What are the disadvantages of VMware?

VMware is still one of the more capable virtualization platforms available, but its downsides became harder to absorb after Broadcom ended perpetual licensing in 2024 and folded roughly 8,000 individual SKUs into two subscription bundles, VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation. Whether that trade-off still makes sense depends on your environment's size, your renewal terms, and how much a migration would cost you elsewhere.

When do the downsides become a dealbreaker?

Cost is the clearest trigger. The current licensing model prices vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation per core, with a published minimum of 16 cores licensed per CPU, so a processor with fewer physical cores still gets billed as if it had 16. Add the end of perpetual licenses, since renewals now require an active subscription with no option to keep a paid-off license running past its term, and small to mid-size environments, especially those under a few hundred VMs, often see costs grow faster than their infrastructure does. If a hardware refresh is already due, that is usually the moment to compare alternatives seriously.

When are the downsides worth accepting?

Large, complex estates tend to stay put. Organizations running heavy vMotion, vSAN, or NSX workloads, or those tied to VMware-certified hardware for compliance reasons, face a migration measured in months, not a licensing negotiation measured in days. Moving thousands of VMs off proprietary VMDK-based storage and retraining staff on a different hypervisor's tooling can cost more than several years of the higher subscription fees. For those teams, staying on VMware while renegotiating bundle scope is usually cheaper than migrating.

How do teams manage these downsides in practice?

Most teams that stay run a core-count audit before every renewal, since per-core bundle pricing rewards right-sized hardware rather than over-provisioned servers.

• Check every host against the VMware Compatibility Guide before a refresh cycle, since ESXi drops support for hardware that falls off the list.
• Negotiate bundle scope directly with the account team instead of accepting the default renewal quote.
• Pilot a second hypervisor, such as Proxmox, Nutanix, or Hyper-V, on non-critical workloads to build a real cost comparison before the next contract cycle.

Does Broadcom still sell perpetual VMware licenses?

No. Broadcom stopped selling new perpetual licenses in 2023 and moved the vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation lineup to subscription-only terms in 2024. Existing perpetual licenses can keep running, but support renewals require a subscription.

What's the minimum core count under the new licensing model?

Broadcom's per-core pricing sets a minimum of 16 cores per CPU, so a chip with fewer physical cores is still billed for 16.

Will my current hardware still work with ESXi?

Only if it appears on the VMware Compatibility Guide. Hardware that falls off the list during a version upgrade loses official support even if it keeps running.

Last verified: July 21, 2026. Updated: July 21, 2026.