Broadcom launched vSphere Express on 4 November 2026. It's a fixed 128-core, 12-month subscription on vSphere 9 that gives you vMotion, HA, the Distributed Switch, vCenter Quick Patch and TPM support. It doesn't include DRS, vSAN or GPU support, so it sits somewhere close to the old Essentials Plus kit, but on the current release.
In my view this is welcome news for small and medium-sized businesses that want the best hypervisor on the market without signing up to VCF and the pricing that comes with it. This post covers what's in vSphere Express, what it costs, who's allowed to buy it, how it compares to Standard, Enterprise Plus, VVF and VCF, and how you upgrade a vSphere 8 environment to it.
What is vSphere Express?
Broadcom's announcement describes it as core compute virtualisation for customers with 128 cores across all environments, built on vSphere 9 and available immediately in all regions.
The main points:
- Size: a fixed 128-core package. You can't buy fewer cores or add more.
- Version: vSphere 9 or later only. The TechDocs page says there are no version 8 keys for Express.
- Term: 12 months, sold under the SKU
VCF-VSP-EXP. - Limit: one package per customer. The licensing console blocks any allocation above 128 cores per customer or site ID.
- Licence: you get the default licence only. It can't be split into smaller licences or shared across sites, and no add-ons are available.
This isn't a complete surprise. At VMware Explore in September, Broadcom told The Register that an updated low-end vSphere was coming, aimed at customers running around 128 cores. Express looks like the result.
What's included
- ESX and vCenter
- vMotion, with the vSphere 9 performance improvements
- vSphere HA
- vSphere Distributed Switch
- vCenter Quick Patch
- TPM 2.0 and vTPM 2.0
What's not included
Broadcom's TechDocs page doesn't list the feature entitlements and refers you to sales instead. Partner listings, including Software Express, list these as excluded:
- DRS and Proactive HA
- vSAN
- Memory Tiering
- SR-IOV
- GPU and vGPU
- ESX Live Patching
- VCF Automation and Private AI
You still deploy VCF Operations, but only to license the environment. None of its monitoring features are included.
The missing DRS is the one most people will notice. You can still vMotion VMs by hand, and HA still restarts them after a host failure, but nothing balances the cluster for you. On four hosts that's manageable. It just means you're the load balancer.
vSphere Express pricing
Broadcom hasn't published a price. Distributor listings give you a good idea:
- US: TD SYNNEX lists it at $9,600 a year, as reported by Techzine.
- Germany: Software Express lists it at €9,631.77 a year, excluding VAT, and subject to Broadcom approving the order.
I haven't found a UK price yet, so ask your partner.
You pay for all 128 cores whether you use them or not. At full use that's $75 per core. If you only run 64 cores it's effectively $150 per core, and at 96 cores it's $100. The smaller your estate, the worse the per-core maths gets.
For comparison, the old vSphere Essentials Plus kit covered up to three hosts with vMotion, HA and vSphere Replication, and Broadcom had discontinued it by late 2024. Express has no host limit, adds the Distributed Switch, and runs vSphere 9, but it's priced by the core pack rather than as a cheap three-host kit.
Who can buy vSphere Express
This is the part to check before you get excited. Broadcom hasn't published eligibility rules, and partners are reporting the following:
- New customers: organisations that have never bought VMware, or haven't bought it in at least three years.
- Existing customers: only those Broadcom has already pre-approved. Software Express says you can't apply, and expects more detail from mid-November at the earliest.
- Approval: Broadcom has to approve every order, and can still reject one later if the customer turns out not to be eligible.
If you're an existing vSphere Standard customer hoping to move across at renewal, don't assume you can. Get your partner to confirm eligibility in writing before you plan around it.
How far 128 cores goes
Broadcom licenses a minimum of 16 cores per CPU, so a CPU with fewer cores still counts as 16. Some examples:
| Hosts | CPUs per host | Cores per CPU | Licensed cores | Fits in Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 1 | 16 | 128 | Yes |
| 4 | 2 | 16 | 128 | Yes |
| 3 | 2 | 12 (counted as 16) | 96 | Yes |
| 2 | 2 | 32 | 128 | Yes |
| 2 | 1 | 64 | 128 | Yes |
| 3 | 2 | 24 | 144 | No |
Watch the last row. Three dual-socket hosts with 24-core CPUs is a very ordinary small cluster, and it's already over the limit. Count your cores, including any spare or DR hosts, before you buy.
vSphere Express vs Standard, Enterprise Plus, VVF and VCF
| Feature | Standard 8 | Express | Enterprise Plus 8 | VVF | VCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version | Up to 8.0 U3 | 9 or later | Up to 8.0 U3 | 9.x | 9.x |
| Licensing | Per core | Fixed 128 cores | Per core | Per core | Per core |
| vMotion, HA, vTPM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Distributed Switch | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| vCenter Quick Patch | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| DRS | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GPU / vGPU | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| vSAN | No | No | No | 0.25 TiB per core | 1 TiB per core |
| VCF Operations | No | Licensing only | No | Yes | Yes |
| VCF Automation | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| NSX | No | No | No | No | Yes |
A few notes on the table:
- Standard and Enterprise Plus are limited to 8.0 Update 3 and earlier, according to the vSphere 9.1 FAQ. vSphere 9 features are only in VVF, VCF and now Express.
- vCenter Quick Patch arrived with vCenter 9.1. It patches only the vCenter services that changed, so some patches apply with no downtime. That's why Standard and Enterprise Plus don't have it.
- vSAN capacity comes from the product terms. The VVF terms include 0.25 TiB per licensed core and the VCF terms include 1 TiB per core. Both have a 16-core minimum per CPU.
- VVF availability isn't the same everywhere. In December 2025 Broadcom told The Register that VVF was no longer available in some EMEA countries, so check it's still sold where you are.
If you need DRS, vGPU, vSAN or more than 128 cores, Express isn't the product for you, and VVF or VCF are the routes on vSphere 9.
The EEA exception for Standard and Enterprise Plus 8
Broadcom added one line to its announcement for customers in the European Economic Area. vSphere Standard 8 and Enterprise Plus 8 stay on sale there until 31 October 2027. Active subscriptions include Extended Support until the earlier of the subscription end date or 31 October 2028.
There are a few things to be aware of:
- The EEA isn't Europe. It's the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The UK and Switzerland aren't included, as Network World points out.
- It's still vSphere 8. General support for vSphere 8 ends on 11 October 2027, which I covered in the 2027 EOL rundown. Broadcom hasn't said what Extended Support covers, so ask before you rely on it for patches.
- Eligibility isn't spelt out. Analysts quoted by Network World suggest it may depend on your contracting entity, billing address or where the software runs. Get Broadcom's view in writing.
For EEA customers, Standard 8 buys you time to plan. Who qualifies is in vSphere 8 extended support in Europe. Express is the way to get basic virtualisation on the current release.
Upgrading from vSphere 8 to vSphere Express
The TechDocs page has an upgrade path from vSphere 8 to vSphere Express 9.1.1 or later. Your starting point needs to be at least:
- vCenter Server 8.0
- ESXi 8.0
- Aria Operations 8.18.6, if you use it
- vSphere Replication 9.0.2.2, if you use it
Upgrade the components in this order:
- vSphere Replication. Converge or upgrade it to Protection and Recovery 9.1.
- Aria Operations. Upgrade it, or deploy VCF Operations 9.1 if you don't have it. You need VCF Operations for licensing either way.
- The licence server.
- vCenter.
- ESX hosts.
- vSphere Distributed Switch.
- VMware Tools, to 13.1.
- Virtual machine compatibility.
There's no one-click installer for Express. For a new build, you deploy ESX, vCenter, VCF Operations and the licence server by hand, in that order.
Note: Take a backup of vCenter before you start, and check the Broadcom Compatibility Guide for your hosts against ESX 9 first. Some older CPUs aren't supported on vSphere 9.
Licensing vSphere Express
Express uses the same licensing setup as VCF and VVF, with the limits described earlier:
- Buy the subscription through your partner.
- Find the default primary licence in the VCF Business Services console.
- Add the licence to VCF Operations and to the licence server.
- Assign it to your hosts in VCF Operations.
When vSphere Express makes sense
It's a good fit if:
- you're a new VMware customer, or Broadcom has pre-approved you
- your whole estate fits in 128 cores, now and for the next year
- you use external storage (SAN or NFS) rather than vSAN
- you need vMotion and HA but can live without DRS
Look elsewhere if:
- you're close to 128 cores or expect to grow past it
- you rely on DRS, vSAN, vGPU or SR-IOV
- you need separately licensed sites
- your estate is well under 128 cores and the per-core cost doesn't stack up against the alternatives
If you're weighing up other platforms anyway, my posts on alternatives to VMware vSphere and Broadcom's 72-core licensing shift are worth a read alongside this one.
Prices here are list and distributor prices, and quotes will vary. As always, check eligibility with your partner, especially if you're an existing customer looking at Express.
Resources
- Broadcom Updates VMware Portfolio (VMware Cloud Foundation blog, 4 November 2026)
- vSphere Express (Broadcom TechDocs)
- vSphere 9.1 FAQ
- vCenter Quick Patch (VMware Cloud Foundation blog)
- VMware vSphere Foundation Specific Program Documentation, May 2026
- VMware Cloud Foundation Specific Program Documentation, May 2026
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