VMware vs. Hyper-V vs. Proxmox: Virtualization and Backup Compared

VMware, Hyper-V, and Proxmox VE all provide virtualization capabilities, but they differ in licensing, management, infrastructure requirements, and backup options. Understanding these differences can help IT teams choose the right platform and plan how to protect their workloads. Yet, their architectures, supported platforms, and optimal use cases are distinctly different.

Hence the importance of understanding the key differences between these three virtualization solutions. Below, we unpack what IT professionals and managed service providers (MSPs) need to know about choosing between VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox. We also explain how to achieve efficient, reliable data backups no matter which platform a team chooses.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• VMware remains a mature enterprise virtualization platform, with broad guest OS compatibility and a comprehensive ecosystem of management tools – though since Broadcom’s acquisition, licensing has moved to per-core subscriptions.
• Hyper-V comes included with Windows Server and fits naturally into Active Directory, PowerShell and Azure, but it only runs on Windows hosts.
• Proxmox VE is open source, runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers side by side, and charges only for optional per-socket support subscriptions – the trade-off is a Linux-based host.
• Snapshots and checkpoints aren’t substitutes for independent backups. Proxmox also offers native backup tools and Proxmox Backup Server, while VMware and Hyper-V environments have their own protection options. The right backup strategy depends on storage independence, retention, recoverability, and management requirements.
• MSP360 VM Backup supports hypervisor-level backups across VMware, Hyper-V, and Proxmox VE, with flexible storage destinations and Object Lock support. For MSPs and IT teams managing multiple environments, MSP360 Managed Backup adds centralized monitoring and management.

VMware vs. Hyper-V vs. Proxmox Backup Breakdown

What is VMware?

It’s not accurate to say that VMware invented virtualization (virtualization technology has actually been around for about fifty years, starting long before VMware’s founding in the late 1990s). But it is fair to credit VMware with bringing virtualization mainstream, transforming it from an academic research pursuit to a widely used commercial product.

Today, VMware is no longer a standalone company (it has been a part of Broadcom since 2023), but the VMware platform – which includes a suite of distinct products, like vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) – remains one of the leading virtualization platforms by market share.

Why do MSPs and IT teams choose VMware?

VMware's broad collection of products makes it well-suited for a variety of virtualization use cases. That said, it arguably stands out the most for the following characteristics:

• VMware's highly mature, battle-tested software, which makes VMware an excellent choice for enterprises seeking a tried-and-true virtualization solution.
• Mature enterprise virtualization capabilities. VMware vSphere provides centralized management, high availability, live migration, and extensive integration options for complex virtual environments.
• Support for application containers as well as VMs. A virtual machine has its own operating system; containers let applications share the host's kernel. Products like VMware Tanzu give teams a way to manage containerized applications alongside their virtual machines.

How to Back Up VMware with MSP360?

VMware's diverse product lineup can complicate VMware backups in the respect that not all backup processes and tools work across all VMware platforms. MSP360 VMware Backup protects vSphere/ESXi virtual machines without requiring backup software in every guest or on the ESXi host. You install it on a separate Windows machine, give it access to the ESXi host or vCenter Server, and use it to back up the VMs' disk images. Supported vSphere/ESXi versions range from 6.0 to 9.0.

We'll cover the general backup steps below. For VMware, there are two settings to pay particular attention to:

Changed Block Tracking (CBT)

For an incremental backup, MSP360 needs to know what has changed. Enable CBT, and VMware identifies the changed disk blocks so MSP360 can transfer just that data.

Application processing

 Use VMware Tools to quiesce supported Windows applications such as SQL Server, Exchange or SharePoint before the snapshot. This allows the backup to capture an application-consistent state, rather than the crash-consistent state you'd have after an abrupt shutdown.

VMware snapshots are useful, but they don't replace a backup. They still depend on the VM's disks, so you need separate backup copies to recover if those disks are lost.

What is Hyper-V?

Microsoft took considerably longer than VMware to enter the commercial virtualization space. But when it did so with the launch of Hyper-V in 2008, it quickly gained a large following, due especially to the fact that Hyper-V comes bundled with pro, enterprise, and data center editions of Windows, which means users don't have to install external software. Hyper-V remains widely popular today.

Why do MSPs and IT teams choose Hyper-V?

The fact that Hyper-V comes built into Windows gives it an advantage over other virtualization platforms, which IT teams must install as add-ons. But it also offers other advantages, including:

Lower licensing costs

Hyper-V is included with Windows Server, so if you already license Windows Server, you don't pay separately for the hypervisor. This can make the total cost lower than VMware, while Proxmox itself is free but may still involve support and operational costs.

Strong Windows integration

Being bundled with Windows Server is only part of the appeal. Hyper-V also works closely with Active Directory, PowerShell and other core Microsoft management technologies – tools a Windows administrator probably already uses every day.

Built-in Microsoft ecosystem and hybrid-cloud integration

Hyper-V provides Live Migration and Hyper-V Replica and works with Windows Server Failover Clustering. There's also a cloud option for disaster recovery: Azure Site Recovery can replicate Hyper-V VMs to Azure.

The catch is that Hyper-V only runs on Windows hosts. You can't install Hyper-V on Linux or macOS systems (although you can use Hyper-V to create guest systems that run operating systems other than Windows).

How to Back Up Hyper-V with MSP360?

With Hyper-V, you already have some recovery tools at hand. A checkpoint lets you roll a VM back to an earlier state; Hyper-V Replica keeps a copy on another host. For basic backups of the host and its VMs, there's Windows Server Backup.

An MSP still has more to take care of: keeping copies offsite, deciding how long to retain them and protecting them against deletion. MSP360 Hyper-V Backup handles these backup requirements. To keep track of jobs across customers, MSP360 Managed Backup adds centralized monitoring and reporting.

The MSP360 Backup agent goes directly on the Hyper-V host. If you're backing up a Hyper-V Failover Cluster, install the agent on one of its nodes so MSP360 can discover the clustered VMs. Two Hyper-V mechanisms then do the heavy lifting:

Resilient Change Tracking (RCT)

Hyper-V has tracked disk changes through RCT since Windows Server 2016. MSP360 uses that information to copy only the changed blocks during an incremental backup, saving it from transferring the whole virtual disk again.

Production checkpoints and VSS

Applications such as SQL Server, Exchange and Active Directory need more than a copy of files taken while they're being updated. MSP360 can use production checkpoints and VSS to quiesce these applications and capture a consistent state for recovery.

What is Proxmox?

Proxmox may be a smaller name than VMware and Hyper-V, but it's nonetheless a widely used, reliable virtualization platform – and one that stands out because Proxmox leverages open source technology (specifically, the Kernel-based Virtual Machine and Linux Containers) to run both virtual machines and containers.

Why do MSPs and IT teams choose Proxmox?

IT pros and MSPs don't use Proxmox just because they like open source. The platform also offers benefits such as:

Lower and more predictable licensing costs

Proxmox VE is open source, with no license cost for its core virtualization platform. Paid subscriptions cover enterprise repository access and support, and they're priced per socket, so costs don't grow with every VM you add – which makes Proxmox particularly attractive to MSPs managing multiple environments.

Broad virtualization capabilities in one platform

KVM virtual machines and LXC containers run side by side, alongside clustering, high availability, live migration, Ceph and ZFS storage, and built-in backup – all managed through a single web interface.

Open-source flexibility and less vendor dependence

Proxmox is built on Debian Linux and released under AGPLv3, with publicly available source code. IT teams can integrate it with existing Linux, storage and automation tools and are not required to build their infrastructure around a proprietary vendor ecosystem.

An important limitation of Proxmox is that it requires a Linux-based system to host it (which makes sense, given that the platform depends on virtualization and containerization technology within the Linux kernel), although Proxmox can create Windows and macOS guests.

How to Back Up Proxmox with MSP360?

Proxmox already includes backup tools. You can schedule vzdump jobs for selected VMs and containers, while Proxmox Backup Server adds incremental backups, deduplication and verification. PBS is a capable option, but it also gives the team another server to deploy and maintain.

With MSP360 Proxmox Backup, you don't need PBS to send backups to your chosen cloud or local storage. Install MSP360 on a supported Windows machine, enter the Proxmox host details and credentials, and choose what to back up. It connects through the Proxmox API, so there's no backup agent to install on the host itself. As for what you can back up and restore:

Backup VMs and containers

MSP360 backs up both KVM virtual machines and LXC containers.

Use flexible recovery

You don't have to restore an entire VM just to get a few files or folders back. MSP360 can recover those separately, restore a standalone virtual disk, or restore the full VM to a Proxmox server.

A migration path off VMware

Clients moving away from VMware don't necessarily have to leave their MSP360 backups behind. With MSP360 Backup Agent 8.7.1 or later, VMware and Hyper-V VM backups created in the new backup format can be restored directly to Proxmox VE, providing an additional recovery and migration option.

If you have just one host to protect, there's also MSP360 Backup for Proxmox Community Edition. It's free, with no time limit, and covers one host with up to two CPU sockets and up to 5 TB of backup data.

How MSP360 VM Backup Works Across All Three Platforms

Once you've dealt with the setup for your particular hypervisor, configuring a backup plan is much the same. In each case, MSP360 runs on Windows and captures VM disk images at the hypervisor level. You don't need a backup agent inside each guest. The next steps are:

Select VMs

You can back up all VMs, limit the job to those currently running, or pick specific VMs. VMware and Hyper-V also let you choose individual virtual disks. With Proxmox, the backup includes every disk attached to the selected VM.

Choose backup storage

Backups can go to your own cloud storage account, local storage or a NAS. For cloud backups, you can use Amazon S3, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Storage and other S3-compatible services.

Set scheduling and retention

Decide when backups should run and how long you need to keep recovery points. The initial backup is full; incremental backups copy the blocks that have changed since the previous backup. You can use a simple schedule or set up GFS retention to keep daily, weekly, monthly and yearly recovery points. Synthetic full backups are also available on supported storage.

Enable encryption and immutability

You can encrypt backup data and use compression to reduce its size. For protection against deletion or modification, enable Object Lock on compatible storage, such as AWS S3 or Wasabi. The retention period determines how long those copies stay locked.

Test recovery

Periodically restore VMs or individual files to verify that backups can actually support recovery when needed – a successful job status confirms that a backup ran, not that it can be restored.

For MSPs managing multiple environments, MSP360 Managed Backup adds centralized web-based management, allowing administrators to configure backup plans, monitor jobs and receive alerts across multiple hosts, clients and hypervisors.

Conclusion: Many Virtualization Platforms, One Backup Solution

In short, making the right choice in a VMware vs. Hyper-V vs. Proxmox backup comparison requires looking closely at your specific needs. It comes down to weighing considerations like which operating systems you need to support, which licensing model aligns with your budget, and what type of administrative tooling you prefer to use.

Choosing a backup solution for virtual machines, however, doesn't have to be hard. MSP360 VM Backup provides backup and recovery options across all major virtualization platforms – so no matter which solution your business (or your clients, if you're an MSP) choose, you can keep critical data safe.