VMWare player is for free, but i use VMware Workstation (v17), as it is a bit more flexible.
However, Workstation requires a license 
The Player requires some manual adjustments on the vmx config file (uefi=true and usb device auto mount), in the Workstation that can be done from the GUI.
Also there are some bash files required to auto-launch the VM (applies to both Player and Workstation)
Both run fine on both Windows as well as Linux, and the VM’s themselves are interchangeable between both OS’s 
I didn’t use it, but someone wrote a guide It’s for v16, but not much difference with v17 