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.
"The KVM service is well managed with a central policy interface."
"It is an open ecosystem, and we see there is a benefit in open-source solutions."
"One of the best features of KVM is its user-friendly interface."
"If you are a Linux desktop user, KVM is the solution to go with if you have to start virtual machines with Linux or other operating systems with almost zero extra configuration needed."
"Very cost-effective."
"Our production servers are running in Linux, and this solution supports that environment well."
"The GUI interface makes the management of KVM easier than ever before."
"Scaling the solution is easy. You just have to add more hardware."
"This solution creates a snapshot of virtual machines so you can create test environments."
"The solution is very stable."
"This solution can be used on many different platforms including Windows and Linux."
"This is a good and easy solution for running virtual environments."
"I like that it has a snapshot feature."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox has a platform where the support team responds to frequently asked questions by its users. Every time I have had issues with Oracle VM VirtualBox, I always get a solution from Oracle's online platform or GitHub."
"The cloning is a very useful tool."
"It is easy to use and does not require complex knowledge."
"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."
"Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail."
"Monitoring and resolution could be improved."
"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."
"The networking with wireless devices needs improvement."
"Its resource usage can be improved."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"When I select the Ubuntu operating system from within the virtual machine, it sometimes hangs."
"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."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"One valuable feature would be for it to work right the first time but it doesn't necessarily do that."
"Oracle’s support team should improve its response time."
"The solution needs to improve its flexibility. It's not as flexible as VMware."
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.