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.
"What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines."
"Scaling the solution is easy. You just have to add more hardware."
"It is an open ecosystem, and we see there is a benefit in open-source solutions."
"The most helpful aspect of KVM is the fact that the interface is so minimal. It includes just what you need to set up the VMs and manage them, and it's very simple to do so."
"The performance is great."
"The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability."
"This solution is open source and easy to configure."
"I like that this is an open-source solution. It is very powerful, and it's easy."
"This is a good and easy solution for running virtual environments."
"The versatility, simplicity, and stability of the product are it's most valuable features."
"Technical support is good."
"I like that it is free and runs on Linux/Ubuntu - I wouldn't use any other solution. I am able to perform small developing tests."
"The pause feature is valuable. I can pause, which is something that not all hypervisors allow. The snapshot feature is also valuable."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster."
"This product is extremely easy to install, use, has a great GUI and is incredibly stable."
"The solution’s user interface could be improved and made more user-friendly."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"Lacks high availability across clusters as well as support for Apache CloudStack."
"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."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"One problem I have is that it's not very scalable when it comes to resizing the VM disk dimensions. For example, if you have initially set a virtual drive to 10 GB and you want to upgrade it to 15 GB, it's not that easy."
"The main drawback in the solution is probably disaster recovery."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"Basically, the GUI and command-line interface need improvement."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is not flexible, It's not like VMware."
"The memory and hardware usage could be a little bit lighter. Right now, it's quite heavy on the usage. The CPU usage should be lower."
"This should have better support for multiple network cards and some parts of the GUI should be improved."
"The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."
"The solution has to do a better job of promoting the product and its licensing capabilities."
"I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly."
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.