QEMU Alternatives for Mac

There are many alternatives to QEMU for Mac if you are looking for a replacement. The best Mac alternative is VirtualBox, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to QEMU and 12 are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to QEMU are Parallels Desktop, UTM, Multipass and RVVM.

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Alternatives list

  1. VirtualBox icon
     2969 likes

    Open source VirtualBox offers powerful x86/AMD64 virtualization available freely under GNU GPL v2. Runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris hosts. Supports a vast array of guest OS like Windows, Linux, Solaris. Portable, lightweight, ad-free, with dark mode.

    70 VirtualBox alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Oracle Solaris
     
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  2. Virtualization software for running Windows, Linux, and other OSes on Mac. Supports Windows 11 on Apple Silicon, resource adjustments, and seamless app access and file sharing between OS environments.

    58 Parallels Desktop alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  3. UTM icon
     30 likes

    UTM is a full featured system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS. It is based off of QEMU. In short, it allows you to run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

    60 UTM alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • visionOS
     
  4. Multipass icon
     8 likes

    Multipass is a lightweight VM manager for Linux, Windows and macOS. It's designed for developers who want a fresh Ubuntu environment with a single command. It uses KVM on Linux, Hyper-V on Windows and HyperKit on macOS to run the VM with minimal overhead.

    63 Multipass alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
     
  5. RVVM icon
     4 likes

    RVVM is a virtual machine / emulator for RISC-V guests, which emphasizes on performance, security, lean code and portability. It already runs a lot of guest operating systems, including Linux, Haiku, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Windows
    • Mac
     
  6. Lima icon
     3 likes

    Lima launches Linux virtual machines on macOS, with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  7. lume VM icon
     3 likes

    A lightweight CLI and local API server to create, run and manage macOS and Linux virtual machines (VMs) natively on Apple Silicon.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Python
    • Apple Swift
    • Homebrew
     
  8. VirtualBuddy icon
     1 like

    VirtualBuddy can virtualize macOS 12 and later on Apple Silicon, with the goal of offering features that are useful to developers who need to test their apps on multiple versions of macOS, especially betas.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  9. PCE icon
     5 likes

    PCE is a collection of microcomputer emulators. At the moment it contains three emulators:

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. Boot Camp icon
     18 likes

    Boot Camp is a utility by that assists users in installing Windows 10 on Macs. Boot Camp guides users through non-destructive re-partitioning (including resizing of an existing APFS partition, if necessary) of their hard disk drive and automatically downloads Apple-provided...

    15 Boot Camp alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  11. MacMulator is the computer emulator for your Mac! It engages the power of Qemu, together with a nice, easy to use UI, to let you create any kind of Virtual Machines in a few clicks. Whatever OS you need to run on your Mac, MacMulator is the tool for you!.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  12. Bushel icon
     Like

    Need to try out old versions of macOS for your software? Want to try a script or piece of software without breaking your Mac?

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
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