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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 KVM service is well managed with a central policy interface."
"The performance is great."
"Documentation and problem-solving troubleshooting are the most valuable features. Performance (when fine-tuned and with "special" HW) is awesome, equal to or more than other enterprise closed-source solutions."
"There is a strong emphasis on availability, and they have numerous API interfaces for distributed storage and the solution is quite known for its openness."
"The most valuable feature of KVM is its superior real-time performance, which results in lower latency compared to alternatives like VMware and Microsoft."
"It is an open ecosystem, and we see there is a benefit in open-source solutions."
"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."
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster."
"It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring."
"I like that it is free and runs on Linux/Ubuntu - I wouldn't use any other solution. I am able to perform small developing tests."
"The product is very easy to use."
"It is a stable product."
"The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to copy bidirectionally between the desktop and the virtual machine."
"The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
"The technical support is good."
"I like that it's easy to use. It's easy to deploy virtual machines. You have to insert your ISO and the image of your OS and configure it. They provide a step-by-step guide, and you have to follow it. In the end, you have to start the machine, and that's all you have to do. I liked that they synchronized the mouse, keyboard, and everything. When you finish the installation, it directly links to your laptop. This makes copying and pasting things from my laptop inside the virtual machine easy."
"The tool’s GUI is very user-friendly."
"Technical support is very good."
"It will not harm any of the computer settings to run a specific program. For example, if a program needs a specific security policy, we don't have to use the shared configuration. We have an individual copy of Windows installed on the virtual machine, so anybody can access that. It helps us a lot."
"VMware Workstation’s most valuable features are backup and data transfer from one server to another."
"The solution's customer service is good."
"I haven't faced any inconveniences working with this solution. It is very easy to use."
 

Cons

"Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"The networking with wireless devices needs improvement."
"We are not getting good support from KVM, and it is not that user-friendly."
"The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery."
"The stability of this solution is less than other products in the same category."
"There are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex."
"Business continuity features need to be added."
"The technical support needs to improve."
"One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that."
"The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."
"The solution is a bit less stable than I would like."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
"I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly."
"Oracle needs to improve its hot virtual machine migration. It didn't work as intended. It should allow us to migrate between virtual machines, without stopping the database."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"The product is outdated."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
"The product’s virtual machine data backup feature needs upgrading."
"It takes too much time to load all the plug-ins and software."
"Performance could be improved, it's somewhat clunky."
"The solution should provide a guide on its installation."
"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."
"It would be helpful if VMware Workstation included an in-built monitoring tool for monitoring things."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We had some problems with the licensing."
"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."
"I use KVM for free through Proxmox, which offers a free license alternative."
"KVM is free."
"KVM is priced reasonably."
"This solution is an open-source, free platform with paid support."
"The solution is extremely cheap in China."
"It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market."
"Available for free use"
"It is pretty good for the price, which is free."
"There are no licensing fees."
"The product is free to use."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"The solution is free."
"Price wise, Oracle VM VirtualBox is a six on a scale from one to ten."
"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."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"It has the best licensing modules."
"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The product is expensive."
"With a VDI solution, there is always extra cost running a VDI solution but it's not for cost purposes anymore. In the beginning, it was to save money on hardware but at the moment it's other aspects that are more important why you should use a VDI solution."
"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
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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.
 

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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.