When it comes to setup cost and licensing cost for VMware, it is on the expensive side relative to the market. We are struggling to sell VMware as Fortinet offers SD-WAN with no additional costs. The pricing, which was once acceptable for larger organizations, suffers further since it shifted to Broadcom.
At Messer Manager, Network & Communications (Americas) at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Apr 30, 2025
The pricing involves licensing for the VeloCloud gateway based on the bandwidth used. The license is required to use both circuits effectively. Although having a 10 gig circuit and a one gig circuit enables load sharing, my average throughput does not require such a large license.
We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution. I don't know if there are different options if you make payments to VMware directly. One needs to pay for the router and the license, and then you would also need to pay for the internet service to get into it.
The solution can get expensive as you grow. We have about 200 clients using the solution. The licensing costs are part of a subscription from us. In other words, we are the owner of the license, so we are providing a service. It's up to us to deliver a service that is working. The benefit of the solution is that we can pick up anything that can work and meet the requirements. The customer doesn't really have much to say, except for some customers that are really picky and really have very special business requirements or because they are very large.
Senior Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Consultant
Sep 30, 2022
It's competitive, yet it's a little bit more expensive than other brands. We pay about $500 USD, or 700,000 Korean won. I'd rate it a two or three out of five in terms of affordability.
Overall pricing could be lower. It is much more expensive than traditional hardware vendor pricing. The question of licensing costs is slightly different because, in the VMware case, it's fairly rare for customers to buy a license without implementing VMware data center facilities or something similar. If you compare it to just buying a license per site and checking how much it is with Fortinet when you implement the software, it depends on how large a firewall you have. For a very small firewall, the Fortinet licensing is around 200 euros, but if your firewall is huge, it could be 5,000 to 7,000 euros per year. From that perspective, it's pointless to evaluate VMware at a similar level because if you have VMware SD-WAN and NSX, then it's quite reasonable. It's more like a license for the data center. This process differs from the firewall vendors' because you don't need to buy a license for every firewall you have. However, you can do that in the case of VMware. So think of it as the customer having data centers. Connectivity between the data centers will have two aspects. The first is the big costs for bandwidth and connectivity. The second is the software cost. The VMware environment is more about customers with different departments in different locations. In these scenarios, customers with data centers should use a VMware stack. For customers with no data center who have everything on the cloud and are only looking for connectivity, Fortinet costs for 10 sites might be between 10 and 12, whereas VMware costs would be more than 20,000. But again, I would emphasize that the implementation is much, much more expensive on VMware in the case of virtual licenses.
Network Analyst at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Jul 1, 2022
I'm not aware of the licensing aspect of the solution. It might be somewhere in the middle of the market. It's likely not the least expensive not the most. Support may be an extra add-on cost as well.
Senior Solution Architect at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Feb 6, 2022
The licensing model of VMware SD-WAN could be improved, it is not always that competitive. The biggest concern is to be competitive against other solutions. However, the way that the licensing model is designed is not corresponding to the real use cases of my customers.
Chief Infrastructure Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feb 16, 2021
The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value.
ISM Network Architect at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Oct 19, 2020
If you compare VeloCloud to, for example, Cisco, the pricing is almost the same. However, Cisco offers more features that are integral to the way we need the solution to operate. In that sense, it's better value for money. For example, now we need to have an extra LTE modem outside of VeloCloud, and it's going to add to the cost, which ultimately makes it more expensive.
VMware Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a secure access service edge (SASE) platform that combines many types of software-based network technologies in an attempt to enable users to virtualize their wide area networks and reduce their reliance on hardware. In essence, this solution makes it possible for users to reliably access their applications from anywhere in the world by leveraging cloud technologies. Users can simply, efficiently, and completely control their network...
When it comes to setup cost and licensing cost for VMware, it is on the expensive side relative to the market. We are struggling to sell VMware as Fortinet offers SD-WAN with no additional costs. The pricing, which was once acceptable for larger organizations, suffers further since it shifted to Broadcom.
The pricing involves licensing for the VeloCloud gateway based on the bandwidth used. The license is required to use both circuits effectively. Although having a 10 gig circuit and a one gig circuit enables load sharing, my average throughput does not require such a large license.
The pricing is high, making the margin thin, which limits mark-up opportunities from the wholesale price.
My clients pay. It’s reasonable.
VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
We make monthly payments toward the licensing costs of the solution. I don't know if there are different options if you make payments to VMware directly. One needs to pay for the router and the license, and then you would also need to pay for the internet service to get into it.
It is expensive. It is a yearly payment. I would recommend opting for a quarterly license model.
I would rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten since the license is costly.
The price of VMware SD-WAN is less expensive than some solutions, such as Cisco.
The solution can get expensive as you grow. We have about 200 clients using the solution. The licensing costs are part of a subscription from us. In other words, we are the owner of the license, so we are providing a service. It's up to us to deliver a service that is working. The benefit of the solution is that we can pick up anything that can work and meet the requirements. The customer doesn't really have much to say, except for some customers that are really picky and really have very special business requirements or because they are very large.
It's competitive, yet it's a little bit more expensive than other brands. We pay about $500 USD, or 700,000 Korean won. I'd rate it a two or three out of five in terms of affordability.
Overall pricing could be lower. It is much more expensive than traditional hardware vendor pricing. The question of licensing costs is slightly different because, in the VMware case, it's fairly rare for customers to buy a license without implementing VMware data center facilities or something similar. If you compare it to just buying a license per site and checking how much it is with Fortinet when you implement the software, it depends on how large a firewall you have. For a very small firewall, the Fortinet licensing is around 200 euros, but if your firewall is huge, it could be 5,000 to 7,000 euros per year. From that perspective, it's pointless to evaluate VMware at a similar level because if you have VMware SD-WAN and NSX, then it's quite reasonable. It's more like a license for the data center. This process differs from the firewall vendors' because you don't need to buy a license for every firewall you have. However, you can do that in the case of VMware. So think of it as the customer having data centers. Connectivity between the data centers will have two aspects. The first is the big costs for bandwidth and connectivity. The second is the software cost. The VMware environment is more about customers with different departments in different locations. In these scenarios, customers with data centers should use a VMware stack. For customers with no data center who have everything on the cloud and are only looking for connectivity, Fortinet costs for 10 sites might be between 10 and 12, whereas VMware costs would be more than 20,000. But again, I would emphasize that the implementation is much, much more expensive on VMware in the case of virtual licenses.
I'm not aware of the licensing aspect of the solution. It might be somewhere in the middle of the market. It's likely not the least expensive not the most. Support may be an extra add-on cost as well.
The licensing model of VMware SD-WAN could be improved, it is not always that competitive. The biggest concern is to be competitive against other solutions. However, the way that the licensing model is designed is not corresponding to the real use cases of my customers.
There is only a standard fee for the solution.
You need to pay for a license to use this product.
The price of the solution could be reduced.
The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high.
The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value.
It's not cheap but it's affordable.
If you compare VeloCloud to, for example, Cisco, the pricing is almost the same. However, Cisco offers more features that are integral to the way we need the solution to operate. In that sense, it's better value for money. For example, now we need to have an extra LTE modem outside of VeloCloud, and it's going to add to the cost, which ultimately makes it more expensive.
The pricing is very comparable to Fortinet.
The price of this solution is higher than that of other SD-WAN vendors.