We performed a comparison between KVM and RHEV based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: KVM wins out in this comparison. Users find it very fast and super easy to use and manage. It provides excellent security and scales easily. Many users feel RHEV is lacking in some documentation capabilities and security features and that it can be challenging to scale up when needed.
"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."
"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."
"I think nine out of the ten supercomputers in the world use Linux KVM, so I think that attests to the fact that it is a scalable product."
"A very reliable solution which can be used for x86 architecture virtualization with reasonable overhead."
"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."
"There aren't any bugs on the solution."
"Red Hat is the most stable system."
"It is a scalable solution."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The solution is stable."
"RHEV’s cost is much less compared to VMware."
"The solution makes migration easy."
"The price is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's much cheaper than, for example, VMware."
"KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations."
"The speed is around thirty percent slower than another competitor. This would be something to work on."
"One thing that maybe could be improved is making it easier to scale. It needs to be more clear on how to scale the storage space for virtual machines."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs."
"There are some issues with the graphics and some software that is very complex."
"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."
"Monitoring and resolution could be improved."
"The documentation is not as good as it should be."
"The Administration of the Oracle database and the SAP ERP needs improvement."
"The solution could use network virtualization."
"RHEV can improve by keeping pace with new features and new enhancements. They should not be halted or delayed innovation because over the past quarter the enhancements have not been as fast as they have been previously."
"While everything needs improvement in some way, I have no specifics."
"Customers are not aware of this solution, they can improve by providing more awareness and solution availability."
"It would be better to have more patches, especially kernel-level updates, live and online so that we can keep the business up and running during this period."
"Configuring the network interfaces is much better in Ubuntu and should be improved."
KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 39 reviews while RHEV is ranked 10th in Server Virtualization Software with 32 reviews. KVM is rated 8.0, while RHEV is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of KVM writes "Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization". On the other hand, the top reviewer of RHEV writes "Offers frameworks with well-documented API and easy to use". KVM is most compared with Proxmox VE, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Hyper-V, VMware vSphere and Citrix Hypervisor, whereas RHEV is most compared with VMware vSphere, Proxmox VE, Hyper-V, Oracle VM and Nutanix AHV Virtualization. See our KVM vs. RHEV 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.