--- title: "vSphere Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is vSphere the right Virtualization solution for you? Explore 434 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/93512/VMware-Horizon/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-09-29" --- vSphere 4.6 (433) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/93512/VMware-Horizon/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated September 29th, 2026 # Reviews of vSphere Ease of use 4.4 Customer Service 4.3 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews CQ Connor Q Team LeadMedia Production, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “A solid industry standard platform that provides reliable virtualisation at scale. As the industry leader it excels at consolidating workloads, VM availability and providing excellent host and VM control for live/production environments.“ April 15, 2026 BS Ben S Infrastructure ArchitectEducation Management, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Since Broadcom’s acquisition of VMWare vSphere, costs have completely gotten out of control, we are no longer able to correctly budget for the product, there have been major disruptions with resellers, and the product feels dated.“ April 27, 2026 HN Harshad N Technical Support expertInformation Technology and Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It provides high-security features in managing VMs by giving access control based on users and roles.“ February 3, 2025 Sumit S Director Academic Analytics and FeedbacksEducation Management, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “some of the common pain points or challenges associated with vSphere are cost, complex pricing model and steep learning curve“ January 13, 2025 Sumit S Director Academic Analytics and FeedbacksEducation Management, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “vSphere is a robust virtualization platform offered by VMware, and there are several standout aspects about it that users often appreciate.“ January 13, 2025 RB René B AdministratorAutomotive, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Now when you have to get a new licence the price is doubled or trippled.“ June 6, 2025 Sumit S Director Academic Analytics and FeedbacksEducation Management, 5,001 - 10,000 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “Some of the features I find most notable about vSphere are Enterprise-Grade Virtualization and vMotion“ January 13, 2025 HN Harshad N Technical Support expertInformation Technology and Services, 1,001 - 5,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Product is difficult and learning curve is too extensive.“ February 3, 2025 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 433 available reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use BW Bradley W. Architect Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "vSphere was just what was needed to P2V our old legacy kit" August 31, 2026 5.0 A really solid and reliable product that I have been using and deploying for many years. I found it be totally dependable with easy to use GUI's, plenty of online docs and a very good support and technical service. Pros I found vSphere to be the complete package suppling a bare metal hypervisor, a management appliance (vCenter) and many greats tools that allowed my to P2V many monolithic servers. Cons There is a substantial cost involved as ESXi and vCenter licences are needed. These have increased following takeover from Broadcom. There are open source options available but without the support wrapper that VMWare provides. Review Source BW Bradley W. Systems Architect Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "VMware vSphere a complete package for all your on-prem & cloud compute requirements" August 31, 2026 5.0 Overall my experience was very positive with both the software products, the online portal and also the VMware team that supports the BT contacts. Pros VMware vSphere is a complete bundle of virtualisation and management tools which I found easy to install and manage. Within the business we use vSphere for on-premises and cloud compute creating virtual machines for our applications to run on. Cons There is sometimes a degree of complication with splitting out the products as they very closely tied together. Review Source Verified Reviewer Responsable S.A.T. Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Virtualizacion sin competencia" August 4, 2026 4.0 Pros Es un software muy potente y versátil, la virtualización forma parte de cualquier pyme actual, su uso es prácticamente generalizado. Cons Sus últimos movimientos en el campo del licenciamiento, con su aumento de precio, en mi caso ha inclinado la balanza para buscar alternativas mas asequibles. Review Source Ben S. Infrastructure Architect Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "VMWare vSphere has been a leader but Broadcom may be its downfall. " April 28, 2026 4.0 I have been administrating the VMWare vSphere platform since it was first released. The product has done very well over the years, but lately cracks have forms and us along with most companies are looking for alternatives. Pros VMWare vSphere has been the backbone of the hypervisor infrastructure for almost two decades. Because of this, they currently have the best integrations with all vendors. Cons Since Broadcom’s acquisition of VMWare vSphere, costs have completely gotten out of control, we are no longer able to correctly budget for the product, there have been major disruptions with resellers, and the product feels dated. Review Source connor Q. Team Lead Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "The Gold Standard; - At least until clients are completely priced out" April 16, 2026 3.0 Vsphere overall remains in my opinion the industry leader in enterprise virtualisation, and absolutely still sets the standard that others are mesaured against. Weighed heavily against that though is the crushing price model that have forced the majority of smaller and medium sized businesses (and even some larger enterprise corporations) into choosing less mature solutions and competitors; so much so that it almost completely removes Vsphere and it's associated suite from the runnings, if not immediately then at least long enough for administrators to figure out a plan to migrate away. As a result these competitors are receiving more funding and seem to be catching up much faster than previous years (Hyper-V, Nutanix, Openshift, etc) Pros A solid industry standard platform that provides reliable virtualisation at scale. As the industry leader it excels at consolidating workloads, VM availability and providing excellent host and VM control for live/production environments. Features like vMotion, HA and DRS and critical and non-negotiable for maintaining resources without disruption and providing a seemless experience for end users and hosted applications. keeping downtime minimal and providing reliable infrastructure management and uptime helps VMWare and Vsphere sit comfortably at the head of the table, especially when discussing on-premise (non cloud) virtualisation options. Cons The biggest issue with Vsphere, by far, is the remodelling of their pricing and licensing structure. Since Broadcom purchased the vendor, they have narrowed their desired client-base to a fraction of their existing market, meaning that many small and medium enterprises are left in a very difficult situation, having to choose between switching to less mature technologies, or choosing to maintain their current stack at significantly hiked price margins. The recent shift away from perpetual licensing and towards core-based subscriptions has created a much more volatile and inflexible cost case for the vast majority of customers, and the constant restructuring of varying editions and packages makes it much more confusing when navigating renewals and the associated uncertainties. Review Source R Reviewer System administrator senior Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Always the best virtualisation platform" February 12, 2026 5.0 The experience is always good and reliability is a warranty. Integration with 3rd party solutions, as backup software or repository plug-in is a plus and I like it. Pros Compatibility with different brands, easy to use and many KB on the net to explain and solve issues. Very good ticketing service Cons Broadcom has changed license system and update policies and now it's a bit tricky but I can manage it Review Source R Reviewer Consultor Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "vSphere Review" January 1, 2026 4.0 We have used it for the local deployment of monitoring solutions that run directly on the VM as well as on PODs, in addition to facilitating high availability and disaster recovery processes. Pros In recent versions, implementing orchestrators like Kubernetes or OpenShift is much easier. This allows for the simple and controlled use of pre-built images for each node, whether for a local or hybrid implementation. Cons Over time, it has become more restrictive with the prerequisites needed for each version, not only for the installation of the hypervisor, but also for the use of the latest versions of operating systems, causing many cases to require migration to other hypervisors. Review Source R Reviewer System Administrator Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Vmware Vsphere " May 5, 2021 4.0 It's cost-effective - pay as use concept if no need stop your services and get free from billings Space Effective - physical to virtual conversation helps you to save your infra space which is not possible in case of physical deployment Why Vsphere - it a product of a leading virtualization vendor. Pros Vsphere - Vcenter is the platform where you can create configure and customize the virtual machines as per the customer requirement Vsphere allows you to synchronize with multiple host/nodes, which helps you run the features of high availability smart server deployment. Vsphere has various products which help every smaller multinational organization to manage their cloud infrastructures. Vpshere allows you the features which highly recommended and essential to smoothly run any organization. Vsphere is the product of Vmware and the vendor is running in the top list of virtualization providers Features of Vsphere High Availability - Providing the high SLA Distributor resource scheduler - smart deployment of servers Distributor power management - save you cost Fault Tolerance - Zero downtime Wow that you rarely get with any other virtualization platform. Cons Vsphere should be licensed purchased it's not allowed you to run the infra after 30 days of trial. There are various packages available for their products, so small-level organizations are supposed to run all features they have to pay the cost of the required product. Should require stronger connectivity to access your Vsphere smoothly. Review Source Soe Moe T. System Engineer Infrastructure Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Excellent Virtualization Platform" May 12, 2025 4.0 Pros As a System Engineer, Vmware Virtualization is very excellent platform. We don't need to spend the a lot of physical server. The most I like about vSphere features are: 1. High Availability and DRS 2. Live Migration with vMotion 3. very simple and easy to use other than virtualization 4. A lot of Knowledge Base and strong community 5. Vmware Site Recovery Manager 6. VM Host Affinity Rules Cons I don't have much about vSphere. But now We can't download the vmware and vcenter path file in Broadcom portal. Review Source BP Brittany P. Desktop Support Teechnician Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "vSphere is a Virtuosic and Verbose Virtualization Vessel." March 19, 2025 5.0 vSphere is a robust solution for virtualization offering features such as vMotion for live migration of virtual machines, although costly, ease of use and scalability are just a few reasons why vSphere is worth the price. Pros vSphere is an established platform and has a strong track record in virtualization and cloud computing. Cons Licensing and implementation can be on the more expensive side for smaller businesses. Review Source Scott B. Network Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Great product" May 8, 2025 5.0 Great product, hopefully the purchase process for this product will be simplified like it used to be. Pros Very simple management product for vmware servers. Easily handles multiple hosts and virtual servers in one simple interface. Cons Price of product can be high, and since the Broadcom acquisition its nearly impossible to purchase the product. Review Source R Reviewer Administrator Used the software for: Less than 1 year ### "Switch from HyperV to vmWare" June 9, 2025 4.0 Overall its a good alternative to HyperV and easy to setup. The Updates a fast and not often necessary. Pros It has a clear dashboard you can see the CPU, RAM, and Network Outage. You can easily add new hard drive storage to Servers or edit the RAM. With templates you can add new Server rlly fast and implement them in your environment. Cons The new Price politic is a rlly bad thing for costumers who bought it before. Now when you have to get a new licence the price is doubled or trippled. Review Source R Reviewer ICT Infrastructure Manager Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "de facto the Hypervisor virtualization solution" March 25, 2025 5.0 vSphere is the most known, stable and used hypervisor OS; we use it in every site for both general purpose server infrastructures and VDI solutions. Pros Stability, options, features, wide knowledge base on 3rd party partner Cons after acquisition by Broadcom, price too high Review Source R Reviewer Systems Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Best product in server virtualization " March 10, 2025 5.0 Pros The product is still the best out there for on premise server virtualization for many reasons. Cons It's not the cheapest in the market. Recently there have been some QA related bugs but appears to have improved with the Broadcom acquisition. Review Source Justin H. CTO Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Very efficient workload server - runs our Linux and Win OS envs easily - expensive" January 15, 2025 5.0 Pros Runs all our linux and windows workloads very efficiently. Can stand up a new environment in minutes and backup/restore functionality is on-par with using a cloud based service. Cons The licensing model and purchasing via sales channels was difficult at first. Once we got to renewals it was smoother. The recent migration to Broadcom has increased pricing. Review Source R Reviewer Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Tool to manage and control several VMs in an environment easily" December 3, 2024 4.0 Gives a quick look of current deployed VMs and state. Also view the resource allocation and usage. Pros vSphere servers the purpose of managing and controlling multiple VMs in an environment setup. Cons The layout can be more user friendly in terms of size and options to expand/collapse. Review Source R Reviewer IT Consultant/Lecturer Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "The best virtualizing solution" July 29, 2020 5.0 Vmware’s vSphere is one of those products that you despite its cost you will never feel like you made a bad investment buying. It gives me so many options when it comes to remote management of all the software I have running within the local ecosystem. What was really impressive was how we were able to demo newer enterprise software within a control environment giving us a perspective that we would have never had given the old software that was present. With the recent Corvid outbreak, we were actually able to implement VPNs and grant remote access without having to invest in new hardware. Pros Stability and scaling were very important to me when choosing a solution to my problems. One of my clients had an old ERP software connected to an equally old version of SQL server. Pressed to upgrade and incorporate newer cloud base services I had to find something that could be used in the interim but could be shaped slowly to match our needs. I chose vSphere and it worked out very well. Having something that remote workers could access, that was stable and secure meant we able to weather the storm. The ESXi is easy to access as it is web based. Now I run all our servers on VMWare with an integrated remote cloud service for backup. Just the ability to preserve data stored in the vintage ERP alone was worth the cost. Cons While the ESXi is easy to access its can be confusing at first. Its hard to focus on what you need to see as the interface is very cluttered. Also, Hardware requirements and licensing can be taxing. While it was critical to protect our data no matter the cost the costing and implementation still felt a bit excessive. There is also huge learning curve when it comes to using some of vSphere’s functions When incorporating it into your on-site datacenter you will definitely need to train your staff or hire an expert cloud technician to monitor and manage your cloud services. Review Source Jagat Singh B. Technical Lead Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "vSphere" September 5, 2022 5.0 Easy to use and very helpful to create a virtual machine if you have a template and it will be ready within 5 minutes. It reduces the network and disk I/O failure. Pros With the help of vSphere VMware ESXi, we can create and run virtual machines immediately. We don't need to take care of dedicated physical hardware and maintain it by itself. Cons I didn't face any issues yet with the vSphere ESXi component. Review Source R Reviewer System Administrator Used the software for: 1-3 years ### "Enterprise Virtualization Environment that just works." November 2, 2022 5.0 One of the best and comprehensive user interface that is easy to understand and works for both pros and noobs. Pros Ease of using and monitoring virtual machines with vSphere even for beginners. Cons The cost is quite steep for startup and SMEs. Review Source Taryn F. Software Specialist Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Vmware vSphere is still our #1 Virtualization Software of choice" February 11, 2022 4.0 This is our go to choice of virtualization software. I think that is probably more a case of being "used to it" than its functionality over Hyper V. The tides are changing, and Vmware is going to have to keep up with the pricing and support that Microsoft offers. Pros Excellent application support. Scalability Cost of licensing. Cons Terrible support for licensing and licensing renewals in our region. Review Source Chris S. Lead System Engineer Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "I would choose no other virtualization platform" October 18, 2018 5.0 As an administrator for VMware-related hypervisors and products, I would choose no other hypervisor or virtualization platform to run in my datacenter. Pros As a hypervisor, vSphere is and has been the best in class. They are always the first to come out with essential features (vMotion, vSwitch, etc.) and these features become daily used and reliable. I've administered hundreds of VMs over my career and have had little issue from vSphere as a hypervisor. Their feature set is phenomenal, and support is very good as well. Licensing can get costly, but there are several versions to fit your needs. What's perhaps more impresive is that as a platform, vSphere can be built into other VMware components (vCenter, SRM, vRealize, etc.) which keeps growing. Entering vSphere opens your datacenter up to a entrire world of virtualization products, and most third-party products that integrate with virtualization start with vSphere. Cons It is easy to get up and running, but it can also get complex depending on what you want to do. It can also get costly if you cannot get discounts and need full feature set. Review Source R Reviewer IT Infrastructure Manager Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "VMware vSphere Review" December 18, 2023 5.0 Been using that software for years very easy to learn and deploy Pros Take one host - install 20 Virtual Machines Take a few hosts - make a redundant cluster. Cons Price is high and you pay usually by cpu count. Review Source XL Xue L. Director Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "A great virtualization platform for organizations with all sizes" November 6, 2024 4.0 We use vSphere for both production and non-production applications. vSphere brings the cloud to on-premises for us. Pros A great virtualization platform to optimize resources between cloud and on-premises. Cons The cost is unreasonable high. It should provide various licensing levels for the users. Review Source R Reviewer Student Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "The Dream Environment for Managing your Virtual Network" January 10, 2019 5.0 Prior to transferring to my current school, my previous college used vSphere to help prep its team for the Pacific Rim Collegiate Cybersecurity Defense Competition (PRCCDC), and using it in that environment really demonstrates the power of the tool for virtualization of entire networks. Absolutely stunning tool in terms of features. Pros VMware products in general are known for being the best of the best when it comes to virtualization, and vSphere is no exception. The benefits of an easy to manage virtual network are numerous, you save on space, energy, and overall costs. vSphere definitely focuses on ease of management; need to patch all your servers? Takes a fraction of the time that SSHing into each one individually would. Need to shut everything down, or boot everything up? The processes are streamlined for you. Want to deploy a new one? The process, if you don't want to clone an existing one, takes minutes. Cons It has a very steep learning curve, mostly due to the learning curve involved in virtualization itself. You must be very experienced in virtualization in order to successfully use vSphere to its full potential... Or, at all, potentially. If you can't setup a virtual server and hit it from outside your network using VMware Workstation, you won't be able to use vSphere successfully. Review Source R Reviewer Sr Systems Admin Used the software for: 3-5 years ### "Redundant Personal Business Cloud with less Overhead" September 13, 2019 5.0 Overall the experience has been positive and we can't imagine going back to the days of physical servers for each of our server resources. The scale ability, portability, and redundancy are simply unmatched. Pros When it comes to servers, hardware is expensive and often not completely utilized. With VMware vSphere, we were able to virtualize our entire development and production environment paired with three medium sized servers. This gave us scalability we never had. Our servers are pooled and share the pool resources allowing us to expand our environment to up to 35 servers running across the three servers. With vSphere we are able to have failover in the event one of the servers go down utilizing the vmotion feature without a single virtual server being interrupted. It allows us to do 90% more maintenance without a single disruption. Cons The depth of knowledge to use the advanced features and scripting is intense. There are hundreds of individual features and settings that are very difficult to understand without the proper knowledge or training. Once you figure it out you won't go back. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.