VMWare Player vs Workstation

Question

What's the difference between VMWare Player vs Workstation? Is it that Player is for non-commercial use and workstation isn't?

For someone who builds and tests applications at home for non-commercial use, is it worth paying for a Workstation license? Do I get any benefits over Player?

(Note: I realize there's open source solutions like VirtualBox, but am more interested in the differences between Player and Workstation.)

Thanks!

Solution

The main difference is that VMWare Player can run, but not create virtual Machines. Workstation can do both.

Update: It appears versions > 3.0 now include the capability to create Virtual Machines, but as stated by hawkdsh, it still lacks some of the advanced features such as snapshots.

You may also want to check out VMWare Server which is also free.

More information on all of them here.

Comments

[Anjisan]

Installed VMWare Server this weekend and it works great. Thanks for the tip!

[John T]

You're most welcome!

[John T]

Really? VMware came to my school last week and I talked with one of the devs, he said VMware player couldn't make VMs still so maybe he's unaware of his own product :)

[Avi]

VMWare server has reached its end of life