Proxmox vs ESXi in 2024

With all of the changes on the virtualization front, many are evaluating their options in 2024. Two of the major players are Proxmox and VMware ESXi. However, with the Broadcom shakeup and price increases, many are looking seriously at Proxmox. We compare Proxmox vs ESXi across many different fronts, including installation, interface, network, storage, clustering, migration, backup solutions, and more.

Introduction to Proxmox vs ESXi in 2024 - 0:00
Overview of Proxmox - 0:45
Overview of VMwwre ESXi - 1:49
Proxmox Pros - 2:34
Proxmox Cons - 3:01
VMware ESXi Pros - 3:26
VMware ESXi Cons - 4:06
Comparing installation of Proxmox and ESXi - 4:36
Comparing the interface of both - 5:12
Network and Storage with Proxmox and ESXi - 5:52
Storage comparison - 6:23
Clustering with Proxmox vs ESXi - 6:58
Migration to Proxmox vs ESXi - 7:22
Checkout the video of Proxmox migration wizard - 7:56
Backup solutions with Proxmox vs ESXi - 8:02
Comparison table beteen Proxmox vs ESXi - 9:25
Mentioning about the free release of VMware Workstation Pro - 10:00
Back to the comparison table - 10:48
Wrapping up the comparison of Poroxmox vs ESXi - 11:34

[TDHobbies]

The question is "are you going to keep using the free version of ESXi with no more updates?" Only other way is to pay for it, and for home use I can't see that many can afford to do that as a hobby.

[mikeyjr]

ProxMox is the winner across the board, in pretty much all categories - it's not even close!

[bartoszkazmierczak]

I bought VMUG last year and migrated from Proxmox to ESXi with vCenter. I'm still working on improving my setup to include vSAN, but so far I'm really happy I made the change. Proxmox still has a lot of quirks. The lack of centralized management plane for multiple non clustered hosts is a deal breaker for me. For my use case I want to live-migrate VMs to hosts that are powered on only when I need the extra capacity, or when I'm taking down one of the 24/7 hosts down for maintenance. As far as I know there's still no supported way to do that in Proxmox.

[EasyNetDev]

ESXI is starting to remove support for Mellanox ConnectX-3 in newer versions. Also the CPU support is limited to newer features. Like I have a Dell R720xd with E5-2695v2 will not be supported in the newer versions. For this reason I'm moving to Proxmox.
My backbone is built on 40GbE network.

[bianconero]

Just a dumb question. VMware workstation is coming with a built-in server. At least that was so until version 15. Is it possible to declare it as an esxi storage in Proxmox to import old VMware workstation machines?

[BrllyLSSJ]

Would be nice if you could also do a comparison with xcp-ng with both XO (build by sources) and XOA (they have a free offering available).

[diablobarcelona]

I'm hoping and waiting for a FreeBSD Bhyve solution, something with a slick interface.

[darkenruso]

Great video. I recently set up a proxmox cluster and compared it to vmware and I found 2 negative points.
Since proxmox has evolved to version 8, I don't understand how it is possible that there isn't a more orderly way to manage virtual machines like vmware and folders do, none of the proxmox options are useful for effectively managing a cluster with 30+ virtual machines. There is an option that is “Folders View” where you cannot manage folders...
The other point regarding is containers, what proxmox offers is useless since most of the developments in pipe end in a container in a registry which offers the ease of making a "pull" of the image. In this case the container starts from scratch and everything has to be built from scratch.
Proxmox seems promising but needs to polish certain aspects to be a definitive replacement.

[computerdave]

My current dilemma is old hardware that can't run the ESXi past v6 (I have VMUG). I looked into Proxmox and couldn't run that on my old hardware either. The only way I was able to get anything going again was with xcp-ng; while not my favorite it has my small number of homelab vms running again after importing the .ova's I exported.

[beuman]

I'm no expert in the field but I'm using both and going full Proxmox when I can. Been doing cool stuff with GPU passthrough lately

[JasonsLabVideos]

Good video, altohough Esxi was my go to for home & work, they killed the industry so everyones now moving over to Hyper-v OR Proxmox.

[jleonardolemos]

What is your personal choice for a home lab??

[ThatE]

So i have a free esxi license. Does it just mean no more updates for it? Use it for home lab

[seansingh]

Proxmox was the only one where I can just fire up a VM and that VM would have its own private IP assigned by my router automatically. I couldn’t make that work at all anywhere else. Proxmox is the best for students wanting to learn and small business owners who’re just starting out.

[infinatious]

Personally I will be going with XCP-NG over Proxmox

[g.s.]

I am suggesting Client to use Proxmox if they were using VMware ROBO licenses, but if they are serious about virtualization for the moment they'd better stay with VMware.

[didierdel]

Bonjour, obliger d'acheter une carte réseau Intel de serveur, pour pouvoir installer Esxi 8. Heureusement Amazone est là ! ! Mais c'est vrai que la configuration et l'utilisation Esxi est plus facile qu'avec Proxmox.

[alphabanks]

Another great video however I prefer for my home enviroment to resemble what I see in the real world. Most likely I will be moving over to Hyper-V or Xen.

[pepeshopping]

Proxmox would the the ultimate Hypervisor, IF it was a true APPLIANCE!

Needing manual changes in the shell? Edit boot loader options in order to enable pass-through!?

Once they get a ONE FILE backup/restore for 100% of the configuration, THEN, I will consider it.

I dislike Proxmox GUI too, so not a real appliance or solution for me.

Moved from ESXi to TrueNAS Scale and very happy with it. Within this year, TN will get all the little features that are missing, making it an all services/options/features server/machine.

How long will it take you to restore a Proxmox server, 100%, if the boot/OS drive fails???

With TN: 10 min to install, 3 min to upload config file, 3 min reboot.

[LokiDaFerret]

Is there really any comparison to be had? ESXi is dead therefore Proxmox is the way forward. Or TrueNAS. But definitely not ESXi!