If you previously registered a 5.5 license, it should still be available in your Broadcom/VMware Customer Connect portal history. Security Warning
Select "Assign a new license key to this host" and enter your key.
Do you need like clustering, high availability, or container support? Share public link
However, searching for "ESXi 5.5 license key GitHub exclusive" introduces major security risks. GitHub repositories that claim to have "exclusive" keys often serve as traps for malware.
VMware has removed many older trial download pages.
Finding legitimate VMware ESXi 5.5 license keys on GitHub has become more difficult as many repositories have been removed for violating terms of service. However, some community-maintained collections and Gists still host these keys for legacy use-cases. GitHub Repositories and Gists
Instead of searching for illegal keys, consider these official and safe options:
For a yearly fee, the VMware User Group (VMUG) provides legal, 365-day evaluation keys for almost all VMware products. This is the "gold standard" for home labs.
Using counterfeit license keys constitutes copyright infringement. While individual homelab users are rarely targeted for legal action, the risk is not zero. Organizations that use unauthorized keys expose themselves to significant legal liability, including:
If you need a reliable environment for testing, virtualization, or self-hosting, modern platforms offer significantly better performance and security than an unpatched copy of ESXi 5.5. VMware ESXi 5.5 (Legacy) Proxmox VE (Modern) XCP-ng / Xen (Modern) Proprietary / Serial Key Required Open-Source / Free AGPL v3 Open-Source / Free GPLv2 Management Interface Windows Desktop Client Native Web Browser (HTML5) Xen Orchestra (Web Interface) Hardware Support Limited to legacy server hardware Broad modern consumer & enterprise support Comprehensive server support Security Updates None (Ended 2018) Regular and ongoing Regular and ongoing Container Support Built-in LXC Containers External plugin support How to Properly Pivot to Modern Open Virtualization
These repositories typically come in a few different forms: