So I'm in the market for VMware ESX. Which product is right for me, VMware ESX 3.5 or VMware ESXi 3.5? And what's the difference? When VMware announced the release of a free embedded version of its popular ESX platform, ESXi 3.5, organizations began looking at the embedded technology as another platform of choice to add into their virtualization arsenal. But the nagging question remains for many people: What exactly is the difference between VMware ESX 3.5 and VMware ESXi 3.5, other than the obvious price difference and the fact that one can be embedded on certain server hardware.There have been various things said and written about VMware’s free platform — some of which is the fact that it has certain limitations where the full ESX 3.5 product does not. To help answer that question, VMware has published a knowledgebase article that provides a detailed comparison of VMware ESX and VMware ESXi. The article is separated into capabilities or features and compared at that level.The KB article shows comparisons with the service console, remote CLI, boot from SAN, Active Directory integration, HW instrumentation, software patches and updates, and licensing, to name a few.You can find the VMware ESX and ESXi Comparison matrix here. Additionally, there are some networking features that aren’t fully available in ESXi, primarily those requiring configuration through the service console. According to VMware, the following networking features that are available to ESX Server 3.5 have limited availability in ESXi.And if you have some spare time on your hands, you could always check out VMware’s release notes for ESX and ESXi.VMware ESX 3.5 Release Notes VMware ESXi 3.5 Release Notes Software Development