Open Source Parallels Desktop Alternatives for Mac
There are many alternatives to Parallels Desktop for Mac if you are looking for a replacement. The best open source Mac alternative is VirtualBox. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Parallels Desktop and 13 are open source and available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source Mac alternatives to Parallels Desktop are Wine, QEMU, UTM and Lima.
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Parallels Desktop alternatives are mainly Virtualization Tools but may also be Compatibility Layer Tools or Remote Desktop Tools. Other popular filters includes Mac + Open Source and Mac + Free. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Parallels Desktop.- Virtualization Tool
- Paid • Proprietary
- 2879 likes63 VirtualBox alternatives
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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Oracle Solaris
VirtualBox VS Parallels Desktop
Is VirtualBox a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 702 likes41 Wine alternatives
An advanced, free open-source tool enabling Windows applications to run on Linux and other systems without emulation. It offers configuration options, supports diverse operating systems, and benefits from continuous updates and robust community support to enhance Windows app compatibility.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Linux
- Android
- Android Tablet
- BSD
- Flathub
Wine VS Parallels Desktop
Is Wine a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 281 likes49 QEMU alternatives
QEMU (short for "Quick EMUlator") is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor that performs hardware virtualization.
QEMU VS Parallels Desktop
Is QEMU a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 19 likes55 UTM alternatives
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.
UTM Features
UTM VS Parallels Desktop
Is UTM a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 3 likes56 Lima alternatives
Lima launches Linux virtual machines on macOS, with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd.
Lima VS Parallels Desktop
Is Lima a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 6 likes56 Multipass alternatives
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.
Multipass VS Parallels Desktop
Is Multipass a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 1 like10 RVVM alternatives
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.
RVVM VS Parallels Desktop
Is RVVM a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 19 likes32 Wineskin Winery alternatives
Wineskin is a tool used to make ports of Windows software to Mac OS X. The ports are in the form of normal Mac application bundle wrappers. It works like a wrapper around the Windows software, and you can share just the wrappers if you choose.
DiscontinuedHasn't been updated in over 6 years and doesn't work on most modern versions of macOS: https://sourceforge.net/projects/wineskin/, https://github.com/Gcenx/WineskinServer#wineskin
Wineskin Winery VS Parallels Desktop
Is Wineskin Winery a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 3 likes22 Karton alternatives
Run Linux programs on macOS, a different Linux distro, or a different architecture.
Karton VS Parallels Desktop
Is Karton a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 4 likes27 PCE alternatives
PCE is a collection of microcomputer emulators. At the moment it contains three emulators:
PCE VS Parallels Desktop
Is PCE a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 4 likes17 JavaQemu alternatives
JavaQemu is a Graphical User Interface Front End for QEMU, written in Java.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
JavaQemu Features
DiscontinuedWebsite states: "This project is no longer active because I stopped playing with Java since a long time."
JavaQemu VS Parallels Desktop
Is JavaQemu a good alternative to Parallels Desktop? - 1 like49 VirtualBuddy alternatives
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.
VirtualBuddy VS Parallels Desktop
Is VirtualBuddy a good alternative to Parallels Desktop?
Comments about VirtualBox as an Alternative to Parallels Desktop
Unlike Parallels, Virtualbox is free, open source and runs natively on Windows, Mac and Linux. What's not to like?
I like it because it's FOSS, however, it's really glitchy. It has a lot of display issues with my guest OSs (screen flickering, black screen).
free, lighter, even if less simple to use