VMware Workstation 10 can connect to ESXi 5.5 free and manage Virtual Machines of greater virtual hardware versions than vSphere Client.

vSphere Client can manage up to VHV8 officially (VHV9 unoffically, but a considerable number of options are missing or don’t work), Workstation can manage up to VHV10 (the latest), including enabling nested hardware virtualisation on VHV9 and VHV10, providing the ESXi server has AMD-V/VT-x and SLAT/EPT/RVI.

No vCenter. I thought it did until I installed it. So it’s a free standalone copy of ESXi. Which is better than nothing.

Oh the web UI is slow, klunky requires you to install FLASH.. which is just horrible in a fully locked down environment, and hinges on being able to load various pluggins on the browser. And it’s SLOW, painfully slow.

The FAT client may be a massive download, but it’s insanely fast by comparison.

this is all very much confus. i was planning on using ESXi for my VM server

I kind of gathered from the versions available for download. Although I have to say I really like this one with the fat client, as the web client in 5.5 leaves a lot to be desired….