HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software vs LXD
HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software
hpe.com
LXD
canonical.comSide by side
| Figure | HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software | LXD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $50/mo | $2.08/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 4 |
| Spec score · Virtualization Management Software | 8.3 (#6) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Founded | 2020 | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Spring, Texas, United States | London, United Kingdom |
| Integrations | HPE says the product supports 90+ integrations; its VM Essentials ecosystem includes HVM and VMware vSphere, among other listed integrations. | LXD integrations are available for Juju, MAAS, Ansible, Terraform, Puppet Bolt, and Packer. |
| What it does | HPE Morpheus Software unifies provisioning and automation across VMs, containers, clouds, and AI-era infrastructure in one governed control plane. | LXD is an open source solution for managing virtual machines and system containers. |
Plans
HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software
- 1-year E-LTUPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 1-year New InstallPriced on request
- 3-year E-LTUPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 3-year New InstallPriced on request
- 5-year E-LTUPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 5-year New InstallPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 1-year RenewalPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 3-year RenewalPriced on request
- Enterprise Software per Socket — 5-year RenewalPriced on request
- VM Essentials$600 a year
LXD
- LXD open sourceFree
- Ubuntu Pro PersonalFree
- Ubuntu Pro Enterprise workstation$25 a year
- Ubuntu Pro Enterprise server$500 a year
In their own words
HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software
HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software manages virtual machines across HPE’s HVM hypervisor and VMware, with provisioning and automation in a governed control plane. It is aimed at lower-cost virtualization and VMware coexistence: guided workflows support moving VMs from VMware to HVM, and both environments can operate side by side during a phased transition. VM features include high availability, live migration within HVM clusters, workload placement, policy-driven provisioning, and external storage support for NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel. Basic scripting covers VM lifecycle tasks, while access controls include user access and VM-level permissions. An MCP server extends automation workflows with AI integration. HPE lists more than 90 integrations, including HVM and VMware vSphere, and describes role-based access policies and governance controls. VM Essentials runs on Linux, web, and self-hosted deployments. The listed VM Essentials plan is $600 a year per CPU socket, including support, with 1-, 3-, or 5-year licensing options; actual end-user price may vary.
LXD
LXD is an open-source platform for managing system containers and virtual machines on Linux. It brings LXC-based containers and KVM-based virtual machines together, with images for many Linux distributions and Windows virtual machines. Management options include a command line, REST API, web UI and third-party tools; the same HTTP API supports local and remote access. An official web UI is available by default starting with LXD 5.21.0 LTS. Features include resource limits, scheduled and expiring snapshots, projects, hardware passthrough, live migration and advanced networking. Containers run unprivileged by default, and virtual machines support UEFI Secure Boot and vTPM. LXD can run from a laptop to a data-center deployment; documentation describes clusters of up to 50 servers with thousands of instances. LXD is free, with the open-source plan listed at free. Ubuntu Pro Personal is also free for up to five physical Ubuntu systems. Enterprise workstation and server subscriptions are $25 a year and $500 a year, respectively.