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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Oracle VM VirtualBox
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (7th)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Oracle VM VirtualBox is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 6.9%, down 10.3% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 17.0% mindshare, up 13.1% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Kopano  Ramaphoi - PeerSpot reviewer
A flexible and easy-to-deploy product that provides a great user experience
The product should improve its scalability. It should be more flexible to be used with desktops with different capacities. We do not have much storage on our desktops, and we must allocate a certain amount of memory to install the product. When we install a virtual machine, we have a limit that we cannot exceed 80% of RAM.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The flexibility and the closed platform, so it allows you to run in multiple platforms, Windows, Linux, Macintosh."
"The solution is very convenient and easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to copy bidirectionally between the desktop and the virtual machine."
"The flexibility and the closed platform, so it allows you to run in multiple platforms, Windows, Linux, Macintosh."
"The solution has high performance and is easy to use."
"I think VirtualBox has good stability because I use it in an environment with several resolutions."
"The scalability of the solution is very good."
"The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
"The solution's technical support team is excellent."
"The initial setup is simple and takes only five minutes to complete."
"Because the setup is so easy, this is a solution that can be used at a moment's notice."
"VMware Player helps you to virtualize and install Ubuntu or any other operating system, even on a Windows laptop."
"VMware Workstation has tons of third-party support, the largest partner ecosystem. VMware works with a ton of different vendors. They have plugins for almost everything. Other hypervisors lack the flexibility that VMware Workstation offers."
"VMware Player's best feature is the ability to run different OS's simultaneously."
"VMware Workstation is great for migrating and patching operating systems."
"The features are good."
 

Cons

"The solution is not flexible."
"I think that this solution should be more user-friendly."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox doesn't work properly with an antivirus tool."
"The tool has some stability issues."
"The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases."
"The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware."
"It would be good if we could use Hyper-V Windows subsystems with Linux and VirtualBox on the same instance. Currently, to be able to use VirtualBox, we have to restart the machine into an instance of Windows where Hyper-V is disabled, which is understandably very inconvenient."
"Basically, the GUI and command-line interface need improvement."
"The support can be improved."
"I would like to see more detailed reporting capabilities, particularly around snapshot activity. It would be helpful to have a summary of changes made prior to deploying an application, allowing us to provide comprehensive reports to our management on a regular basis."
"VMware Player isn't downgradable, so if you have a later set of VMs, you need to upgrade it or figure out a workaround."
"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."
"The interface is a little wonky and needs to be improved."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
"They could include official support for macOS virtualization within VMware Workstation."
"VMware Workstation has some network limitations which could improve, it is not as flexible as VMware NSX. Additionally, it could support operating systems better. I only run some Linux versions and Windows at the moment but it would be nice to be able to take whatever operating system you want and run it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license I use is free."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Available for free use"
"No licensing is required as it is open-source."
"Price wise, Oracle VM VirtualBox is a six on a scale from one to ten."
"There are no licensing fees."
"This is an open-source product and it can be used free of charge."
"Pricing does not apply for us, we do not have to pay for the service."
"I use the free version of VMware Workstation."
"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"With a VDI solution, there is always extra cost running a VDI solution but it's not for cost purposes anymore. In the beginning, it was to save money on hardware but at the moment it's other aspects that are more important why you should use a VDI solution."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution is moderately priced. I rate the pricing a six out of ten."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive tool. I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low or good price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

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?
In the enterprise scenario, all software solutions, including Oracle VM VirtualBox, are expensive. It is important to evaluate all options to choose the best one.
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 Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
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

Airbus, Colorado State University, SCS Africa, Wolf Medical Systems.
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