Free VirtualBox Alternatives

    The best free alternative to VirtualBox is QEMU, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to VirtualBox and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to VirtualBox are VMware Workstation Player (Free Personal), KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) (Free, Open Source), Portable Virtualbox (Free, Open Source) and virt-manager (Free, Open Source).

    The list of alternatives was last updated May 17, 2021
    VirtualBox info, screenshots & reviewsAlternatives to VirtualBox
    • 55 alternatives
    •  41 showing

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Mac
    • BSD
    • Android
    • Online
    • NVIDIA vGPU
    • AMD MxGPU
    • OpenBSD
    • Nvidia Grid
    • MorphOS
    • iPhone
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Univention Corporate Server
    • Gentoo Linux
    • Microsoft Office Outlook
    • Fedora
    • Wine

    Features

    • Virtualization
    • Hypervisor
    • Virtual Machines
    • Portable
    • Emulation
    • Operating system
    • Live migration
    • VNC Viewer
    • High Availability
    • Linux-based
    • Lightweight
    • Clustering
    • Container
    • Container virtualization
    • Disaster Recovery
    • DRM Free
    • Educational
    • Android Sync
    • Support for Android Things
    • ARM support

    License

    × Clear
    • Free
    • Open Source
    • Paid
    All Filters

    • QEMU

      QEMU (short for "Quick EMUlator") is a free and open-source hosted hypervisor that performs hardware virtualization. View 39 alternatives to QEMU
      Almost everyone thinks QEMU is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Mac
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • BSD
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      QEMU vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      arpeters It is supported by various frontends such as Virt Manager and AQEMU.
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      9
      It runs faster than virtualbox using KVM. Also is better suited for production level.
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      13
      It also performs hardware visualization
      Positive comment • over 4 years ago

      3
      It doesn't have a GUI to manage like Virtualbox or VMware. That's problematic.
      Negative comment • over 1 year ago

      -10

    • VMware Workstation Player

      VMware Workstation Player builds on the industry leading foundation of Workstation Pro, and delivers a streamlined user interface for creating and running operating systems and applications in a virtual machine. View 35 alternatives to VMware Workstation Player
      Almost everyone thinks VMware Workstation Player is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free Personal • Proprietary
      • Windows
      • Linux
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      VMware Workstation Player vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      Free and slightly more advanced. Less user friendly than virtualbox but also much more feature rich.
      Positive comment • about 1 year ago

      6

    • KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)

      KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). View 36 alternatives to KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)
      Almost everyone thinks KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
      • Android
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    • Portable Virtualbox

      Portable-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. View 39 alternatives to Portable Virtualbox
      Some users think Portable Virtualbox is a great alternative to VirtualBox, some don't.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Windows
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      Portable Virtualbox vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      garnishgamer It is basically VirtualBox for mobile.
      Positive comment • about 3 years ago

      -18

    • virt-manager

      The virt-manager application is a desktop user interface for managing virtual machines through libvirt. View 26 alternatives to virt-manager
      Almost everyone thinks virt-manager is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
      • BSD
      • Gentoo Linux
      • Fedora
      • Debian
      • OpenBSD
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      virt-manager vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      virt-manager with kvm/libvirtd is as powerfull as virtualbox, but much much more faster.
      Positive comment • 9 months ago

      0
      arpeters Fully open source alternative to VirtualBox available in Debian repository. I don't trust VirtualBox anymore since it was excluded from Debian main.
      Positive comment • over 1 year ago

      -1
      zinz this is not vm but a vm manager.
      Negative comment • about 4 years ago

      -10

    • Proxmox Virtual Environment

      Enterprise-class, open-source virtualization platform supporting container-based and full virtualization. View 38 alternatives to Proxmox Virtual Environment
      • Freemium • Open Source
      • Windows
      • Linux
      • Android
      • Android Tablet
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    • Boxes

      A simple GNOME application to view, access, and manage remote and virtual systems. View 18 alternatives to Boxes
      Most users think Boxes is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
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      Boxes vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      This is a virtual machine manager, not virtualization software
      Negative comment • almost 2 years ago

      6

    • Xen

      Xen.org, home of the Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization. View 28 alternatives to Xen
      This alternative is disputed. Xen is still a legitimate alternative to VirtualBox, but it might have issues that some users think are important.
      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
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      Xen vs VirtualBox
      pros, cons and recent comments
      This is a hypervisor, not a virtual machine.
      Top negative comment  about 1 year ago

      0
      Xen is hypervisor that isn't emulate but isolate.
      Negative comment • about 1 year ago

      1
      This is a bare-metal hypervisor, not a software virtualization platform.
      Negative comment • about 1 year ago

      2
      Hypervisor != Virtualization Desktop
      Negative comment • almost 4 years ago

      3
      xen appears to be a hypervisor, which is quite different than basic virtualization software...
      Negative comment • about 4 years ago

      7

    • VMware Fusion

      Seamlessly run your favorite Windows applications and devices, on any Intel-based Mac. View 39 alternatives to VMware Fusion
      Most users think VMware Fusion is a great alternative to VirtualBox.
      • Free Personal • Proprietary
      • Mac
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    • XCP-ng

      XCP-ng is a high-performance, enterprise-level hypervisor with a rich ecosystem and is the result of massive cooperation between individuals and companies. All commercial features are enabled with no commitment required to a support agreement. View 14 alternatives to XCP-ng
      • Free • Open Source
      • Linux
      • NVIDIA vGPU
      • AMD MxGPU
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    Showing 10 of 41 alternatives