No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.
Get the report

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

VMware ESXi offers high availability, efficient resource scheduling, and strong disaster recovery and vMotion features.
This platform provides excellent server management capabilities, significantly simplifying the management of virtual machines and reducing the need for physical servers.
Flexibility in managing resources such as memory and processing power results in high efficiency and improved operations.
A strong clustering feature is a notable asset, facilitating robust virtualization needs within enterprises.
VMware ESXi's integration with vCenter allows for centralized management, strengthening its role in a mature and stable IT infrastructure.

CONS

Pricing is a major concern for VMware ESXi, with several users indicating it has become expensive, especially after the acquisition by Broadcom.
The licensing model for VMware ESXi is viewed as challenging and problematic, with a shift from perpetual to subscription-based licenses causing issues.
VMware ESXi requires a substantial initial investment, which may be a deterrent for smaller businesses compared to more flexible cloud solutions.
VMware ESXi's technical support is rated moderately, with users expressing dissatisfaction with response times during emergencies.
The patching and upgrading process in VMware ESXi is considered to need significant improvement.
 

VMware ESXi Pros review quotes

Gourab Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 7, 2026
VMware ESXi has positively impacted our organization significantly in terms of operations and cost optimization, as we optimized our environment under a per-core license agreement, achieving around 30 to 40% cost-effectiveness and maintaining almost 99.99% uptime across our environment, where VMware ESXi is run on about 85% of our setup.
Ion Boni - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Partner at evercloud
Oct 3, 2025
We are using VMware ESXi for virtualization, with vCenter being the core product—these are building blocks for having efficiency and stability in daily operations, and we cannot operate without them.
Syed Ali Waqas - PeerSpot reviewer
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
Nov 12, 2024
The most valuable features are the integration with networking and virtual network switches.
Learn what your peers think about VMware ESXi. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
912,006 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IA
IT Manager at Defence Industry
Jul 1, 2025
The features I find most useful in VMware ESXi are definitely the hypervisor and virtualization server feature, and secondly, the storage features, such as object-based storage, S3-compatible storage systems, and also virtualized SAN, vSAN, and ESA.
Fozia Nurye - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Officer at Bank of Abyssinia
Mar 25, 2025
All the features of VMware ESXi are very beneficial, particularly for virtualizing our infrastructure.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
Nov 20, 2024
ESXi stands out for its simplicity in setup, management, and monitoring.
Amar Sorro - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
Dec 16, 2024
ESXi's integration with VMware vCenter offers centralized management.
NasrRafiq - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP B1 Support Consultant at Abacus Consulting
Nov 4, 2024
The most important features are having a lot of code and CPU threads to ensure the system doesn't lag, and the role of memory is important.
reviewer2388204 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Product Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
May 30, 2024
VMware ESXi is very reliable, especially for our production environment.
Syed Shahid Hasan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager- II | Unit Head - Technolgy Infra (Global) at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Apr 11, 2024
The product is very reliable.
 

VMware ESXi Cons review quotes

Gourab Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Apr 7, 2026
Customer support from VMware ESXi is moderate; while they do respond, it often takes a while during emergency situations, which needs improvement.
Ion Boni - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Partner at evercloud
Oct 3, 2025
Licensing has become a major issue. The new subscription-based licensing model is problematic.
Syed Ali Waqas - PeerSpot reviewer
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
Nov 12, 2024
We often face issues with ESXi that require us to change resources by shutting down the VMs.
Learn what your peers think about VMware ESXi. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
912,006 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IA
IT Manager at Defence Industry
Jul 1, 2025
VMware ESXi is extremely expensive now compared to a few years ago.
Fozia Nurye - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Officer at Bank of Abyssinia
Mar 25, 2025
Pricing is a major issue with VMware ESXi as it is becoming more expensive.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Synergy Computers
Nov 20, 2024
The licensing model currently presents challenges.
Amar Sorro - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead Virtualization at Hybrid Tech
Dec 16, 2024
The cost of VMware ESXi is very high, especially after the acquisition by Broadcom, which led to price increases. Improving the cost structure would be beneficial.
NasrRafiq - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP B1 Support Consultant at Abacus Consulting
Nov 4, 2024
The software could be more user-friendly, allowing customers to easily find the resources and features they need.
reviewer2388204 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Product Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
May 30, 2024
For horizontal scalability, VMware ESXi is not the right product, and we have been evaluating alternative options.
Syed Shahid Hasan - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager- II | Unit Head - Technolgy Infra (Global) at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Apr 11, 2024
VMware is very costly.