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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

"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."
"Scaling the solution is easy. You just have to add more hardware."
"This solution is open source and easy to configure."
"A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead."
"KVM has a rich options set which can be directly used or via wrappers, such as libvirt."
"The initial setup was simple."
"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 a stable product."
"This solution can be used on many different platforms including Windows and Linux."
"The configuration and installation is pretty straightforward."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is easy to use."
"VirtualBox provides an isolated, consistent environment"
"The solution's most valuable feature is its stability."
"Oracle VM Virtualbox is easy to use and does not require much training."
"It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring."
"VMware Workstation’s most valuable feature is virtualization technology."
"Because the setup is so easy, this is a solution that can be used at a moment's notice."
"The product works well."
"VMware is incredible and is designed for simple use. They help with efficiency."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Player is the ability to snapshot with or without memory."
"The initial setup is simple and takes only five minutes to complete."
"The most valuable features of the VMware Workstation solutions are the ESXi and vCenter."
"I appreciate the ease of backup and snapshot creation. The ability to revert to previous versions without losing data is very useful for our team."
 

Cons

"Lacks high availability across clusters as well as support for Apache CloudStack."
"The solution should be more user friendly. We are struggling with the command lines."
"The KVM tech support is really bad. They are not very responsive."
"Technical support could be better. In the next release, I would like to see an improved user interface and dashboard. This type of improvement will make it easy or help our engineers understand the solution from a requirement point of view."
"I would like to see more focus on microservices and integration with Kubernetes or OpenShift."
"The stability of this solution is less than other products in the same category."
"Business continuity features need to be added."
"There are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex."
"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 installation is difficult and could be improved."
"It's not as robust as server platforms, nor does it need to be."
"One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that."
"The technical support needs to improve."
"The communications setup lags. It does not connect properly so the batching and networking is a bit slow."
"The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"The tool can improve network storage technology."
"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."
"Installing VMware Workstation isn't so easy. It's highly complex compared to Windows. I rate it four out of 10 for ease of installation. Setting up a remote desktop only takes a minute or so, but the Workstation itself takes some time."
"I have had issues with the virtual network adapters in the past that has taken some time to troubleshoot."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"The price of VMware Workstation could improve."
"VMware Workstation uses more resources like CPU and disk space, especially the CPU, which is a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market."
"I use KVM for free through Proxmox, which offers a free license alternative."
"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."
"KVM is priced reasonably."
"I use the free version of KVM, and I'm not sure if there is a paid version."
"The product's pricing is above average but cheaper than that of VMware. I can't provide specific licensing costs, but we have a contract with Red Hat for client support that covers everything. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
"KVM is an open-source solution."
"It is free for everyone."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"There are no licensing fees."
"The product is free to use."
"It is pretty good for the price, which is free."
"No licensing is required as it is open-source."
"Pricing does not apply for us, we do not have to pay for the service."
"This is an open-source product and it can be used free of charge."
"The solution is free."
"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."
"The tool is not the cheapest."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
"The product has a moderate price."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The product is expensive."
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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
15%
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.
817,653 professionals have used our research since 2012.