased via one subscription Multiple levels of functionality sold in editions with different price points Bare-metal performance for virtualized applications Application high availability (Enterprise Plus version only) Prioritized high availability so critical workloads are restarted first Desktop and server virtualization One infrastructure for managing desktops and servers Add-on products for desktop virtualization: VMware Player, VMware Horizon View, VMware Horizon DaaS, and VMware Horizon Mirage Remote access to virtual desktops through SPICE Full support for multimedia applications Management server Included in the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization subscription Requires purchase and license of VMware vCenter and database support Virtual machine density 40 cores: 4,682@288 40 cores: 3,824@234 160 cores: 14,061@864 160 cores: result not available Self-service portal Allows users to provision and manage VMs and templates with a browser Requires the purchase of VMware vCloud Automation Center Integration with OpenStack technology Supports the open Neutron pluggable networking API Supports VMware’s NSX networking plug-in Supports the OpenStack image service for a unified image repository between virtual and cloud platforms Does not support the OpenStack image service

Read full answer

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	10

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	174
Midsize Enterprise	137
Large Enterprise	256

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about RHEV?

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with RHEV?

The RHEV management plane could be improved, particularly the management interface. Something more similar to a Google, Amazon, or Azure interface might attract people to use its management interfa...

See all answers

What is IOMMU?

DEEPEN DHULLA did explain well IOMMU. IOMMU has to be activated at the bios level. It exists on Intel and AMD platforms. It is used a lot inside virtualization platforms like VMware VSphere. It pr...

See all answers

Why KVM??? Help please!

We use VMware and KVM. We find that KVM is a lot simpler to use and it provides the virtualization we need for Linux and Windows. For us, VMware does not offer any advantage. Moreover, KVM is free.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

Proxmox VE vs RHEV

Compared 31% of the time

Hyper-V vs RHEV

Compared 12% of the time

KVM vs RHEV

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle VM vs RHEV

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs RHEV

Compared 6% of the time

More RHEV Competitors

Hyper-V vs VMware vSphere

Compared 40% of the time

Proxmox VE vs VMware vSphere

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle VM vs VMware vSphere

Compared 11% of the time

KVM vs VMware vSphere

Compared 6% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs VMware vSphere

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware vSphere Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

RHEV

October 2025

Download RHEV product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSphere

October 2025

Download VMware vSphere product report

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

No data available

Overview

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, or RHEV, is a leading open standard enterprise virtualization management solution. This solution supports virtualization of servers and desktops using the same infrastructure and a single easy-to-use interface.

Because RHEV is based on open standards, it is vendor-independent and a lot more cost effective and flexible than proprietary solutions.

Red Hat

VMware vSphere is a versatile virtualization platform known for its ease of use, flexibility, and high availability. It supports seamless migration, optimal resource allocation, and centralized management, making it highly suitable for diverse infrastructure needs.

VMware vSphere is widely adopted for its virtualization capabilities that enhance hardware efficiency and ensure minimal downtime through features like High Availability and Distributed Resource Scheduler. Despite criticisms about high licensing costs and limited fault tolerance, it remains a preferred choice due to its stability, scalability, and robust integration options. Users appreciate its efficiency in managing virtual machines and hosting enterprise applications, although challenges with web client performance and hardware compatibility are noted. Organizations often look for better integration with cloud services and enhanced automation and scalability.

What are the core features of VMware vSphere?

vMotion: Enables seamless migration of virtual machines without downtime.
Distributed Resource Scheduler: Optimizes resource allocation across hosts.
High Availability: Minimizes downtime by automatically restarting virtual machines.
Centralized Management: Facilitates easy management of virtualized environments.
Advanced Security: Provides robust security measures and compliance features.

What benefits and ROI can businesses look for?

Reduced Operational Costs: Efficiently utilizes hardware, saving on expenses.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business demands.
Business Continuity: Ensures high availability and disaster recovery.
Integration Flexibility: Supports integration with various technologies.

VMware vSphere is implemented across sectors like healthcare, finance, and education for server virtualization, data center management, and private cloud creation. Its use in facilitating business-critical operations ensures high availability and efficient resource use, supporting both development and production environments.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.

Abu Dhabi Ports Company, ACS, AIA New Zealand, Consona, Corporate Express, CS Energy, and Digiweb.

Buyer's Guide

RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

September 2025

Free Report: RHEV vs. VMware vSphere

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