Proxmox VE

Proxmox VE: The Hypervisor That Refuses Your Donations (And Keeps VMWare Away)

In a world where hypervisors either cost an arm and a leg or require convoluted licensing agreements, Proxmox VE stands as the stubborn, self-sufficient king of the KVM-based hypervisor realm. It lets you virtualize like an enterprise without the corporate red tape, and better yet? You don’t actually have to pay a dime unless you want to.

A Hypervisor for Those Who Read the Manual

Proxmox VE is designed for those who are Linux-capable, self-reliant, and don’t need a corporate helpline to hold their hand when things go south. They do offer an enterprise license, but let’s be real—that’s for businesses that need someone to yell at when their VMs go down at 2 AM.

For homelabbers, there’s no node limit, no artificial restrictions, and no forced licensing shenanigans. You don’t need to pay for a license unless you want access to the enterprise repo and official support tickets. Even then, the lowest-tier Enterprise Community license is a mere 100€ per CPU socket per year.

Why Pay When It Works Just Fine?

When you break it down, Proxmox’s approach makes sense:

• You already bought expensive (or decommissioned) hardware—do you really want to pay for Hyper-V or VMWare on top of that?
• Proxmox empowers you to learn Linux by letting you break, fix, and optimize things on your own.
• You can test various Linux distros, self-host services, or even run a Minecraft server without extra costs.
• The HA (High Availability) stack is actual enterprise-grade tech, with Ceph storage offering redundancy and failover—if you can learn to set it up, you’ve basically turned your lab into a data center.

Proxmox: Freedom in Virtualization

VMWare is out here nickel-and-diming customers, Microsoft is pushing Hyper-V, and other solutions have you locked behind SaaS paywalls. Meanwhile, Proxmox just exists, letting you do what you want with your own hardware, for free.

So, if you’re a homelabber who knows their way around Linux, you don’t need a license—just enjoy the ride. But if you’re a corporate drone that needs someone to scream at when things break, well… that’s what Enterprise Support is for.

Proxmox Enterprise Repository: Do You Really Need It?

For most homelabbers, the Enterprise Repository in Proxmox is like the VIP lounge at an airport—you know it exists, but you’re not exactly missing out by not having access. The Community Repository (No-Sub) is more than good enough, and it’s free.

What’s the Difference?

• Community Repository (No-Sub): Gets updates first. That means it might be a little bleeding-edge, but it’s the same software.
• Enterprise Repository: Gets updates later, after further testing, making it technically more stable. However, if you’re running Proxmox in a homelab, you’re already used to the occasional “oops” moment.

Why Pay for Something You Can Fix Yourself?

Most people running Proxmox at home don’t need the Enterprise Repo because:

✅ The Community Repo works just fine and gets updates before Enterprise.

✅ If something breaks, Google and the forums will have answers faster than a support ticket.

✅ The Proxmox community is strong, meaning you’re never truly alone in troubleshooting.

When Should You Consider an Enterprise License?

Let’s be fair—if you’re a corporate entity running mission-critical workloads and need someone to blame when things go south, then sure, pay up. The Enterprise License at 100€/year per CPU socket gets you:

• Access to the Enterprise Repo (which, again, is just a delayed Community Repo).
• Support tickets to cry about your broken VMs.
• Peace of mind, if you consider throwing money at a problem a valid troubleshooting method.

For everyone else? Just remove the enterprise repository from your sources list, enable the No-Sub repo, and keep rolling. Your wallet will thank you.