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.
"This solution is open source and easy to configure."
"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."
"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 initial setup was simple."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability."
"Very cost-effective."
"VirtualBox provides an isolated, consistent environment"
"The most valuable feature is the ability to copy bidirectionally between the desktop and the virtual machine."
"It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its stability."
"The solution is very convenient and easy to use."
"It's a pretty good product in terms of monitoring."
"I like that it has a snapshot feature."
"It's very simple to use."
"The stability of this solution is less than other products in the same category."
"The solution’s user interface could be improved and made more user-friendly."
"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."
"The grid interface of KVM needs improvement. It could be more beautiful, especially when compared to VMware."
"Monitoring and resolution could be improved."
"There are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"The product must provide better performance monitoring features."
"The solution needs to improve the methods used for starting and stopping the machine."
"The solution should have more enterprise features, like migration, high availability storage, disaster recovery, and the ability to deploy to enterprise-scale usage. They should not just offer desktop usage."
"I find the solution to be incredibly unstable, constantly falling over and not working properly."
"It's not as robust as server platforms, nor does it need to be."
"The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware."
"Basically, the GUI and command-line interface need improvement."
"They could improve the graphics functionality of the product."
"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."
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.