For a while now, the VMware Workstation (and Fusion for MacOS) can be used without any additional fee for Personal use. That was a great Broadcom news and nice gesture from that software vendor. Recently Broadcom announced that the software will be available for all, even the commercial sector. This news I have confirmed recently with Broadcom and it has been also described with post: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2024/11/11/vmware-fusion-and-workstation-are-now-free-for-all-users/. The caveats is that the support model now is based on community, when current commercial support is expired, no new support ticket would be allowed to be opened.

There are many competitive solutions on the market, however Workstation/Fusion has always been a rock solid solution with many features (like open vmdk files). I am pretty sure it will be now even more popular.

It is worth to mention, that Workstation version is available for both windows and linux. If wont replace ESXi of course, but with Linux that solution can run many labs just with the hardware cost. Please check out the compatibility with your current distribution: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?legacyId=80807

Interesting links:

[1] download and troubleshooting: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/344595/downloading-and-installing-vmware-workst.html
[2] announcement: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2024/11/11/vmware-fusion-and-workstation-are-now-free-for-all-users/
[3] workstation community: https://community.broadcom.com/communities/communityhomeblogs?CommunityKey=fb707ac3-9412-4fad-b7af-018f5da56d9f
[4] Fusion community: https://community.broadcom.com/communities/communityhomeblogs?CommunityKey=0c3a2021-5113-4ad1-af9e-018f5da40bc0
[5] documentation: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/index.html