Vates VMS vs VMware cost calculator
Vates VMS is licensed per host. VMware VVF and VCF are licensed per physical core, with a 16-core minimum per socket. Enter your infrastructure below — every price and assumption is visible and editable.
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Total cost of licensing & support
Each group uses that term's own pricing, so the 5-year bars already include both vendors' multi-year discounts.
Methodology
Vates prices: vates.tech pricing & support. All figures are estimates, excluding tax, based on the assumptions you enter.
Per-core vs per-host licensing: why the models diverge
VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) are licensed per physical CPU core. The bill is a function of the silicon inside each server: number of hosts, sockets per host and cores per socket. As servers get denser, the same workload costs more, because there are more cores to license even if utilisation is unchanged.
Vates VMS is licensed per host. A subscription covers a physical server regardless of how many sockets, cores, virtual machines or vCPUs it runs. Consolidating onto fewer, denser hosts lowers the Vates bill rather than raising it, which is the opposite of how per-core models behave. The Essential plans are a flat fee for small estates of up to three hosts; the Pro and Enterprise plans are priced per host and scale linearly.
The 16-core-per-CPU floor
Under per-core licensing, each populated CPU socket is billed at a minimum of 16 cores, even when the physical processor has fewer. A host with two 8-core CPUs is therefore licensed as if it had 32 cores, not 16. This floor is modelled explicitly in the calculator, so you can see how many cores you are billed for versus how many you physically own. Broadcom briefly introduced a separate 72-core minimum order quantity in April 2025 and has since withdrawn it, so this calculator does not apply it.
What the Vates subscription includes
XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra are free and open source, so a paid plan does not buy the right to run the software. It buys vendor support with defined response times, the pre-built Xen Orchestra appliance and its updates, and the product entitlements tied to the plan. XOSTOR (hyper-converged shared storage) and EasyVirt (capacity planning and Green IT) are optional add-ons and are included in the estimate only when you select them, so that the comparison against a VCF stack that bundles vSAN and Aria-style operations is like for like.
The figures are estimates for licensing and support only. Hardware, power, cooling, network, third-party backup targets, migration effort and internal staff time are excluded on both sides. VMware list prices are publicly reported figures rather than a Broadcom quotation; use the negotiated-discount slider to model your own renewal quote. Vates list prices are taken from the published pricing page and were last reviewed in August 2026.
Sources & methodology
Where do the VMware prices come from?
How the VMware figures were established. Broadcom does not publish a public price list for VMware Cloud Foundation, vSphere Foundation or vSphere Standard. The default prices used here are the lowest publicly advertised catalogue prices we could find from authorised resellers, captured on 5 August 2026, for the SKUs listed below. Each entry links to the reseller's own product page.
These are advertised catalogue prices for a single-core, single-year subscription, excluding tax. They are not a Broadcom quotation, and not a price Vates can offer or guarantee. Actual customer pricing depends on volume, contract term and negotiation, and is typically lower — the discount field is provided so you can enter the figures from your own quotation.
All results on this page are estimates based on the assumptions you enter. Vates figures are our own published list prices, excluding tax: vates.tech pricing & support. Neither column includes hardware, power, network, migration effort or staff time.
Found an error? Tell us — we correct sourced pricing claims and log the change.
All rows: per core, per year, excluding tax, 1-year subscription unless noted, 16-core-per-CPU minimum.
| Edition | Reseller | Country | SKU | Price (excl. tax) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vSphere Standard | Software-Express | DE | VCF-VSP-STD-8 | €51.25 | Product page |
| vSphere Standard | Senetic | FR | VCF-VSP-STD-8_P1Y | €54.85 | Product page |
| vSphere Standard | Wiresoft | — | SW10810 | $49.90 | Product page |
| vSphere Foundation | Software-Express | DE | VCF-VSP-FND-1Y | €192.75 | Product page |
| vSphere Foundation | Bechtle | DE | VCF-VSP-FND-1Y | €193.99 | Product page |
| vSphere Foundation | Wiresoft | — | SW10811 | $219.90 | Product page |
| Cloud Foundation | Software-Express | DE | VCF-CLD-FND | €362.24 | Product page |
| Cloud Foundation | Senetic | FR | VCF-CLD-FND-5_P1Y | €383.91 | Product page |
| Cloud Foundation | Senetic | FR | VCF-CLD-FND-5_P3Y | €1,151.75 for 3 years = €383.92 / yr | Product page |
| Cloud Foundation | Senetic | FR | VCF-CLD-FND-5_P4Y | €1,535.66 for 4 years = €383.92 / yr | Product page |
| Cloud Foundation | Wiresoft | — | SW10812 | $399.90 | Product page |
Bold values are the calculator defaults — the lowest price in each currency basket.
Reseller catalogue prices, per core per year, excluding tax, verified 5 August 2026. Vates list prices: pricing & support.
Why is there a 16-core minimum per CPU?
Core minimums. VMware is licensed per physical core, with a minimum of 16 cores billed per CPU — a rule stated by all three resellers on their own product pages. Broadcom briefly introduced a 72-core minimum order quantity in April 2025; it has since been withdrawn (Software-Express). It was originally reported from an Arrow France communication and was never confirmed by Broadcom (The Register, 28 March 2025). This calculator does not apply it.
Why are the multi-year figures a simple multiple?
Multi-year terms. The only publicly advertised multi-year VMware prices we identified are strictly linear — no multi-year discount. Senetic's Cloud Foundation subscriptions at 1, 3 and 4 years work out to €383.91, €383.92 and €383.92 per core per year respectively (€383.91 ÷ 1, €1,151.75 ÷ 3, €1,535.66 ÷ 4 — a spread of 0.0017%). Linearity is therefore verified on Cloud Foundation at 1, 3 and 4-year terms; no multi-year SKU is publicly advertised for vSphere Foundation or vSphere Standard, so the same linear treatment is applied to them, and the 5-year figure is extrapolated. The 3- and 5-year figures here are consequently the advertised 1-year rate multiplied by the term. Vates, by contrast, publishes −10% at 3 years and −15% at 5 years, and that discount is applied. Use the VMware multi-year discount field to enter the rate from your own quotation.
Where do the Vates prices come from?
Our own published price grid, excluding tax — the same figures shown on pricing & support. Vates VMS is billed per host (or a flat fee on the Essential plans); the multi-year discounts of −10% at 3 years and −15% at 5 years are the published rates.
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