G2 Vendor Directory

VMware vSphere vs. VMware ESXi

A side-by-side comparison based on G2 review data.

MetricVMware vSphere

by Broadcom

VMware ESXi

by Broadcom

Overall rating4.54.6
Review count78524
Ease of use9.19.1
Ease of setup8.89.3
Quality of support8.78.9
Meets requirements9.39.4
NPS69.6103977.272727
Small Business15.1%33.3%
Mid-Market41.1%45.8%
Enterprise43.8%20.8%
Total page views1,242262
Total LLM citations4,101384

VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere with VCF 9.1 is the enterprise workload engine that modernizes compute infrastructure with a future-ready, scalable infrastructure and simplified management that enables organizations to extract maximum value from their current server investments and hardware footprint, rather than requiring a total refresh. vSphere provides a powerful foundation for modern, AI and traditional workloads, while enabling intrinsic security out-of-the-box.

Pros

  • Ease of Use
  • Virtualization Management
  • Features
  • Management
  • Reliability
  • Stability

VMware ESXi

VMware ESXi is a robust, enterprise-class, type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware, designed to deploy and manage virtual machines directly on physical servers without the need for an underlying operating system. As a bare-metal hypervisor, ESXi provides a secure and efficient virtualization platform, enabling organizations to consolidate their IT infrastructure, optimize resource utilization, and reduce operational costs.

Pros

  • Virtualization Management
  • Ease of Use
  • Features
  • Snapshots
  • Stability
  • Management Ease