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 appreciate the network passcode feature in KVM, as it provides a convenient way to manage DNS and cloud hosting."
"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."
"KVM has a rich options set which can be directly used or via wrappers, such as libvirt."
"If you prefer command-line, there are all kinds of command-line options."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"It offers a high-availability environment."
"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."
"It is a stable product."
"I like that it has a snapshot feature."
"The solution has high performance and is easy to use."
"Oracle VM Virtualbox is easy to use and does not require much training."
"The snapshot feature is very powerful; it protects us from disaster."
"The solution is very stable."
"The versatility, simplicity, and stability of the product are it's most valuable features."
"The configuration and installation is pretty straightforward."
"The stability of this solution is less than other products in the same category."
"I have encountered difficulties in getting the tool's documentation."
"Monitoring and resolution could be improved."
"The virtual manager and the graphical QEMU for KVM need some improvement."
"We would like to have a software lifecycle solution included in this solution. We can handle the software needed for KVM, but also the software that we provide. A lifecycle component would be very beneficial."
"The grid interface of KVM needs improvement. It could be more beautiful, especially when compared to VMware."
"The initial setup of this solution is more difficult than some of the competing products and it could be improved."
"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."
"They could improve the graphics functionality of the product."
"When I select the Ubuntu operating system from within the virtual machine, it sometimes hangs."
"Oracle needs to improve its hot virtual machine migration. It didn't work as intended. It should allow us to migrate between virtual machines, without stopping the database."
"Having live migrations to move a running server to other hardware would be great."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"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."
"It should have the functionality where if I move the mouse away from one screen, the context changes automatically."
"The solution needs to improve the methods used for starting and stopping the machine."
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.