What is the best vir­tu­al­iza­tion software?

Vir­tu­al­iza­tion software separates the operating system from the un­der­ly­ing hardware, allowing powerful IT resources to be divided into smaller, in­de­pen­dent units. For example, it enables multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on a single physical server. When used across large computing en­vi­ron­ments, vir­tu­al­iza­tion makes it possible to build flexible and scalable IT in­fra­struc­tures. We compare the best vir­tu­al­iza­tion software available.

The best VM software compared

Here, we compare the key features of the best VM software at a glance. You can find more detailed in­for­ma­tion on each option in the sections below.

All in­for­ma­tion is correct as of September 2026.

Vir­tu­al­iza­tion involves creating an ab­strac­tion layer between physical hardware and the operating system or between the operating system and an ap­pli­ca­tion. By ab­stract­ing IT com­po­nents such as hardware, software, storage and network resources, vir­tu­al­iza­tion makes it possible to provide resources at a virtual level and allocate them flexibly to different users according to their needs. This is one of the key benefits of vir­tu­al­iza­tion.

The un­der­ly­ing mech­a­nisms vary depending on the type of vir­tu­al­iza­tion software used. In hardware vir­tu­al­iza­tion, software known as a hy­per­vi­sor is used. The hy­per­vi­sor acts as an interface between the physical hardware and virtual machines. A hy­per­vi­sor typically runs on a par­tic­u­lar operating system (OS), known as the host OS, and provides vir­tu­al­ized hardware for a guest OS. There are two types of hy­per­vi­sor:

What is vir­tu­al­iza­tion software used for?

Vir­tu­al­iza­tion software is used to create virtual machines based on physical hardware. This process, known as “pro­vi­sion­ing,” forms the basis for scalable cloud platforms and In­fra­struc­ture as a Service (IaaS).

Virtual machines (VMs) offer another key advantage compared with operating systems installed directly on physical hardware. The state of a VM can be saved as a “snapshot”. If something goes wrong while working with the VM, you can quickly revert to the last snapshot.

Another advantage of some VM programs is that they provide access to remote systems. With desktop vir­tu­al­iza­tion, the VM software runs locally, while the virtual machine itself is hosted on a remote system. Vir­tu­al­iza­tion can also improve security by sep­a­rat­ing an operating system into multiple isolated en­vi­ron­ments that operate in­de­pen­dent­ly of one another.

The best vir­tu­al­iza­tion software

Below, we take a closer look at the best vir­tu­al­iza­tion software for virtual machines (VMs). The com­par­i­son does not include bare-metal hy­per­vi­sors such as ESXi and Xen, or tools designed ex­clu­sive­ly for container vir­tu­al­iza­tion, such as Docker, Ku­ber­netes and OpenShift. Instead, we focus on VM software for end users, grouped by guest operating system. Keep in mind that server versions of VM software can cost con­sid­er­ably more.

What is the best VM software for Windows?

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, Windows offered rel­a­tive­ly limited vir­tu­al­iza­tion ca­pa­bil­i­ties, while Linux has long been a popular platform for vir­tu­al­iza­tion. However, Windows has made con­sid­er­able progress in this area. Microsoft’s Hyper-V hy­per­vi­sor, for example, is in­te­grat­ed into modern versions of Windows. The tech­nol­o­gy also provides the foun­da­tion for the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL / WSL2).

Vir­tu­al­iza­tion software can be par­tic­u­lar­ly useful on Windows because virtual machines (VMs) provide isolated en­vi­ron­ments for safer computing. For example, you can carry out sensitive tasks such as online banking in a separate Linux VM, reducing exposure to threats affecting the host system. However, the isolation of a VM alone does not guarantee that the en­vi­ron­ment is free of malware. VMs also support snapshots, allowing you to save a par­tic­u­lar system state and restore it if something goes wrong.

Microsoft Hyper-V Manager

Microsoft’s Hyper-V Manager is included with Windows Server and supported editions of Windows (excluding Home editions). The tool itself can be used at no ad­di­tion­al cost, although a valid Windows license may still be required.

Hyper-V Manager lets you manage Hyper-V hosts and virtual machines, either locally or on remote systems. Its graphical user interface provides a central platform for managing virtual en­vi­ron­ments.

VMware Work­sta­tion

The desktop hy­per­vi­sor Work­sta­tion from VMware is designed for IT pro­fes­sion­als, de­vel­op­ers and busi­ness­es. It allows you to vir­tu­al­ize most x86 operating systems on a standard desktop PC and can also connect to remote vSphere en­vi­ron­ments.

Work­sta­tion can be used to build, test and demon­strate software across different devices, platforms and cloud en­vi­ron­ments. The vir­tu­al­iza­tion software also supports the con­fig­u­ra­tion of virtual networks and other virtual resources. In addition, you can run local OCI con­tain­ers and Ku­ber­netes clusters with VM isolation. The vctl command-line tool can be used to manage these con­tain­ers and Ku­ber­netes en­vi­ron­ments.

As with many VM programs, Work­sta­tion lets you create snapshots of virtual machines and restore them later. It can also be used to run a separate desktop en­vi­ron­ment with stricter privacy and network settings. Support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL within VMs is par­tic­u­lar­ly useful for gaming and other graphics-intensive ap­pli­ca­tions.

Oracle Vir­tu­al­Box

Vir­tu­al­Box from Oracle makes it easy to run virtual machines (VMs) on a desktop computer. Although its interface can feel somewhat dated, the software remains popular because it is straight­for­ward to use and offers a broad range of features. Vir­tu­al­Box is also available as free and open-source software (FOSS), which is rel­a­tive­ly unusual for a VM program developed by a com­mer­cial provider.

Vir­tu­al­Box provides the platform for running virtual machines on a host system and is often used alongside more spe­cial­ized tools. One example is Vagrant, which automates the creation of re­pro­ducible de­vel­op­ment en­vi­ron­ments. Vagrant acts as an interface between vir­tu­al­iza­tion platforms such as Vir­tu­al­Box, VMware and Hyper-V and pro­vi­sion­ing tools such as Puppet, Chef and Ansible.

What is the best VM software for Mac?

In principle, vir­tu­al­iza­tion software allows a guest operating system to run within a host operating system. For example, you can run a Linux dis­tri­b­u­tion from a Windows desktop or use Windows within a Linux en­vi­ron­ment. macOS is a special case, however, as a macOS guest system may legally only be run on Apple hardware running macOS.

VMware Fusion

With Fusion from VMware, you ef­fec­tive­ly have the Mac equiv­a­lent of the VMware Work­sta­tion product already presented. This VM program became famous because it allowed you to run Windows on a Mac. When the vir­tu­al­iza­tion software was released in 2007, this was sen­sa­tion­al. Nowadays, the tool has a lot more to offer.

With Fusion, you can run virtual machines (VMs) with supported Windows and Linux guest systems on a Mac and, depending on the version and the ar­chi­tec­ture of the machine, macOS as well. On Macs with Apple Silicon, guest operating systems must be Arm versions; x86 versions cannot be run directly as virtual machines. Fusion also provides virtual networks and other features for building isolated en­vi­ron­ments for de­vel­op­ment, testing and ad­min­is­tra­tion.

With the in­te­grat­ed snapshot func­tion­al­i­ty, you can revert to safe restore points whenever needed. The graphical user interface allows you to connect to remote vSphere and ESXi servers.

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Alongside VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop for Mac is one of the best-known VM programs for Mac. It allows de­vel­op­ers and other users to run multiple operating systems on a Mac without setting up a dual-boot con­fig­u­ra­tion. Because the operating systems run side by side, there is no need to restart the Mac whenever you want to switch between them.

Parallels Desktop focuses primarily on providing a Windows en­vi­ron­ment that runs alongside macOS. The vir­tu­al­iza­tion software allows you to move and share content seam­less­ly between Mac and Windows. With the so-called “Coherence mode,” you can even run Windows ap­pli­ca­tions alongside Mac ap­pli­ca­tions without dis­play­ing the full Windows desktop.

Oracle Vir­tu­al­Box

With Vir­tu­al­Box from Oracle, Mac users have access to free and open-source vir­tu­al­iza­tion software. The VM program is par­tic­u­lar­ly well suited to de­vel­op­ment, testing and smaller-scale desktop vir­tu­al­iza­tion. One of Vir­tu­al­Box’s main ad­van­tages is its broad platform support, with packages available for both Intel-based Macs and Macs with Apple Silicon; on the latter, however, some features, such as 3D ac­cel­er­a­tion, are still ex­per­i­men­tal.

On macOS, Vir­tu­al­Box stands out for its ease of use and flex­i­bil­i­ty. Virtual machines can be created and managed through the graphical interface, while the VBox­Man­age command-line tool supports automated workflows. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly useful in de­vel­op­ment and test en­vi­ron­ments, for example when several system con­fig­u­ra­tions need to run in parallel or when existing VM images and pre­con­fig­ured ap­pli­ances are used.

What is the best VM software for Linux?

The free operating system Linux has played a central role in the de­vel­op­ment of vir­tu­al­iza­tion tech­nol­o­gy. Today, many of the core com­po­nents required for vir­tu­al­iza­tion are built directly into the Linux kernel. As a result, Linux users can choose from a par­tic­u­lar­ly wide range of VM software, including both free and open-source solutions and com­mer­cial products.

KVM

The Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is built into the Linux kernel as a core vir­tu­al­iza­tion tech­nol­o­gy. It turns the Linux kernel into a hy­per­vi­sor capable of running virtual Linux and Windows machines. In addition to x86 hardware, KVM also supports PowerPC and selected ARM proces­sors. Where available, Intel VT-x or AMD-V hardware vir­tu­al­iza­tion is used to improve VM per­for­mance at processor level.

With KVM, you can run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a Linux host. Each VM is assigned its own virtual hardware, including processor cores, memory, network and graphics adapters, and storage. Standard Linux and Windows VM images can be used to set up the virtual machines.

Many other Linux vir­tu­al­iza­tion tools are built on KVM, resulting in a wide range of man­age­ment in­ter­faces. On desktop systems, Virtual Machine Manager provides a graphical interface for managing VMs. Browser-based tools such as Kimchi and Foreman can also be used to access KVM en­vi­ron­ments, while command-line tools support automated workflows. Under the hood, KVM is commonly managed through the libvirt API.

QEMU

The Quick Emulator (QEMU) is a powerful and highly flexible vir­tu­al­iza­tion tool. In addition to full vir­tu­al­iza­tion of x86 hardware, QEMU can emulate other processor ar­chi­tec­tures. This makes it possible to run software compiled for proces­sors that are not phys­i­cal­ly present in the host system.

QEMU is often used together with other vir­tu­al­iza­tion tech­nolo­gies. The software can be combined with hy­per­vi­sors such as KVM and Xen, and hardware ac­cel­er­a­tion can provide near-native per­for­mance for virtual machines. QEMU is available free of charge under an open-source license.

OpenVZ

With OpenVZ, Linux users have access to an open-source vir­tu­al­iza­tion platform that orig­i­nat­ed from the de­vel­op­ment of the com­mer­cial Virtuozzo software. The name OpenVZ stands for “Open Virtuozzo,” and the project continues to provide an open-source foun­da­tion for Virtuozzo tech­nolo­gies.

Unlike tra­di­tion­al VM software, OpenVZ does not use a hy­per­vi­sor. Instead, vir­tu­al­iza­tion takes place at operating-system level using con­tain­ers. These are not ap­pli­ca­tion con­tain­ers in the Docker sense. OpenVZ instead runs multiple isolated operating-system en­vi­ron­ments on a shared, specially adapted Linux kernel. This approach is par­tic­u­lar­ly useful for con­sol­i­dat­ing server resources.

One drawback is that OpenVZ is a far more spe­cial­ized solution than tra­di­tion­al VM software. If you need hardware vir­tu­al­iza­tion in the strict sense, KVM or QEMU is usually the better choice.