oVirt vs VMware: Open-Source vs Commercial Virtualization at a Glance

Iris Li

Licensing & Cost

oVirt is released under the Apache 2.0 license with no licensing fees.
VMware requires commercial licenses, driving higher total cost of ownership.

Core Capabilities

oVirt delivers KVM-based virtualization, live migration, centralized management, and built-in HA.
VMware vSphere adds vMotion, DRS, Fault Tolerance, vSAN, and other enterprise-grade features.

Usability & Ecosystem

oVirt’s UI is straightforward and extensible via community plugins, offering operational flexibility.
VMware’s ecosystem is mature, with polished UX, deep third-party integrations, and broad support.

Performance & Scale

oVirt suits small-to-medium and some large deployments effectively.
VMware excels in very large, multi-site clusters with stringent SLA requirements.

For an in-depth comparison, architecture diagrams, and best-practice guidance, check out the full article here:
https://www.vinchin.com/vm-migration/ovirt-vs-vmware.html

Sylas Beaumont

Been running vSphere since ESX days and the ecosystem is unbeatable. vMotion alone pays for itself when you can live-migrate without downtime. If your budget allows, it’s the gold standard.

Miles

Totally new to virtualization, so oVirt felt more “Linux-y” and I could tweak configs directly. VMware felt more like a black box—nice UI but less educational for a newbie.

William

Our IT budget got slashed, so oVirt was an easy win. We miss some of VMware’s fancy features, but the savings more than offset the extra work setting up HA manually.