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Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs RHEV comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Nutanix AHV Virtualization
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
58
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
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Nutanix AHV Virtualization is 4.8%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.3%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nutanix AHV Virtualization4.8%
RHEV2.3%
Other92.9%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

TAIYAB HASAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at AlDawaa Medical Services
Has provided seamless virtualization and centralized control with strong security and reliable performance
I find almost every feature of Nutanix AHV Virtualization useful, as it's a very nice HCI solution from Nutanix. AHV is their native product, so it's very integrated with all the hardware they provide. Integration is very nice with the baseline hardware. We are using all built-in security features of Nutanix AHV Virtualization, which include encryption. It is very effective in protecting our VMs, and it is very secure. The impact of AHV, such as micro-segmentation, is very effective for us and it's working as per our requirements. We are very happy with the features. Role-Based Access is also a very nice feature for us to define to whom to give admin access and to whom to give read-only access. This kind of authentication helps us distribute tasks within the teams. Using Nutanix AHV Virtualization in a single management pane is very important to me, as it allows us to see everything related to our hardware, software, servers, and VMs from one console. We can reach everything from this one console, which provides a nice inside view for our software, hardware applications, server details, issues, alerts, or any unwanted activity. We are using the non-disruptive operations feature because Nutanix AHV Virtualization is in our production environment, and this feature helps us perform any activity without any downtime.
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The one-click upgrade is the solution's most valuable feature; it allows you to perform non-disruptive upgrades even when you are in production without having to wait for a maintenance window."
"The most valuable part of Nutanix is its centralized management of everything."
"Simplicity is the most valuable feature."
"If we want to move the virtual machine from one host to another, it's simple, straightforward, and stable."
"The initial setup of Nutanix AHV Virtualization is straightforward."
"This solution is very stable and it has been running for the last three months, with no issues."
"The most valuable feature of Nutanix AHV is the prism, it is a beneficial central management console."
"The dashboard of the solution is one of its strongest points."
"The solution is overall very good with all the facilities. It is user friendly, easy to configure, has documentation, and support is available."
"Performance and security are key advantages of RHEV."
"The price is the solution's most valuable aspect; it's much cheaper than, for example, VMware, so companies can save money using it if they need to."
"For the Windows side, we also initiated a digital transformation project, moving a lot of Windows applications to the container side and the open-source software side, which resulted in almost 70% savings of our past expenses."
"One of the most valuable features of this solution is the popularity of the OS."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"RHEV’s cost is much less compared to VMware."
"There aren't any bugs on the solution."
 

Cons

"If you have the need for special hardware like FibreChannel-Cards or such and there is no networked-way around it (such as you could work with USB Dongles via an HW-Dongle-Server of network), you have to use a separate hypervisor."
"My storage use is doubled; if I am creating a one TB virtual machine then my storage policy will take two TB from my cluster."
"I would like to see better decompression or degrouping of the VMs so that we can use a single number of SQLs with two servers. We don't need a huge number of DXSPs."
"Although AHV has many advantages, some drawbacks need to be mentioned. Compared to established hypervisors like VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V, AHV has a limited ecosystem and smaller community support."
"It would be better if the solution's replication to another site could be efficiently optimized."
"To face no complications in our company, we had to switch off virtual machines one after the other before heading to Nutanix platform and going to edge services to switch off and turn off everything, making it a challenging process for me."
"In the next release of this solution, I would like to see support for containerization."
"Some companies do not support AHV."
"The availability of technical expertise with the solution may be limited in some areas."
"With RHEV, the cyberattacks should be fewer. I want RHEV to be better protected."
"The solution could improve its pricing."
"The Administration of the Oracle database and the SAP ERP needs improvement."
"Specifically, enhancements in managing virtual machine migrations, cloning, and the creation of different VMs could further optimize its functionality."
"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."
"The RHEV management plane could be improved, particularly the management interface."
"The solution has a very small lifecycle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Nutanix AHV costs less than VMware vSphere."
"I rate Nutanix AHV Virtualization's pricing a five out of ten."
"The pricing depends upon the licenses, considering the number of devices."
"Since Broadcom bought VMware, Nutanix also increased its pricing, making the solution expensive."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."
"The price of Nutanix AHV is reasonable."
"The solution's pricing is cheap for a new customer but becomes expensive during renewal."
"We don't have to pay extra for Acropolis because it is built into Nutanix."
"This is an open-source solution."
"This product has a variety of licensing options available. However, the level of licensing, and therefore the cost of licensing, is dependent on the number of servers being utilized."
"I would say the price is acceptable."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"Its price depends on the use cases."
"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."
"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."
"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."
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Comparison Review

VL
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

How does Nutanix AHV compare with VMware vSphere?
To understand which is better - Nutanix AHV or VMware vSphere - you need to do a product comparison. Both products support hypervisors. However, Nutanix supports some of the most popular ones and m...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix AHV Virtualization?
Regarding the cost, Nutanix AHV Virtualization is not very expensive and not very low-priced. It's reasonable for us, and the budget is there.
What needs improvement with Nutanix AHV Virtualization?
In our comparison during migration from another virtualization platform, we found a limitation with Nutanix AHV Virtualization, which is that physical server migration to the AHV environment is not...
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.
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, SAIC Volkswagen
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix AHV Virtualization vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
907,372 professionals have used our research since 2012.