When a VMware renewal forces a rethink, most UK teams end up shortlisting the same two destinations: Proxmox VE and Nutanix. They sit at opposite ends of the spectrum — DIY open-source versus a fully integrated HCI stack — so picking between them is less about features and more about how much you want to own. Use the calculator to see how each maps onto your host count and budget.
| VMs | Proxmox VE / yr | Nutanix (AHV) / yr | VMware VCF / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | £2,820 | £15,600 | £50,304 |
| 100 | £3,760 | £26,000 | £67,072 |
| 250 | £7,520 | £52,000 | £134,144 |
| 500 | £14,100 | £93,600 | £251,520 |
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.
Proxmox: lowest cost, maximum control
Proxmox VE is open-source and free to run in production, including commercially — you pay only for optional support subscriptions. Built on Debian, KVM and LXC, it gives you flexible storage: ZFS on a single node, or Ceph for a self-healing cluster spread across your hosts. That freedom is the trade-off. There's no single throat to choke, and your team owns the integration, patching and design decisions that a turnkey vendor would otherwise make for you. It rewards competent, hands-on infrastructure teams.
Nutanix: turnkey HCI with support included
Nutanix takes the opposite stance. It ships as an integrated hyperconverged stack — the AHV hypervisor, distributed storage and management plane arrive pre-engineered, with enterprise support and a validated hardware path behind them. Storage is built in, so there's no separate SAN to design or maintain. The cost is a premium per-node licence and a minimum cluster of three nodes, which sets a floor on entry. For teams that want the VMware operating model without the VMware bill, it's the closest like-for-like replacement.
How to actually choose
The decision reduces to two questions: how much control do you want, and how much do you want handled for you? Proxmox wins on raw cost and flexibility but expects in-house capability. Nutanix wins on speed-to-live and a supported, uniform platform, at a higher licence spend and a three-node minimum. Your break-even shifts with host count, storage needs and whether you have the skills to run open-source at scale. The calculator renders the host counts and savings for your estate so you can compare like for like.
FAQs
Is Proxmox really free for commercial production use?
Yes. Proxmox VE is licensed under the AGPL and the full feature set — clustering, high availability, live migration, Ceph and backup — is free to run in production, including commercially. You only pay for optional support subscriptions that add stable enterprise repositories and vendor assistance. That's the core reason it comes out cheapest in most VMware-exit comparisons.
Why does Nutanix need at least three nodes?
Nutanix is hyperconverged, so it distributes your data across the cluster for resilience. Three nodes is the minimum that lets it tolerate a host failure while keeping a quorum and rebuilding data safely. That floor matters for smaller estates: it can make Nutanix more costly to enter than Proxmox, which can run on a single host, though the picture narrows as you scale.
Which is the better VMware replacement for our team?
It depends on appetite for ownership. If you have capable infrastructure staff and want the lowest cost with full control, Proxmox fits. If you'd rather buy a supported, integrated platform that mirrors the VMware operating model, Nutanix fits. Model both against your host count and budget in the calculator, then talk to us about migration and hardware.