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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    VMware ESXi

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AA bare-metal hypervisor that installs directly onto a physical server. With direct access to and control of underlying resources, VMware ESXi partitions hardware to consolidate applications and cut costs.N/A

    VMware ThinApp (discontinued)

    Score5.2 out of 10
    N/AVMware ThinApp was application virtualization software allowing legacy web applications to run on newer OSs, post-migration, also for running apps across a variety of devices (e.g. flash drives, locked-down computers, etc.) for accessibility and security.N/A
    Pricing
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Chose VMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    The only application that I have ever used that does exactly what VMware ThinApp does is Cameyo, and VMware is light years ahead of them in terms of usability. VMWare is the industry standard for application virtualization, and they do this by making a powerful product that is …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    93 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    86 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    94 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    82 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    91 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of VMware ESXi and VMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Feature
    VMware ESXi
    8.2
    128 Ratings
    2% above category average
    VMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Virtual machine automated provisioning8.0116 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management console9.0128 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup8.0112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration8.0116 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security8.0117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Virtualization
    Comparison of Application Virtualization features of VMware ESXi and VMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Feature
    VMware ESXi
    -
    Ratings
    VMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    7.6
    2 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Application support00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Device support00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Ease of deployment00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Application packaging00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Security00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Parallels Desktop for Mac
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Parallels Desktop for Mac
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Parallels Desktop for Mac
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (129 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (55 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    5.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    VMware ESXiVMware ThinApp (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    VMware by Broadcom
    If you're looking for the industry standard in server virtualization, I would recommend ESXi. After decades of expertise in the field, VMware continues to provide a strong product, production-ready, with an easy-to-learn interface that allows for quick management along with less costly upfront onboarding and training. Grab the free personal-use license and install in your homelab to start!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    VMware ThinApp is really great for simple packaging projects, standalone apps, or older apps that needs specific runtimes or environment which are not available on target operating systems. Integration with VMware Horizon is simple, and deployment is easy by using shares for storing captured apps, or MSI packages for deploying by group strategies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    VMware by Broadcom
    • Resource management. The automatic load balancing works very well to ensure no host is taxed disproportionately compared to the others.
    • Templates and cloning. It is very easy to set up a template and spin up new servers based on a specific setup. This makes server management very streamlined.
    • VM management. The vSphere interface is very easy to use and navigate. Everything is responsive and it works when you need it to. The options are also robust while also being arranged in a straightforward manner.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Virtualizes applications for easy deployment
    • Allows you to run two versions of the same software at the same time.
    • Outstanding customer support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    VMware by Broadcom
    • VMware ESXi can improve on the UI that is installed on the bare metal machine. The menus can be hard to navigate when looking for simple configuration items.
    • VMware ESXi can improve on the stability of their overall hypervisor. There have been a few times we had to reinstall due to corruption of VMware ESXi.
    • I would like to see VMware ESXi do better at adding more standard free features in their consumer version of VMware ESXi. For example, having the ability to back up virtual machines is good practice and something that would be very nice if offered in their free version.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • VMware seems to have abandoned the product (no functionality evolutions, only security patches).
    • VMware ThinApp is really difficult to buy standalone, it comes packaged with other products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    VMware by Broadcom
    It is critical to our business, what started out as a way to do certain functions, it has now become core to ensuring our product is available to our customers and reducing our costs to operate and reduce our recovery time and provisioning servers. Their support is great and the costs to renew is reasonable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    VMware by Broadcom
    The interface is fairly intuitive for most things, and the areas that are a little less obvious usually have fantastic documentation in the online knowledgebase. In 3-4 years of managing our ESXi hosts, I think that I have only opened 4-5 support cases for things that I could not figure out myself or find answers to on the website.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    VMware by Broadcom
    Without the need to patch the servers with bug fixes and enhancements we whave not experienced any downtime with VMware issues. Even the bug fixes and updates do not cause of downtime as we just migrate the servers to the opposite node and update the one and then move servers back. Very simple and painless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    VMware by Broadcom
    We do not notice any difference between a physical and virtual server running the same workload. In fact we can scale quicker with the virtual server than we can with the physical.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    VMware by Broadcom
    I can't say enough good about VMware's support team. To an individual they take ownership of the case, provide thorough answers, and follow up regularly. On one occasion, a problem we experienced with NSX Endpoint was escalated to development for a permanent resolution after a workaround was found. In my experience, most companies would have tried to find a way to close a case like that instead of taking it all the way. Most importantly, when production is down and every second counts, they VMware teams understand that urgency and treat your issue as if it were the only one they had to deal with. You can't ask for better.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    VMware by Broadcom
    Jsut read and follow anything your storage provider may require to allow the integration of VMware with storage operations, outside of that VMware jsut works.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    VMware by Broadcom
    As long as you're using Nutanix AOS on Nutanix hardware and are paying their software support fees, AOS is a valid competitor to VMware and can save money due to not needing a license and having their server management system built into the base host management system. If you aren't using Nutanix hardware, however, VMWare is in most cases the best way to go. I cannot comment on HyperV, but most IT people I know either use it because they have to (most) or they like it better (not many).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The only application that I have ever used that does exactly what VMware ThinApp does is Cameyo, and VMware is light years ahead of them in terms of usability. VMWare is the industry standard for application virtualization, and they do this by making a powerful product that is remarkably simple to use and top it off with A1 customer support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    VMware by Broadcom
    it has been fair and easy to understand. I know VMware is looking at wanting to change from CPU to core pricing so we will see what that looks like when it happens.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    VMware by Broadcom
    We started out with a two-server cluster and adding a third or fourth is very straightforward and simple with no issues. You just need to be aware of the size of your Vcenter Server to handle the workload, but still the resources needed is very minimal
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    VMware by Broadcom
    • VMWare ESXi licensing is affordable for our business - and the licensing model is simplistic. Not like that of Microsoft with having to keep track of server licenses and CAL licenses for users.
    • VMWare ESXi also has hardware-monitoring built-in, so that further saves us money from having to be spent with another vendor.
    • As much as I hate the saying "a single pane of glass" does fit for this product. You can manage your servers, monitor hardware status, create and export backup snapshots, manage virtual NICs, connect to various storage devices. We're very happy with this product.
    Incentivized
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    Discontinued Products
    • VMware ThinApp allowed us to maintain older apps, avoiding refactoring costs.
    • ThinApp used with VMware Horizon is great to separate desktop and app management, allowing to fine-tune desktop delivery to end users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots