a new lightweight desktop environment tailored for safely running applications in isolation.
Parallels Desktop Alternatives
Parallels Desktop is described as 'Virtualization tool enabling seamless operation of Windows and Linux on Mac. Support for Windows 11 on Apple Silicon with resource customization' and is a very popular compatibility layer tool in the network & admin category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Parallels Desktop for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD and Android apps. The best Parallels Desktop alternative is VirtualBox, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Parallels Desktop are Wine, WinBoat, QEMU and VMware Workstation Pro.
filter to find the best alternatives
Parallels Desktop alternatives are mainly Virtualization Tools, but if you're looking for Compatibility Layer Tools or Remote Desktop Tools you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Free, Mac, Open Source, Mac + Open Source, Virtualization and Mac + Free. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Parallels Desktop.
Alternatives list
- 55 Windows Sandbox alternatives
38 Portable Virtualbox alternativesPortable-VirtualBox is a free and open source software tool that lets you run any operating system from a usb stick without separate installation. It unpacks and adjusts the paths and configuration of VirtualBox so it will run portably.
21 AQEMU alternativesCross-platform GUI virtual machine manager using QEMU as backend. Support Linux/BSD/Windows 8/10/11
40 ProtonUp-Qt alternativesInstall and manage GE-Proton, Luxtorpeda & more for Steam and Wine-GE & more for Lutris with this graphical user interface.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Linux
- AppImageHub
- Arch Linux
- Flathub
- Flatpak
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application type
Platforms
- Linux
- Arch Linux
- Flathub
- Fedora
- Nix Package Manager
- Wine
- Flatpak
- Vala
- Proton
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
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Linux
- Windows
- Mac
57 Multipass alternativesMultipass 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.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Snapcraft
Qemu Manager is an easy to use management tool for the open-source QEMU emulator. It has a wealth of features for creating, managing and running multiple virtual machines.
38 WinApps alternativesRun Windows apps such as Microsoft Office/Adobe in Linux (Ubuntu/Fedora) and GNOME/KDE as if they were a part of the native OS, including Nautilus integration.
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.
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