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Hyper-V vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyper-V
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
139
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (3rd)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Hyper-V is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 15.1%, down 17.0% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 17.2% mindshare, up 14.5% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Ramon Ruiz - PeerSpot reviewer
A cost-effective solution with easy configuration and integration with Azure
Scaling was a major issue with Hyper-V—it wasn't scalable and didn't work well. The only way to get it functioning was to manage everything manually, starting with the installation. Now, it's much more scalable, but the key is to plan the architecture based on the workloads you want to offer. You need to design an architecture that can handle the demands of heavy workloads. If the customer has different types of workloads, each requires a tailored architecture. Using the same setup for all workloads will lead to inefficiencies and wasted time and resources. To ensure scalability, it's crucial to build the infrastructure correctly, especially regarding storage, networking, CPU, and RAM resources. When done properly, Hyper-V scales very well.
Phanindar Ada - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of deployment and use along with a comfortable configuration process to be handled
The tool's performance is really good, so I can rate it a ten out of ten. The product did meet my expectations by allowing me to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up. I took care of the integration part of VMware Workstation with vSphere. I describe the product's documentation as a good area. My company gets complaints about technical notes from VMware. My company does face limitations with the product, and it is based on the licenses that we have purchased from VMware. I rate the overall product a ten out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It works very well. Its performance, stability, and redundancy are all very dependable."
"The installation was straightforward."
"It's good for what it does. If you have a small or medium-scale acclimatization, it's an excellent solution."
"It runs our most critical workloads and supports all our branch offices."
"The most valuable feature of Hyper-V is that it's very intuitive."
"Hyper-V helps to make a replica server between two machines. It is very easy to learn."
"The performance is very good."
"We can perform maintenance on equipment during the day because we can live migrate all of the machines from one server to another."
"It is much more mature compared to Nutanix or SimpliVity when it's cross-platform based."
"The initial setup is simple and takes only five minutes to complete."
"Technical support is very good."
"It will not harm any of the computer settings to run a specific program. For example, if a program needs a specific security policy, we don't have to use the shared configuration. We have an individual copy of Windows installed on the virtual machine, so anybody can access that. It helps us a lot."
"It's really easy to build testing environments with VMware Player."
"VMware is incredible and is designed for simple use. They help with efficiency."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is an easy-to-use product."
"We are able to simultaneously run multiple operating systems in a single machine and have virtually no performance hit."
 

Cons

"We'd like a template feature to help deploy VMs quickly."
"The solution is heavily reliant on Microsoft's active directory for authentication, for coordination between nodes. Therefore, it inherits all the issues that are within the active directory."
"SCVMM needs to be more user-friendly. Without SCVMM, automating is not easy to use and we look forward to the upcoming versions of SCVMM becoming simpler and more admin friendly."
"The solution should improve its native integration with other public cloud solutions."
"ometimes a server or machine shuts down and doesn't automatically restart."
"Security, computing balance, and taking snapshots could be improved. Features like DRS and memory ballooning could be added."
"The Hyper-V management console could be improved to make it easier. It should be a little bit more granular. Various virtual switches could also be improved to make virtual desk management slightly better. The replication could be improved slightly. The checkpoints or snapshots could be improved to make it a bit more transparent to the user."
"Microsoft tech support is horrible."
"They could bring in many different features from VMware vSphere to Workstation."
"It takes too much time to load all the plug-ins and software."
"Lacks the ability to clone onto another system rather than starting from scratch."
"The product could provide the features available in Microsoft Hyper-V."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"The GUI interface could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing and licensing is pretty good."
"Licensing needs to be a lot easier to manage with Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware is easier."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"It's not expensive."
"The license is free."
"Hyper-V's price is essentially zero because it's a feature of the operating system that I can enable and disable at will."
"Hyper-V is cost-effective and is a one-time purchase. Microsoft has multiple licensing options available, such as a subscription model and an outside purchase model that customers can choose as per their requirements."
"There is nothing extra required for Hyper-V apart from the licenses that one purchases to use Microsoft Windows."
"The tool is not the cheapest."
"VMware is expensive. Licensing can be tricky. For example, I recently had a client running VMware vSphere Essentials and wanted to migrate to a more scalable solution. However, they had no choice but to purchase a completely new license and deploy a completely new instance of VMware."
"It is an expensive solution."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The price of the solution per workstation is approximately 200 Francs annually. We pay a total of 800 francs. Everything is included in the price such as the support."
"Licensing costs are paid on a yearly basis."
"The product is expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 10, 2015
Hyper-V 2012 R2 vs. VMware vSphere 5.5
I was won with Hyper-V 2012R2 recently and the table below based on customer RFP (edited). This articles all about technical, there is not related with TCO/ROI, licensing cost, “political”, etc. Another to noted is the Windows Server 2012 licenses is based on 2 socket CPU, meanwhile…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
37%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
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...
What do you like most about Hyper-V?
The initial setup is not difficult at all. It is very easy.
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Comparisons

 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

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