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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs Proxmox VE

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Proxmox VE logo

Proxmox VE

Cloud

Open-source hypervisor combining KVM and LXC virtualisation

From
€120/year
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Earthly has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Earthly pricing model not published; requires sales contact; Proxmox VE per-socket licensing model: cost scales with CPU socket count, not vCore count, resulting in high costs for multi-socket servers
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and Proxmox VE actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and Proxmox VE differ
AttributeEarthlyProxmox VE
Starting priceFree€120/year
Pricing modelNo pricing published on websitesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, CLILinux, Web, API, Self-hosted
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCloud
Founded2020Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in Proxmox VE

Nothing recorded that Earthly does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot Proxmox VE
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot Proxmox VE
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot Proxmox VE
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot Proxmox VE

Proxmox VE

  • Open-source datacenter virtualisation for hosting providers and cloud platformsnot Earthly
  • Cost-sensitive enterprise virtualisation replacing commercial hypervisorsnot Earthly
  • High-availability clustering for disaster recovery and business continuitynot Earthly
  • Container deployments using LXC as lighter-weight alternative to Dockernot Earthly
  • Hybrid VM and container workloads in a single management interfacenot Earthly
  • Backup and archival infrastructure alongside primary virtualisationnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

Proxmox VE

  • Per-socket licensing model: cost scales with CPU socket count, not vCore count, resulting in high costs for multi-socket servers
  • Linux-based host only; Windows hypervisors not supported, limiting adoption in Windows-focused organisations
  • Clustering and high-availability setup requires operational expertise and careful network configuration
  • Commercial support tiers limit advanced features (just-in-time access, network flow logs) to paid subscriptions
  • Smaller ecosystem of third-party plugins and integrations compared to VMware vSphere

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

Proxmox VE

€120/year
  • Community$120/year
    • Enterprise Repository access
    • Community forum support only
    • Per-socket subscription model
  • Basic$370/year
    • 3 support tickets per year
    • 1 business day response time
    • Stable updates and Enterprise Repository
  • Standard$550/year
    • 10 support tickets per year
    • 4-hour response time for critical issues
    • Remote SSH support and offline updates
  • Premium$1100/year
    • Unlimited support tickets
    • 2-hour response time for critical issues
    • Remote SSH support and offline updates

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, CLI.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.
Earthly review

Choose Proxmox VE if

  • You work on Linux, Web, API, Self-hosted.
Proxmox VE review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or Proxmox VE better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and Proxmox VE at €120/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or Proxmox VE?
Earthly has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Earthly and €120/year for Proxmox VE.
Does Earthly or Proxmox VE run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, CLI. Proxmox VE runs on Linux, Web, API, Self-hosted.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Yes. Earthly has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Proxmox VE starts at €120/year.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what Proxmox VE is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that Proxmox VE cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
Proxmox VE: What is the licensing model for Proxmox VE?

Proxmox VE is open-source and free to deploy. Optional subscription tiers provide technical support, priority response times, and access to the Enterprise Repository for stable update channels. All tiers include identical virtualisation features.

Source
Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
Proxmox VE: Can I run Proxmox VE without a support subscription?

Yes. Community Edition (€120/year per socket) provides Enterprise Repository access with community-based support through forums. The core Proxmox VE platform is fully functional without any subscription.

Source
Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
Proxmox VE: What hypervisors does Proxmox VE support?

Proxmox VE includes both KVM for full virtualisation and LXC for Linux containers. It does not support Xen or Hyper-V. Workloads on those platforms must be migrated or reimplemented.

Source
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