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Compare:
Cycle vs VMware vSphere

Cycle brings a unified control plane for running virtual machines alongside containers, without additional licensing costs.
vs.
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Looking to Move to Cycle from VMware?

VMware licensing comes with minimum blocks and uncertainty about future renewals. Even small to medium sized organizations are forced to commit to a minimum core subscription. By switching to Cycle, you'll reduce cost and complexity, while gaining access to modern features and managed multi-cloud infrastructure.
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Simplicity
(More opinionated)
Customizability
(More complex)

Run Containers + VMs

vSphere focuses on VMs and adds Kubernetes via Tanzu. Cycle runs containers and VMs side by side with one API and UI, simplifying policy, releases, and day-2 ops.

One Control Plane

Skip stitching ESXi, vCenter, NSX, vSAN, and Tanzu. Cycle provides a vertically integrated platform where networking, storage, images, secrets, and deployments work together out of the box.

Expert Support Included

With VMware, support covers the hypervisor stack and leaves app-level integration to you. Cycle includes white-glove help for design, migration, and operations across every tier.

Multi-Cloud By Default

vSphere is strongest in a single data center or VMware cloud. Cycle is truly multi-cloud, spanning on-prem, colo, and any public cloud, all from a single control plane.

Hands-Free Upgrades

Avoid choreographing updates across hosts, NSX, and add-ons. Cycle automates rolling updates and security patches for the control plane so you keep shipping.

Simpler Economics

Replace multiple licensed components with a single platform. Predictable tiered pricing on seats and servers reduces total effort and cost to operate.

Features

Cycle.io

VMware vSphere

Architecture and Deployment
Model
Hybrid SaaS & PaaS
Self-Hosted / Hybrid
Management
hybrid(Self + Fully-Managed)
hybrid(Self + Semi-Managed)
Scope
On-prem / Colo / Cloud
On-prem / Colo / Cloud
Pricing
Tiered(Seats & Servers)
Licensed Tiers
Bring Your Own Infrastructure
Bare Metal
Multi‑Cloud
Edge Support
Upgrade Automation
automatic
Automatic
Core Infrastructure
Containers
add-on(Tanzu)
VMs
Functions
BETA
Service Mesh
(Discovery)
Load Balancing
NSX ALB
DNS
Networking
Automatic(managed overlay)
Automatic(NSX SDN)
Storage
Automatic(managed volumes)
Automatic(vSAN datastores)
DevOps & Automation
CI/CD
Integrations
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Stacks(JSON / YAML)
Terraform
API
REST & Webhooks
REST & SDKs
Monitoring
vRealize
Operations & Governance
ACL / RBAC
Multi‑Tenancy
Strong(Environments + Clusters + Namespaces)
Namespaces
Support Model
Included & Community
Paid
Cycle on any infrastructure
Ready To Make The Switch?

Move to Cycle from VMware vSphere Today

Our team is standing by to help make the transition off VMware vSphere painless. Get started with a free proof-of-concept today to see just how easy it is to manage VMs across your own infrastructure with Cycle today.

Schedule a Demo

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A Better Alternative to VMware.

Cycle's modern approach simplifies operations, reduces costs, and runs more efficiently. Unlike VMware, Cycle strips away hypervisor overhead and licensing sprawl, giving you one lightweight control plane that deploys anywhere with zero extra moving parts.

Bring Your Own Infrastructure.

Combine cloud and on-prem infrastructure, bare-metal or virtualized, under one platform. Cycle unifies it into a cohesive, managed private cloud.

First Class Multi-Cloud Support.

Deploy to AWS, GCP, Vultr, or almost anywhere with raw compute, all at once. Cycle manages the underlying connectivity and orchestration, so that to you, it's just one big cloud.

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