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Hyper-V vs Oracle VM VirtualBox vs VMware Workstation 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
7.0
Organizations save costs with Hyper-V by reducing physical server needs and IT expenses, compared to VMware.
Sentiment score
5.3
Oracle VM VirtualBox offers quick ROI by reducing costs and streamlining processes, with users reporting high satisfaction and time savings.
Sentiment score
1.0
VMware Workstation enhances cost savings, enabling efficient application testing and integration, resulting in improved job performance and satisfaction.
You need only one physical server that can host several virtualized servers within the same physical server instead of having multiple physical servers.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
It saves us money compared to VMware because we still need to pay Microsoft licenses, but in addition to that we need to pay for VMware for virtualization.
IT Professional at NIPOS
I did not perform any long-term stress tests, just for a couple of hours or days on every application.
Technical Officer at ADN Telecom
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Hyper-V support receives mixed feedback; generally positive but varies due to factors like regional availability and direct contact challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
VirtualBox users prefer online documentation and community support over Oracle's support, which is seen as capable but slow.
Sentiment score
2.9
VMware Workstation's customer service is mixed, with varying responsiveness and reliance on community resources after HP acquisition.
Technical support from Microsoft is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
The technical support for Hyper-V is excellent
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
The technical support is very good
Manager of Systems at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology
Their forum and documentation is more than enough for technical support.
Technical Officer at ADN Telecom
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate their support or customer service a two or three since they never did anything.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The documents provided for Workstation were not hard to understand.
Owner at Inforex
It's a very special way of working with VMware Workstation.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Hyper-V is highly scalable, enabling effective growth across environments, with some challenges but generally favorable user perception.
Sentiment score
7.2
Oracle VM VirtualBox is valued for scalable environments, though hardware limitations and memory overhead can impede performance.
Sentiment score
6.7
VMware Workstation is versatile, supporting multiple VMs, though opinions vary on scalability for larger operations and single installations.
There is a redundancy cost for high availability because data are stored mirroring on two nodes.
IT Professional at NIPOS
Hyper V can support over two hundred virtual processors and around 12 TB of memory.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
The scalability of Hyper-V is great; I would rate it nine out of ten.
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
VMware Workstation is scalable enough for larger companies, though it requires some skills.
Owner at Inforex
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Users praise Hyper-V for stability, despite occasional backup and performance issues, with Windows updates impacting stability more than VMware.
Sentiment score
7.1
Oracle VM VirtualBox is generally stable but faces occasional issues, especially on Windows, rated around eight for stability.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Workstation is highly reliable, with improved stability post-v6, though minor virtual network issues may occur in specific scenarios.
Automation is unavailable, and reporting is difficult.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Frequent Windows updates can impact stability compared to VMware ESXi.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
We have stable performance, but we see some glitches with some snapshots on Linux boxes in Linux virtual machines.
IT Professional at NIPOS
The snapshot functionality in Oracle VM VirtualBox is effective for management purposes.
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek Hyper-V improvements in cloning, virtualization, cost, security, RAM, interface, compatibility, networking, and cross-platform management.
Oracle VM VirtualBox users desire better networking, stability, resource management, and enhanced integration with diverse hardware and remote solutions.
VMware Workstation needs performance, usability, and cost improvements, enhanced stability, better documentation, and streamlined integration and scalability.
Hyper-V should ensure the features of VMware are covered within its platform.
Head it at Ace Designers Limited
Hyper-V could be improved by implementing the same set of features that other tools provide.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In future updates, I would like to see improvements in reporting and a resolution to some security weaknesses.
Technical Manager at OAK integrated System Pvt Ltd
Having some kind of API to maintain Oracle VM VirtualBox would be beneficial.
Technical Officer at ADN Telecom
Eventually, we had to get some licenses with Broadcom, and all the costs went up dramatically.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We faced challenges with backup due to limitations in the free version, requiring us to switch to a paid version.
Owner at Inforex
The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Setup Cost

Hyper-V is free with Windows Server, but additional management tools and scale affect overall cost-effectiveness compared to competitors.
Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a free version popular for cost-effectiveness, with enterprise licensing seen as expensive by some.
VMware Workstation is pricey but offers integration benefits with cost-saving opportunities through sales and varies by user needs.
Hyper-V is completely free and requires no licensing fee.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Hyper-V's licensing costs are lower compared to VMware, making it cost-effective for smaller workloads.
Vice President Hybrid Cloud Operations at Accenture
Until 2019, Hyper-V was a cost-effective solution because it was available as a free product.
Manager of Systems at Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
 

Valuable Features

Hyper-V offers cost-effective virtualization with dynamic memory, live migration, PowerShell automation, and seamless Windows integration for enterprises.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is free, versatile, and easy to use, ideal for testing, education, and stable multi-platform virtualization.
VMware Workstation offers user-friendly virtualization, multi-OS operation, and superior testing flexibility, outperforming alternatives like Oracle VirtualBox.
It is completely free, which is a significant advantage.
Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have seen return on investment with Hyper-V because it is both time-saving and cost-effective.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
We switched to Hyper-V because it was lower cost than paying for high availability in VMware.
IT Professional at NIPOS
Its snapshot functionality helps with backup management.
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
The guest OS compatibility was tremendous because I used Oracle VM VirtualBox on Linux and ran Windows applications on top of that, working seamlessly.
Technical Officer at ADN Telecom
VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox.
Owner at Inforex
VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simply being able to run several Windows PCs with different development environments has had the largest impact on our operational efficiency.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Mindshare comparison

Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Hyper-V19.1%
VMware vSphere19.4%
Proxmox VE12.2%
Other49.3%
Server Virtualization Software
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle VM VirtualBox5.7%
VMware vSphere19.4%
Hyper-V19.1%
Other55.8%
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Workstation12.0%
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)15.1%
VMware Fusion Pro11.6%
Other61.3%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Tomas Basus - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Professional at NIPOS
Virtualization has reduced licensing costs and improved integration but still needs better performance insight
Integrations bring the biggest benefit to us. We use half of our virtual machines that are Microsoft, so it works better hosted in Hyper-V compared to VMware. Clustering and failover capabilities in the product help with our availability. It helped because we switched to Hyper-V because it was lower cost than paying for high availability in VMware. We need Microsoft licenses for virtual machines, so it costs less than buying two solutions for that. We have data center editions, so it did not cost us additional money compared to paying for high availability from VMware. I think it helped a little, but not so different compared to VMware regarding security and bandwidth optimization.
Tanvir Siddique - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Officer at ADN Telecom
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.
GC
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Creating and destroying test machines has simplified our operations and reduced manual recovery time
The Snapshot feature has helped with workflows by allowing us to more easily reconstruct something if we lose it or need it. We've been making Snapshots on a consistent basis, mainly of servers. The VX Rail has worked effectively because we can create machines as we need them. It's helpful for resetting and has helped with our operations because I had set up failover servers on Vertex, but we don't have to do that anymore since VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem. We're doing our domain servers on there, and we've been very happy with that. We appreciate that we can create machines simply to test things out and then destroy them. I use it for a test machine for checking emails, so if the email has a virus in it, we can just destroy the machine and create a new one. We're slowly moving into the VMware environment, although the pricing with Broadcom has been a disaster.
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Comparison Review

it_user234735 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Consultant, ASEAN at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
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
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business70
Midsize Enterprise37
Large Enterprise46
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise17
 

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 ...
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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle VM VirtualBox?
Maintenance is not necessary because I did not use it for heavy loads.
What needs improvement with Oracle VM VirtualBox?
If there were more API access so that I could run it headlessly, similar to Proxmox where I can use API, it would be ...
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.
 

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.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Microsoft, Proxmox and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: March 2026.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.