Almost every computer user at one point or the other has faced the need (or just the curiosity; we’re not judging) to use a virtualization solution on their machine. Perhaps to try an alternate operating system without ditching the existing one, or to run a program that is available specifically on one OS. Either way, one of the most common tools that comes to mind for a virtualization solution is Oracle’s VirtualBox.
Platform virtualization software, specifically emulators and hypervisors, are software packages that emulate the whole physical computer machine, often providing multiple virtual machines on one physical platform. The table below compares basic information about platform virtualization hypervisors.
VB has many benefits over competing offerings, the biggest of them being the fact that VirtualBox is open source and free, and runs on a host of operating systems including Windows, Linux, OS X and several others. The one catch with VirtualBox, however, is what is generally the case with open source and free software: they’re not always the best solutions out there. In fact, they’re usually far from the best and that’s the case with VirtualBox.
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While VirtaulBox is a capable offering, it’s marred with poor performance and lacks new features that the competition has been quick to incorporate. If you’re one of those people who are looking for other virtualization options besides VirtualBox, read on to see our picks that best serve the purpose. Be advised, however, that some of them come with rather hefty price tags. VMware Workstation Pro When it comes to virtualization of operating systems, VMware is a name that needs no introduction. With over 15 years of industry experience in this area, VMware products come with the guarantee that they are going to work. Workstation Pro is the elite of the corps when it comes to VirtualBox alternatives, transforming your computer into a host, ready for a variety of operating systems for testing, deploying and even everyday use. The program can also replicate tablets, sync virtual machines from the cloud so that they’re accessible no matter where you are, has advanced hardware support, allows for sharing of virtual machines and a slew of other features that will satisfy even the most hardcore users. VMware Workstation Pro is primarily geared at developers and IT professionals, which is why it carries the most expensive price tag on this list, i.e., $249 per license.
VMware Workstation Player Think of Workstation Player as a tamer version of its elder sibling, Workstation Pro. It can be used to create and run virtual machines without switching operating systems, with the caveat that Workstation Player can run only three virtual machines at the same time. It is also available only for Windows and Linux, but fully supports Windows 10. Workstation Player is also capable of running restricted virtual machines, i.e., machines that are created using VMware Workstation Pro. This makes it the ideal solution for deploying in an educational environment without making exorbitant expenses in hardware and software. Workstation Player’s virtual machines are also portable, so you can transfer the whole VM file on a flash drive or other storage media and use it on a completely different machine as long as it can run the Player itself.
VMware Workstation Player costs $150 for a commercial license, but is free for personal, non-commercial use, making it an ideal solution for home users. VMware Fusion/Pro Yet another VMware product, you’d think, but they’re just that good, and Fusion Pro is the icing on the cake. This is the first entry on our list that is restricted to a particular OS and serves a particular purpose only, but does it do it well or what. Fusion Pro is OS X only, allowing you to run Windows and Linux on your Mac in a virtual machine. What truly makes it a great solution is the “fusion” (called Unity) that it creates between the host and the client, allowing you to run Windows apps in Mac that seem like you’re running them natively.
The qualities don’t stop at this either; Fusion Pro allows you to use advanced Windows 10 features like Cortana and universal search within your Mac. Virtual machines can be made restricted or self-expiring (think: temporary), and on the hardware front, can be assigned up to 64GB of RAM and 16 processor threads, should your Mac hardware support all of that. If you’re not a professional user and don’t need this much power, a slimmer version is available that goes just by VMware Fusion. Fusion is geared at home users whose ultimate goal is to get a seamless experience that delivers both Mac and Windows side-by-side. VMware Fusion Pro goes for $200 for a new license (discounted to $160 as of this writing), while Fusion sells for just $80.
QEMU Short for Quick Emulator, QEMU is yet another open source and free virtualization solution for a variety of operating systems. While being immensely powerful, it’s also one of the least user-friendly out there.
QEMU offers a number of possibilities and advanced features that others in the same genre fall short in, including a wide variety of architectures instead of just the traditional x86 used by traditional PCs. It can also be bundled with KVM to run virtual machines as fast as they would run in a native hardware environment. QEMU also doesn’t rely on host’s graphical output for virtual machine display, instead deploying an integrated VNC server to show the guest operating system’s screen. The list of features and unique traits for QEMU is pretty long, and it is one of the most powerful options on our list of VirtualBox alternatives.
The only reason it falls at number 4 is because of its complicated nature of use. Parallels Desktop No virtualization software discussion can be complete without the mention of Parallels Desktop. Parallels Desktop is a direct competitor for VMware Fusion and Fusion Pro, and even offers two versions: one for personal use and the other geared for businesses.
Parallels Desktop does everything that VMware Fusion does with some subtle differences. It also allows for simultaneous running of Mac and Windows and even comes with a “Coherence” mode that is the exact equivalent of Fusion’s Unity. Parallels, however, isn’t restricted to Windows, and can run Linux and Chrome OS on your Mac as well. It is also Windows 10 ready, supports Cortana integration and can even make a virtual machine out of your Boot Camp Windows installation for convenience. Parallels Desktop comes with different “modes” where you can specify what your use case for the virtual machine will be (gaming, productivity, development etc), and the software will adjust the virtual machine’s settings to suit that need. It costs $80 or can be bought on yearly plans.
They often keep giving sales and discounts, so keep an eye out for a bargain if Parallels tickles your fancy. Portable-VirtualBox I’m sure you can appreciate the irony in the name of this program, but this is also a very apt description of what Portable-VirtualBox is. In essence, this free and open source program is VirtualBox that you don’t need to essentially install, thereby making it useful even if it’s contained in a USB drive. Portable-VirtualBox works by downloading and virtually installing VirtualBox on the go, enabling you to run a virtual machine on a host that either didn’t have VB in the first place, or doesn’t allow installation of software. It also doesn’t matter where your virtual machines are stored, since Portable-VirtualBox is capable of running them no matter where you are. MobaLiveCD Our final entrant on this list is one freeware specific to running Linux virtual machine on a Windows environment without the shackles of installation. As the name suggests, MobaLiveCD allows running a Linux LiveCD for testing and emulation purposes on any Windows machine.
It utilizes QEMU as the engine for emulation of the virtual environment, and frees you up from having to burn a CD to run Linux on Windows. Since MobaLiveCD serves a very specific purpose, it doesn’t come with any bells and whistles, and does the job its meant to do well. SEE ALSO: Some really good VirtualBox alternatives you can use So, there you have it – seven good VirtualBox alternatives.
As you can see for yourself, in this instance, free isn’t really the best, and if you have serious hypervisor and virtualization needs, you’d be better off using a reputable commercial solution. All paid tools on this list offer a free trial, so you can check beforehand if any one of them suits your needs best. And if nothing else, take advantage of the fact that the very capable VMware Workstation Player is free for non-commercial use. Also, if you have any other recommendations that you think should have been included in our list, drop us a comment and let us know.
Advertisement If you’ve never used one before, virtual machines can be overwhelming. Not that they’re difficult to use, but they’re unlike any other kind of app and that unfamiliarity is what scares most off. In practice, Virtual machines allow you to run other operating systems on your current computer. Here's what you should know about them.
And extremely useful. The toughest hurdle to getting started is deciding which virtual machine software to use. Several options exist, but if you don’t want to pay a cent, then only two are worth discussing: VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Player. In this post, we’ll compare both of them and help you decide which one you should use. For this comparison, we’ll be looking at VirtualBox 5.1.26. Price While VirtualBox and VMware are both free, they aren’t equally free. The core engine that drives VirtualBox is licensed under GPLv2 and Many assume 'open source' and 'free software' mean the same thing but that's not true.
It's in your best interest to know what the differences are., but the “extension pack” is under Oracle’s proprietary license and is only free for personal use, educational use, or evaluation purposes. VMware Workstation Player is the free version of, meant strictly for students, non-profit organizations, and personal or home use. The catch is that you have to sign up for the occasional VMware promotional email.
Commercial use requires the Pro version. (VMWare also offers the VMWare Fusion version 11 is here. Here's why it's a great update for anyone who needs to run a virtual machine on their Mac.). For casual home users who just want to The term 'virtual' has been co-opted in so many ways.
Virtual reality. Virtual schools.
But Virtualization in the context of PCs can be confusing. We're here to clear it up. Or, they’re both free so you have nothing to worry about. Ease of Use To compare, I installed Elementary OS 0.4.1 in both virtual machines, then ran both of them (not at the same time) and used them as I would any normal machine. VirtualBox has a wizard that walks you through the creation of a new virtual machine.
It makes recommendations for how much RAM and hard drive space to set aside based on your system’s hardware. Launching a virtual machine is as easy as clicking Start, and again it walks you along every step of the way.
I was up and running within minutes. Learn more in. VMware Workstation Player’s setup wizard is even easier, allowing you to tweak aspects that can only be done in VirtualBox after the fact (e.g.
How many CPU cores to dedicate). Unlike VirtualBox, VMware doesn’t recommend values so first timers may feel unsure how to proceed. VMware’s interface is simpler and less intimidating. Learn more in We’ve lavished attention on VirtualBox here at MakeUseOf, and for good reason.
However, VirtualBox isn’t your only option for creating and using free virtual machines. VMware Player, VMware’s free product, is every bit as good. Performance VirtualBox is among the slowest virtual machine solutions currently available. It was never very fast to begin with, but ever since it was acquired by Oracle in 2010, performance has slowly but surely degraded. To be fair, if you’re going to run a virtual machine, you should be doing it on a powerful computer because You've probably heard of emulation before, but do you know what emulation actually means or how it works? And if your computer is powerful enough, you won’t notice the relative slowness of VirtualBox.
It’s not terrible — it just isn’t as fast as it could be., on the other hand, has excellent performance. When running the same guest operating system in both virtual machines with the same amount of resources allocated, I find that VMware is without question faster and more responsive. If you have to run virtualization on a mediocre system, or if you plan on spending a lot of time in a virtual machine every day, then VMware is clearly superior.
But if your system is top-of-the-line, you can go with either one. Compatibility and Reliability One of the more interesting uses for a virtual machine is the ability to Virtualization allows one operating system (OS) to run on another OS. We'll show you how to create a virtual machine clone of your system and how to use it. And virtualize it on another computer. Programmers, for example, can clone their Linux development environment, virtualize it on a Windows computer, and keep working. In order to do that, the virtual machines need to be compatible with both systems. This is one area where VirtualBox surpasses VMware.
You can set up a virtual machine, save a snapshot, move the virtual data as is, and immediately launch it on another computer as is. It will be exactly as you expect. Snapshots and clones aren’t available in VMware’s free version. However, when it comes to reliability, things flip around.
When using VirtualBox, you’re likely to run into bugs and glitches. I’ve used VirtualBox every so often throughout the years, on several different computers, and it has never been a 100 percent smooth ride. On the other hand, VMware’s stability and dependability are its main selling points. Other Points of Interest If you’ve gotten this far and still aren’t leaning in one way or the other, then the deciding factor comes down to which software’s features and quirks you prefer. Here are some notable points that may push you off the fence in either direction. VirtualBox.
Snapshots When you take a snapshot, you save the entire state of the virtual machine at that moment. Think of it like a save state in a video game: at any time later, you can “load” the snapshot and return to how it was when you took it.
Extension pack Incorporates even more features, like support for USB 2.0 and 3.0 devices, encryption of virtual disks, remote desktop protocol, and more. Encrypted virtual machines In other words, password-protected virtual machines that can’t be powered on unless you have the right credentials.
You can also enable restrictions that prevent users from editing a virtual machine’s configuration. Features in Both.
Shared folders Though it requires a bit of setup, this feature lets you mount a folder in the host as a network share in the guest, allowing the two to share data between them. Shared data transfer In addition to shared folders, you can drag and drop files between host and guest. You can also copy to clipboard in one, then paste in the other. (VirtualBox) and Unity mode (VMware) Pull windows out of the guest and onto the host, allowing you to seamlessly interact with both operating systems at the same time. In VMware, such windows even appear in the host’s taskbar. VirtualBox vs.
VMware: The Winner Is You didn’t really think one would be strictly better than the other, did you? They’ve both been around for quite a while, and there’s a reason why both still exist: they’re both excellent. However, a quick summary of which one you might prefer:. VirtualBox if the price is your main concern (because you get full access to all features), if you intend to move virtual machines between hosts (because it has the best platform compatibility), or if you’re a moral crusader who only supports The open software movement is still going strong. When companies released source code for once-proprietary projects, they usually benefited from it. Here are eight notable examples you'll probably recognize.
VMware if stability is your main concern (because VMware rarely crashes and doesn’t have many bugs), if you’re on an older machine where every bit of performance optimization matters, or if you’re willing to. What do you use virtual machines for? Do you prefer VirtualBox or VMware?
If you know of any alternatives that are better than both, please let us know. Share with us in the comments! Explore more about:,.