Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Proxmox VE 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
5.3
Oracle VM VirtualBox offers quick ROI by reducing costs and streamlining processes, with users reporting high satisfaction and time savings.
Sentiment score
7.5
Proxmox VE offers cost savings, enhanced server capabilities, and improved efficiency, with benefits outweighing its learning curve challenges.
I did not perform any long-term stress tests, just for a couple of hours or days on every application.
 

Customer Service

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
7.4
Proxmox VE users often utilize community resources and documentation over paid support, though improved direct communication is desired.
Their forum and documentation is more than enough for technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Oracle VM VirtualBox is valued for scalable environments, though hardware limitations and memory overhead can impede performance.
Sentiment score
7.2
Proxmox VE is praised for its scalability, ease of resource addition, and seamless migrations, though vertical scaling could improve.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Oracle VM VirtualBox is generally stable but faces occasional issues, especially on Windows, rated around eight for stability.
Sentiment score
8.1
Proxmox VE is highly stable and reliable, performing well on older hardware with minimal performance issues.
The snapshot functionality in Oracle VM VirtualBox is effective for management purposes.
 

Room For Improvement

Oracle VM VirtualBox users desire better networking, stability, resource management, and enhanced integration with diverse hardware and remote solutions.
Proxmox VE faces challenges with performance, interface complexity, support, and lacks effective monitoring, documentation, and scalability features.
Having some kind of API to maintain Oracle VM VirtualBox would be beneficial.
 

Setup Cost

Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a free version popular for cost-effectiveness, with enterprise licensing seen as expensive by some.
Proxmox VE is an open-source, cost-effective virtualization solution with optional support, valued for its affordability against competitors.
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Oracle VM VirtualBox is free, versatile, and easy to use, ideal for testing, education, and stable multi-platform virtualization.
Proxmox VE provides a user-friendly, scalable, and affordable virtualization solution with strong community support and feature-rich environment.
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.
 

Categories and Ranking

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
Proxmox VE
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Oracle VM VirtualBox is 6.5%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Proxmox VE is 17.9%, down from 20.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Jan 12, 2022
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Albert Lacerda - PeerSpot reviewer
Manages clusters across sites and has an easy setup and integrations
It is very easy to set up. It is a robust virtual environment and can be deployed within a few days. Typically, an environment can be set up in two, or three days. The most complicated part is migration from VMware. However, the new virtual Proxmox offers a built-in tool to directly connect to the VMware environment and convert the virtual machines to Proxmox. You need to have one person with expertise in network components and configuration for that part of the physical environment. The most important aspect is working with the vendors who supply your standard software. This is often the most challenging part. You need to contact support to help set up the new environment if something changes. This process usually involves more time and effort to get the vendors to ensure compatibility with Proxmox. Many people, including those at Zendesk, are often reluctant to assure that Proxmox will work with other unfamiliar systems. I rate the initial setup an eight to nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Virtualization Software solutions are best for your needs.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Oct 4, 2023
Oct 4, 2023
Proxmox = professional environments (any size). VirtualBox = small environments or test purpose Sorry for the short response but it is exactly like that.
2 out of 3 answers
Janet Staver - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 15, 2021
Proxmox VE is a very fast and powerful solution. It offers feature-rich virtualization, has open-standards compliance, and also includes redundancy and failover capabilities. What I like about Proxmox VE is that it lets you rack and stack two or more nodes and enables you to be up and running with a one-node failure tolerance in very little time. Proxmox VE’s integration with ZFS is also fantastic. It allows you to create pools to store your VM images and data on very easily and their great web UI makes it easy to check drive health, ZFS scrub status, and other things. I think the best part of the web UI is that everything is configurable from the web user interface without having to use the command line. It also has graphs and additional visualizations so you can evaluate the performance of everything. Beyond that, even though you can use Proxmox VE on a single server, the solution makes it easy to set up a high availability cluster on multiple hosts if needed. Regarding Oracle VM VirtualBox, I would say its most valuable features are its virtualization, its compatibility with older OSes, and its testing of environments without causing interruptions or any harm to production. Besides making it possible to run multiple VMs on a laptop or desktop, its ease of deployment makes the solution appealing. Not only is it easy to set up, but the software is free. Moreover, it has a nice interface. However, I think Oracle VM VirtualBox could use some improvements on its reporting as well as on its network settings for VMs, which can sometimes be hard for the average user to find and understand. Conclusion: While Oracle is a safe and excellent option when it comes to virtualizing an operating system, I would suggest Proxmox VE because it is newer, has a lot of powerful features, and is a very reliable and stable solution.
Luis Apodaca - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 12, 2022
Proxmox = professional environments (any size). VirtualBox = small environments or test purpose Sorry for the short response but it is exactly like that.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Educational Organization
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
Proxmox vs ESXi/vSphere: What is your experience?
For me the biggest impact is the cost of licensing in the case of VMware despite its overall intuitiveness and ease of handling and management. However, KVM-based Open Source solutions are becoming...
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...
Proxmox VE or KVM?
I use Proxmox VE and have been very happy with it. In my opinion, it is a complete and stable solution with excellent tools for managing servers. It has a lot of different features, and I also love...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Airbus, Colorado State University, SCS Africa, Wolf Medical Systems.
Municipality of Trento, SwitchMIA, inDenova, Valmeita City Council, Alpha IT AS, Grupo Inversor Veracruzano S.A.P.I. de C.V. (GRIVER), Laut und Schoen, IT-Services - Hamburg e.K., KMI Learning, Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd., Serwise AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle VM VirtualBox vs. Proxmox VE and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.