VMware vSphere Foundation Pricing Overview

1. Cost-Effective VMware Entry Point

Provides genuine VMware virtualization technology at a fraction of enterprise edition costs, perfect for small businesses wanting proven reliability without breaking budgets.

2. Simplified Management for Small Teams

Streamlined vCenter interface eliminates overwhelming enterprise features, making it easy to deploy and manage with minimal learning curve for VMware newcomers.

3. Proven ESXi Hypervisor Foundation

Built on the same mature, battle-tested ESXi hypervisor used in Fortune 500 companies, delivering enterprise-level stability for smaller environments.

4. Right-Sized Feature Set

Includes exactly what small environments need - HA, vMotion, VM encryption - without feature bloat or unused capabilities driving up costs.

5. Clear Growth Path

Seamless upgrade path to vSphere Standard or Enterprise as organizations expand, with familiar VMware ecosystem making scaling decisions straightforward.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Here are 5 key limitations users commonly dislike about VMware vSphere Foundation:

1. Strict 4-Host Limitation

Hard ceiling of 4 ESXi hosts creates immediate scaling bottleneck, forcing expensive upgrades even for modest growth beyond this arbitrary limit.

2. Missing Advanced Features

No Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), limited networking capabilities, and reduced automation features that are standard in competing solutions at similar price points.

3. Limited vMotion Capabilities

Basic vMotion implementation lacks advanced features like Cross-vCenter vMotion, creating operational constraints for even small multi-site deployments.

4. Reduced Management Flexibility

Simplified interface removes granular control options that experienced administrators expect, making complex configurations difficult or impossible to implement.

5. Poor Value Scaling

Significant price jump to vSphere Standard creates awkward pricing gap, making Foundation feel like forced vendor lock-in rather than genuine entry-level option.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing. except that for the exorbitant cost, we finally have NSX Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The entire setup, the continuous amount of bugs just to install, maintain, patch, grow, upgrade. Needs serious help Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.