True Cost of VMware Calculator
This calculator estimates your VMware licensing costs and compares them to OpenNebula Premium, an enterprise-grade alternative. It covers three scenarios:
1. Existing licenses eligible for renewal — VCF or VVF
2. Legacy licenses that can no longer be renewed — vSphere Standard or SnS
3. New environments not yet implemented — VCF or VVF
You can override key inputs and apply a Broadcom discount percentage to reflect your actual contract terms. Results are available as a downloadable PDF report suitable for internal review. Contact information for Nubius Solutions is included for questions or feedback.
1. Existing licenses eligible for renewal — VCF or VVF
2. Legacy licenses that can no longer be renewed — vSphere Standard or SnS
3. New environments not yet implemented — VCF or VVF
You can override key inputs and apply a Broadcom discount percentage to reflect your actual contract terms. Results are available as a downloadable PDF report suitable for internal review. Contact information for Nubius Solutions is included for questions or feedback.
Tell us about your situation so we can tailor the calculator to your needs.
I have an existing VMware environment
I am currently running VMware on VCF or VVF and want to understand my savings opportunity.
I am on a legacy VMware license
I am on vSphere Standard or Legacy SnS and am facing a forced upgrade. I want to understand my options.
I am evaluating a new environment
I want to compare VMware license costs with an enterprise-grade alternative before I commit.
Your VMware environment Existing
Tell us about your environment so we can calculate your licensing cost and compare it to OpenNebula.
Part 1 — Hypervisor count
To prepare a comparative cost analysis, the calculator needs to know the number of physical servers/hosts in your VMware environment. Enter the number of physical hosts below.
ESXi servers / nodes in your environment.
Part 2 — Licensed core count
How to find your licensed VMware core count
Method 1 — PowerCLI (recommended)
Run Broadcom License Counting PowerCLI Tool (KB 313548). Reports your total licensed cores automatically.
Method 2 — Broadcom renewal quote
Your licensed core count appears on your Broadcom renewal quote or contract.
Method 3 — Broadcom Support Portal
Log in at support.broadcom.com and view your active license entitlements (core count).
Enter from PowerCLI, Broadcom renewal quote, or Support Portal. Include cores for any new hypervisor nodes you plan to add. Apply a 16-core minimum per CPU for any CPU with fewer than 16 physical cores.
Licensed cores entered
— cores
Part 3 — Renewal timeline
📅 When does your current VMware subscription expire?
Your renewal timeline affects how much leverage you have in migration planning.
⚠️ Broadcom late-renewal penalty: Broadcom's late-renewal penalty is 20% of your first-year subscription cost, applied if you miss your renewal deadline. Starting your evaluation early gives you time to avoid it.
Your legacy VMware license Legacy
Tell us about your environment. We will show you what Broadcom is forcing you onto — and what OpenNebula would cost instead.
vSphere Standard was discontinued July 31, 2025. Legacy SnS support contracts cannot be renewed. Broadcom is forcing customers onto VVF ($190/core/yr) or VCF ($350/core/yr). This calculator will show you your forced upgrade cost and compare it to OpenNebula.
Part 1 — Physical environment
Is your environment uniform — the same CPU and core spec across all hosts?
Yes — uniform spec across all hosts
All hosts have the same number of CPUs and cores per CPU.
No — mixed spec
Enter your total host count and total licensed cores directly.
Part 2 — Current license cost
Enter the total annual fee from your current contract or the last invoice you received.
Current annual VMware cost
—
Part 3 — Renewal timeline
📅 When does your current VMware contract expire?
Planning ahead of your expiry date gives you the most options.
⚠️ Broadcom late-renewal penalty: Broadcom's late-renewal penalty is 20% of your first-year subscription cost, applied if you miss your renewal deadline. Starting your evaluation early gives you time to avoid it.
Your planned environment Evaluating
Describe your infrastructure spec. We will show you what VMware would cost and compare it to an enterprise-grade alternative.
Environment type
Is your planned environment uniform — the same CPU and core spec across all hosts?
Yes — uniform spec across all hosts
All hosts have the same number of CPUs and cores per CPU.
No — mixed spec
Enter your total planned host count and total planned cores directly.
VMware licensing cost
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
$350/core/yr list
vSphere + vSAN + NSX + Aria Ops
VMware vSphere Foundation
$190/core/yr list
vSphere + vSAN, no NSX
0%
Enter your actual discount if known — leave at 0% to see list price.
Effective per-core rate
$350.00 /core/yr
Estimated annual VMware licensing
—
—
Comparison with Enterprise-Grade Alternative
This analysis shows the cost of the OpenNebula Premium subscription compared to your VMware license cost over 3 years.
OpenNebula Premium — hypervisor licensing estimate
| Front-end subscription | $13,750 |
| Hypervisor nodes (— x $1,375) | — |
| Total annual estimate | — |
Advanced feature licensing — including High Availability, hybrid cloud, Kubernetes, and AI platform — varies by configuration and is not included in this estimate.
Unlike Broadcom, OpenNebula pricing is based on hypervisor node count — not core count. You never pay for CPU cores that don't physically exist in your environment.
3-year comparison
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-yr total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VMware | — | — | — | — |
| OpenNebula | — | — | — | — |
| Avoided cost | — | — | — | — |
VMware — annual
Annual rate—
Fixed for contract term—
3-yr total—
OpenNebula Premium — annual
Front-end$13,750
Node licensing—
3-yr total—
- This analysis is intended for internal evaluation purposes only. Please do not distribute or publish without the consent of Nubius Solutions.
- License fees presented by this calculator are estimates only.
- Broadcom and OpenNebula offer options and add-ons not addressed by this calculator.
- VMware list pricing is based on published Broadcom rates for a standard 3-year contract and may differ from your negotiated contract.
- Vendor prices are subject to change. Broadcom has significantly increased VMware license fees since acquiring VMware in 2023 and may do so again at renewal.
- Storage costs vary significantly by environment and must be evaluated on a case by case basis.
- Pricing based on published rates as of May 2026.
Contact Nubius Solutions for a complimentary assessment of platform options for your environment, including licensing and storage costs, by our engineers. Call 239-374-5012 or visit nubius.io/contact-us/
Your results
Enter your details to receive a formatted copy of these results by email.
Estimated 3-year avoided cost
—
—
— savings over 3 years vs. VMware
Year 1 avoided cost
—
Hypervisor nodes
—
VMware renewal
—
💡 Your opportunity cost
—
Receive your results by email
We'll send a formatted summary to you — no spam, just your results.
By submitting, you will receive your results by email. We will follow up once — no newsletters, no marketing lists.
✓ Results sent!
A summary of your results is on its way to your inbox. As promised, a member of the Nubius team will reach out once to discuss your results.
- This analysis is intended for internal evaluation purposes only. Please do not distribute or publish without the consent of Nubius Solutions.
- License fees presented by this calculator are estimates only.
- Broadcom and OpenNebula offer options and add-ons not addressed by this calculator.
- VMware list pricing is based on published Broadcom rates for a standard 3-year contract and may differ from your negotiated contract.
- Vendor prices are subject to change. Broadcom has significantly increased VMware license fees since acquiring VMware in 2023 and may do so again at renewal.
- Storage costs vary significantly by environment and must be evaluated on a case by case basis.
- Pricing based on published rates as of May 2026.
Contact Nubius Solutions for a complimentary assessment of platform options for your environment, including licensing and storage costs, by our engineers. Call 239-374-5012 or visit nubius.io/contact-us/