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."
"KVM is stable."
"Good screen and keyboard sharing feature."
"A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead."
"It offers a high-availability environment."
"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."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"It is an open ecosystem, and we see there is a benefit in open-source solutions."
"Oracle VM Virtualbox is easy to use and does not require much training."
"It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge."
"It's very simple to use."
"The solution has high performance and is easy to use."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution were the support and performance of the product and the flexibility it gives you to work."
"The solution is very convenient and easy to use."
"The configuration and installation is pretty straightforward."
"The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"I believe KVM offers a unified answer, while ProxMark addresses orchestration. KVM lacks orchestration. If the aim is to centrally oversee multiple KVMs – let's say to freeze them – a centralized management solution is absent."
"In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs."
"The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery."
"Technical support is not top-notch."
"Its resource usage can be improved."
"Technical support could be better. In the next release, I would like to see an improved user interface and dashboard. This type of improvement will make it easy or help our engineers understand the solution from a requirement point of view."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"We're working with them to be able to allow the local USB ports to be ported over to the remote desktop, running VirtualBox."
"This should have better support for multiple network cards and some parts of the GUI should be improved."
"The solution lacks some open source remote administration tools. The reload of individual virtual machine definitions through the vboxweb service (via its API) without restarting it and the access to shared storage (to use teleport functions) need to be improved."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox doesn't work properly with an antivirus tool."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
"The solution should work to simplify the system. However, it should be flexible enough to allow for special cases."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"The solution needs to improve the methods used for starting and stopping the machine."
KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 39 reviews while Oracle VM VirtualBox is ranked 5th in Server Virtualization Software with 61 reviews. KVM is rated 8.0, while Oracle VM VirtualBox is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of KVM writes "Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Oracle VM VirtualBox writes "The solution is versatile, simple to use, and stable". 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.