Nutanix AHV vs. VMware vSphere

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Nutanix AHV
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Nutanix AHV is presented as a modern and secure virtualization platform that powers VMs and containers for applications and cloud-native workloads on-premises and in public clouds. Its tools and automated workflows simplify the day-to-day administration of VMs and containers.N/A
VMware vSphere
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
An enterprise workload platform, vSphere is used to improve the performance for a data center. It is used to boost operational efficiency, supercharge workload performance, and accelerate innovation.
$995
per year
Pricing
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$995.00
per year
Enterprise
$3,995.00
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Features
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Server Virtualization
Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Product A and Product B
Nutanix AHV
8.9
Ratings
9% above category average
VMware vSphere
7.2
Ratings
12% below category average
Virtual machine automated provisioning8.80 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Management console8.80 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Live virtual machine backup9.10 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Live virtual machine migration8.60 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Hypervisor-level security9.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Small Businesses
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 8.7 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
VMware vSOM (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Nutanix AHVVMware vSphere
Likelihood to Recommend
[Nutanix AOS] is good when you need easy scaling and high reliability. The good architecture of the solution allows to solve the tasks set for the platform. This solution allows to reduce the number of personnel serving the infrastructure due to the ease of management and a good knowledge base. As a disadvantage, I would attribute the complexity of customizing some types of loads to optimal work on DFS, for example, high-load databases.
Read full review
vSphere is well suited for multiple VMWare hosts and can be very useful in larger enterprises where vMotion is used to load balance and failover running virtual machines. In smaller businesses with one or two hosts then the features can be overkill. The addition of virtual TPM support is a very nice addition to provide vm security in a more Microsoft supported methodology.
Read full review
Pros
  • One component to support both compute and storage needs for virtualization.
  • Easy expandable as business needs arise both at the node level and larger with blocks.
  • Well outlined interface with good historical data.
  • API tools are available to obtain logging information from Nutanix that can be used with other monitoring tools such as Splunk.
Read full review
  • Taking Snapshots of VMs and roll back to the previous state when faced with a problem.
  • Template creation - Once you have that perfect template you can easily create new VMs. Very useful feature.
  • VMotion - Being able to perform live migrations of a virtual machine from one physical server to another, without any downtime.
Read full review
Cons
  • Management of VMs on AHV take some getting used to. It's just a list of VMs that are displayed, and you search through it. Not the normal folder structure that I'm used to in VMware.
  • Also can't disable a NIC card in a VM in AHV. Very handy feature present in VMware.
  • Larger workloads may have to be tweaked to get the performance you need/want.
Read full review
  • Allow enable EVC without requiring host shutdown
  • More detail in recent tasks. Instead of just showing a task called "Reconfigure virtual machine" also have a link to more detailed information as to what was reconfigured, changed or removed.
  • Allow searching tasks or events
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
We made a huge financial investment with this platform (four clusters, all-flash storage array), so we're in it for the long haul. Luckily it's a beast. I've had to use support more than any other platform I've administered, but the help has been very good. Nutanix continues to add features and innovations which increase the ROI
Read full review
We are constantly looking for change that will benefit our company. We are not ones to stick with a product simply because it is what we know, but rather looking for what fits us best. We can't imagine another product on the market today doing a better job of handling our infrastructure than vSphere.
Read full review
Usability
Nutanix Prism Element and Prism Central are easy-to-use HTML5-based web consoles. The layout makes sense; you're only a few clicks away from getting to where you need to be. The AHV hypervisor is integrated into the platform for a fast and seamless experience. Rich data on VM metrics is also available.
Read full review
Very useful for environments where space and energy consumption are issues and management is not very keen on upfront spending on hardware every time whenever requirement comes from any dept for provisioning a machine for their occasional use, easily can be done in case of VMware vSphere in few clicks. Backup, security, monitoring and management everything is covered but at additional cost.
Read full review
Performance
The performance is very impressive. I am used to VMware and the snapshots were taking 10 minutes. The first time I had to restore from a snapshot on Nutanix it took 5 seconds and I couldn't believe it. Everything done on the server is fast. Powering on VM is done in seconds compared.to what we were using before.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Our first support ticket to Nutanix was responded to within 10 minutes of submission. That was kind of impressive. They have worldwide support so that when a support request is created, support is acknowledged in a relative short amount of time.
Read full review
I rarely ever have to contact support and when I do need to resolve an issue, there is always an abundance of kb articles and research information available that can help quickly resolve the issue. Depending on the type of support contract you have, you may get support from some offshore group in another country and this could be a little challenging because of the language barrier.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Just make sure that when you implement, that the person implementing truly knows what they are doing and has a plan of action coming in. Since our initial implementation using a consulting service, I have implemented a few vSphere just from what I learned at the initial implementation and use over time, and the person implementing really needs to know what they are doing or you will miss out on features that may help you down the line
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
By far, in my opinion, Nutanix AOS is heads above VMware. From the creation of a VM to updating the nodes themselves, Nutanix AOS is so much easier, faster, and just an overall better product. I would choose Nutanix AOS over VMware any day.
Read full review
vSphere provides more control over the Virtualization environment.
It allows users to have great management User Interface with lots of dynamic features.
VM creation.
Perform vMotion.
Network Management.
Datastore Mangement.
Cluster Management.
Schedule tasks.
Affinity and anti-affinity rules.
Easy to upgrade.
Backup the configuration data which can be restore after a disaster.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • It is a highly redundant solution
  • Nutanix [AOS] provides a simple easy to manage HCI platform with a reduced TCO and an increased ROI
  • Centralized management solution of consolidated sever and storage solution in a virtualized environment which minimizes wastage of valuable resourses
  • Offers businesses the agility and flexibility to run other virtualized platforms on the Nutanix environment
Read full review
  • Having vSphere helped my business quickly recover from a ransomware attack which would have crippled us for weeks if we were not virtualized. I think the ROI on something like that is immeasurable.
  • vSphere has allowed my company to purchase bigger server hardware to host 3 or 4 virtual servers, which was at a cost much lower than buying 3 or 4 server hardware boxes, saving us thousands each time we need to upgrade hardware.
Read full review
ScreenShots