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Hyper-V vs Oracle VM VirtualBox comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
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.
I did not perform any long-term stress tests, just for a couple of hours or days on every application.
 

Customer Service

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.
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
6.4
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.
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
7.4
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.
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

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.
All the actions are manual, and if customization is needed, it is difficult with Hyper-V.
Hyper-V should ensure the features of VMware are covered within its platform.
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

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.
Hyper-V is completely free and requires no licensing fee.
Currently, VMware has a high price in the market, and I think Microsoft has a competitive pricing structure.
Hyper-V's licensing costs are lower compared to VMware, making it cost-effective for smaller workloads.
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
 

Valuable Features

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.
It is completely free, which is a significant advantage.
For backup and disaster recovery with Hyper-V, we do the same as others by using snapshots, and we can integrate it with any backup system.
I find the quick provision feature in Hyper-V to be extremely helpful.
The guest OS compatibility was tremendous because I used Oracle VM VirtualBox on Linux and ran Windows applications on top of that, working seamlessly.
Its snapshot functionality helps with backup management.
 

Categories and Ranking

Hyper-V
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
143
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Hyper-V is 14.1%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle VM VirtualBox is 6.5%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

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

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 10, 2015
Hyper-V 2012 R2 vs. VMware vSphere 5.5
I was won with Hyper-V 2012R2 recently and the table below based on customer RFP (edited). This articles all about technical, there is not related with TCO/ROI, licensing cost, “political”, etc. Another to noted is the Windows Server 2012 licenses is based on 2 socket CPU, meanwhile…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 virtualize Server or Client OS as it is a feature on Windows Server since 2008 a...
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 features as with the more well-known products. Proxmox VE is very easy to deploy - it...
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 easy to set up and manage. It offers very good security. It has a virtual manag...
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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 Hyper-V vs. Oracle VM VirtualBox and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
858,469 professionals have used our research since 2012.