I Listed the differences between VMWARE player, VMWARE Workstation/server and VMWARE ESX Server. I have provided the information as well as i know. If anyone having questions, Please comment . Please correct me if i missed something.
VMWare Player | VMware Workstation & Server | VMware ESX Server |
With VMware Player you can only run pre-created Virtual Machine, either you create it with VMware Workstation/Server or you download it from VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace | You can create, Play, Modify Virtual Machines | You can create, Play, Modify Virtual Machines |
You cannot create or modify a virtual Machine using VMPlayer. You can run only | You can create, modify any number virtual machines up to your need | You can create, modify monitor virtual machines using VSphere client |
Its free of cost | Licensed | Licensed |
Need to be installed on OS Desktops like Windows, Linux, MAC | Need to be installed on OS Desktops like Windows, Linux, MAC | This will be installed as OS. Other Operating systems will be hosted here as virtual machine. VMware ESX server itself is an OS. On top of it, other OS like Windows Server, Linux will be installed |
Desktop Use, for development, testing, QA Etc.. | Desktop Use, for development, testing, QA Etc.. | Used for production servers use |
No extra features | Having features snapshots, screen recordings, cloning etc. | Having several features like physical to virtual convertor etc. |
NA | CPU and Memory support up to the editions like Workstation or server | CPU and Memory support up to licensing. (Min 2 CPU’s and 8GB RAM) |
