Thanks to its metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) temperature not so far from the ambient one, thermochromic VO2 exhibits great potentiality in smart coatings devoted to energy purposes. Among the different methods to synthesize thermochromic VO2 films, reactive sputter deposition remains one of the most suitable for cost-effective industrial-scale production. For a few decades, increasing attention has been paid to a fast and relatively simple approach based on two steps to produce thermochromic VO2 thin films: synthesis of a vanadium thin film followed by its oxidation at moderate temperatures (often less than 500 °C). Recently, we have revealed that the oxidation of vanadium nitride (VN) thin films also give rise to the formation of thermochromic VO2. This work aims to compare the thermochromic properties of VO2 films achieved after thermal air oxidation of V and VN thin films prepared by sputtering deposition from an elemental vanadium target. For both precursors, short-time air annealing (from 60 to 300 seconds) was performed at 550 °C. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy depicted that the thermal oxidation domain allowing the formation of the thermochromic VO2 phase was enlarged for VN compared to V precursor films. These results were confirmed by electrical measurements of the resulting oxides in the temperature region that encompass the MIT of