This virtualization platform is the closest thing to a Proxmox rival for me

Ages ago, ESXi ruled over the home lab throne with an iron fist, but that time has long since passed. Following Broadcom’s takeover and subsequent removal of the virtualization platform’s free license, Proxmox has taken its place for many folks (including yours truly) – and even the reinstatement of the free tier has done little good for ESXi’s shattered reputation. As someone who has centered his entire home lab around Proxmox, I can confirm that the platform is every bit as impressive as you’ve heard.

That said, it’s far from the only option for tinkerers. Similar to the general-purpose PC and NAS ecosystems, you’ll find a ton of distributions that can handily power your home server. While I wouldn’t necessarily call it a Proxmox killer, Harvester is the closest I’ve come to a virtualization platform that can replace my PVE server should the company follow the same trajectory as VMware.