Virtualbox vs VMware: Detailed Comparison {How to Choose?} (2023)

FAQs

How do VMware and VirtualBox compare? ›

VirtualBox and VMware are both connected to virtualization. The primary distinction between VirtualBox and VMware is that VirtualBox is a free and open-source hypervisor which Oracle Corporation creates. In contrast, VMware is a cloud computing and platform virtualization software and services, provider.

VirtualBox supports a variety of virtual disc types (VMDK, VHD, HDD, and QED), as well as integration tools like Vagrant and Docker whereas VMware does not support a large number of different disc formats. Virtual machines created by VMware are faster than those created by VirtualBox.

VMware Vs VirtualBox: Key differences

There is large scope for the various operating system in VirtualBox while VMware has a narrow scope also the interface of VirtualBox is easy to use while on the flipside the interface of VMware is quite complex and hard.

VirtualBox has limited support for 3D graphics (up to OpenGL 3.0, Direct3D 9). 3D acceleration must be enabled in the VM settings manually. A maximum 128 MB of video memory is supported. Graphics drivers must be installed on the host machine, and VirtualBox Guest Additions must be installed on the guest machine.

VirtualBox supports software virtualization, while VMware doesn't. Software virtualization emulates a complete computer system and runs guests on top of it. This type of virtualization allows you to run virtual machines that use a different platform than the host.

Oracle VM supports hard partitioning which can significantly reduce software applications licensing costs. VMware vSphere is a powerful and complete server virtualization platform that allows its users to create and manage virtual data centers and machines.

Oracle VM VirtualBox is the #5 ranked solution in best Server Virtualization Software. PeerSpot users give Oracle VM VirtualBox an average rating of 7.8 out of 10. Oracle VM VirtualBox is most commonly compared to Proxmox VE: Oracle VM VirtualBox vs Proxmox VE.

VirtualBox is excellent if you only need to run VMs on a few machines and want access to a command line interface in addition to the GUI. Both solutions offer a “snapshot” feature that has proven highly popular as a response to one of the inherent challenges of virtualization: mistakes.

Choosing the right type of VM is as simple as matching your workload against the type of VM designed to run that workload. Example 1: If you're in a testing/development phase, run low traffic web servers or host a small-to-medium database, the General Purpose VM Type would be a good choice.

Benefits include increased performance and speed, load balancing and reduced costs. Storage virtualization also helps with disaster recovery planning, as virtual storage data can be duplicated and quickly transferred to another location, reducing downtime.

Is VirtualBox the best virtual machine? ›

Most Versatile Virtual Machine Software

The best free virtual machine software for Linux is also the most versatile for other operating systems. Oracle VM VirtualBox is an open-source software that supports the widest range of guest operating systems of any virtual machine software on this list.

In terms of security, it is biased on both sides; VMWare is closed-source meaning only the employees have access to the source code which does make it harder to exploit (since the attacker cannot just read the source code to find problems but would have to spend lots of time manually reversing and testing on repeat), ...

One of the main drawbacks of VMware is its cost. VMware products are not free, and you may need to purchase licenses, subscriptions, or support plans to use them. VMware also requires more resources than Hyper-V, as it runs on top of an existing operating system, rather than being part of it.

VirtualBox allows any system to install and operate as many virtual machines as its memory and disc space allow. Depending on the host system's configuration, one can use this solution to deploy anything from desktop-class machines and small embedded systems to cloud environments and large datacenter deployments.

Containers are more lightweight than VMs, as their images are measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes. Containers require fewer IT resources to deploy, run, and manage. Containers spin up in milliseconds. Since their order of magnitude is smaller.

It is possible. The major caveat I've run into is that usually only one hypervisor can use the hardware acceleration features offered by modern motherboards/chipsets, so one hypervisor may have to run in software virtualization mode, which can limit you VM guest choices.

VMware is a virtualization and cloud computing software provider based in Palo Alto, Calif. Founded in 1998, VMware is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies. EMC Corporation originally acquired VMware in 2004; EMC was later acquired by Dell Technologies in 2016.

What is the difference between VMware template and virtual machine? ›

Whereas a template serves as a baseline image for creating multiple VMs, a VM clone is an exact copy, sharing many of the hardware and software configuration settings, including unique identifiers, which can create interoperability issues.

Create New Virtual Machine

VirtualBox recommends that the memory size be at least 512MB, however, the more memory you make available to the VM, the smoother and more powerful it will be. As a rule of thumb, 1/4 of the amount of memory you have on your computer should be just fine.

Yes, it can. You can see below that my laptop has 16Gb of physical RAM and yet the VM allocates a maximum amount of 1Tb. But if the VM uses over the physical RAM, the host OS will use the swap so it will get very slow.

Your processor does not offer hardware-assisted virtualization so VirtualBox is using software-based techniques, which will use more CPU time and make everything slow. Read more about it here.

Another reason for the slow performance of VirtualBox, especially if you are using a laptop, is the power plan you use for how your device consumes and saves power. In order for VirtualBox to run smoothly and without delays, Power Plan must be set to High Performance.

VirtualBox

Then VirtualBox is a good choice because it supports an amazingly wide selection of host and client combinations. Windows from XP onwards, any Linux level 2.4 or better, Windows NT, Server 2003, Solaris, OpenSolaris and even OpenBSD Unix. There are even people that nostalgically run Windows 3.

Answer: Some users have claimed that they find VMware to be faster compared to VirtualBox. Actually, both VirtualBox and VMware consume a lot of resources from the host machine. Therefore, the physical or hardware capabilities of the host machine are, to a great extent, a deciding factor when virtual machines are run.

Generally speaking, there are three typical classes of virtual machine (VM) architecture -- the hypervisor, host-based virtualization and para-virtualization, which are differentiated by the position of the virtualization layer. The hypervisor is also known as the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM).

Why would anyone want to use a virtual machine? ›

Virtual machines are best for running multiple applications together, monolithic applications, isolation between apps, and for legacy apps running on older operating systems. Containers and virtual machines may also be used together.

The main purpose of VMs is to operate multiple operating systems at the same time, from the same piece of hardware. Without virtualization, operating multiple systems — like Windows and Linux — would require two separate physical units.

VirtualBox, in contrast, is a type 2 hypervisor and can allow users to have quick access to the alternative guest OS alongside the primary host's operating system.

Linux Mint is often considered the best Linux distro for VirtualBox, and rightfully so. That's because it comes with an intuitive and beautiful user interface. Above all, it's beginner-friendly and user-oriented. You can also customize the look and feel of the interface by using themes and plugins.

The answer is yes, as virtual machines are just as vulnerable to viruses and malware as physical machines. Virtual machines are a great way to save money and resources, but they can also be a target for malicious software. To protect your virtual machine, you should install antivirus software and keep it up to date.

VirtualBox and Hyper-V are good free options. If you want to set up a headless server for your lab, you'll probably like VMware vSphere Hypervisor (formerly called ESXi), which is also free. If using VMware Workstation, you'll need the commercial version: Workstation Pro for Windows and Linux or Fusion Pro for macOS.

Is it safe to run viruses in VirtualBox? Depends, if you are running a virtual machine on windows, while the virtual machine is open there is a small chance that the virus could migrate over to windows. If your running a virtual machine on Linux I would say it's 99.9% impossible to get the main system infected.

As of October 15, 2022, VMware ESXi 6.5 and VMware ESXi 6.7 reached end-of-life and will only receive technical support but no security updates, putting the software at risk of vulnerabilities. The company analyzed data from 6,000 customers and found 79,000 installed VMware ESXi servers.

Why not to use virtual machines? ›

Disadvantages. Virtual machines are less efficient than real machines because they access hardware indirectly. Running VM software on top of the host operating system means that it will have to request access to storage and memory from the physical device.

Both VirtualBox and VMWare are safe, reputable hypervisors. A website that looks "old" is not an indicator of malice, and sometimes the most reputable websites look very old indeed. VMWare has more closed source components than VirtualBox, which can make it less trustworthy as a result of a closed design.

VirtualBox does not use the hard disk for virtual RAM. It uses the computer's physical RAM for virtual RAM. In the screenshot 4096 MB of the available 16384 Base Memory (the physical RAM) is allocated to the guest OS and the remainder of the physical RAM is available to be used by the host OS.

VirtualBox was originally created by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010. VirtualBox may be installed on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris.

In case your organization is making use of the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack software for production or commercial purposes, then such use is required to be licensed through a commercial license.

Hyper-V is a type 1 hypervisor while VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor. Hyper-V can only be installed on Windows-based systems, while VirtualBox is a multiplatform product. Hyper-V supports clustering features such as failover clustering and load balancing.

VMs solve infrastructure problems by letting organizations get more out of servers and facilitate limited workload portability. Containers solve application problems by improving DevOps, enabling microservices, increasing portability, and further improving resource utilization.

VirtualBox allows any system to install and operate as many virtual machines as its memory and disc space allow. Depending on the host system's configuration, one can use this solution to deploy anything from desktop-class machines and small embedded systems to cloud environments and large datacenter deployments.

The recommended VirtualBox version for Windows is VirtualBox 7.0.

What is the main difference between containers and VM virtual machine? ›

Key differences: containers vs. virtual machines. Containers virtualize the operating system so the application can run independently on any platform. Virtual machines go beyond that to virtualize physical machines, so you can use your hardware resources efficiently.

For example, while VMware can use more logical CPUs and virtual CPUs per host, Hyper-V can accommodate more physical memory per host and VM.

There are three main types of server virtualization: full-virtualization, para-virtualization, and OS-level virtualization.