We have been using ESXi hypervisors with vCenter. We use it for both private and public clouds.
Executive Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Easy and quick to install, flexible, and stable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are that it's stable, easy to use, and it's flexible."
- "The price is a big issue for us because the market is very competitive in our country, so we can't really push our VMware vSphere products because the customers will prefer to use something cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are that it's stable, easy to use, and it's flexible.
What needs improvement?
The price is a big issue for us because the market is very competitive in our country, so we can't really push our VMware vSphere products because the customers will prefer to use something cheaper. Customers in our country are very price-sensitive, so if the price were reduced it would be more popular.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with VMware vSphere for the past decade.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a simple product to use and we haven't had any issues with using it, right out of the box. We plan to continue using it in the future.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product. Our entire business and virtual machines run on vSphere, and our customers do, as well.
How are customer service and support?
We have been in contact with technical support and had a good experience. We are satisfied with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use another similar solution prior to vSphere.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is straightforward and probably takes less than 20 minutes per host.
What about the implementation team?
It is easy to install and we did it by ourselves.
We have two engineers who are responsible for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is an expensive product, especially because we need to pay in US Dollars. Really, it depends on the exchange rate. If the exchange in our country is bad then the product becomes even more expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated other hypervisors and based on my experience, I find that vSphere is top-rated.
What other advice do I have?
This is a good product and I recommend it.
I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

System Administrator at j5 Software South Africa
Makes VM backups for fast recovery options but it entails more work
What is our primary use case?
I have used VMware products at five different software companies, and it was mainly used for the following functions: development environments, QA systems, internal infrastructures like wikis or ticketing.
How has it helped my organization?
It was brilliant to consolidate systems, and it provided the best way of doing it at the time, as far as I was aware.
What is most valuable?
Snapshot and clone: make VM backups for fast recovery options, build systems and reduced setup times.
What needs improvement?
When I needed to equip a new startup, I was unable to get the budget for vSphere past finance, so I ended up adopting a cheaper alternative even though it meant more work.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Depends on your budget
How are customer service and technical support?
Good
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also used Citrix Xen which was really great, but ended up mainly using Qemu and Libvirt with KVM because of costs.
How was the initial setup?
Simple
What about the implementation team?
In house
What was our ROI?
Great flexible infrastructure
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Depends on your budget and skill set.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Virtualbox, Xen Server and KVM
What other advice do I have?
Linode, AWS and Digital Ocean now use KVM
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSphere
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSphere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cloud Professional Architect at FPT Software
It helps us in the management of thousands of VMs in the coverage UI
What is our primary use case?
- Cloud computing service (IaaS)
- Private/hybrid cloud
- Virtualization infrastructure
- Virtualization desktop infrastructure.
How has it helped my organization?
- High availability causes downtime service because it is needed to reboot VMs.
- Fault tolerance is limited by the four vCPUs.
- The service provider is not easy to integrate via API like OpenStack.
What is most valuable?
- vCloud Director, because we may use it as the dashboard for providing cloud services.
- vCenter
- vSphere, because it helps us in the management of thousands of VMs in the coverage UI.
What needs improvement?
The SDK/API to help SPs (service providers) provide the pay-as-you-go business model in cloud service.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
VI Specialist at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I value the support for this application.
What is most valuable?
I value the support for this application.
How has it helped my organization?
If you compare the trend of each version, you can see that the practical features add to this product's value.
What needs improvement?
It would be very useful if they would configure the built-in backup application on this product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were some stability issues. If you assign a non-dedicated resource to this product, you can see the issue in storage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues as such. However, it depends on the license that you buy.
How is customer service and technical support?
Technical support was at a high level.
How was the initial setup?
If you have a good understanding from the system how the solution works, it can be simple. Otherwise, it can be confusing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you compare it with the applicable features provided, the cost is reasonable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Microsoft Hyper-V.
What other advice do I have?
You should at least try this product once.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sr. Systems Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its hardware abstraction allows us to refresh easier. There are, however, some networking changes, storage integrations, and leverage features that aren’t available.
Valuable Features
- Hardware consolidation
- Easy provisioning
- Speed to get environments out to business units
Improvements to My Organization
- Hardware abstratction (lets us refresh easier)
- Storage
- DRS
Room for Improvement
There are some networking changes, storage integration, and leverage features that aren’t available.
Stability Issues
It's pretty solid, there's a few bugs, but nothing detrimental.
Scalability Issues
It's very scalable and easy to deploy.
Customer Service and Technical Support
It's got pretty good tech support, quick answers, and they integrate well with certain key partners (Cisco, NetApp, etc.).
Initial Setup
It was very straightforward.
Other Solutions Considered
Five years ago I used vSphere in a small data center that needed to go virtual. vSphere was more mature than other solutions, and I did a lot of test devs with it and it proved its stability.
Other Advice
I would recommend it, as it's very stable and robust. Make sure you stay current, and up to date.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior System Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
From compute and storage perspectives, we use our resources more efficiently. But although I wasn't involved in initial setup, they should apply consistent policies and have them function singularly.
Valuable Features
It gives us flexibility in deploying infrastructure. With vMotion, we're able to move critical VMs around our cluster infrastructure, which we manage with DRS.
Improvements to My Organization
From a compute and storage perspective, we're able to use our resources much more efficiently.
Room for Improvement
it’s so simple that it’s idiot proof.
Stability Issues
We never have a problem. It’s almost set it and forget it. Once configured, it takes care of itself. Usually any issues are with hardware, which can’t be helped. With vSphere running on UCS, we’re thrilled.
Scalability Issues
We’ve needed to scale and have had no problems in deploying nodes into clusters and getting their profiles. It’s very simple.
Customer Service and Technical Support
We've not had to engage them in some time. In the past, we never had a bad experience. We had complex tech issues which we worked through the night and they stayed with me on the phone.
Initial Setup
I was not involved, but it would be simple to apply consistent set of policies and get them to function as a single entity.
Other Advice
It’s incredibly mature and simple. It’s one of those things where you say “why not?”
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Systems Administor at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
It's reduced the size and cost of our physical data center, although vROPS should be part of the product and not something extra.
Valuable Features
- High Availability, so we're able to failover in the case of hardware failure
- vMotion, for live migration from one server to another without interruption
- DRS, on par with or better than other hypervisors
Improvements to My Organization
- Reduces the size and cost of our physical data center.
- It gives us a smaller footprint, and we can do more with less.
Room for Improvement
vROPS should be part of the product and not something extra. There’s a bunch of third-party applications that can do the same thing for less money. If VMware wants people to get vROPS, it should be included. Price is an issue.
Stability Issues
It's rock solid. We're 100% virtualized and we run everything in this architecture (FAS and vSphere), but you have to deploy it correctly.
Scalability Issues
It's infinitely scalable, if you have the money.
Customer Service and Technical Support
It's great, except for AirWatch.
Initial Setup
Upgrading from v5.5 to v6.0, there were a couple of areas in which we had to be careful because the instructions weren't presented clearly, especially with the new vCenter architecture. You have to be careful, but after that, everything else was easy.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
Over the last couple of years VMware has included more in your license, but support costs start going up for those products. Hardware costs go down, but licensing starts to cost. CTO’s start looking at open source because of cost, but architects don’t want that.
Other Advice
It just works. Just get it. There are other hypervisors, but the amount of time you put into it to get your job done, you’re going to save money on the back end with vSphere.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technology Services Manager at Oden
It saves me time when spinning up machines for dev environments, is stable, and scales well.
What is most valuable?
The ability to spin up machines when we need a test and dev environment for client work.
How has it helped my organization?
It saves me time, and at the end of the day, that’s it for me.
What needs improvement?
It fits my needs right now, I honestly don’t need anything else.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It’s stable – no crashes, no bugs, knock on wood, but it’s been great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have scaled, from about one server to three now. Its very easy to just scale up.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've used them just once. They were responsive, quick, somebody got on the phone and it worked to a resolution quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were limited on space in our data center, with physical servers, and we needed more.
How was the initial setup?
It was very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I did it, and it was easy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Just VMware, my previous job we used it, and it was great. I’ve been a customer for a long time now. I just want something to work, and I know VMware does.
What other advice do I have?
It’s been great. I would recommend it all the time, it’s great. Peer reviews are quite important, as I need to know what others are experiencing before I do.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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