Since 11 December 2023, VMware has been sold as subscriptions only.
Since Broadcom bought VMware, you can no longer buy perpetual VMware licenses or renew support on them. VMware is sold as subscriptions, mainly two bundles, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), priced per physical core with a minimum of 16 cores for every CPU. For many customers the bill went up, because they now pay for a bundle where they used to buy one product.
16cores: the minimum Broadcom licenses for every CPU, even one with fewer
| Bundle | vSAN per core |
|---|---|
| VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) | 1 TiB |
| VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) | 0.25 TiB |
Broadcom knowledge base article 313548.
Subscription onlyOn 11 December 2023 VMware moved to subscription-only licensing. VCF and VVF are the two main offers, with vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials Plus Kit kept for small estates (VMware announcement, updated 22 January 2024).
16 cores per CPUEvery CPU is licensed for at least 16 cores, even if it has fewer (Broadcom knowledge base article 313548).
vSAN with the bundle1 TiB of vSAN for each VCF core and 0.25 TiB for each VVF core (the same article).
Perpetual licensesThey keep working without support. Broadcom gives critical security patches for vSphere 8.x to all perpetual license holders, but no other updates (Broadcom article 314603).
You must license a minimum of 16 physical cores for each CPU (physical processor) in your ESXi hosts, even if a CPU has fewer than 16 cores.
On the portfolio, VMware’s announcement says many products “will only be offered as part of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF). They will not be available for purchase as standalone point solutions.”
Three ESXi hosts, each with two 12-core processors. The hosts have 72 physical cores, but each CPU counts as 16, so you license 3 × 2 × 16 = 96 cores.
You pay for 24 cores that do not exist, a quarter of the bill
Broadcom knowledge base article 313548: at least 16 cores for each CPU.
vSAN on VVF96 cores bring 96 × 0.25 = 24 TiB of vSAN capacity.
vSAN on VCF96 cores bring 96 TiB of vSAN capacity.
With 16-core processorsThe same three hosts would also need 96 core licenses, with no wasted minimum. When servers are replaced, the processor choice now changes the VMware bill as well as the hardware bill.
A minimum order tooBroadcom announced a 72-core minimum order in April 2025. Reports on whether that stayed in force differ, so verify the current terms with your reseller.
They keep workingA perpetual VMware license does not stop working when support ends.
No support renewalSupport on existing perpetual licenses cannot be renewed, and perpetual licenses are no longer sold.
Security patches onlyWithout support you get no updates or technical support, apart from zero-day security patches for vSphere 8.x.
No additionsExisting customers cannot add licenses to a perpetual estate. New purchases are subscriptions.
Trade-inTo get support and updates, customers move to subscriptions. Broadcom has allowed perpetual licenses to be traded in against new subscriptions.
[Broadcom] will provide all perpetual license customers, including those that have expired support contracts, with access to zero-day security patches.
One divisionvSphere, vSAN, NSX and Aria were brought together in one VMware Cloud Foundation division.
Fewer bundlesAbout 9,000 product SKUs and 160 sales bundles were folded into VCF and VVF, with add-ons for extra storage, security, disaster recovery and AI.
Products affectedVMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere, vSAN, NSX, HCX, Site Recovery Manager, vCloud Suite and the Aria family: Aria Suite, Aria Universal, Aria Automation, Aria Operations, Aria Operations for Logs and Aria Operations for Networks.
VMware’s end-of-availability list of 22 January 2024 shows which standalone products ended, in all editions and pricing metrics, and where each one now sits.
| Product no longer sold standalone | Replacement in VCF, VVF or an add-on? | Where it now sits |
|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus | Yes | VCF, VVF |
| VMware vSphere+ | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Enterprise | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Standard (excluding subscription) | Yes | Replaced with new vSphere Standard |
| VMware vSphere ROBO | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Scale Out | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Desktop | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Acceleration Kits | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Essentials Kit | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Essentials Plus (excluding new subscription offering) | Yes | Replaced with vSphere Essentials Plus Kit |
| VMware vSphere Starter/Foundation | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere with Operations Management | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Basic | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Advanced | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Storage Appliance | No | None listed |
| VMware vSphere Hypervisor (free edition) | No | None listed |
| VMware Cloud Foundation/VCF+/VCF-S (excluding new VCF subscription offering) | No | Replaced with VMware Cloud Foundation (new) |
| VMware Cloud Foundation for VDI | No | None listed |
| VMware Cloud Foundation for ROBO | No | None listed |
| VMware SDDC Manager | Yes | VCF |
| VMware vCenter Standard | Yes | VCF, VVF and vSphere STD |
| VMware vCenter Foundation | No | None listed |
| VMware vSAN | Yes | VCF, VVF, vSAN add-on |
| VMware vSAN ROBO | No | None listed |
| VMware vSAN Desktop | No | None listed |
| VMware vSAN+ | No | None listed |
| VMware HCI Kit | No | None listed |
| VMware Site Recovery Manager | Yes | SRM Add-On Service |
| VMware Cloud Editions/Cloud Packs | No | Replaced with VCF, VVF |
| VMware vCloud Suite | No | Replaced with VCF, VVF |
| VMware Aria Suite (formerly vRealize Suite) | Yes | VCF, VVF |
| VMware Aria Universal Suite (formerly vRealize Cloud Universal) | No | None listed |
| VMware Aria Suite Term | Yes | VCF, VVF |
| VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight) | Yes | VCF |
| VMware Aria Operations for Networks Universal (formerly vRealize Network Insight Universal) | No | None listed |
| VMware vRealize Network Insight ROBO | No | None listed |
| VMware Aria Operations for Logs (formerly vRealize Log Insight) | Yes | VVF, VCF |
| VMware vRealize Operations 8 Application Monitoring Add-On | No | None listed |
| VMware Aria Operations | Yes | VVF, VCF |
| VMware Aria Automation | Yes | VCF |
| VMware Aria Suite Cloud for US Public Sector | No | None listed |
| VMware Aria Automation for Secure Hosts add-on (formerly SaltStack SecOps) | Yes | Tanzu Guardrails Add-On |
| VMware vRealize Automation SaltStack SecOps add-on | Yes | Tanzu Guardrails Add-On |
| VMware Aria Operations for Integrations (formerly vRealize True Visibility Suite) | Yes | VCF, VVF |
| VMware Cloud Director | Yes | VCF (CSP only) |
| VMware Cloud Director Service | No | None listed |
| VMware NSX | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX for Desktop | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX ROBO | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX Distributed Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall |
| VMware NSX Gateway Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall |
| VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Distributed Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Gateway Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Distributed Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Gateway Firewall | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall (with ATP) |
| VMware Advanced Load Balancer | Yes | VMware Avi Load Balancer Add-On (also standalone) |
| VMware Container Networking Enterprise with Antrea | Yes | VCF and VMware Firewall |
| VMware HCX | Yes | VCF |
| VMware HCX+ | No | None listed |
Counting hosts instead of coresThe quote is per core, with 16 per CPU as the floor. Count every CPU in every host you will license.
Buying VCF for features nobody usesIf NSX and the full Aria suite will not be deployed, compare VVF and vSphere Standard before signing.
Forgetting vSAN capacityCheck the capacity that comes with the cores against what you store before buying a vSAN add-on.
Leaving it lateStart a renewal at least six months ahead, with your own core count and a costed alternative.
Forgetting OracleOracle databases on VMware have their own licensing rules, and a VMware cluster change can change your Oracle bill too.
Yes. Perpetual licenses keep working. Without support you get no updates or technical support, apart from critical security patches for vSphere 8.x.
No. Support on existing perpetual licenses cannot be renewed. To get support and updates you move to a subscription, and Broadcom has allowed perpetual licenses to be traded in against new subscriptions.
No. Perpetual licenses are no longer sold, and new purchases are subscriptions.
Sixteen per CPU. A CPU with fewer than 16 cores is still licensed as 16 (Broadcom knowledge base article 313548).
Broadcom announced a 72-core minimum order in April 2025. Reports on whether that stayed in force differ, so verify the current terms with your reseller.
VCF is the full private cloud stack: vSphere, vSAN, NSX and the Aria management suite. VVF is for traditional vSphere estates and includes Aria Operations and Aria Operations for Logs. VCF includes 1 TiB of vSAN per core, VVF 0.25 TiB.
Only as vSphere Standard or vSphere Essentials Plus Kit subscriptions, which VMware kept for small estates and basic consolidation.
vCloud Suite is no longer sold and is replaced by VCF and VVF. Aria Suite, formerly vRealize Suite, is now part of VCF and VVF.
Tell us what you run and when it renews. We will count the cores you really need and compare the options before you sign.
Cookies on rythium.com
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and additional cookies to measure visits and our ads. You can reject the additional ones or choose which to keep. Privacy Policy