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.
"What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines."
"It is an easily scalable solution."
"Good screen and keyboard sharing feature."
"This solution is open source and easy to configure."
"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."
"The product's scalability is good...It's a very stable product."
"The most valuable feature of KVM is its stability."
"The most valuable feature is hypervisor. I can host at the same time different operating systems in Linux Windows."
"The flexibility as well as performance wise and as well as data volume, we have huge volume stored."
"This solution creates a snapshot of virtual machines so you can create test environments."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its stability."
"This is a good and easy solution for running virtual environments."
"The most valuable aspects of the solution were the support and performance of the product and the flexibility it gives you to work."
"The installation is easy."
"This solution can be used on many different platforms including Windows and Linux."
"VirtualBox provides an isolated, consistent environment"
"The KVM tech support is really bad. They are not very responsive."
"Some things are pretty basic, and they could be more robust with more detail."
"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."
"Its resource usage can be improved."
"The product must provide better performance monitoring features."
"In KVM, snapshots and cloning are areas where there could be a little more sophistication, like VMware."
"We are not getting good support from KVM, and it is not that user-friendly."
"I have previously used VMware and KVM is easier to use. However, they both have their strengths depending on their use cases. They are mostly equal. One of VMware's advantages is it has better support."
"The solution could be more user-friendly."
"I think that this solution should be more user-friendly."
"They could improve the graphics functionality of the product."
"Oracle VMs don't have a solid web interface of their own. This is an area where Oracle is lagging behind. Now, we use headless servers, install Oracle VMs, and manage them remotely. We could use phpVirtual Box, but it is a third-party solution. A lot of people contribute to it, and it's not authenticated by Oracle. As a result, I don't find it to be a good option. Therefore, I would like to see Oracle offer an extension pack or a licensed version that fixes this problem."
"There are a few bugs that need to be updated."
"Oracle VM VirtualBox is not flexible, It's not like VMware."
"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."
"We're working with them to be able to allow the local USB ports to be ported over to the remote desktop, running VirtualBox."
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.