Hyper-V vs RHEV comparison

Microsoft and Red Hat are both solutions in the Server Virtualization Software category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while Red Hat is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.2. Microsoft holds a 19.5% mindshare in SVS, compared to Red Hat’s 2.4% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Red Hat users who would recommend it.

Hyper-V

Read 145 Hyper-V reviews

22,170 Views
19,066 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

RHEV

Read 37 RHEV reviews

3,888 Views
3,849 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Hyper-V

RHEV

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 2024

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Microsoft Hyper-V are two significant contenders in the virtualization platform category, with Hyper-V appearing to have the upper hand due to its integration capabilities and comprehensive features.

Features: RHEV is an open-source solution that offers great scalability and supports Linux-based virtual machines, making it ideal for diverse IT environments. It includes features like memory page sharing and SELinux for enhanced security. Hyper-V stands out with dynamic memory allocation, powerful Windows integration, and robust live migration capabilities, making it suitable for enterprises deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: RHEV could benefit from improved ease of deployment and broader compatibility with non-Linux environments. There might also be a need for more streamlined management tools and better integration with third-party services. Hyper-V could improve in areas such as reducing initial licensing costs, enhancing support for non-Microsoft environments, and streamlining the management of large-scale virtual networks.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Hyper-V offers a more straightforward deployment process within Microsoft infrastructures and benefits from Microsoft's extensive customer support network. In contrast, RHEV's deployment can be more intricate due to its open-source nature, though it is backed by strong support from Red Hat.

Pricing and ROI: RHEV is perceived as a cost-effective solution, offering a compelling ROI for organizations leveraging open-source technologies. Hyper-V, while potentially incurring higher upfront costs due to licensing, provides substantial ROI through productivity gains and seamless integration with existing Microsoft products.

To learn more, read our detailed Hyper-V vs. RHEV Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Hyper-V vs. RHEV

April 2026

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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

Hyper-V

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

145

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

RHEV

Ranking in Server Virtualization Software

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Hyper-V is 19.5%, up from 14.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Hyper-V	19.5%
RHEV	2.4%
Other	78.1%

Server Virtualization Software

Featured Reviews

Tomas Basus

IT Professional at NIPOS

Virtualization has reduced licensing costs and improved integration but still needs better performance insight

Integrations bring the biggest benefit to us. We use half of our virtual machines that are Microsoft, so it works better hosted in Hyper-V compared to VMware. Clustering and failover capabilities in the product help with our availability. It helped because we switched to Hyper-V because it was lower cost than paying for high availability in VMware. We need Microsoft licenses for virtual machines, so it costs less than buying two solutions for that. We have data center editions, so it did not cost us additional money compared to paying for high availability from VMware. I think it helped a little, but not so different compared to VMware regarding security and bandwidth optimization.

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Mike Neuliep

Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance

In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

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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 use Hyper-V for production, testing, and development; it's a core infrastructure solution for server virtualization and is actually deployed virtually for other services that need to deploy virtual machines using it."

"It's a very manageable product."

"I like that Hyper-V comes for free with Windows Server. You don't need to buy the license, and you only have to pay for the management aspect in System Center."

"This is the best solution for customers with budget constraints."

"I find the hardware and the cost reduction most valuable."

"Microsoft's a good name for legacy support and solutions"

"There are so many features that they have embedded in Hyper-V that are useful."

"We've probably seen a 50 percent speed increase on our SQL server. Hyper-V has also significantly reduced our downtimes with faster boot-up and reboot. If we have to reboot a server, there is maybe two or three minutes of downtime. When we were on a bare-metal server, it could be five to ten minutes due to the total boot time."

More Hyper-V pros

"The support for this solution is very good."

"We are very satisfied with it."

"Whenever there's an issue or problem, I contact customer support and they take it seriously."

"The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is its pricing."

"Red Hat is the most stable system; it's better than other OS solutions."

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

"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."

"Stability and speed are the most valuable aspects."

More RHEV pros

Cons

"There are bugs, and this should be resolved by Microsoft."

"There is a hard limitation of 20 gigs per file with Dropbox, so you've got to overcome that by chunking the zip files into something smaller and manageable."

"It needs additional administration and monitoring capabilities."

"It's not completely stable because your stack becomes bloated."

"Hyper-V is hosted on OS but if your OS scratches you are in big trouble."

"Sometimes there's a bit of slowness in the VMs. The performance could be a bit better."

"The biggest problem with Hyper-V is that the virtual machines are mostly running on top of the Windows Server, so we often need to reboot the machine and virtual machines when updating the host level."

"P2V are not live, and there's some limitation on max hard drive space for VMs and the ability to recover VHD file space after files within the VM have been deleted."

More Hyper-V cons

"There are two things that I would like to see improvement in when it comes to Red Hat. First is the pricing and second is the support."

"It lags behind in that you need to go to something like Fedora to get all the extra bells and whistles."

"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."

"We would like the dashboard feature of this solution to be improved, as it is not very detailed at present."

"RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years."

"We should improve how we manage storage domains and make more comprehensive control available through the command line."

"They don't know how to sell their great products and don’t really seem to be interested in taking care of their partners who trust and really know their products."

"The solution has a very small lifecycle."

More RHEV cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a perpetual license to use the solution and there are additional fees for support."

"It's not expensive."

"I recommend Hyper-V to customers with budget constraints."

"I use the free version of Hyper-V."

"We previously used VMware, but we switched because Hyper-V is cheaper and delivers the same stability for less money."

"I do not have experience with pricing or licensing of the product."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The pricing is not an issue for us because we have a licensing agreement with Microsoft. So we are given an 80% discount."

More Hyper-V pricing and cost advice

"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."

"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."

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

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

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

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

"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."

"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."

More RHEV 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

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

University

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	70
Midsize Enterprise	37
Large Enterprise	46

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

How does KVM compare with Hyper-V?

KVM is better. But let's just look at the software instead of judging. Hyper-V was a free solution from Microsoft to virtualize Server or Client OS as it is a feature on Windows Server since 2008 a...

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How does Proxmox VE compare with Hyper-V?

One of the best things about Proxmox VE is that it is open-source and very inexpensive. You get all of the same features as with the more well-known products. Proxmox VE is very easy to deploy - it...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hyper-V?

I think regarding price and license for Hyper-V, it is affordable.

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?

RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for RHEV?

I have done some consulting where I used RHEV, taking on side jobs to run virtual machines in the financial industry for a startup. The last time I used RHEV was in my home lab, but that has been d...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSphere vs Hyper-V

Compared 52% of the time

VMware Workstation vs Hyper-V

Compared 7% of the time

KVM vs Hyper-V

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs Hyper-V

Compared 5% of the time

oVirt vs Hyper-V

Compared 1% of the time

More Hyper-V Competitors

Proxmox VE vs RHEV

Compared 19% of the time

VMware vSphere vs RHEV

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle VM vs RHEV

Compared 11% of the time

KVM vs RHEV

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs RHEV

Compared 6% of the time

More RHEV Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Hyper-V

April 2026

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Buyer's Guide

RHEV

April 2026

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Also Known As

No data available

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

Overview

Hyper-V delivers scalability, cost-effectiveness, and seamless Windows integration with dynamic memory, live migration, and replication capabilities. Its interface and automation tools optimize resource management, enhancing operational efficiency in virtualized settings.

Hyper-V stands out for its advanced networking features, offering proactive VM replication and high availability. Simplified setup alongside built-in Powershell scripting boosts automation capabilities, while Virtual SAN Manager aids in reducing hardware investments. However, improvements are needed in cloud platform integration and operational interface to enhance user experience. Licensing costs are significant, and support for diverse OS remains limited. Networking and live migration require fine-tuning to improve performance. Despite challenges in deployment and compatibility, Hyper-V remains a preferred choice for hosting vital production servers and providing robust virtualization solutions across diverse environments.

What key features does Hyper-V offer?

Scalability: Supports flexible resource allocation for growing environments.
Seamless Windows Integration: Easily integrates with Windows-based systems.
Dynamic Memory: Efficiently manages memory allocation in real time.
Live Migration: Allows live transfer of VM workloads with minimal impact.
Hyper-V Replica: Provides robust VM replication for high availability.

What are the anticipated benefits of using Hyper-V?

Cost-Efficiency: Reduces operational costs through effective virtualization.
Resource Optimization: Efficiently utilizes existing hardware and software.
High Availability: Ensures ongoing service delivery and data protection.
Operational Efficiency: Enhances productivity with robust automation tools.

Organizations in education, finance, and IT sectors deploy Hyper-V for virtualization, using it to consolidate servers and manage infrastructures efficiently. Its integration with platforms like Microsoft Azure facilitates cloud solutions, supporting applications like SQL Server, Exchange, and Linux in diverse operational settings.

Microsoft

RHEV offers a cost-effective virtualization platform with support for up to 160 cores and 2 TB of RAM per host, emphasizing open-source accessibility and integration with applications like OpenStack.

RHEV stands out with features such as high performance, stability, ease of migration, and robust security. Its integration capabilities with diverse applications and the self-service Power user portal enhance its appeal for IT environments. While the platform's affordability compared to VMware is noted, areas for improvement include the GUI, user-friendliness, network virtualization, and the need for enhanced pricing and support in regions lacking system integrators. RHEV's ability to facilitate seamless migration from legacy systems to virtual environments is widely adopted in sectors such as government, banking, and IT services.

What are the key features of RHEV?

Open-Source Accessibility: Offers flexibility and customization options.
High Performance: Supports up to 160 cores and 2 TB of RAM per host.
Seamless Integration: Integrates well with applications like OpenStack.
Live VM Migration: Enables continuous operations without downtime.
Power User Portal: Provides self-service capabilities for users.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Cost Optimization: Provides a cost-effective alternative to VMware.
Scalable Computing: Allows flexible resource allocation and scaling.
Migration Efficiency: Facilitates moving from legacy systems smoothly.
Robust Security: Enhances data protection and privacy management.

RHEV is widely used in high-computing tasks like AI and big data analytics within data centers, supporting cloud solutions, AI, and ERP systems. It's implemented in privacy clouds for industries such as government, banking, and IT services to migrate workloads from physical to virtual environments and optimize operational costs.

Red Hat

Sample Customers

Large customer base from all industries, all over the world. Two major Hyper-V customers are Telefonica and EmpireCLS.

Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.

Buyer's Guide

Hyper-V vs. RHEV

April 2026

Free Report: Hyper-V vs. RHEV

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