--- title: VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor | daily.dev description: VMware has reinstated its free ESXi hypervisor, a popular tool among home lab operators and IT administrators. The announcement was made quietly in the release... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9 copyright: © 2026 Daily Dev Ltd. terms: https://daily.dev/tos/ twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor | daily.dev og:description: VMware has reinstated its free ESXi hypervisor, a popular tool among home lab operators and IT administrators. The announcement was made quietly in the release... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/E541fc3W9.png og:image:alt: VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor **[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 4 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary VMware has reinstated its free ESXi hypervisor, a popular tool among home lab operators and IT administrators. The announcement was made quietly in the release notes for version 8.0 Update 3e by Broadcom. Despite no further details from VMware at this time, the return of the free hypervisor is seen as a strategic move to encourage users to explore its capabilities. This decision reverses VMware's earlier stance from February 2024, when it shifted to a subscription-only model. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news), [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure), [#vmware](https://daily.dev/tags/vmware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9"},"datePublished":"2025-04-14T06:35:12.006Z","dateModified":"2025-04-14T06:35:57.952Z","description":"VMware has reinstated its free ESXi hypervisor, a popular tool among home lab operators and IT administrators. The announcement was made quietly in the release...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f9a2fbcf6a185193b3da545ea4b5172d?_a=AQAEuj9","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f9a2fbcf6a185193b3da545ea4b5172d?_a=AQAEuj9","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Register","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Register","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/66aa2113fdad463992ffcbf0e8963fda","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/vmware-revives-its-free-esxi-hypervisor-e541fc3w9","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"tech-news,cloud,infrastructure,vmware","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Register","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor"}]} ```