The most valuable feature is the ability to spring up test environments quickly and in a reliable manner.
Web Developer at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
It's given us the ability to spring up test environments quickly and in a reliable manner.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
Oracle VirtualBox has enabled me to build testing and development environments which we could not have otherwise built.
What needs improvement?
From the host side, the Oracle VirtualBox could use more automation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Oracle VirtualBox for two years now.
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Oracle VM VirtualBox
January 2025
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have not had any deployment issues so far.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been no issues with the stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has been able to scale for our needs without issue.
How are customer service and support?
The documentation for technical support is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I chose Oracle VirtualBox because it is easily available, free, and open source. It is also the industry standard for web development virtualization software.
How was the initial setup?
Initially, the setup was straightforward with the exception of setting up the network. Documentation helped me to solve the problems though.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented the solution using a vendor team. Make sure to reserve enough space for the virtual hard drive and make sure to set up the network settings correctly.
What was our ROI?
Our Return on Investment has been excellent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Oracle VirtualBox is free.
What other advice do I have?
If you are running multiple virtual machines at the same time, please make sure you have enough resources to do this.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Infrastructure Consultant at Oriental Weavers
A solution that offers good system protection, very good scalability and fair pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of the solution is very good."
- "The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution across all of our systems.
What is most valuable?
The system offers good protection that we as users can trust.
What needs improvement?
The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases.
The solution should also make little improvements and tweaks to performance, reliability, redundancy, and DR systems. There should be better recovery offered to protect and ensure the application of systems and backups.
More information about administration features, like the replication feature, should be provided.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is okay, but it could be better.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is very good.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've heard technical support is good, but I've never reached out to them for assistance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup isn't too complex.
What about the implementation team?
I handled the implementation myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We're satisfied with the pricing the solution offers.
What other advice do I have?
We use the on-premises deployment model.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Oracle VM VirtualBox
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Oracle VM VirtualBox. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
e-Learning Systems Developer Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall.
Valuable Features:
Automatic mirroring/backup using snapshots on the runtime can minimize the number of fail-recovery procedures and down time overall. Running Virtualboxes with individual stacks clarifies use cases and minimizes risk while users test different partial solution elements.
Virtualboxes can also run in different physical machines so that the relative demand of processing power can be met while maintaining optimal usage of each physical machine. This ensure that the risk of overloads is minimized during peak demand times.
Improvements to My Organization:
It's helped us utilize spare capacity on servers and test new platforms and frameworks. It has also improved the staging of our apps before implementations.
Room for Improvement:
Managing virtual machine stacks on an individual and stacked basis needs work. It also lacks the ability to perform auto-recovery switchover.
Moreover, they should define Virtualbox stacks as groups of virtual machines working together as solutions. It would also help if they could define auto-backup/mirroring and failover configurations.
Use of Solution:
I am still evaluating the methodologies with the current free versions.
Deployment Issues:
We've had no issues with the deployment.
Stability Issues:
We've had no issues with the stability.
Scalability Issues:
There have been no issues scaling it for our needs.
Initial Setup:
I set it up myself and tried to configure it to the extent of my knowledge.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Director at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
We're able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware.
Valuable Features
Being able to run and then roll back operating system change tests for multiple systems on one piece of hardware is the most valuable feature for us.
Improvements to My Organization
With this solution, we need to have less hardware and we're able to to perform faster testing.
Room for Improvement
I've had networking issues when I travel with my laptop. Switching VMs from NAT to bridge is a nuisance.
Use of Solution
I've used it for five years.
Deployment Issues
We have had no issues with the deployment.
Stability Issues
We had no issues with the stability.
Scalability Issues
We've not scaled it at all. I just run three different versions of Linux and three on Windows at different times.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service:
I've not had to use customer service at all.
Technical Support:I've not had to contact technical support.
Initial Setup
The setup is always straightforward.
Implementation Team
I implemented it myself.
ROI
It saved me five whole computers.
Other Solutions Considered
I've not had to look at any other solutions as it does exactly what I need without fuss.
Other Advice
Go for it, and make sure to add plenty of RAM to the host.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Analyst with 51-200 employees
I value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.
What is most valuable?
The ease-of-use and versatility are among the good qualities of this solution. I also value its native ability to use other VM machines files like QEMU and VMware.
How has it helped my organization?
We can test and evaluate software and systems in a controlled environment before the roll-out to production.
What needs improvement?
It would be great to have a hypervisor version of VirtualBox running on servers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve been using VirtualBox since it was launched many years ago by Innotech.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We found no problems deploying it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VirtualBox is a very stable product and we found no problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has been able to scale to our needs without any issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have never ever had the need to use technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We tried VMWare VMPlayer in the beginning, but VirtualBox outperformed it and so it became our choice.
How was the initial setup?
It’s a very simple and straightforward process.
What about the implementation team?
It was an in-house implementation.
What was our ROI?
We use the personal licensing option as we use it on a few machines.
What other advice do I have?
In my opinion, this product is the best available option for testing virtual appliances and operating systems. I use it also as a means of running multiple virtual machines without changing my business desktop environment. We recommend VirtualBox as an excellent product for evaluating new systems or softwares.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sr. Director at LogiCorner Info Tech.
Allows us to run multiple operating systems at the same time
Pros and Cons
- "The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster."
- "The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."
What is our primary use case?
We use Oracle VM VirtualBox in combination with Oracle Database. We also run Tomcat inside VirtualBox.
Within our organization, there are five people using this solution.
What is most valuable?
The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster.
What needs improvement?
The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive.
Currently, when pilot testing VMs, sometimes we have to test them on the cloud — this is complicated. In the next release, it would be nice if there was a convenient way to migrate the VM images from the local server to the cloud server.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle VM VirtualBox is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Although we haven't needed to scale out, I'd imagine it's quite scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite straightforward.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also evaluated VMware.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others. It's easy to use. Everything you need to know can be found with a simple Google search — the whole process.
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Technical Sales Consultant at FOEX GmbH
The most valuable feature for me is the ability to use it as a client or a server to test our APEX environment and the plugins that we create.
Valuable Features:
The most valuable feature for me is the ability to use it as a client or a server to test our APEX environment and the plugins that we create. It also runs very quickly and doesn’t use up much battery power on a MacBook.
Improvements to My Organization:
Since I usually work from my home office, it increases efficiency because I don’t have to connect to the company’s database to run tests. I can do everything locally.
Room for Improvement:
The initial configuration was a little tricky. Setup could be simpler.
Use of Solution:
I have used the product for half a year.
Initial Setup:
Again, the initial setup is complex.
Other Advice:
Take care configuring the network. It’s tricky to get everything running, but there are certain benefits to look forward to after you do.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Developer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Free, Amazing and Powerful, Cross-platform Virtualization Software
Valuable Features:
1. It is a free software
2. Performance is at a very good level
3. If there is a problem it can be fixed easily because it has a good community website.
Room for Improvement:
If the user faces a problem he has to read a large amount of docs to fix them.
Other Advice:
Oracle VM Virtual box is a very good tool for me. The main reason is that it is a free product. Also, if I face a problem, I can fix it because the community website provides very good support. You do not need to have a high level of skills to work with it. As a student and a programmer, I have to use it with different operating systems. I have to check my codes in several operating systems. For that, Oracle VM is a very useful tool. On my laptop, I am running Ubuntu on OracleVM.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: January 2025
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Virtual Box is a free and great product to create a OS and use it. Wonderful features compared to VMWARE.