We performed a comparison between KVM and Oracle VM VirtualBox based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both KVM and Oracle VM VirtualBox have their strengths and weaknesses. Oracle VM VirtualBox seems to be the more favorable choice of the two, since it offers good scalability whereas scalability seems to be an ongoing issue for KVM users.
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability."
"I think nine out of the ten supercomputers in the world use Linux KVM, so I think that attests to the fact that it is a scalable product."
"I appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting."
"It is an open ecosystem, and we see there is a benefit in open-source solutions."
"The product is really good...One can get good performance because of kernel-based virtualization."
"KVM has a rich options set which can be directly used or via wrappers, such as libvirt."
"The solution is very convenient and easy to use."
"This is a good and easy solution for running virtual environments."
"This product is very user-friendly and easy to use."
"This product is extremely easy to install, use, has a great GUI and is incredibly stable."
"The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable."
"This is a highly scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that there is no cost because it is open source."
"I like that it has a snapshot feature."
"Support for VF is needed, where you can, for example, export from VMware to KVM."
"We are not getting good support from KVM, and it is not that user-friendly."
"The virtual manager and the graphical QEMU for KVM need some improvement."
"Lacks high availability across clusters as well as support for Apache CloudStack."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"The networking with wireless devices needs improvement."
"One thing that maybe could be improved is making it easier to scale. It needs to be more clear on how to scale the storage space for virtual machines."
"The solution should be more user friendly. We are struggling with the command lines."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"Oracle’s support team should improve its response time."
"The solution has to do a better job of promoting the product and its licensing capabilities."
"The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware."
"They could improve the graphics functionality of the product."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is not flexible, It's not like VMware."
"The solution needs to improve the methods used for starting and stopping the machine."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 15 reviews while Oracle VM VirtualBox is ranked 5th in Server Virtualization Software with 10 reviews. KVM is rated 8.0, while Oracle VM VirtualBox is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of KVM writes "Reduces OpEx and is easy to maintain, along with low memory usage and a minimal interface". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Oracle VM VirtualBox writes "Simple to use, easy to configure, and reliable". KVM is most compared with Proxmox VE, Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, VMware Workstation and Oracle VM, whereas Oracle VM VirtualBox is most compared with Proxmox VE, Hyper-V, Oracle VM, VMware Workstation and VMware vSphere. See our KVM vs. Oracle VM VirtualBox report.
See our list of best Server Virtualization Software vendors.
We monitor all Server Virtualization Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.