Nutanix AHV vs. VMware ESXi

Nutanix AOS and VMware ESXi are both products for IT virtualization, but they differ substantially. VMware ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor intended as the foundation of a virtualized server system. By contrast, Nutanix AOS is a comprehensive hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) solution that combines a hypervisor with software-defined storage and networking. Mid-size and enterprise-level organizations make up the bulk of customers for both products, probably because smaller businesses are less likely to need or have the budget for IT virtualization products.

Features

Although both VMware ESXi and Nutanix AOS provide virtualized hardware benefits such as minimal physical footprints and reliable server uptime, they differ heavily in their scope and feature set.

Most customers find VMware ESXi to be a rock-solid hypervisor. Users report that it’s reliable and stable, with some users enjoying years of consistent server uptime in spite of hardware failures. It’s also efficient in its use of hardware resources, taking up a very small footprint on its host machine. VMware ESXi makes it fast and easy to deploy new servers, whether you use an existing configuration file or configure the server from scratch. VMware also provides detailed hardware compatibility guidelines to help choose the right hardware when it’s time to upgrade.

Nutanix AOS, on the other hand, is a complete HCI solution with software-defined storage, compute, and networking functionality. Nutanix provides a one-click upgrade system for their platform, making upgrades a painless experience for most users. Its single-pane-of-glass management interface is useful for IT administrators, and customers report solid server uptimes, a high degree of hardware fault tolerance, and reliable disaster recovery options. When customers do encounter problems, they generally report fast, useful assistance from Nutanix’s support team.

Limitations

Both Nutanix AOS and VMware ESXi are strong in their own categories, but they’re not free from problems. It’s important to consider their drawbacks before implementing one or the other.

Nutanix AOS can suffer from a rocky setup experience. Users migrating from existing HCI systems report an especially rough start, even with support from Nutanix. Although many users appreciate the one-click upgrade system, it’s not perfect, and can encounter unexpected failures with certain drivers and hardware. Additionally, the GUI and command-line interface aren’t at full parity, forcing users to switch between interfaces for specific functionality.

VMware ESXi, of course, isn’t a complete solution on its own. It’s most effective as part of a larger virtualization ecosystem, and that costs money. Licensing VMwareESXi can get expensive fast, especially when you need higher subscription tiers or additional VMware products to get the features you want. Users also commonly have issues with its web-based management client, which may not work properly on all browsers. And while VMware’s hardware compatibility guidelines may be comprehensive, they’re detailed for good reason: VMware ESXi can be very picky about the hardware it can run on, which could bump up the price of implementation if existing hardware doesn’t fit the bill.

Pricing

Nutanix AOS offers a free Community Edition with limited functionality intended for internal and non-production usage only. Pricing for Nutanix AOS is available via a quote from the vendor. 

VMware ESXi is available as part of VMware’s vSphere product, which has a free vSphere Hypervisor edition limited to a single physical server. vSphere has multiple packages, tiers, and subscription levels with differing capabilities, ranging from $510 to over $20,000. For full pricing information, refer to the vSphere pricing page.