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KVM vs Oracle VM VirtualBox vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Mindshare comparison

Server Virtualization Software
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Lan Tuong - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful to manage the virtual environments
The most valuable features of KVM for us are the console, which allows us to build or clone VMs quickly, and the ability to take snapshots and recreate new VMs rapidly. That's one of the things we love about KVM. The built-in management console, Auto KVM, is the most valuable tool for managing our virtual environments. We use it most to create and fire up new VMs or clone them for customers based on requests. The migration tools have worked quite well for us. We're moving from an Oracle Solaris platform for KVM logical domains, upgrading, and using KVM from Red Hat. It's slightly different but very similar to Oracle Unbreakable Linux, which is basically a clone of Red Hat. Oracle's console is easier to use than Red Hat's, though.
Tomasz Pietas - PeerSpot reviewer
Good functionality and free to use with a useful snapshot feature
The functionality and productivity are very good. I can test and roll back features in my work. It's a big platform. It's very useful. I like that it has a snapshot feature. The virtual network is great. There are a lot of features. It has everything I need. The product is free to use. It's easy to set up.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability."
"The initial setup was simple."
"I like that this is an open-source solution. It is very powerful, and it's easy."
"Scaling the solution is easy. You just have to add more hardware."
"It offers a high-availability environment."
"The performance is great."
"I find the density of the product most valuable. It is density that a technologist can just assign page merging. This is what makes KVM one of the important players of the virtualization market."
"Very cost-effective."
"It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge."
"VirtualBox provides an isolated, consistent environment"
"The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable."
"This product is very user-friendly and easy to use."
"It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring."
"This is a good and easy solution for running virtual environments."
"The solution has high performance and is easy to use."
"This solution creates a snapshot of virtual machines so you can create test environments."
"I have found this product excellent for test/dev environments. This is 90% of what I use this product for."
"VMware Workstation allows you to run a virtual machine."
"Technical support is very good."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"The most valuable features of the VMware Workstation solutions are the ESXi and vCenter."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is snapshot."
"VMware is incredible and is designed for simple use. They help with efficiency."
"The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up."
 

Cons

"The networking with wireless devices needs improvement."
"The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery."
"The product must provide better performance monitoring features."
"Lacks high availability across clusters as well as support for Apache CloudStack."
"Technical support is not top-notch."
"I would like to see more focus on microservices and integration with Kubernetes or OpenShift."
"I think the management console has room for improvement. It could be more straightforward and user-friendly, like VMware's Console Management. This would make it easier for system admins to use and reduce training needs."
"Monitoring and resolution could be improved."
"This solution needs improvement with the business continuity planning, disaster and recovery management and using centralized data storage."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
"The solution lacks some open source remote administration tools. The reload of individual virtual machine definitions through the vboxweb service (via its API) without restarting it and the access to shared storage (to use teleport functions) need to be improved."
"The communications setup lags. It does not connect properly so the batching and networking is a bit slow."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"Basically, the GUI and command-line interface need improvement."
"Oracle VMs don't have a solid web interface of their own. This is an area where Oracle is lagging behind. Now, we use headless servers, install Oracle VMs, and manage them remotely. We could use phpVirtual Box, but it is a third-party solution. A lot of people contribute to it, and it's not authenticated by Oracle. As a result, I don't find it to be a good option. Therefore, I would like to see Oracle offer an extension pack or a licensed version that fixes this problem."
"The memory and hardware usage could be a little bit lighter. Right now, it's quite heavy on the usage. The CPU usage should be lower."
"It would be great if VMware Workstation had more networking options and compatibility, that would be great. I would like to deploy virtual switches and play around with networking a bit more. Otherwise, I have to deploy ESXi Virtual Edition and emulate it, which is painful and clunky."
"Its price could be better."
"There could be more integration with different tools."
"They could add more integration between them, and compatibility with the standard virtualization format."
"The product’s virtual machine data backup feature needs upgrading."
"It would be better if software updates occur automatically."
"The price of VMware Workstation could improve."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no cost involved in the use of KVM, as it is open source."
"I use KVM for free through Proxmox, which offers a free license alternative."
"It is free for everyone."
"It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market."
"I have no information on the cost of KVM because I downloaded it for the lab and not for production. It's free, but I don't know if that's the case for people using it in a production environment."
"We had some problems with the licensing."
"KVM is an open-source solution."
"I use the free version of KVM, and I'm not sure if there is a paid version."
"This is an open-source product and it can be used free of charge."
"The tool is not as expensive as other products."
"There are no licensing fees."
"It is an open-source solution."
"The license I use is free."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"The product is free to use."
"Available for free use"
"It is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"The product has a moderate price."
"The product is expensive."
"The price of the solution per workstation is approximately 200 Francs annually. We pay a total of 800 francs. Everything is included in the price such as the support."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Why KVM??? Help please!
KVM scales better, orchestration better, performs better and supports a wider range of hardware and, also, you can im...
Why KVM??? Help please!
Small support team, small cluster, low core count, use VMware products Large support team, large clusters with many c...
Why KVM??? Help please!
Far from being an expert, my opinion is that the positive sides of KVM are: Lower costs and open-source which gives ...
How does KVM compare to Oracle VM VirtualBox?
KVM is easy to use, stable and flexible. It is mature and very fast. It is an affordable open-source solution that is...
What do you like most about Oracle VM VirtualBox?
The product’s most valuable feature is the ability to manage multiple operating systems through one application.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle VM VirtualBox?
The pricing is flexible. When Oracle bought VirtualBox, they introduced some licensing issues. However, it did not af...
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM ...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Comparisons

 

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Sample Customers

MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikidata, Wikiversity, Commons
Airbus, Colorado State University, SCS Africa, Wolf Medical Systems.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: November 2024.
817,560 professionals have used our research since 2012.