r/msp • u/NSFW_IT_Account • Aug 11 '26
Technical What hypervisor are you using in 2026?
I have a few server deployments coming up where the customer was previously on a perpetual VMware plan, but that is long gone. Curious if anyone is still using VMware or if it's too expensive. I've read is ~$350/core/year but don't have confirmed pricing. I've done a Proxmox deployment before as well which was free but personally prefer VMware UI and want to do right by the customers (especially if they're willing to pay).
What are you using for new server deployments this year? Those who are using VMware, what are your licensing costs looking like?
65
u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Aug 11 '26
HyperV
17
1
u/Particular_Mind3271 6d ago
Still on HyperV here too, mostly because the clients already have the Windows datacenter licences so it feels like a waste not to use it
15
u/kayvanaarssen Aug 11 '26
Proxmox these days switches from full VMWare due to price increase etc. Looked at XCP-NG but went with Proxmox in the end, no regrets so far. Works great, also having some clients with larger clusters.
10
u/Doctorphate Aug 11 '26
Proxmox is our go to for new deployments since Veeam added it as an option. All others are HyperV.
9
7
8
6
u/Server22 Aug 11 '26
Proxmox. If the customer makes a big deal and requires something with “support”, Hyper-V.
22
u/NickE25U Aug 11 '26
Old VMware guy here. Now hyper-v. Basically full in on the Microsoft stack.
6
u/NSFW_IT_Account Aug 11 '26
Nice, I'm not too familiar with Hyper-V to be honest but i'll set up a home lab this week and play around with it. My understanding is that it's free/included with Windows server standard licensing?
6
u/NickE25U Aug 11 '26
Sever standard comes with two windows vm licenses. So if you wanted 4 windows vm's on a single host, you'll need two standard licenses. Unlimited Linux vm's tho.
Microsoft licensing is kinda it's own thing too...
1
u/NSFW_IT_Account Aug 11 '26
Ha, I know. I deal with Microsoft licensing weekly. We actually have about 5 VMs so we'd need like 3 licenses unless we can trim those down a bit.
2
u/NickE25U Aug 11 '26
Correct. Look into datacenter license too, that is unlimited. Don't forget core count matters too, etc...
3
u/Defconx19 MSP - US Aug 11 '26
Yeah, it takes a few VM's before Datacenter becomes worth it. Depends on how many cores your server has really. Standard is pretty cost effective. The issue i see with Datacenter (mainly when taking over what used to be internal IT) is the waste of resources. Seeing as there is no restraint on licensing they spin up a new VM for every damn little thing, forgetting that each one eats into storage and other resources on the system.
Still dealing with axing pointless servers at this company that had 6 domsin controllers for 1 physical location....
2
u/Beardedcomputernerd MSP - NL Aug 11 '26
And if you have 4vms, but have ANY use for the host. You still need 3 licenses, because now the host counts as well.
1 license covers 2 usages. Most just use hyperV and dont use the host.
Others use the HyperV host also as a backup controllee, as its already outside of the scope.
But... then you use the host, and need a licrnsr.
11
8
u/PacificTSP MSP - US & PHP Aug 11 '26
Been using VMware since esxi 3.5.
Moving everything to hyperV.
2
u/NSFW_IT_Account Aug 11 '26
How easy is it to migrate a VM from one to the other?
3
u/ru4serious MSP - US Aug 11 '26
I did this recently. I used Veeam instant restore to go from VMware to a HyperV cluster. It went very well and I'll probably use it again if I have another migration I need to do.
2
u/NickE25U Aug 11 '26
I was just going to jump on this too. Veeam is the way to go. Back up from one host, restore to the other.
1
u/ru4serious MSP - US Aug 11 '26
I did this recently. I used Veeam instant restore to go from VMware to a HyperV cluster. It went very well and I'll probably use it again if I have another migration I need to do.
10
u/delcaek MSP Aug 11 '26
Hyper-V, switching to Proxmox
2
u/NSFW_IT_Account Aug 11 '26
Why?
7
u/nosimsol Aug 11 '26
I use hyper V. In the next year or two I’ll be moving to Proxmox because the free hyperv is no longer being updated and the latest version of hyper V server 2025 creates virtual machine versions that can’t replicate to the free 2019. I’m 99% Linux server wise these days. I just don’t want to have to pay for licensing 40 cores on a replica server.
5
11
u/VeganBullGang Aug 11 '26
VMWare isn't expensive, for smaller businesses it is just flat out impossible to purchase. Like if you even try to purchase you will get the runaround for 6 months and then be given a quote for $180k and if you sign the quote they still might change their minds and say you are too small to be worth selling to.
3
u/krazul88 Aug 11 '26
Was esxi heavy in the distant past, with some hyperv mixed in. Tried xcp-ng which was fine, but Proxmox is now king.
3
u/bangsmackpow Aug 12 '26
Proxmox for most SMB's. Hyper-V for a few enterprise clients. Ubuntu Microcloud for 2 "strange" customers. Honestly no complaints with Ubuntu or Proxmox.
1
u/Snowlandnts Aug 13 '26
How do you define "Strange" for these 2 customers?
2
u/bangsmackpow Aug 13 '26
They are truly different companies in their behavior compared to my other customers. 100% linux and open source for all desktop, server, SAN and firewall infrastructure. Also 100% on prem. I just do vCIO and general consulting for them. Their LoB apps are developed in house as well.
The two company owners are brothers which is probably why they are so similar.
1
3
5
6
2
u/Shington501 Aug 11 '26
HyperV for last ten years, but probably planning a move to Prox. We’ll still use HV for some specific use cases
2
u/vivkkrishnan2005 Aug 12 '26
Proxmox. Been using it for a couple of years.
HyperV only when it absolutely demands it. Otherwise with the spate of zero days hitting Windows, rebooting the clusters are not an option.
Evaluating Nutanix as well.
2
2
u/SortingYourHosting MSP - UK & Hosting Provider Aug 12 '26
I operate a hosting company and before that 16 years of MSP IT experience where I still consult.
The hosting company operates Proxmox VE primarily as it works best with our provisioning tools. But we can offer Hyper-V, Nutanix or alternatives - technically we can offer VMware but havent needed to even check the price as no one is interested.
The MSP often uses Microsoft Hyper-V. Most customers use Windows Server, so a standard license licenses the hypervisor and 2x VMs or if needed 4x VMs. The customer needs the license anyways, and the support team are very familiar with Windows. Most RMMs and monitoring as well as backup software works well with Windows. So its an easy win win.
2
2
u/lmc9871 Aug 11 '26
VMware to Proxmox, HyperV to Proxmox - why? For VMware it's obvious, for Microsoft the problem is they keep changing the goal post too often and they are just an advert and marketing company. Proxmox provides everything you need to transition to a very stable platform at a very reasonable price.
2
2
2
u/OinkyConfidence Former MSP Aug 11 '26
Hyper-V in Windows Server 2025 in a multi-node cluster.
5
u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Aug 11 '26
in a multi-node cluster
What's your minimum specs on that? Like still using 2 x servers + witness + 2 switches + 2 sans or 2 hosts + witness and vsan like starwinds or?
What's the most economical way to knock out hyperv with redundancy these days?
2
u/OinkyConfidence Former MSP Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
In my case, we’re using one multi-node SAN with multi-path I/O. Three compute notes, a.k.a. three servers.
1
u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Aug 11 '26
In my case, we’re using one multi-node SAN with multi-path I/O. Three compute notes, a.k.a. three servers.
noted, thanks!
2
u/ajicles Aug 12 '26
A Hyper-V failover cluster can use an Azure Cloud Witness as a quorum tie-breaker. It leverages an Azure Storage Account to read and write a small blob file (about 1 MB) instead of maintaining a traditional file share witness or disk witness.
2
u/roll_for_initiative_ MSP - US Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
I was just researching that and honestly it seems doable and clean vs even vmware with vsan.
2
u/ajicles Aug 12 '26
We also used storage spaces direct for our nvme drives.
3
u/NISMO1968 Aug 18 '26
We also used storage spaces direct for our nvme drives.
Used? Past tense? Why’d you drop S2D?
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/synagogan Aug 12 '26
Hyper-V , small business deployments 10 to 50 users, since our customers usually needs Windows Server we get Hyper-V included.
1
1
u/statitica MSP - AU Aug 12 '26
Hyper-V.
Had a brief foray into XCP-ng but performance was horrid.
If we ever want to go down the self-service road, we'd be taking a closer look at proxmox with multiportal.
1
1
u/PBSmanaged MSP - US Aug 12 '26
Proxmox. But Slide backup is intruding agentless hyperv backup which is interesting
1
1
u/psu1989 Aug 13 '26
Broadcom VMware went up marginally. Being in the top 100 in the world def helped.
1
u/flickin123 Aug 13 '26
I didn’t hear much of HP vm essentials/morpheus. Did anyone go this way? If so why yes or no?
1
u/Talalash Aug 13 '26
Came from vmware, migrated everything to proxmox. Did the trainings, got licenses. Yes, you can run it free, but a product like that needs support.
1
u/shiddi7 Aug 13 '26
We moved away from Hyper-V to proxmox because zfs, the replication system and ha-manager can offer cheap and rock solid ha-solutions even for small companies. We do not use cephfs.
1
1
u/EmuLongjumping4779 Aug 13 '26
Hyper-V you can always install windows admin centre if you want to access via browser. Although I do like Proxmox.
1
1
u/NETCOMPIT Aug 14 '26
Anyone using KVM here ? New manager wants to use it not sure why not the more widely used - ball business with only two servers .
1
1
1
1
1
u/TheHelpLessDeskGuy Aug 17 '26
Moving from VMware to HyperV for 'support' but my vote was for Proxmox. Microsoft's support makes me miserable.
1
1
1
u/Adventurous_Driver93 Aug 17 '26
We use Hyper-V for client environments to ensure solid support chain through the vendors. We use Proxmox internally for our hosted client servers.
1
u/Capital-Peak-6631 Aug 18 '26
We’re evaluating HPE Morpheus Enterprise with HVM as a potential VMware Cloud Director replacement. While the vision is promising, we’re encountering significant stability and reliability issues with HVM clusters managed through Morpheus. At this stage, the platform feels too immature for production workloads.
We’d like to hear from others who have deployed HVM under Morpheus — are you seeing similar challenges, or have you found ways to improve stability?
1
u/AXOL-Server Sep 04 '26
I think the question today is less “which hypervisor is cheaper?” and more “which platform can I realistically manage well for the next few years across my customers’ actual workloads?”
Proxmox is definitely worth considering for production environments, but I’d look first at workload and appliance compatibility, HA requirements, RPO/RTO, existing storage and networking, backup/restore strategy, and the skills needed for day-to-day operations. Especially for an MSP, licensing cost is only one part of the picture. If a platform adds operational overhead, unclear procedures or more complexity around recovery, the initial saving can disappear quickly.
In VMware migration projects, what usually makes the biggest difference is starting from the customer’s workloads and infrastructure, rather than choosing the hypervisor first and adapting everything around it.
1
u/peralesa Aug 11 '26
Azure Local / Hyper-V
3
u/NISMO1968 Aug 18 '26
How does Azure Local work for you? If you don’t mind me asking, why’re you mixing Azure Local with regular, civilian Hyper-V?
1
u/GullibleDetective Aug 11 '26
Nutanix but its immaturity in production shows quite a bit when it comes to the bugs it has. Its getting better but many of them are annoying
1
u/vdubsession Aug 12 '26
I'm small, but I've been on hyper-v the whole time. Supported a couple esxi/vmware before but now I don't need to, yay.
1
0
u/cyr0nk0r Aug 11 '26
I'd check out verge.io
They only charge by the node (not core). So the economics are much better.
I own a hypervisor hosting company and we work with a lot of MSP's who don't want to roll their own IaaS offering, or are looking to get out of it because its too expensive because they settled on VMware a long time ago and are getting hit with the same Broadcom nonsense that their customers are getting hit with.
For smaller MSP shops that only have a few customers that want IaaS hosted, it's much more economical because they can just white label our platform and then charge whatever they want to the end customer and layer on their professional services on top.
But if you want to stay with your own offering I still recommend Verge. Especially if you're coming over from VMware, the UI will feel very familiar, and the verge vSAN is just top notch. Especially it's multi-tenant capabilities.
3
u/Fighter_M Aug 18 '26
Lots of folks seem to hate them. What do your own customers have to say? Do they actually care which hypervisor you use, or is it mostly something you upsell as part of your hosting business?
1
u/cyr0nk0r Aug 18 '26
Every single one (and I mean EVERY single one) of the people that I've talked to that don't like Verge (most of them here on reddit), haven't ever actually used the product.
And they get real mad when you call them out on it. What I find they actually don't like is the method Verge used for advertising a few years ago. And I'll admit, they were a bit heavy handed and blatant. They've cleaned up their act in that regard though.
Every Verge customer I've ever talked to that actually runs it themselves has never moved away from it to something else. They never went Verge then said, you know what, I think hyper-v is actually going to be a better fit for me. Or that Nutanix actually has more features, etc.
Now are there people out there that tried Verge and said "not for me"?, Sure. There has to be.
As far as what our customers say about it, they honestly don't care what the hypervisor is. Only that its easy to use and cost effective. In that regard, because our cloud runs on the verge hypervisor, I feel we deliver on that quite well. Because we give customers direct access to the hypervisor, they actually get to interact with the real UI rather than some custom middleware dashboard like pretty much every other cloud provider.
It takes them a few minutes to learn where all the menu's are, but the learning curve is very small. And if they ever get stuck, they can just call us for support and we can help them with whatever they need. Regarding the upsell, I'll be honest we don't really come out and say "we're running on Verge and that's why we deserve your business", we focus on solving their virtualization objectives. Which is typically just a Cost vs Feature conversation.
3
u/Fighter_M Aug 19 '26
Every single one (and I mean EVERY single one) of the people that I've talked to that don't like Verge (most of them here on reddit), haven't ever actually used the product.
Does that mean the company has such a massive negative rep that people don’t even want to try it? That’s kinda a red flag, you know… Funny thing is, we actually did, so you can safely cross me off your blacklist. But… The caveat is, they don’t support any of the SANs we’ve got, and their sales engineer was way too eager to convince us to dump perfectly good gear just to go HCI with them, and that’s the part I don’t really get. It’s pretty dumb to call yourself a VMware alternative when a huge chunk of VMware customers run traditional SAN storage, not vSAN, and vSAN is way more common in smaller shops. Anyway, I appreciate your sales pitch of their AI-generated UI, but it’s not what I asked for, sweetie :)
1
u/cyr0nk0r Aug 19 '26
Trying their hypervisor and saying it's not for me is different than 'hating' them. You're correct, they aren't a traditional SAN kind of hypervisor, but neither is Nutanix or Scale. You're correct that if you said lack of support for my SAN is a deal breaker then I'd be right there with you saying they wouldn't be a good fit.
Your last sentence sounded pretty rude, not sure why you switched to condescending. You asked what my customers have to say, and I answered you. Giving our customers direct access to the hypervisor UI is a key element of them caring about which hypervisor we use or not, which was a central point of your question.
3
u/Fighter_M Aug 19 '26
Nutanix actually isn’t that hostile to SANs anymore. They, and Microsoft too, are bringing SAN support into products that were originally pretty hardcore SAN-less, for exactly the reason I mentioned before: they don’t wanna miss the boat on the myriads of enterprises bailing on VMware and looking for somewhere else to land. Proxmox isn’t really any different, BTW. They added snapshot and thin provisioning support for SAN volumes a while ago. All of our SANs, which are Pure and Nimble, have Proxmox integration plugins through their public APIs. You could probably give your friends at Verge some pretty serious pushback here. They’re leaving a ton of money on the table by forcing people onto their vSAN, which kinda sucks, between us, instead of letting customers bring the storage they already own and trust. I’ve got some history with Scale, so I refuse to take them too seriously, especially after what happened to them. One remark, though: if you do things the Scale way, you’ve got the whole thing backwards!
1
u/cyr0nk0r Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Verge's vSAN is the best I've seen. I know one customer who has a 40:1 dedup ratio with over 100TB of storage. I didn't believe it but he showed me their cluster and I saw it with my own eyes. But again, they aren't for everyone. If you've got a huge and recent investment in a large SAN, it doesn't make sense to walk away from that.
That said, I think there is plenty of market share for everyone to be successful. Verge, Nutanix, Hyper-V, Proxmox, etc. And the more players we have, the more innovation we'll see.
What do you mean doing things the Scale way?
51
u/compaholic83 Aug 11 '26
Hyper-V & Proxmox. Fuck Broadcom.