// Analysis for decision-makers// Pricing · TCO

Proxmox pricing — official license pricing and TCO for businesses

How much does Proxmox VE cost compared to VMware? Below: the official Proxmox GmbH subscription pricing (Community, Basic, Standard, Premium), per-socket billing rules and a path to TCO analysis and our savings calculator.

// Table of Contents
  1. Official Proxmox VE subscription pricing
  2. How to count subscriptions in a cluster
  3. Migration service pricing
  4. Proxmox vs VMware TCO
// 01 · Official pricing

Official Proxmox VE subscription pricing

Proxmox VE is open source (AGPLv3) — the software itself requires no licence fees and can run in production without a subscription. An optional Proxmox subscription grants access to the Enterprise repository (stable, tested updates) and vendor technical support. Prices below are official net prices from Proxmox GmbH (source: proxmox.com).

PlanProxmox pricing (net)SupportTickets / yearResponse timeRemote SSH
Community€120 / socket / yearCommunity forum
Basic€370 / socket / yearProxmox Customer Portal31 business day
Standard most popular€550 / socket / yearProxmox Customer Portal104 hours (business days)Yes
Premium€1,100 / socket / yearProxmox Customer PortalUnlimited2 hours (business days)Yes

All four plans include full Proxmox VE functionality (HA, live migration, clustering, backup, etc.) and Enterprise repository access. They differ only in commercial support level — ticket allowance, response time and remote SSH access.

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Community vs paid plans: Community includes the enterprise repository but no SLA — support via forum only. For production businesses, Standard is the most common choice (10 tickets, 4-hour response, SSH).

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VMware VCF (comparison): Broadcom licences per core — up to ~€368 / core / year. On a dense server (e.g. 64 cores) one Proxmox Standard socket is a fraction of VMware cost.

// 02 · Billing model

How to count subscriptions in a cluster

Proxmox VE subscriptions are billed per physical CPU socket (not per core, not per VM). Each cluster node needs its own subscription at the same tier (Community, Basic, Standard or Premium).

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You can use Proxmox VE for free without a subscription (no-subscription repository). The subscription is optional — you pay for stable enterprise updates and support, not for the virtualisation licence itself.

// 03 · Migration services

Migration service pricing

Beyond platform licences, budget for professional migration — audit, architecture, VM conversion and production go-live. Our Starter, Professional and Enterprise packages (plus P2V quotes for physical servers) are on the homepage pricing section.

// 04 · TCO

Proxmox vs VMware TCO

Total cost of ownership covers licences, support, power and maintenance. For a typical enterprise environment (512 cores, 3 years) the difference is on the order of millions in Proxmox's favour — mainly due to zero Broadcom licence fees.

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Full financial analysis: VMware vs Proxmox TCO analysis. Quick simulation for your environment: VMware → Proxmox calculator on the homepage.

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