VMware options after Broadcom in 2026. Renew, migrate, or shrink and renew less.

You can renew on Broadcom terms, migrate over 24 to 36 months, or shrink the footprint and renew less. Choose before the quote arrives, because a credible exit plan is what changes Broadcom's price.

What did Broadcom change for VMware customers?

Broadcom changed the product catalog, the sales channel and the pricing unit, all within about eighteen months of closing the VMware acquisition on November 22, 2023. Every renewal since then has been priced under the new model, whatever you paid before.

• The catalog. Roughly 8,000 VMware SKUs were replaced by a short menu of subscription bundles. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) sits at the top and vSphere Foundation (VVF) below it. The current catalog lives on the Broadcom VMware product pages.
• The license type. Perpetual licenses and standalone support renewals are gone. Everything is sold as a term subscription.
• The pricing unit. Pricing moved from per CPU to per core, with a minimum core count per CPU. Broadcom's counting rule requires at least 16 cores to be licensed for each physical CPU, even when the CPU has fewer.
• The channel. Enterprise accounts moved from partner led selling to direct Broadcom coverage. That removed the pricing buffer many customers relied on, where a reseller would absorb part of an increase to keep the account.

Why does the VMware renewal increase vary so widely?

Comparable footprints renew 100 to 350 percent higher under the bundled subscription model, and three factors decide where you land in that range. The first is which legacy SKUs you ran. A customer on vSphere Enterprise Plus alone feels the bundle more than one already paying for vSAN and NSX.

The second is how your core counts map to the new minimums. The third is whether your renewal is steered into VCF or into a smaller bundle. Dense clusters with high core counts fare worst, because every physical core is now billable. Under the old model, one CPU license covered a processor of up to 32 cores.

How does the per core minimum hit small clusters?

The 16 core minimum charges you for cores you do not have. It hurts most in small clusters built on CPUs with 8 or 12 cores, which are common in branch sites, appliances and older hosts. The hypothetical hosts below show the effect before any price is applied.

What are your VMware options after Broadcom?

You have three: renew on Broadcom terms, migrate off VMware, or shrink the footprint and renew less. The choice turns on whether you can realistically be off VMware, or off most of it, in the time a full migration takes.

The comparison comes down to cost over time, execution risk and bargaining power. Migration carries the best steady state economics and the highest execution risk. Renewal is the reverse on both counts, and shrinking sits between them.

How do you pick between the three options?

1. Is the runway shorter than 18 months? If your renewal date or a support end date is that close and nothing is prepared, renew and put the effort into the terms. A rushed migration costs more than the increase.
2. Do most workloads depend on VCF components? Heavy use of NSX microsegmentation, vSAN stretched clusters or VCF automation makes a full exit a multi year program. Plan to renew the core and shrink around it.
3. Are most workloads standard Linux and Windows virtual machines? Then a full migration is realistic, if you have a platform team to run it.
4. Is a large share already cloud eligible? Move that share out first and renew on the smaller base that remains.

If you answer yes to more than one question, the shrink option is usually the best fit. You renew the part that depends on VMware and move the rest on your own schedule.

When does renewing on Broadcom terms make sense?

Renewing makes sense when migration risk is high, the runway is shorter than 18 months, or your footprint maps cleanly to a smaller bundle. In that case the work is to keep the increase as small as possible, since it cannot be avoided.

Which four terms decide the price of a VMware renewal?

• Bundle selection. Compare vSphere Foundation with VCF against what you run. Do not pay for the full stack to run a hypervisor.
• Term length. Longer terms buy a lower unit price but cost you flexibility. Ask for the one year and three year prices side by side so the trade has a number on it.
• Commitment structure. A firm quantity or a ramp. A ramp down schedule suits a footprint that will shrink, because the committed core count falls each year.
• Contract language. Audit clauses, true up mechanics and caps on renewal price escalation decide what the next cycle costs.

What does a good VMware renewal outcome look like?

Done well, a renewal holds the increase to 60 to 100 percent on a comparable footprint. Done late and unprepared, it lands at the top of the range with a three year lock attached. The difference comes from preparation time and from how credible your alternatives look to Broadcom.

When does migrating off VMware pay back?

A full migration usually breaks even between month 18 and month 30. After that, steady state savings of 40 to 70 percent follow on the migrated footprint, measured against the higher Broadcom run rate. The timing depends mostly on whether your contract allows VMware costs to fall as workloads leave.

Which VMware alternatives are credible in 2026?

The alternatives are credible for most mainstream workloads now, and most large organizations use two or more in combination.

• Nutanix AHV. Covers the hyperconverged segment, and suits teams that already run vSAN style infrastructure.
• Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. Covers the container adjacent segment, where virtual machines run next to Kubernetes workloads.
• Hyperscaler native platforms. Absorb cloud eligible workloads that no longer need to sit on your own hosts.
• Microsoft Hyper-V and Proxmox. Serve cost sensitive midsize environments with simpler clusters and fewer VMware specific dependencies.

Before you commit, check the licensing of what runs on top. Oracle Database is the usual trap, because Oracle treats some hypervisors as hard partitions and others as soft. Our note on Oracle on Nutanix AHV covers that case.

Worked example: when does a migration break even?

Say a Broadcom renewal quote comes to $720,000 a year, or $60,000 a month, and the alternative platform runs the same workloads for 50 percent less. The one off migration cost, covering people, parallel running, hardware changes and training, is $540,000. All figures are hypothetical.

Break even arrives at month 24, inside the usual range. That assumes your VMware contract allows you to reduce cores as workloads leave.

On a firm three year commitment the monthly saving stays at zero until the term ends. Break even then slides to about month 54, since the $540,000 is recovered only in the 18 months after the term closes.

When is shrinking the footprint the better option?

Shrinking suits mixed environments where part of the workload is tied to VMware and part could move without much effort. You renew a smaller core count, so the increase applies to a smaller base, and you avoid the risk of a full exit.

How do you sort workloads into the three groups?

Most environments split into three groups, and the split decides how much you can take out of the renewal.

• Committed VMware core. Workloads tied to NSX, vSAN or VMware specific tooling, and systems whose vendor supports only VMware. These renew.
• Migratable middle. Standard virtual machines that can move to another hypervisor with testing but without redesign. These move on a schedule.
• Cloud eligible edge. Development, test and burst workloads that belong on a hyperscaler. These should never renew.

Sort by host and cluster, because Broadcom licenses every core on a host that runs the software. Moving half the virtual machines off a cluster saves nothing until the emptied hosts are retired or rebuilt on another platform.

What have we seen in Broadcom VMware renewals in 2024 and 2025?

Morten Andersen advised on roughly 25 to 35 Broadcom VMware renewals between 2024 and 2025 (31 in our engagement file). In those renewals the opening proposal landed at 2x to 4x the prior VMware run rate. The median settlement ended 38 percent below that opening proposal.

• A written migration plan changed the price. Customers who arrived with a documented plan settled 25 to 45 percent below customers who negotiated on price alone.
• Minimums drove the increase in small clusters. On small, dense clusters, core count minimums caused more of the increase than list price did.
• Late signatures cost more. Renewals signed inside the last 60 days before expiry closed on materially worse terms than renewals opened six months early.
• Break even sat at the later end. In the migrations we tracked, break even arrived between month 24 and month 30.

Should you sign the longest term Broadcom offers?

Resellers often advise signing the longest term available, because longer terms carry the deepest discounts and the increase cannot be avoided anyway. We disagree. In the renewals we advised in 2024 and 2025, customers who signed 36 month terms without an exit clause gave away the only bargaining power they will hold in this relationship.

Several of them were paying above market within the term as the alternatives matured. Ask instead for a shorter term, or a 36 month contract with a defined 24 month exit trigger, priced against a documented migration plan. Lock in is what Broadcom is selling, and you should not give it away without a price.

The renewal is the one moment you choose between three futures. If you make no choice, you get the most expensive one.

What will the Broadcom account team say, and how should you answer?

Expect pressure on three things: your timeline, the bundle and the core count. These are the lines we hear most often in Broadcom renewals, with the replies that hold up.

• "This price is only valid until the end of the quarter." Reply that your decision date is set by your own migration review, and ask for the quote to be held until then in writing. A deadline that returns every quarter is not a reason to sign early. Our note on Broadcom quarter end timing covers when discounts tend to be deepest.
• "VCF is the only bundle that fits your environment." Send your component usage by cluster and ask them to show which VCF features your workloads use. If the answer is vSphere and little else, ask for the VVF price.
• "Migration will cost more than the increase." Share the break even month from your own plan. A dated, costed plan is harder to argue with than a stated preference.
• "The core count comes from our tool, so it is not negotiable." Agree on the counting method, then reconcile it against your own host inventory line by line. Retired and rebuilt hosts can still appear in a vendor count.

Which contract terms should you ask Broadcom for?

Ask for terms that preserve your options for the next cycle. Broadcom does not offer these by default, and each has to be requested and traded for.

• A reduction right. The ability to lower committed cores at each anniversary means migration savings show up during the term.
• An exit trigger at month 24. A 36 month contract that can end at 24 months keeps the discount of a long term without the full lock in.
• A renewal escalation cap. A stated maximum increase for the next term stops a repeat of the 2024 shock. See our note on price cap negotiation.
• Defined true up mechanics. Write down how cores are counted, when the count is taken, and the price for added cores.
• An audit notice period and scope. A fixed notice period and a limit on audit frequency protect you while workloads are moving.

What should you do before the renewal conversation?

Pick your option before Broadcom prices it for you. Your inventory, workload mapping and a credible exit plan all have to exist before the first commercial meeting, because customers who choose after the proposal lands negotiate on Broadcom's timeline.

How do you check your own VMware core count?

• Broadcom's core counting script. Knowledge base article 313548 links a PowerCLI module that reads vCenter and reports licensable cores per host with the 16 core minimum applied. Its output is what the account team's numbers will look like.
• RVTools. The vHost tab lists sockets and cores per host across every vCenter, which makes it easy to spot small CPUs hit by the minimum.
• The Broadcom Support Portal. Your entitlement list shows what you own and when each contract ends.
• Your support end dates. Check the end of general support date for each vSphere version you run. vSphere 7 reached it on October 2, 2025, which pushed many perpetual license holders into the subscription decision early.

What is the timeline for a VMware renewal decision?

The full licensing rules are in our Broadcom VMware licensing guide and the Broadcom VMware knowledge hub. For preparing the renewal itself, see our Broadcom VMware renewal survival kit.

What to do next

1. Count what you run. List hosts, sockets and cores, and which legacy SKUs map to which new bundle.
2. Sort the workloads. Place each cluster in the committed VMware core, the migratable middle or the cloud eligible edge.
3. Price all three options. Use your real core counts, not the Broadcom quote, and include the break even month for any migration.
4. Open the renewal early. Start the conversation with Broadcom at least six months before expiry.
5. Take the migration plan to pilot stage. Do this even if you intend to stay, since a running pilot is what changes Broadcom's price.
6. Negotiate as one package. Settle term, bundle, ramp and escalation caps together, never one after another.

Frequently asked questions