Proxmox VE vs VMware Workstation comparison

The compared Proxmox and VMware solutions aren't in the same category. Proxmox is ranked #1 in SVS , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 18.5% mindshare in the category. VMware is ranked #1 in VD , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 16.9% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Proxmox users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Proxmox VE

Read 62 Proxmox VE reviews

37,999 Views
28,094 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

VMware Workstation

Read 55 VMware Workstation reviews

9,474 Views
7,026 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Proxmox VE

VMware Workstation

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Proxmox VE and VMware Workstation based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software.

To learn more, read our detailed Server Virtualization Software Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Server Virtualization Software

January 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 837,501 peers since 2012

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

Proxmox VE

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Virtualization Software (1st)

VMware Workstation

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Proxmox VE is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 18.5%, down 21.3% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 16.9% mindshare, up 13.5% since last year.

Server Virtualization Software

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Featured Reviews

Toby Champion

Independent Consultant at Toby Champion Associates

Ensures a robust, user-friendly virtualization platform with seamless VM management, efficient resource allocation and a strong community for support

Improvements are needed for the API. Currently, there are several features inaccessible through the API, necessitating the use of either the WebUI or the command line interface. While the command line interface suffices, it's apparent that efforts are underway to enhance this aspect. In future releases, one potential feature enhancement could be improved remote screen access, allowing users to connect to the screen of another machine more seamlessly. Additionally, integrating with Terraform or providing better support for Terraform workflows might be beneficial, as there seems to be some lacking in that area. There's a minor inconvenience where you have to switch the license file from the open-source community license to an enterprise license.

Read full review

Shambhu Narayan Singh

IT Manager at Axis Securities Limited

An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players

VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Proxmox VE is the linked clone."

"It is a community-based solution."

"It is easy to deploy."

"The solution is extremely scalable."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of deployment."

"KVM hypervisor is a valuable part of the solution."

"Proxmox VE is simple to use and it is feature rich. The fact is that it performs,"

"The solution is easy to install. It can run on a lot of different types of hardware. Creating virtual machines with it is really easy."

More Proxmox VE pros

"Instead of relying on dual-boot operating systems, I can utilize open-source tools within my infrastructure. This approach allows me to create an in-house cloud platform suitable for testing. VMware Workstation enables me to perform tasks across various operating systems using a single device. It has helped me save time."

"VMware Workstation has tons of third-party support, the largest partner ecosystem. VMware works with a ton of different vendors. They have plugins for almost everything. Other hypervisors lack the flexibility that VMware Workstation offers."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is an easy-to-use product."

"The technical support is good."

"VMware Workstation allows you to run a virtual machine."

"Great at solving connection problems."

"The product's initial setup phase was simple."

"VMware Workstation’s most valuable feature is virtualization technology."

More VMware Workstation pros

Cons

"Proxmox VE editions should be made available to other Linux distributions because they are only attached to Debian."

"The solution is not good at upgrading and this is why I using version 6.2 and not version 7. There is no easy way to implement the upgrade. I don't have enough experience to do it safely."

"The process for deployment is complicated."

"Proxmox VE needs to make a deal with Veeam. I was also unable to make version upgrades. I have also encountered backup problems."

"Proxmox VE doesn't offer a good interface for monitoring."

"I don't have enough experience to say what can be improved."

"The scalability could be better."

"Some of the more advanced features and options required for setup still need to use the console and hand edit config files."

More Proxmox VE cons

"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."

"The interface is a little wonky and needs to be improved."

"The big issue that we've always had with VMware, was the disparity between what was presented for a Windows-based client and a Linux-based client. The Windows client was always two or three releases ahead of the Linux client. We always wanted VMware to change and improve the feature sets between the client connector on Linux and on Windows."

"VMware Workstation uses more resources like CPU and disk space, especially the CPU, which is a shortcoming that needs improvement."

"My experience with Workstation is limited, so I don't know all the functionalities of this tool. Maybe Workstation could add some more compatibility with other vendors."

"The solution freezes sometimes."

"The product could provide the features available in Microsoft Hyper-V."

"It would be helpful if VMware Workstation included an in-built monitoring tool for monitoring things."

More VMware Workstation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The only thing you pay for is support and it is between $2,500 and $3,000 a year. It depends on the support plan you choose. Support is optional."

"The product is free."

"I am not aware of the licensing cost, but there is a cost for support."

"The way the licensing of Proxmox is structured, you can use it for free. It is an open-source solution, and you can use it for free, but if you do need support, then you have to pay for the support. So, you can use it in a way that you don't have to pay anything, which is a plus point for me. For people or users who have huge and more intense use cases, the advice or the recommendation is to always pay for support. In case something goes wrong, you can fall back on the team that will attend to your request. For me, at the moment, the cost is zero."

"To use Proxmox VE there is not a license required. However, you can purchase a support license, which you access, but it doesn't change the functionality of the solution."

"Because I'm using Proxmox VE for personal use and it's an AGPL license project, I can use it at home for free."

"Proxmox VE is free of cost."

"It's an open-source solution that can be used free of cost."

More Proxmox VE pricing and cost advice

"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."

"With a VDI solution, there is always extra cost running a VDI solution but it's not for cost purposes anymore. In the beginning, it was to save money on hardware but at the moment it's other aspects that are more important why you should use a VDI solution."

"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."

"Licensing costs are paid on a yearly basis."

"It has the best licensing modules."

"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."

"The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."

"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."

More VMware Workstation pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Virtualization Software solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Proxmox vs ESXi/vSphere: What is your experience?

For me the biggest impact is the cost of licensing in the case of VMware despite its overall intuitiveness and ease of handling and management. However, KVM-based Open Source solutions are becoming...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Proxmox VE or KVM?

I use Proxmox VE and have been very happy with it. In my opinion, it is a complete and stable solution with excellent tools for managing servers. It has a lot of different features, and I also love...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?

The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Proxmox VE

Compared 14% of the time

VMware vSphere vs Proxmox VE

Compared 13% of the time

oVirt vs Proxmox VE

Compared 12% of the time

Hyper-V vs Proxmox VE

Compared 11% of the time

RHEV vs Proxmox VE

Compared 3% of the time

More Proxmox VE Competitors

VMware Fusion Pro vs VMware Workstation

Compared 37% of the time

Hyper-V vs VMware Workstation

Compared 19% of the time

KVM vs VMware Workstation

Compared 8% of the time

VMware vSphere vs VMware Workstation

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle VM VirtualBox vs VMware Workstation

Compared 6% of the time

More VMware Workstation Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Proxmox VE

February 2025

Download Proxmox VE product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Workstation

December 2024

Download VMware Workstation product report

Overview

Proxmox VE is a complete virtualization management solution for servers. It is a powerful open-source platform and supports two virtualization technologies - KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for virtual machines and LXC for containers. Proxmox VE has a central user interface that allows you to manage not only VMs and containers, but also storage resources, network configuration, and high availability for clusters. It is enterprise-ready and is valued for its scalability and maximum flexibility, enabling you to virtualize very demanding workloads. Proxmox VE makes it possible for you to easily install, manage, and monitor hyper-converged (HCI) data centers.

Proxmox VE Key Features

The Proxmox VE platform has many powerful features, including:

pen-source software, high-available clusters, command line, fencing, a web-based management interface, flexible storage options, REST API, live/online migration, storage replication stack, software defined storage, virtualized networking, backup and restore, two-factor authentication, role-based administration, and VM templates and clones.

Proxmox VE Benefits

Some of the biggest benefits of Proxmox VE are:

Central management: To manage all tasks of your virtual data center, you can use the central, web-based management interface.
Unique multi-master design: Proxmox VE allows you to carry out maintenance tasks cluster wide, from any node.
Minimize downtime: With the integrated live/online migration feature, you can move running virtual machines from one Proxmox VE cluster node to another, without any downtime or noticeable effect from the end-user side.
Granular access: Using Proxmox VE’s role-based permission management system helps you define granular access to all objects.
Multiple authentication sources: Proxmox VE supports multiple authentication sources, including Linux PAM, an integrated Proxmox VE authentication server, LDAP, Microsoft Active Directory, and OpenID Connect.
Several storage options: The Proxmox VE storage model is very flexible and the web interface allows you to add multiple storage types (LVM Group, iSCSI target, NFS Share, SMB/CIFS, Ceph RBD, Direct to iSCSI LUN, GlusterFS, CephFS).
Collaboration with Ceph: Proxmox VE fully integrates Ceph, giving you the ability to run and manage Ceph storage directly from any of your cluster nodes.
Scheduled backups: With Proxmox VE, backups can be scheduled so that they automatically run on specific days and times, for selectable nodes and guest systems.
IT infrastructure protection: Proxmox VE has a built-in firewall that works to protect your IT infrastructure. The firewall is completely customizable, allowing complex configurations via the GUI or CLI.

Reviews From Real Users

Here is some feedback from some of our users who are currently using the solution:

A PeerSpot user who is a director at a tech services company says, “The most valuable features of Proxmox VE are the ease of containerization. Overall the solution is generic, feature-rich, and has compatibility.”

Another PeerSpot user who is a head of IT operations at a tech services company mentions that "In addition to the virtualization, the firewall and the routing functions that it provides are valuable."

Deepen D., director and CTO at TechnoInfotech, expresses that "The feature that I have found most valuable is that its storage container, LVM, and everything else work out of the box."

Proxmox

VMware Workstation is part of a suite of robust Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) tools or Desktop Hypervisors that allows users to run Kubernetes clusters, containers, and Virtual Machines (VMs). Users have the option to choose between VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Workstation Player to ensure that they get the most out of their VMware Workstation experience.

Workstation Player is best used as a command line or single graphical operation. It works very well for running different operating systems using a secure cloistered sandbox on a general consumer PC. Workstation Player is an industry favorite for use in an educational environment to better expand the knowledge concerning computer systems and global information technology. Workstation Pro is created for astute IT developers and professionals. The solution provides an intuitive next-generation interface and gives users the ability to seamlessly run several virtual machines at the same time. Users can easily create clones, configure virtual networks, connect to vSphere, and more, using a crisp, visually enhanced dashboard that provides full transparency to show multiple VMs and more.

VMware Workstation solutions rely on components in next-generation 64-bit x86 CPUs to develop robust, secure VMs that are able to utilize many different operating systems and all of their applications. VMware Workstation’s modern technology intuitively links the physical hardware devices to the virtual machine's virtual resources enabling each VM to have its own I/O devices, memory, disks, and CPU in addition to the equivalent of a standard x86 actual machine. It easily installs onto the host operating system and is able to offer comprehensive hardware support by utilizing the device support from the original host.

VMware Workstation Benefits

VMware Workstation has many desirable benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Improved overall IT processes.
Better, more efficient deployment outcomes.
Enhanced application performance.
Better server availability.

Less physical hardware and additional devices needed.
Cost-effective.
Decreased outages or downtime.
Faster provisioning of applications and resources.
Reduced power consumption.
Reduced Environmental Impact.

Reviews from Real Users

Walter G., Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC says, “The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease of creating a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop.”

Toni L., CEO at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB says, “The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the DirectX support; you can run Microsoft Hyper-V in virtual environments, which is good for me to test different installations. Additionally, you can set up different VLANs, and overall it is a complete solution.”

“Having a user-friendly interfaceis important for me. I'm not a coder, even though I do a little bit of programming. Also, I don't use the command-line interface when I can avoid it. When I do have to use it, I look up what I'm supposed to type and then type it.” A PeerSpot user who is a Chief Technical Officer at a construction company.

are Workstation is part of a suite of robust Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) tools or Desktop Hypervisors that allows users to run Kubernetes clusters, containers, and Virtual Machines (VMs). Users have the option to choose between VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Workstation Player to ensure they get the most out of their VMware Workstation experience.

Workstation Player is best used as a command line or single graphical operation. It works very well for running different operating systems using a secure cloistered sandbox on a general consumer PC. Workstation Player is an industry favorite for use in an educational environment to better expand the knowledge concerning computer systems and global information technology. Workstation Pro is created for astute IT developers and professionals. The solution provides an intuitive next generation interface and gives users the ability to run seamlessly several virtual machines at the same time. Users can easily create clones, configure virtual networks, connect to vSphere, and more using a crisp, visually enhanced dashboard that provides full transparency to show multiple VMs and more.

VMware Workstation solutions rely on components in next-generation 64-bit x86 CPUs to develop robust, secure VMs that are able to utilize many different operating systems and all of their applications. Vmware Workstation’s modern technology intuitively links the physical hardware devices to the virtual machine's virtual resources enabling each VM to have its own I/O devices, memory, disks, and CPU in addition to the equivalent to a standard x86 actual machine.VMware easily installs onto the host operating system and is able to offer comprehensive hardware support by utilizing the device support from the original host.

VMware Workstation Benefits

Vmware Workstation has many desirable benefits. Some of those benefits include:

Improved overall IT processes.
Better, more efficient deployment outcomes.
Enhanced application performance.
Better server availability.

Less physical hardware and additional devices needed.
Cost-effective.
Decreased outages or downtime.
Faster provisioning of applications and resources.
Reduced power consumption.
Reduced Environmental Impact.

Reviews from Real Users

“The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease of creating a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop.” Walter G., Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC

“The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the DirectX support; you can run Microsoft Hyper-V in virtual environments, which is good for me to test different installations. Additionally, you can set up different VLANs, and overall it is a complete solution.” Toni L., CEO at Virtual Consultants Sverige AB

A Chief Technical Officer at a construction company says,“Having a user-friendly interfaceis important for me. I'm not a coder, even though I do a little bit of programming. Also, I don't use the command-line interface when I can avoid it. When I do have to use it, I look up what I'm supposed to type and then type it.”

VMware

Sample Customers

Municipality of Trento, SwitchMIA, inDenova, Valmeita City Council, Alpha IT AS, Grupo Inversor Veracruzano S.A.P.I. de C.V. (GRIVER), Laut und Schoen, IT-Services - Hamburg e.K., KMI Learning, Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., Serwise AG

Akademiska Hus

Buyer's Guide

Server Virtualization Software

January 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: January 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Server Virtualization Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.