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Hyper-V vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
7.0
Organizations save costs with Hyper-V by reducing physical server needs and IT expenses, compared to VMware.
Sentiment score
1.0
VMware Workstation enhances cost savings, enabling efficient application testing and integration, resulting in improved job performance and satisfaction.
You need only one physical server that can host several virtualized servers within the same physical server instead of having multiple physical servers.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
It saves us money compared to VMware because we still need to pay Microsoft licenses, but in addition to that we need to pay for VMware for virtualization.
IT Professional at NIPOS
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Hyper-V support receives mixed feedback; generally positive but varies due to factors like regional availability and direct contact challenges.
Sentiment score
2.9
VMware Workstation's customer service is mixed, with varying responsiveness and reliance on community resources after HP acquisition.
Technical support from Microsoft is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
The technical support for Hyper-V is excellent
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
The technical support is very good
Manager of Systems at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate their support or customer service a two or three since they never did anything.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The documents provided for Workstation were not hard to understand.
Owner at Inforex
It's a very special way of working with VMware Workstation.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Hyper-V is highly scalable, enabling effective growth across environments, with some challenges but generally favorable user perception.
Sentiment score
6.7
VMware Workstation is versatile, supporting multiple VMs, though opinions vary on scalability for larger operations and single installations.
There is a redundancy cost for high availability because data are stored mirroring on two nodes.
IT Professional at NIPOS
Hyper V can support over two hundred virtual processors and around 12 TB of memory.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
The scalability of Hyper-V is great; I would rate it nine out of ten.
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
VMware Workstation is scalable enough for larger companies, though it requires some skills.
Owner at Inforex
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Users praise Hyper-V for stability, despite occasional backup and performance issues, with Windows updates impacting stability more than VMware.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Workstation is highly reliable, with improved stability post-v6, though minor virtual network issues may occur in specific scenarios.
Automation is unavailable, and reporting is difficult.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Frequent Windows updates can impact stability compared to VMware ESXi.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
We have stable performance, but we see some glitches with some snapshots on Linux boxes in Linux virtual machines.
IT Professional at NIPOS
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek Hyper-V improvements in cloning, virtualization, cost, security, RAM, interface, compatibility, networking, and cross-platform management.
VMware Workstation needs performance, usability, and cost improvements, enhanced stability, better documentation, and streamlined integration and scalability.
Hyper-V should ensure the features of VMware are covered within its platform.
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
Hyper-V could be improved by implementing the same set of features that other tools provide.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In future updates, I would like to see improvements in reporting and a resolution to some security weaknesses.
Technical Manager at OAK integrated System Pvt Ltd
Eventually, we had to get some licenses with Broadcom, and all the costs went up dramatically.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We faced challenges with backup due to limitations in the free version, requiring us to switch to a paid version.
Owner at Inforex
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Setup Cost

Hyper-V is free with Windows Server, but additional management tools and scale affect overall cost-effectiveness compared to competitors.
VMware Workstation is pricey but offers integration benefits with cost-saving opportunities through sales and varies by user needs.
Hyper-V is completely free and requires no licensing fee.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Hyper-V's licensing costs are lower compared to VMware, making it cost-effective for smaller workloads.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
Until 2019, Hyper-V was a cost-effective solution because it was available as a free product.
Manager of Systems at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology
 

Valuable Features

Hyper-V offers cost-effective virtualization with dynamic memory, live migration, PowerShell automation, and seamless Windows integration for enterprises.
VMware Workstation offers user-friendly virtualization, multi-OS operation, and superior testing flexibility, outperforming alternatives like Oracle VirtualBox.
It is completely free, which is a significant advantage.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have seen return on investment with Hyper-V because it is both time-saving and cost-effective.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
We switched to Hyper-V because it was lower cost than paying for high availability in VMware.
IT Professional at NIPOS
VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox.
Owner at Inforex
VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simply being able to run several Windows PCs with different development environments has had the largest impact on our operational efficiency.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyper-V
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
145
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (2nd)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Hyper-V is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 17.2%, up 14.5% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 13.4% mindshare, down 16.7% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Hyper-V17.2%
VMware vSphere18.1%
Proxmox VE13.9%
Other50.800000000000004%
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Workstation13.4%
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)15.4%
VMware Fusion Pro13.7%
Other57.5%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Tomas Basus - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
GC
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Creating and destroying test machines has simplified our operations and reduced manual recovery time
The Snapshot feature has helped with workflows by allowing us to more easily reconstruct something if we lose it or need it. We've been making Snapshots on a consistent basis, mainly of servers. The VX Rail has worked effectively because we can create machines as we need them. It's helpful for resetting and has helped with our operations because I had set up failover servers on Vertex, but we don't have to do that anymore since VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem. We're doing our domain servers on there, and we've been very happy with that. We appreciate that we can create machines simply to test things out and then destroy them. I use it for a test machine for checking emails, so if the email has a virus in it, we can just destroy the machine and create a new one. We're slowly moving into the VMware environment, although the pricing with Broadcom has been a disaster.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Virtualization Software solutions are best for your needs.
880,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant, ASEAN at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
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
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
University
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business70
Midsize Enterprise37
Large Enterprise46
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise17
 

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

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Large customer base from all industries, all over the world. Two major Hyper-V customers are Telefonica and EmpireCLS.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Microsoft, Proxmox and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: January 2026.
880,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.