New commercial terms for VMware under Broadcom are leading some companies to rethink their virtualization infrastructure. One customer says their renewal got 700% more expensive and decided to start migrating to Proxmox that same week. Their experience reflects the tension between the cost of keeping an enterprise platform and the technical and financial effort of replacing it.
VMware and Proxmox in 30 seconds
- Broadcom has changed VMware’s commercial model, putting more weight on subscriptions and product bundles.
- One customer reports a 700% jump in their renewal — an individual experience that doesn’t necessarily reflect the market as a whole.
- A survey by Unisphere Research, run in collaboration with Rimini Street, finds that 90% of respondents are exploring alternatives over licensing costs.
- Proxmox stands out as an option for cutting VMware dependence, though migrating takes planning, testing, and technical resources.
- Cost isn’t the only barrier: operational complexity, training, and managing multiple vendors also weigh on the decision.
The criticism aimed at Broadcom stems from a business decision: concentrating VMware’s offering on large customers and subscription bundles, even if that means less attractive terms for certain organizations. For those running small or mid-sized infrastructures, the result can be a renewal that’s hard to justify against the available budget.
The testimony behind this story describes a drawn-out negotiation to get a clear answer about the renewal. The final figure, according to its author, was a 700% increase. The company ended up paying because it couldn’t swap out its virtualization platform overnight, but it started preparing an alternative right away.
No contract, invoice, or breakdown of the products included in the renewal has been shared, so the increase can’t be verified and the line items behind it can’t be determined. The case stands as an example of the pressure some customers say they’re under, not as a general VMware price list.
VMware’s commercial shift puts cost front and center
Since acquiring VMware, Broadcom has reorganized the commercial lineup and prioritized subscription bundles. The company has defended the value of its integrated platform, while some of its customers have pushed back on the price of the new contracts and the requirement to buy products they may not need.
The shift changes how virtualization spending gets calculated. Companies now have to review the number of cores, the subscription terms, the included products, and the support services they need. For organizations that built their infrastructure around older licenses, the renewal can force them to redo their budget forecasts.
The economic argument behind the testimony is straightforward: paying more to keep a familiar platform may look less risky than migrating critical systems, but that decision doesn’t erase the future cost. If a company expects the new terms to repeat at the next renewal, it may decide that a migration effort is manageable over the medium term.
Broadcom’s profitability helps explain its business approach, but the figures need to be kept separate. In its fiscal third-quarter 2026 results, closed on August 2, 2026, Broadcom reported total revenue of $29.6 billion. That figure covers the entire company, not VMware alone. So any comparison between VMware’s historical margins and those of Broadcom’s software division needs to clarify the period, the accounting scope, and the calculation method.
Interest in alternatives shouldn’t be confused with an actual exit, either. An organization can evaluate another hypervisor and keep using VMware for years, especially when it hosts databases, enterprise applications, or services whose disruption would have serious consequences.
90% are exploring alternatives, but migrating is still hard
A survey published by Rimini Street in October 2026, carried out with Unisphere Research, offers a reference point for user dissatisfaction. The study gathered responses from 269 executives, managers, and professionals at organizations using VMware, between December 2025 and February 2026. 90% said they were considering alternatives because of rising license costs.
The figure deserves a careful read. Rimini Street sells third-party support services for VMware, so it has a commercial interest in customers reconsidering their relationship with the vendor. The research was carried out with Unisphere Research, but that commercial partnership should be kept in mind when weighing the conclusions. Also, the 90% reflects intent to evaluate options, not that nine out of ten companies have actually dropped VMware.
The study points to specific obstacles standing in the way of change. 40% cited operational complexity, 38% cited the trouble of managing multiple vendors, and 37% cited staff training needs. These are the difficulties that explain why some companies keep paying for a renewal they consider too expensive: a migration requires inventorying workloads, checking compatibility, designing the new environment, testing backups, and planning maintenance windows.
In this scenario, Proxmox VE is one of the alternatives companies can evaluate — as shown by Hirschvogel, a German Mercedes-Benz dealer group that completed its own migration to a Proxmox VE and Ceph cluster in March 2026. The platform combines KVM-based virtualization with centralized management and supports storage technologies like Ceph in suitable deployments. Its commercial model and support options differ from VMware’s, though the total cost depends on the architecture, the availability required, staffing, and the services each company needs.
The author of the testimony says their workloads are already running on Proxmox and notes that support is priced per socket, at a cost they describe as much lower than their previous renewal. Without knowing the size of the infrastructure, the edition under contract, or the support tier chosen, no universal price comparison can be drawn from that alone.
The decision doesn’t boil down to just moving virtual machines, either. Networking, storage, disaster recovery, monitoring, automation, and operating procedures all need review. Some organizations will migrate part of their workloads and keep VMware for specific applications; others will prefer a broader replacement. The right strategy depends on the technical requirements and the cost of maintaining each environment — a calculation that a separate Gartner forecast expects more companies to run through as VMware alternative testing grows over the next few years.
Frequently asked questions
Why are some companies leaving VMware?
The cost of the new licensing and subscription terms is one of the reasons pushing companies to evaluate alternatives. The complexity of migrating critical systems means that evaluation doesn’t always turn into an immediate exit.
What percentage of VMware users are exploring alternatives?
The Unisphere Research survey, run with Rimini Street, found that 90% of its 269 respondents were considering alternatives because of rising license costs. That result measures intent, not completed migrations, and comes from a study tied to a third-party support provider.
Can Proxmox replace VMware?
Proxmox VE can cover plenty of virtualization needs, but compatibility and migration effort need to be assessed for each infrastructure. Companies need to validate applications, storage, networking, backups, and failure recovery before moving production workloads.
Is migrating to Proxmox always cheaper?
Not necessarily in every scenario. Support pricing is only one part of the total cost, which also includes hardware, staffing, training, operational tooling, and the work needed to carry out the migration.
