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Citrix XenServer vs Hyper-V vs Oracle VM VirtualBox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.3
Citrix XenServer is praised for reducing costs and enhancing efficiency through virtualization, offering stability and effective management features.
Sentiment score
6.8
Hyper-V is cost-effective for budget-conscious organizations, offering value with Windows Server by reducing costs and enhancing ROI.
Sentiment score
5.3
Oracle VM VirtualBox offers quick ROI by reducing costs and streamlining processes, with users reporting high satisfaction and time savings.
My clients generally maintain their Citrix infrastructure without shifting, suggesting stability and reliable operation as Citrix XenServer is fully established.
I did not perform any long-term stress tests, just for a couple of hours or days on every application.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
3.9
Citrix XenServer support ranges in effectiveness, with concerns about response speed and access, often relying on community channels.
Sentiment score
6.9
Hyper-V customer service is praised, but technical support experiences vary, with some relying on community help and finding response delays.
Sentiment score
7.7
VirtualBox users prefer online documentation and community support over Oracle's support, which is seen as capable but slow.
With valid licenses, we can access hotfixes, service packs, knowledge base, self-help tools, diagnostics, downloads, live chat, and phone support.
They do not provide adequate support for midsize businesses.
There appear to be very few engineers at Citrix who understand the problems.
Technical support from Microsoft is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
The technical support for Hyper-V is excellent
The technical support is very good
Their forum and documentation is more than enough for technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Citrix XenServer is highly scalable, easily integrates new hosts, and effectively manages virtualization with minor disk management concerns.
Sentiment score
6.4
Hyper-V is considered highly scalable, supporting various workloads, though scalability may depend on the version and architecture planning.
Sentiment score
7.2
Oracle VM VirtualBox is valued for scalable environments, though hardware limitations and memory overhead can impede performance.
Familiarity with Linux can enhance its performance and usability.
Hyper V can support over two hundred virtual processors and around 12 TB of memory.
The scalability of Hyper-V is great; I would rate it nine out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Citrix XenServer is stable and reliable, praised for minimal issues, good support, and consistent updates by users.
Sentiment score
7.4
Hyper-V is stable with proper management, but some users face issues; stability is often environment-specific, not inherent.
Sentiment score
7.1
Oracle VM VirtualBox is generally stable but faces occasional issues, especially on Windows, rated around eight for stability.
I haven't had any significant issues with Citrix XenServer installations over the last 10-15 years.
Automation is unavailable, and reporting is difficult.
Frequent Windows updates can impact stability compared to VMware ESXi.
The snapshot functionality in Oracle VM VirtualBox is effective for management purposes.
 

Room For Improvement

Citrix XenServer needs improved backup, storage, Linux support, UI, multi-language, third-party integration, and lower licensing for better accessibility.
Hyper-V struggles with high costs, complex setup, limited features, performance issues, and lacks integration and compatibility compared to VMware.
Oracle VM VirtualBox users desire better networking, stability, resource management, and enhanced integration with diverse hardware and remote solutions.
Although the product is technically competitive, it is not widely known or used due to poor marketing.
Citrix needs to improve the hypervisor, specifically in security and performance.
We can implement high availability and live migration with pools, along with security and backup to enable role-based access control for safer management.
Hyper-V should ensure the features of VMware are covered within its platform.
Hyper-V could be improved by implementing the same set of features that other tools provide.
In future updates, I would like to see improvements in reporting and a resolution to some security weaknesses.
Having some kind of API to maintain Oracle VM VirtualBox would be beneficial.
 

Setup Cost

Citrix XenServer offers cost-effective licensing with strong support, making it a popular low-cost alternative to VMware.
Hyper-V offers a cost-effective virtualization solution, especially for Windows Server users, with competitive pricing against alternatives like VMware.
Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a free version popular for cost-effectiveness, with enterprise licensing seen as expensive by some.
It is cheaper compared to its competitors.
Organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple.
The pricing and licensing policy of Citrix XenServer is not transparent and quite confusing.
Hyper-V is completely free and requires no licensing fee.
Hyper-V's licensing costs are lower compared to VMware, making it cost-effective for smaller workloads.
Until 2019, Hyper-V was a cost-effective solution because it was available as a free product.
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Citrix XenServer is a secure, cost-effective virtualization platform offering user-friendly, efficient resource management with robust features and scalability.
Hyper-V offers affordable, scalable virtualization with seamless integration, dynamic memory, and extensive migration support, ensuring efficient management.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is free, versatile, and easy to use, ideal for testing, education, and stable multi-platform virtualization.
The most valuable feature is transferring and sharing applications that allow users to move files between devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers without needing USB cables, internet connections, or data usage.
It provides secure access to applications and resources, which is crucial for us and our clients.
It is user-friendly and easy to deploy, making it an attractive option.
It is completely free, which is a significant advantage.
It offers the stability needed for non-enterprise data centers and has improved over time.
The most valuable features of Hyper-V include high availability and management for virtual machine management.
Its snapshot functionality helps with backup management.
The guest OS compatibility was tremendous because I used Oracle VM VirtualBox on Linux and ran Windows applications on top of that, working seamlessly.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Citrix XenServer is 4.8%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hyper-V is 14.5%, up from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle VM VirtualBox is 6.2%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Köhler - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting benefits from robust consulting while also recognizing the need for improved disk management
When it comes to optimization, that's one of the weaker points of Citrix XenServer, especially regarding disk management, which is somewhat clumsy. Backup-related issues and disk management should be improved. Especially concerning backup, as discussions with Veeam engineers about Citrix XenServer backup strategy indicate there might not be a solution from Veeam soon. License optimization is not such a significant problem, but licenses are quite complicated. Vendors constantly invent new license models, making it difficult to order the correct licenses needed. There is not a big difference between Citrix and VMware products because Citrix can implement Windows and Linux anyway.
Ananth Narayana Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Cost-effective and good for small workloads while addressing update-driven challenges is needed
I use Azure Monitor and other monitoring solutions to support clients in Accenture's managed services. We support multiple environments, primarily on cloud platforms like Azure and AWS, and also on-premises environments with operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Solaris, among others…
Tanvir Siddique - PeerSpot reviewer
Easily accesses open solutions with seamless compatibility for testing and development
The most valuable feature is the seamlessness. When I install a Linux operating system, I can use Windows applications through Oracle VM VirtualBox seamlessly. There are many applications that work only on Windows. For desktop testing purposes, I used Oracle VM VirtualBox, and it works fine. The guest OS compatibility was tremendous because I used Oracle VM VirtualBox on Linux and ran Windows applications on top of that, working seamlessly.
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Comparison Review

VL
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Hypervisor?
The core function enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. This maximizes hardware utili...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Hypervisor?
Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective. Organizations save substantial money because competing soluti...
What needs improvement with Citrix Hypervisor?
When it comes to optimization, that's one of the weaker points of Citrix XenServer, especially regarding disk managem...
How does KVM compare with Hyper-V?
KVM is better. But let's just look at the software instead of judging. Hyper-V was a free solution from Microsoft to ...
How does Proxmox VE compare with Hyper-V?
One of the best things about Proxmox VE is that it is open-source and very inexpensive. You get all of the same featu...
What do you like most about Hyper-V?
The initial setup is not difficult at all. It is very easy.
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?
Maintenance is not necessary because I did not use it for heavy loads.
 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
Large customer base from all industries, all over the world. Two major Hyper-V customers are Telefonica and EmpireCLS.
Airbus, Colorado State University, SCS Africa, Wolf Medical Systems.
Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: August 2025.
865,140 professionals have used our research since 2012.