VMware ESXi is a popular hypervisor developed by VMware that is used as a central component in an enterprise VMware vSphere infrastructure.
But VMware ESXi is also a professional hypervisor that was free for a long time (when it was developed by VMware) and still is today from Broadcom (although the free version was retired a few months ago).

Source : VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e now available as a Free Hypervisor - Broadcom.

Warning : to download the VMware ESXi ISO from Broadcom Support, you need to create a free account on this site.
To do this, refer to our tutorial: Register for free on the Broadcom support website.

1. Download VMware ESXi for free from the Broadcom support site
2. Install VMware ESXi 8 for free

1. Download VMware ESXi for free from the Broadcom support site

To get started, log in with your Broadcom account (a free account is sufficient) on the Broadcom support website.
Then, click the button in the top right corner and select "VMware Cloud Foundation."

You'll notice that the title of your dashboard has changed to "My Dashboard - VMware Cloud Foundation."
Go to the "My Downloads" section.

In this "My Downloads" section, click on the "HERE" link (at the end of the "Free Software Downloads available HERE" message).

The "Free Downloads" page appears.

At the end of the list, click on the "VMware vSphere Hypervisor" product.

Then, click on the "VMware vSphere Hypervisor" product again.

Click on the version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor to download.
Currently, the only free version available is "8.0U3e".

Before downloading the VMware vSphere Hypervisor (VMware ESXi) ISO file, you will need to accept Broadcom's support terms and conditions.
To do this, first click on the "Terms and Conditions" link.

This will open the "License and Service Terms..." page in a separate tab.

Return to this download page and check the box "I agree to the Terms and Conditions."
Then, click the download icon on the right.

The file "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3e-241677879.86_x64.iso" will start downloading and the message "Your download has started. Please wait a few moments" will appear.

The download of the file "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3e-241677879.86_x64.iso" is complete.

If you click on the file icon (located to the right of the download icon), Broadcom will simply tell you that you need to boot your server to this image (ISO) to install VMware ESXi and that VMware ESXi requires a 64-bit processor.

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Boot your server with this image in order to install ESXi (ESXi requires 64-bit capable servers). This ESXi image includes VMware Tools.

As expected, we have the file "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3e-241677879.86_x64.iso" on our hard drive.

2. Install VMware ESXi 8 for free

Burn the downloaded "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3e-241677879.86_x64.iso" ISO file to a CD or DVD, then boot your computer or server from it.
To install VMware ESXi 8 from a bootable USB drive, refer to our tutorial: Create a bootable USB key to install VMware ESXi 7.0 and 6.7.

Your computer or server boots into the VMware ESXi 8.0.3 installer.

As expected, we were able to install VMware ESXi 8.0.3 using this free downloaded ISO file.

If we access the IP address of our "VMware ESXi 8.0.3" server seen above, we can see below that it is indeed version "8.0 Update 3".

If you go to the "Host -> Manage -> Licensing" menu, you'll see that a license with no expiration date is already encrypted on your VMware ESXi 8 server.
This wasn't the case before, as you had to manually enter your free serial number (visible on the VMware website after requesting a VMware ESXi trial) to use the free version (which had limited features at the time).

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