In May 2024, VMware made Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro for Mac available for free for personal users, leaving the requirement to purchase dedicated licenses only for commercial customers. Now, a few months later, VMware is making another announcement: It is making its hypervisor software available for free for all, including commercial, educational, and personal users.
With the announcement, effective immediately, VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro are no longer available for purchase. Fusion and Workstation can now be used without any cost. At the same time, existing customers with commercial licenses will remain with their agreements in full effect until the end of the term. Customers can continue using the products after that, albeit with no support ticketing for troubleshooting.
With VMware Workstation and Fusion moving to a completely free model, VMware is offering users the necessary documentation and support via Community Access, Product Documentation, and Knowledge Base articles. Going forward, VMware promises to continue investing in new features, deliver timely updates with reliable performance, and optimize products to "deliver even greater value."
This transition opens up exciting possibilities for collaboration, feedback, and growth within our user community. We’re eager to see how our products will empower both new and existing customers. Thank you for being part of our journey, and stay tuned for more updates as we continue to evolve to better meet your needs!
You can read more about the latest change in VMware's licensing for Workstation and Fusion in a blog post on the official VMware website.
In case you missed it, the latest update for VMware Workstation delivered important fixes for Windows 11 version 24H2, including the proper SKU detection (regular Windows 11 images are no longer flagged as Windows Server 2025) and 0xc0000005 error. Check out the full release notes in our dedicated article.
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