Three of fourteen models named Proxmox VE first on the direct prompt; one named Nutanix AHV. Both were named by all fourteen models and Proxmox VE carries 70 labels and Nutanix AHV 48, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the server virtualization platforms page.
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Proxmox VE and Nutanix AHV were named in the same answer 120 times, of the 203 answers naming Proxmox VE and the 144 naming Nutanix AHV. In those answers Nutanix AHV took the first choice twenty-two times and Proxmox VE twenty-eight.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | ||||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | ||||||
| Perplexity Sonar | ||||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | ||||||
| Mistral Small | ||||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | ||||||
| Llama 4 Maverick | ||||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | ||||||
| Kimi K2 | ||||||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | ||||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | ||||||
| GPT-6 Luna | ||||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B |
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Proxmox offers paid support and a stable enterprise repository; make sure you’ve decided whether you need those before relying on it in production.” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“demands strong internal expertise for production environments. Its lack of enterprise-grade support can be a risk” Mistral Small · negative prompt · soft negative
“"Cautious if you need enterprise-grade polish"” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“It has emerged as the go-to alternative for SMBs and homelabs due to its lack of licensing fees, built-in backup solutions, and robust clustering capabilities.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“For most small to mid-sized businesses with limited budgets, Proxmox VE or Microsoft Hyper-V (if Windows-focused) are popular choices” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Best Overall for Tight Budgets ... It is the most popular, active, and cost-effective VMware alternative for general IT needs.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Per-node software licensing is expensive for small deployments.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · hard negative
“You generally cannot buy just the hypervisor license cheaply anymore.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Good for HCI, but cost + vendor lock-in needs evaluation.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“If you want the safest default recommendation for a mid-sized B2B company replacing VMware, I'd usually pick Nutanix Cloud Platform with AHV.” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“my default recommendation would be Nutanix AHV if you want the closest commercial replacement to VMware” Perplexity Sonar · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“If you want the closest "VMware-like" experience with enterprise support: Go with Nutanix AHV” MiniMax M2.5 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.