Following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, the "Free Edition" of ESXi was temporarily discontinued but has since been restored with VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e VMware ESXi 8 / vCenter 8 / Workstation 17 license key 2024
For a student learning virtualization, a developer testing applications, or a homelab enthusiast running 5-10 VMs, the free edition is .
Keep an eye on Broadcom’s recent changes to the "Free ESXi" tier, as licensing models for home users are currently evolving following the acquisition.