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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.
Phanindar Ada - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of deployment and use along with a comfortable configuration process to be handled
The tool's performance is really good, so I can rate it a ten out of ten. The product did meet my expectations by allowing me to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up. I took care of the integration part of VMware Workstation with vSphere. I describe the product's documentation as a good area. My company gets complaints about technical notes from VMware. My company does face limitations with the product, and it is based on the licenses that we have purchased from VMware. I rate the overall product a ten 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

"A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"The scalability part should be better."
"The performance is great."
"KVM is stable."
"I think nine out of the ten supercomputers in the world use Linux KVM, so I think that attests to the fact that it is a scalable product."
"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 stability."
"I like that Oracle VM is safe and stable. It is also very easy to administer. For example, opening a VM or adding a host adapter is extremely easy."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to copy bidirectionally between the desktop and the virtual machine."
"This solution can be used on many different platforms including Windows and Linux."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is easy to use."
"The product is very easy to use."
"Oracle VM Virtualbox is easy to use and does not require much training."
"The solution is very stable."
"Compatible with almost any operating system"
"It is much more mature compared to Nutanix or SimpliVity when it's cross-platform based."
"I haven't faced any inconveniences working with this solution. It is very easy to use."
"The most valuable features of the VMware Workstation solutions are the ESXi and vCenter."
"VMware Player helps you to virtualize and install Ubuntu or any other operating system, even on a Windows laptop."
"VMware is incredible and is designed for simple use. They help with efficiency."
"Technical support is very good."
"Because the setup is so easy, this is a solution that can be used at a moment's notice."
"It's really easy to build testing environments with VMware Player."
 

Cons

"We would like to have a software lifecycle solution included in this solution. We can handle the software needed for KVM, but also the software that we provide. A lifecycle component would be very beneficial."
"Business continuity features need to be added."
"In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"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."
"In KVM, snapshots and cloning are areas where there could be a little more sophistication, like VMware."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail."
"They could improve the graphics functionality of the product."
"This should have better support for multiple network cards and some parts of the GUI should be improved."
"It has some issues when you have some weird device drivers. For instance, when you have a weird sound driver working on your machine, and the VirtualBox needs to output the sound of the virtual machine into the sound driver of the physical machine, the bare metal, it doesn't work too well. If you tweak lots of drivers and play around with the different kinds of drivers and machines, you will probably break something. I have not played with it too much and maybe it already supports it, but it would probably be good to have the ability to use a container from the virtual machine environment instead of spinning off a complete virtual machine. There are other tools for that. On Linux, you have a DXE, LXC framework, and you have Docker as well. Docker is good because it is multi-platform, and you can run Docker on pretty much anything, even different processors, but it would be good if we had a VirtualBox running on it while spinning off containers instead of full virtual machines. The other thing that will become important, and I'm pretty sure that they are thinking about it as well is that there's this new hardware platform that Apple is releasing, which is an ARM-based new chip. So, VirtualBox will probably have to work on ARM-based CPUs as well."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The solution is a bit less stable than I would like."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"It could have more platforms and CPUs."
"It would be better if software updates occur automatically."
"VMware Workstation uses more resources like CPU and disk space, especially the CPU, which is a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"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."
"Lacks the ability to clone onto another system rather than starting from scratch."
"The dashboard can be improved."
"They could bring in many different features from VMware vSphere to Workstation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market."
"It is cheaper than other competitors like VMware or Hyper-V."
"This solution is an open-source, free platform with paid support."
"KVM is an open-source solution."
"One only needs a subscription to Oracle Linux. So, it's cheaper with Oracle Linux's subscription. It is not very expensive. In short, the solution is open source, and you need only a subscription."
"There is no cost involved in the use of KVM, as it is open source."
"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 an open-source product that works well for us."
"No licensing is required as it is open-source."
"The product is free to use."
"There are no licensing fees."
"It is pretty good for the price, which is free."
"Pricing does not apply for us, we do not have to pay for the service."
"Price wise, Oracle VM VirtualBox is a six on a scale from one to ten."
"The tool is not as expensive as other products."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"The product has a moderate price."
"The solution is moderately priced. I rate the pricing a six out of ten."
"VMware is expensive. Licensing can be tricky. For example, I recently had a client running VMware vSphere Essentials and wanted to migrate to a more scalable solution. However, they had no choice but to purchase a completely new license and deploy a completely new instance of VMware."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive tool. I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low or good price."
"Licensing costs are paid on a yearly basis."
"It has the best licensing modules."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
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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
16%
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
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