Of every VMware alternative, Nutanix is the one that most closely mirrors what you already run. Its AHV hypervisor, distributed storage and Prism management arrive as a single hyperconverged stack, making it the nearest like-for-like swap for a vSphere plus vSAN deployment. The trade-off is a premium licence, but one that already includes the storage layer you would otherwise buy separately.
| VMs | Hosts | VMware VCF / yr | Nutanix (AHV) / yr | 3-yr saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 3× | £50,304 | £15,600 | £104,112 |
| 100 | 5× | £83,840 | £26,000 | £173,520 |
| 250 | 10× | £167,680 | £52,000 | £347,040 |
| 500 | 18× | £301,824 | £93,600 | £624,672 |
All figures are indicative estimates for planning only and subject to change; licence prices vary by reseller and deal size, and any monthly finance figure is subject to credit approval — not a quotation.
Why Nutanix is the closest match to vSphere plus vSAN
VMware's appeal was always the integrated stack: ESXi for compute, vSAN for storage, vCenter to run it all. Nutanix rebuilds that same shape natively. AHV handles virtualisation, Nutanix's distributed storage fabric replaces vSAN, and Prism gives you a single management plane across the cluster. For teams that want to leave Broadcom's licensing without re-architecting around bolt-on storage or a separate SAN, it is the most direct swap on the market, which is exactly why it commands a premium.
AHV is free, so you are not paying twice for a hypervisor
Unlike stacks where you license the hypervisor and storage separately, AHV is included with any Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure licence at no extra charge. You are effectively paying once, on a per-core basis, for a bundle that already contains compute virtualisation and storage. That changes the comparison against VMware materially: the calculator below reflects a single licensed stack rather than adding a separate storage line, which is where much of the like-for-like difference against vSphere plus vSAN shows up.
Migration, node counts and the hardware you can reuse
Nutanix Move is the free tool that lifts VMs off ESXi (and Hy-V or cloud) onto AHV, typically with minimal downtime per workload. Clusters need a minimum of three nodes, so very small estates should size carefully. Crucially you are not locked to appliances: Nutanix runs on NX, Dell XC and PowerEdge, HPE DX and Lenovo HX, so existing or refreshed x86 hardware can often be reused rather than replaced outright.
FAQs
Is AHV really free with Nutanix?
Yes. The AHV hypervisor is included with any Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure licence at no additional cost, so you are not licensing virtualisation and storage separately as you effectively did with vSphere and vSAN. You still pay for the Nutanix platform itself, priced per core, but the hypervisor is not a separate line item on top.
How do I migrate my VMware VMs to Nutanix?
Nutanix Move, a free tool, automates migration from VMware ESXi (as well as Hyper-V and some public clouds) onto AHV. It replicates VMs in the background and cuts them over with minimal downtime, so most workloads move without a rebuild. Larger, complex estates still warrant a piloted, phased plan, which we can help scope.
What is the minimum size for a Nutanix cluster?
A Nutanix cluster needs at least three nodes to provide the resilience and distributed storage the platform depends on. That makes it well suited to mid-size and larger estates, but very small deployments should model the three-node floor carefully against their workload. The calculator on this page sizes host counts for your specific requirement.