VMWare Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro are Now Free

Well, that was unexpected: VMWare announced today that its client virtualization products, Workstation Pro for Windows and Linux, and Fusion Pro for Mac, are now free.

“VMware Desktop Hypervisor products Fusion and Workstation are used by millions of people every day to run virtual machines on their Windows, Linux, and Mac computers,” VMWare’s Michael Roy writes in the announcement post. “They give users the ability to quickly and easily build ‘local virtual’ environments to install other operating systems, learn about technology, build and test software, complex systems, browsers, apps, games, and more.”

To date, VMWare Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro have been paid products. But with VMWare’s sale to Broadcom, these powerful solutions are now free for personal use, while still requiring a paid license for commercial use. Tied to this, VMWare is discontinuing its VMware Workstation Player and VMware Fusion Player products, which were free but much less full-featured than the Pro solutions. Those using the Player products can now upgrade to the Pro versions for free, though Workstation Pro requires a new download and installation.

For commercial customers, VMWare has simplified its paid offerings to a single SKU called Desktop Hypervisor, which costs $120 per year and can be used to activate VMWare Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro. This subscription provides customers with all major and minor software updates that VMWare releases while the subscription is active.

Incredible. You can download VMWare Workstation Pro and VMWare Fusion Pro from the Broadcom Support website.