Oracle VirtualBox vs. VMware Workstation Pro

Oracle VirtualBox

154 Reviews and Ratings

VMware Workstation Pro

90 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Oracle VirtualBox	Score9.3 out of 10	N/A	Oracle VirtualBox is an open source, cross-platform, virtualization software, enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device.	$0 per month
VMware Workstation Pro	Score8.2 out of 10	N/A	VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.	N/A

Pricing

Oracle VirtualBox

VMware Workstation Pro

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Pricing Offerings
Oracle VirtualBox	VMware Workstation Pro
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

No setup fee

No setup fee

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Community Pulse
Key User Insights
	Oracle VirtualBox	VMware Workstation Pro
Considered Both Products	Oracle Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox Oracle VirtualBox is the better choice due to its cost-effectiveness, ease of use and feature set. However VMware Workstation is more suitable due to its superior performance, better features and better integration with enterprise tools. VMware Workstation also provides a … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox It always depends on the usecase which product is better suited. But generally, Oracle VM VirtualBox is very easy to set up on every operating system and is intuitive in the usage. Compared to VMware Workstation it offers less features but for a basic setup, I prefer Oracle VM … Incentivized Helpful? Dave King Director of IT in Information Technology at Preis PLC (Law Practice, 51-200 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox stacks up perfectly and it is Free Incentivized Helpful? Gabriel Krahn Analista de Suporte de Sistemas in Information Technology at T-Systems do Brasil (Computer Software, 10,001+ employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox Oracle's solution is entirely free, although a bit clumsy and visually outdated. Hyper-V can and will be a better match due to having more resources, offering full Microsoft Support, and being focused mainly on corporative uses, but for a small environment, it can be like … Incentivized Helpful? Tyler Twitchell Senior System Engineer in Information Technology at NetDocuments (Computer Software, 201-500 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox VirutalBox is very similar to using Vmware with the slight difference in appearance and what might be considered a less polished look. However, what it lacks in polish and looks it makes up for in functionality, easy of use and the wide range of operating systems and features … Incentivized Helpful? Aaron Pinsker Owner in Information Technology at Colorado Computer Care (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox The main benefits of Oracle VM VirtualBox are its licensing terms (it is free), its open-source nature, and its active community. However, its various competitors do a much better job when it comes to both ease of use and, most importantly, speed. For example, Parallels Desktop … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox With regards to how some of the other virtualization software packages stack up again VirtualBox, I would say VirtualBox is ahead of the game especially when it comes to cost savings, as there is no ongoing cost for running the software. A big disadvantage to one of the other … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox As I mentioned earlier, Oracle VM VirtualBox and VMware Workstation offer roughly the same type of features. One of the main differences is that VMware Workstation is a commercial product while Oracle VM VirtualBox is open-source. Resource utilization and graphics support is … Incentivized Helpful? Kenneth Hess Community Manager Enable SysAdmin in Marketing at Red Hat (Computer Software, 10,001+ employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox VirtualBox is just as robust and as functional as the VMware desktop product. It actually has more features and in some ways is easier to work with. I've also found that VirtualBox supports newer operating systems better than VMware Workstation. There's also the cost advantage … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox I have used Parallels as well as VMware Workstation and have always returned to VirtualBox. VirtualBox is free which makes it easy to try. Compared to the others, it does everything I need. In +7 years I have not been able to justify the cost of a Parallels Desktop or VMware … Incentivized Helpful? Christopher Boyd Owner, Developer in Information Technology at Cre8tiveCoder (Computer Software, 1-10 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox It's free, fast, and really well built. Obviously, VMware is the key competitor, but I consider that more of an enterprise app for building and managing entire networks of virtual systems, whereas VirtualBox is fantastic as a personal VM tool. What it lacks in enterprise-grade … Incentivized Helpful? Justin Bongard Senior IT Support Technician in Information Technology at Global Financial Credit, LLC (Financial Services, 51-200 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox It's much more useful than VMware Workstation Player because you can't edit anything at all with that free version of vmWare. This is just about as capable as VMware Fusion and Workstation until you pay even more to use vSphere, and then you start having enterprise features. Incentivized Helpful? Benard Mutua Operations manager in Engineering at Rescom Ventures Limited (Real Estate, 51-200 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox It has always been a simple task to choose between both these software, and we were able to choose oracle virtual box as opposed to choosing VMware Workstation for the simple aspect of pricing. Acquiring Oracle VirtualBox is way simpler than paying for VMware software to use at … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox Oracle Virtual Box is better than the VMware Workstation as it offers a great user interface and a wizard to get you started with ease. It is also very simple to install and can be done by newbies, yes, even the intern can install this for you as you work on something else. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox Personal experience - I find VMware Workstation has more features, but VB is cheaper and much easier to use for simple VM deployment. Ultimately the cost won out over the features. That is why we use VB. Incentivized Helpful? Derek Ardolf Freelance Consultant and Educator in Information Technology at Halfway To Infinite (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox Reasons why I prefer to use Oracle VM VirtualBox: I've worked and taught in many environments where the OS used by others (or by me for employment reasons) is a mix of Windows and Mac OSX. Sometimes Linux is around if I can help it. Being familiar with VirtualBox means I won't … Incentivized Helpful? Miguel Angel Merino Vega Analista de Sistemas in Information Technology at Consultor independiente de software (Computer Software, 1-10 employees) Chose Oracle VirtualBox VM VirtualBox is the best free option on the market. While VMware Workstation can offer better performance than VM Virtualbox, it has a price. The alternative that VMware offers for free virtualization is VMware Player, but offers many fewer features, and falls far short … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose Oracle VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox is a good hypervisor, for the reasons mentioned above. However, working also with VMWare, I noticed that Oracle VM VirtualBox's memory consumption is always higher than VMWare, and that Oracle VM VirtualBox doesn't allow for running multiple VMs … Incentivized Helpful?	VMware by Broadcom Verified User Chose VMware Workstation Pro They all have their strengths and weaknesses. If you're a vCenter shop then Workstation is for you. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose VMware Workstation Pro VMware Workstation does have a price unlike VirtualBox, that is free. But, Workstation Pro makes up for it by how many features comes with it. We are also able to take VM's in our vSphere Production environment and spin it up on and isolated laptop for sandbox testing within … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose VMware Workstation Pro It is easy to use. It makes easy to integration and/or migration between ESXi servers. It is easy to use VM template and images without conversion. Because of we have been using VMware Vcenter and Hypervisors it is practical to use VMware Workstation Pro for zero compatibility … Incentivized Helpful? Oscar Ramirez It Support in Customer Service at Mepal (Civil Engineering, 51-200 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro I was a VirtualBox user a few years ago, but the combination of VMware vCenter Converter and VMware Workstation Pro makes this suite a perfect solution for enterprise environments to test all the changes your infrastructure needs before any real deployment. Incentivized Helpful? Toni Lora IT Admin in Information Technology at Mepal (Building Materials, 51-200 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro Oracle VM VirtualBox is a great solution if you search for a zero cost solution. But if you can afford it, VMware Workstation Pro is a more professional solution Incentivized Helpful? Vlad VARNA Principal Software Architect in Engineering at NortonLifeLock (Computer Software, 1001-5000 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro VirtualBox has done a lot of catching up with VMware in the past years, so if you don't need the advanced network configuration or 3D support it's a good alternative, but VMware seems to still be faster, and support for USB devices is a lot more robust. The UI is also more … Incentivized Helpful? Tyler Twitchell Senior System Engineer in Information Technology at NetDocuments (Computer Software, 201-500 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro This version of the HyperVisor is similar to other systems, but like most, it has its own twist on things and how it works. One of the essential functions is the tabbed approach to listing VM's which allows multiple servers to be running and allowing access to each using … Incentivized Helpful? Graham Murison Network Analyst in Information Technology at Abbotsford Police Department (Government Administration, 201-500 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro We briefly tested Virtualbox but found that Workstation had better performance, had a proven track record and the features that we were looking for. Workstation was also easier to install at the time we tested both. Workstation is also easier to configure, and the documentation … Incentivized Helpful? Stefan Trbojevic CCC Team Lead in Information Technology at NCR Corporation (Information Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro VMware Workstation is among the pioneers of virtual machines, every option and every feature is well thought out and implemented, there is no image that it cannot run. It doesn't require that much setup, unlike similar software. Incentivized Helpful? valentine leamy IT Technician in Information Technology at Innovative Corporate Solutions (Information Technology and Services, 201-500 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro By far better than Oracle Virtual Box. If you want to create a similar environment for your team members working around the globe in order to work on the same project, this is the best solution available, or else you can go for some online editors like on Cloud9 and have the … Incentivized Helpful? Michael Timms IT Specialist in Information Technology at iQor (Telecommunications, 10,001+ employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro I have used just about every Virtual machine software on the market from Oracle Virtualbox, VMware Fusion, KVM for Linux, Microsoft Hyper-v, and the Google virtual machine software, and even though I love Virtualbox none of them come close to the ease of use and the quality of … Incentivized Helpful? Evan Miller Systems Support Engineer in Information Technology at College of William & Mary (Higher Education, 1001-5000 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro Much better. Ease of integration and driver management was way better than the other free product we tested. The full features of VMware Workstation, in my opinion blow any competition out of the water for the purposes we use it for. Yes, there are free solutions out there … Incentivized Helpful? Ulf Thornander Senior APM Specialist in Information Technology at Red Ocean Software (Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro Virtualbox has features that VMware lacks but is still quite immature. Incentivized Helpful? Ayush Choukse student at Sjsu (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees) Chose VMware Workstation Pro Vmware workstation is always better than Virtualbox in features. It lets you manage all the virtual machines like Google Chrome, you can extend the virtual machine up to 2 monitors, which is by far my most liked feature. Incentivized Helpful?
	Would buy again
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Delivers good value for the price
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Happy with the feature set
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Lived up to sales and marketing promises
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Implementation went as expected
No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic

Features

Oracle VirtualBox

VMware Workstation Pro

Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Pro
Feature	Oracle VirtualBox 8.2 50 Ratings	VMware Workstation Pro 7.6 28 Ratings
Virtual machine automated provisioning	8.036 Ratings	7.021 Ratings
Management console	8.846 Ratings	8.023 Ratings
Live virtual machine backup	8.236 Ratings	8.021 Ratings
Live virtual machine migration	7.033 Ratings	7.120 Ratings
Hypervisor-level security	9.029 Ratings	8.020 Ratings

User Ratings
	Oracle VirtualBox	VMware Workstation Pro
Likelihood to Recommend	9.7 (53 ratings)	7.0 (29 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	10.0 (4 ratings)	9.0 (1 ratings)
Usability	10.0 (7 ratings)	8.1 (3 ratings)
Availability	8.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Performance	10.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Support Rating	10.0 (2 ratings)	7.7 (2 ratings)
Implementation Rating	10.0 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Configurability	9.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Product Scalability	8.0 (1 ratings)	- (0 ratings)