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.
"I like that this is an open-source solution. It is very powerful, and it's easy."
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"The GUI interface makes the management of KVM easier than ever before."
"There is a strong emphasis on availability, and they have numerous API interfaces for distributed storage and the solution is quite known for its openness."
"One of the best features of KVM is its user-friendly interface."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"The initial setup was very easy."
"What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines."
"The installation is easy."
"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."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is easy to use."
"The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
"The product gives us the flexibility to try different machines."
"Technical support is good."
"This solution creates a snapshot of virtual machines so you can create test environments."
"The scalability of the solution is very good."
"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 KVM tech support is really bad. They are not very responsive."
"Technical support is not top-notch."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations."
"I would like to see more focus on microservices and integration with Kubernetes or OpenShift."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"The solution should be more user friendly. We are struggling with the command lines."
"The communications setup lags. It does not connect properly so the batching and networking is a bit slow."
"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."
"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."
"It would be good if we could use Hyper-V Windows subsystems with Linux and VirtualBox on the same instance. Currently, to be able to use VirtualBox, we have to restart the machine into an instance of Windows where Hyper-V is disabled, which is understandably very inconvenient."
"The AI and the UI could be improved. The user interface is a little outdated and the AI is not very attractive."
"The user interface needs to 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."
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.