Proxmox Pricing — Subscriptions, Managed Plans, and What You Actually Get
Per socket. Per year. No per-VM. No surprises.
Proxmox VE is free, open-source software — the Community edition is the full platform. Subscriptions are priced per CPU socket, per year, with no per-VM charges and no core multipliers: three vendor tiers — Basic, Standard and Premium — plus PIP’s two managed service plans. Every price below is in AUD, ex GST, with the exchange rate disclosed.
How Proxmox Pricing Works
Before any numbers, understand what you are actually paying for. Proxmox VE is 100% free — every feature ships in the open-source release. Subscriptions buy stability and support, not features: you pay for tested updates and a vendor support pathway, and the cost is identical whether a host runs one VM or fifty. Across a cluster, subscriptions are bought per socket on every node.
Enterprise Repository vs Community Repository
The community version draws updates from the no subscription repository — packages are published, but without the enterprise testing cycle. A valid subscription unlocks the enterprise repository: stable, tested packages. The complete feature set is identical on both; only the update stream differs.
Per-Socket Licensing
Pricing is per CPU socket. A 2-socket server needs two subscriptions; a single-socket server needs one. Across a cluster you add up the sockets on every host: three single-socket nodes need three subscriptions, four dual-socket nodes need eight. There is no per-VM charge and no core multiplier — a busy 2-socket host with fifty VMs costs the same as an idle one. Count your sockets and your hosts, not your guests.
What Subscriptions Do Not Do
A subscription does not unlock features, lift limits, or change what the software can do. There are no free repositories that are crippled and paid ones that are complete. You can run production on Community — but you would be choosing the untested update stream and giving up enterprise support.
Proxmox VE Subscription Plans
Four tiers from the vendor: Community is free; Basic, Standard and Premium add the enterprise repository and increasing levels of Proxmox support. Standard is the right fit for most production clusters.
| Tier | Annual (AUD) | Monthly equiv | Repository | Support tickets | Response | SSH support | Offline key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community | Free | — | Community | Forum only | Forum | — | — |
| Basic | $624 | $52 | Enterprise | 3 / year | 1 business day | — | — |
| StandardRecommended | $924 | $77 | Enterprise | 10 / year | 4 hr (business day) | Yes | Yes |
| Premium | $1,860 | $155 | Enterprise | Unlimited | 2 hr (critical) | Yes | Yes |
All prices ex GST. Per socket, per year. Calculated at $1.67 AUD per euro. Subject to exchange rate movement.
Community
Free, with the complete feature set and community support via the forum. The community repository delivers updates without the enterprise testing cycle. Suited to labs, evaluation and non-production clusters where a vendor support pathway is not required.
Basic — $624
The entry subscription: enterprise repository access plus three support tickets a year with next-business-day response. Good for small businesses running a single host or two who want stable updates and a basic enterprise support safety net.
Standard — $924
The production default: enterprise repository, ten support tickets a year, four-hour business-day response, SSH remote support and offline key activation. Standard also includes Proxmox Datacenter Manager support — the tier most businesses should buy for production servers.
Premium — $1,860
Enterprise-grade support with unlimited support tickets and two-hour response on critical issues, any time. For customers whose clusters are business-critical and who want the fastest pathway to the Proxmox team. The complete enterprise support experience.
PIP Managed Proxmox Plans
Above the vendor tiers sit PIP’s two managed plans. Each bundles the Proxmox vendor subscriptions with PIP’s own engineering, monitoring and support — so the cluster is run by people, not just licensed. Same unit as the vendor: per socket, per year.
| Feature | Standard Managed — $3,480/yr | Premium Managed — $4,200/yr |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor subscription included | Standard | Premium |
| Server management | Business hours | 24×7 |
| Support tickets | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Critical response | 4 hr (business hours) | 2 hr (any time) |
| Monitoring | Business hours | 24×7 proactive |
| Architecture design | Yes | Yes |
| Installation & configuration | Yes | Yes |
| Cluster / storage / networking | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic patching | Yes | Yes |
| Performance tuning | — | Yes |
| Senior engineer access | — | Yes |
All prices ex GST. Per socket, per year. Vendor subscription included in the plan.
PIP Standard Managed — $3,480
Includes the Standard vendor subscription plus business-hours management: unlimited tickets, monitoring, automatic patching, architecture design, installation, and cluster, storage and networking setup. For businesses that want their Proxmox VE environment run properly without an after-hours SLA.
PIP Premium Managed — $4,200
Includes the Premium vendor subscription plus 24×7 management and proactive monitoring, advanced HA and cluster configuration, performance tuning, capacity planning, and direct senior engineer access. For customers whose servers cannot wait until morning.
Real-World Pricing Examples
Per-socket pricing is simple once you see it applied. Here are three common deployments — counting the sockets on each host across the cluster, then multiplying by the per-socket subscriptions — costed end to end across the whole cluster.
3 nodes, 1 socket each
= $924 × 3
Three single-socket hosts on the Standard tier — enterprise repository and support across the whole cluster.
4 nodes, 2 sockets each
= $1,860 × 8
Eight sockets on Premium — unlimited tickets and two-hour critical response for a business-critical cluster.
4 nodes, 1 socket each — PIP Managed
= $3,480 × 4
Four hosts fully managed by PIP — includes the vendor subscription plus management, monitoring, patching and support.
These examples cover Proxmox VE only. PBS, PMG and PDM have separate subscription pricing — contact PIP for a tailored quote.
Proxmox Backup Server, Mail Gateway, and Datacenter Manager Pricing
Proxmox Backup Server, Proxmox Mail Gateway and Proxmox Datacenter Manager each have their own subscription tiers, separate from Proxmox VE. The structure mirrors VE — Community, Basic, Standard and Premium — at different price points, each adding the enterprise repository and vendor support for that product.
Because AUD pricing for these three moves with the AUD/EUR exchange rate and is quoted per deployment, we keep current figures off the page rather than publish numbers that drift. For businesses costing a full backup, mail security or multi-cluster management rollout, PIP will quote all of it together.
Most PIP customers who buy VE subscriptions add at least one of these — a Proxmox Backup Server protecting the same hosts the VE subscriptions already cover, or a Mail Gateway in front of their email. Because PIP quotes the whole estate together, the backup, mail-security and management figures sit in one proposal rather than three. If you are budgeting a complete Proxmox build rather than a single component, ask PIP to price all of it at once — it is usually cheaper to plan one rollout than to bolt products on later, and a single quote keeps the total clear.
Contact PIP for current pricing on PBS, PMG, and PDM →How Proxmox Pricing Compares to VMware
The reason Proxmox pricing looks unfamiliar is that it is the opposite of the VMware model most teams know. VMware moved to per-core subscription licensing with minimum core counts, so the bill scales with how big your CPUs are and how many cores they carry. Proxmox is per socket — two subscriptions for a 2-socket box, regardless of core count or how many VMs run on it.
PIP supports both Proxmox and VMware, and the right answer depends on the workload — this is not a case for switching everyone off VMware. But for organisations re-costing virtualisation after VMware’s pricing changes, Proxmox often lands dramatically lower, with no per-core multiplier and no per-VM fee. The per-socket subscriptions also make budgeting simple — you know what you pay the moment you count sockets, with no surprise core-count true-up of the kind VMware buyers now plan around. If you want a like-for-like comparison against your current VMware renewal, PIP can model it against your actual socket and core counts.
Which Tier Should You Pay For?
The choice is rarely about features — every tier ships the complete feature set — so it comes down to how much support and update assurance you want to pay for. For a lab or a couple of non-production hosts, Community costs nothing and is the right call. For production clusters, the real question is which subscription tier to pay for, not whether to pay for one at all.
Most businesses land on Standard subscriptions: enterprise repository access, enough support tickets for a normal year, and Datacenter Manager support, at a predictable per-socket cost. Premium subscriptions earn their cost when a cluster is genuinely business-critical and you cannot wait in a support queue. If you would rather not run the platform in-house at all, PIP’s managed plans roll the vendor subscriptions, monitoring, patching and engineering support into one cost per socket — you pay for an outcome across every node and host, not just a licence sitting on each server.
Whichever tier you pay for, the cost scales with sockets, never with workload — a busy cluster full of VMs and an idle host cost exactly the same to subscribe. Count your hosts, total their sockets, pick the support level your nodes actually need, and the price is fixed. That predictability is the quiet advantage of per-socket subscriptions: the bill does not move when the VMs get busy.
Proxmox Pricing — Common Questions
Is Proxmox VE really free?
Yes — Proxmox VE is 100% free, open-source software (GNU AGPLv3). The Community edition includes every enterprise feature. Subscriptions provide enterprise repository access and Proxmox vendor support — they do not unlock additional functionality.
What happens if I run without a subscription?
Your Proxmox VE installation works normally and has access to all features. The community (no-subscription) repository receives packages, but without the stability testing the enterprise repository applies — and you have no direct vendor support pathway. For lab or non-production use, Community is fine. For production, the subscription is strongly recommended.
Do I need a subscription for every node?
Yes — Proxmox VE subscriptions are per CPU socket, and each physical host needs its own subscription. A 3-node cluster where each node has one CPU socket requires three subscriptions. A 2-socket node requires two subscriptions.
Does PIP’s managed plan replace the Proxmox vendor subscription?
No — PIP’s Standard Managed and Premium Managed plans include the Proxmox vendor subscription as part of the plan. You do not pay for the subscription separately when you buy a PIP managed plan; it is bundled in.
What currency are prices in, and how does the exchange rate work?
All prices on this page are in Australian dollars, ex GST. Proxmox vendor pricing is set in euros; PIP calculates AUD pricing at the current AUD/EUR exchange rate — currently $1.67 AUD per euro. Prices are subject to change if the exchange rate moves significantly.
“The question we get most is some version of ‘if it’s free, what am I paying for?’ The honest answer is: stable updates and a support pathway. For a lab, Community is genuinely fine. For production, paying per socket for the enterprise repository is cheap insurance against an untested package update taking a cluster down at the worst possible time. The per-socket model also means the cost is predictable — you are not penalised for running more VMs or buying CPUs with more cores.”— Brad Dixon, PIP
Get Proxmox subscriptions through PIP.
PIP is an Australian Authorised Proxmox Reseller. Buying through PIP gives you Australian-timezone support as your first contact, direct subscription management through the Proxmox Customer Portal, and the option to add PIP’s managed service plans.