Our VMware pricing guide explores the vendor’s range of products and how they can benefit your organization. We’ll also dive into VMware pricing and how it compares to alternative vendors. Speaking of pricing, we’ll also touch on how Vertice can save you money through strategic negotiations and our SaaS management platform. 

What VMware can do for you 

VMware is a multifaceted virtualization and cloud management vendor. Its products help organizations seamlessly manage, optimize, and secure their IT infrastructure across on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. 

This pricing guide delves into the different VMware products, use cases, and potential costs, helping you choose the optimal solution for your needs. 

VMware pricing structures and tiers

VMware pricing doesn’t conform to conventional subscription tiers, mainly due to the vendor’s versatile and product-packed platform. Organizations can choose from over 70 solutions targeting wide-ranging cloud migration, modernization, and virtualization requirements. 

The first hurdle for successful procurement is understanding what each product does. VMware splits its offerings into six core solutions, which you can read more about below.

VMware pricing – App platform

VMware Tanzu is the vendor’s flagship solution for modern application development and deployment. DevOps teams can leverage advanced automation capabilities, AI-powered coding insights, and simplified code-to-deployment pipelines to streamline workflows. 

The Tanzu product posts impressive numbers, with a 31–90% reduction in development time, 70–80% reduction in management costs, $2 million savings on infrastructure, and 142% ROI compared to other application platforms, both open source and commercial. 

ESG and Forrester Research conducted a TCO analysis over three years to get these figures — reputable sources we can trust.  

VMware pricing for Tanzu isn’t published publicly. The product is primarily aimed at enterprises building modern cloud-native applications at scale. Smaller businesses should consider the potentially high prices, although the best-in-class functionality can often be worth the cost.

VMware pricing – Cloud infrastructure

VMware pricing for cloud infrastructure unlocks the vendor’s primary use case for most organizations. Here are the two core products: 

• VMware Cloud Foundation – A comprehensive platform for building and managing private clouds and complex hybrid ecosystems. Features include cloud-scale Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), advanced networking, 360-degree security, automated provisioning, and more. Pricing for Cloud Foundation is only available per quote, but is an expensive option for enterprises with complex requirements. 
• VMware vSphere Foundation – This simplified solution primarily helps SMBs manage workloads and optimize data center performance using vSphere, VMware’s core virtualization technology. Capabilities include server consolidation, budget optimization, DevOps self-service access, cloud infrastructure visibility assistance, and more. This can be a cost-effective way for smaller companies to improvise resource allocation and build an optimized cloud environment. 

VMware pricing – Networking

VMware’s ability to run seamlessly on various cloud environments and models is a key reason for its popularity, with organizations able to quickly integrate the vendor’s products into pre-existing ecosystems.  

The subscription price can also vary depending on the cloud provider integration. VMware offers bespoke configurations and capabilities for Alibaba Cloud, Azure, Google Cloud (GCP), IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and AWS.

Additionally, VMware works with over 200 other global cloud providers. While these services may not be as feature-rich as the network integrations above, they still provide basic functionalities like vSphere deployment and general cloud management tools. 

VMware pricing – Security and load balancing 

Network security is a mission-critical consideration for any business, especially those operating with complex cloud environments and tight regulatory frameworks. VMware pricing for its security and load balancing solutions suits all range of organizations from SMB to enterprise. 

Again, exact costs or packages are unavailable, but the vendor lists three main products: 

• VMware Avi Load Balancer – This tool delivers high-performance load balancing, firewalls, and container ingress services for multi and hybrid cloud environments, and is also available as a Cloud Foundation or vSphere add-on. This product is particularly useful for the high web traffic loads common in industries like e-commerce and media streaming. 
• VMware vDefend Distributed Firewall – Organizations can now only purchase vDefend Distributed Firewall as a Cloud Foundation add-on. The solution leverages a Layer 7 firewall with granular controls to enforce micro-segmentation and minimize lateral movement for security threats. It’s an advanced option suited to tightly regulated enterprises in sensitive industries.
• VMware vDefend Advanced Threat Prevention – Formerly sold under the NSX brand, vDefend Advanced Threat Prevention is an enterprise-grade security solution providing high-fidelity insights into network traffic. The product utilizes network traffic analysis, sandboxing, and machine learning to detect and block sophisticated malware, zero-day attacks, and other threats. 

VMware pricing – Software-defined edge

VMware’s versatility is unparalleled, especially considering the vendor’s edge computing solutions. Organizations seeking to minimize latency, optimize application performance, and enable real-time decision-making at the network edge can opt for three products: 

• Edge Compute Stack – This product provides a unified platform to manage and orchestrate virtual machines, containers, and Kubernetes workloads at the edge.  
• VeloCloud SD-WAN/SASE – Offering secure and optimized network programming at the edge, VeloCloud delivers high-performance SD-WAN (software-defined wide area network) and SASE (secure access service edge) capabilities, facilitating better connectivity, resiliency, and security.
• Telco Cloud – A product specifically catering to telecommunications service providers, Telco Cloud is a cloud-native platform for building and managing virtualized network functions and containerized network services at the edge. This is particularly important with the advent of 5G. 

VMware pricing – Desktop hypervisor

VMware pricing can also appeal to organizations or individuals requiring a flexible and scalable way to experiment with different operating systems or test software via virtualization sandboxes. The desktop hypervisor category includes two products:  

• Fusion Pro – This Mac-specific option helps organizations run hundreds of operating systems on virtual machines and test applications for any platform. 
• Workstation Pro – VMware’s product for Windows and Linux users, Workstation Pro is a particularly appealing option for IT professionals, developers, and security researchers. 

Additional VMware costs to consider 

Anticipating additional VMware costs is difficult due to the vendor’s obscured pricing. As costs are typically custom to your quote, there aren’t usually any additional fees to consider. However, keep in mind subscriptions will vary depending on usage volume and functionality. If you go over your limits, you may have to pay overages.

Other vendors offering virtualization and cloud management solutions

Although VMware is a market leader in the virtualization and cloud management space, it’s always worth considering alternative vendors as part of your IT procurement process — another solution may suit your organization better, both in terms of functionality and budget. Here’s a look at three potential options. 

VMware pricing vs Microsoft Azure Hyper-V

Microsoft pricing for the Azure Hyper-V platform is generally far cheaper than VMware. Organizations can get started with a free plan — an invaluable way to leverage virtualization techniques without spending on costly subscriptions. 

That said, Azure Hyper-V ultimately can't compare with VMware’s advanced and versatile toolkit. Additionally, the reliance on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure could pose problems depending on your pre-existing setup. 

VMware pricing vs Nutanix

Nutanix pricing unlocks an innovative hyperconverged infrastructure solution combining compute, storage, and virtualization. The vendor focuses on delivering hybrid and multi-cloud management capabilities in an easy-to-use package. 

Nutanix could be better for organizations with limited DevOps expertise or smaller IT teams. The pre-integrated appliances and user-friendly interface require less technical knowledge to set up and manage compared to VMware. The downside, however, is a less granular and advanced feature set. 

VMware pricing vs Red Hat 

Red Hat is particularly suited to organizations running Linux environments. Its open source nature is a notable advantage, letting organizations access a cost-effective and flexible platform for virtualization and cloud management. Users also benefit from a large community for support and development too. 

If you’ve got a tight budget and skilled IT staff, Red Hat could be a great option. However, VMware is ultimately the stronger choice for organizations requiring the most advanced features, robust security certifications, and a user-friendly management interface. 

VMware pricing – the Vertice verdict 

VMware is a cloud computing juggernaut, and for good reason. The vendor is the undisputed industry leader for server virtualization, while also offering various other cloud management tools. For most organizations — especially enterprises with complex requirements — the platform is the best option for managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments. 

Although VMware doesn’t publicly disclose its pricing, Vertice’s customer purchasing team is here to help. Thanks to our pricing benchmarks based on what other companies are paying, we can negotiate the most optimal subscription on your behalf. 

But the journey doesn’t end there. Once we’ve negotiated a cut-price deal, our SaaS Purchasing Platform also helps you manage your existing stack through comprehensive reporting, unified dashboards, strategic automation, and more. To find out how it could help you, get in touch below.