VMware Workstation Pro is Broadcom's desktop virtualization hypervisor for Windows and Linux, made free for commercial, educational, and personal use in November 2024 after being sold as paid software for over two decades. Full details →

VMware Workstation Pro became free to use in November 2024, but it remains closed source, so its code can’t be audited or modified. Open source hypervisors like VirtualBox and QEMU/KVM provide the same core desktop virtualization capabilities — snapshots, virtual networking, and broad guest OS support — with fully published source code you can inspect, and no dependency on a single vendor’s licensing decisions. VirtualBox is the closer match for users who want a GUI-first experience across Windows, macOS, and Linux, while QEMU/KVM offers a more technical, Linux-native stack with strong performance for servers and homelabs. If you need a server-grade, clustered virtualization platform rather than a desktop hypervisor, Proxmox VE builds on QEMU/KVM with a web-managed interface, high availability, and built-in backup, closer in scope to VMware’s server products than to Workstation Pro itself.

Open Source Alternatives

VirtualBox is Oracle's open source desktop virtualization software, distributing its GPL-3.0 base package for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Solaris hosts as a free alternative to VMware Workstation.

GPL-3.0 (base package); Extension Pack under a separate proprietary PUEL license

QEMU/KVM pairs the Linux kernel's built-in KVM hypervisor with the open source QEMU emulator for near-native-speed virtualization, offered as a free, source-available alternative to VMware Workstation.

GPL-2.0-or-later (QEMU); GPL-2.0 (KVM kernel module)

Proxmox VE is an open source, web-managed server virtualization platform combining KVM virtual machines and LXC containers, with every feature available free under the AGPL-3.0 license and optional paid support subscriptions.

AGPL-3.0