Vmware Esxi 8 Free License |link| -

If you’ve been in the homelab or small business IT space for the last decade, you know the drill. Download VMware ESXi, get a free Hypervisor license key, and unlock 99% of the core virtualization features. It was the gold standard for "good enough" enterprise virtualization without the bill.

If you have an existing free license key from the vSphere 7 era, it might work on ESXi 8.0 Update 3. If you don't have one, you are currently out of luck for the official "Free Hypervisor" product. vmware esxi 8 free license

Then Broadcom acquired VMware.

Broadcom has signaled that the free hypervisor is a legacy headache they don't want to support. Their focus is on large subscription customers. If you’ve been in the homelab or small