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.
"A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead."
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"Good screen and keyboard sharing feature."
"It is easy to use, stable, and flexible. It is a pretty mature product, and it is faster than VirtualBox."
"The product is really good...One can get good performance because of kernel-based virtualization."
"I appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting."
"What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines."
"I find the density of the product most valuable. It is density that a technologist can just assign page merging. This is what makes KVM one of the important players of the virtualization market."
"The flexibility and the closed platform, so it allows you to run in multiple platforms, Windows, Linux, Macintosh."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to copy bidirectionally between the desktop and the virtual machine."
"The scalability of the solution is very good."
"The versatility, simplicity, and stability of the product are it's most valuable features."
"The product’s most valuable feature is the ability to manage multiple operating systems through one application."
"Technical support is good."
"The solution is very stable."
"It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge."
"The only negative aspect of needing hardware support is a fully functional KVM can be dropped. It would be nice if the support for other platforms, like ARM or Risk, were as good as the x86 one. However, with the democratization of Chromebooks based on these chips and mobile devices, it will not take long for that to happen."
"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 solution’s user interface could be improved and made more user-friendly."
"Its resource usage can be improved."
"I would like to see more focus on microservices and integration with Kubernetes or OpenShift."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"There are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"Oracle’s support team should improve its response time."
"Oracle VMs don't have a solid web interface of their own. This is an area where Oracle is lagging behind. Now, we use headless servers, install Oracle VMs, and manage them remotely. We could use phpVirtual Box, but it is a third-party solution. A lot of people contribute to it, and it's not authenticated by Oracle. As a result, I don't find it to be a good option. Therefore, I would like to see Oracle offer an extension pack or a licensed version that fixes this problem."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
"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."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox doesn't work properly with an antivirus tool."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"The technical support needs to improve."
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.