VirtualBox Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to VirtualBox for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best Windows alternative 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 are available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Windows alternatives to VirtualBox are VMware Workstation Pro, VMware Workstation Player, Windows Sandbox and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

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Most VirtualBox alternatives are Virtualization Tools, but you can also narrow the list to Web Browsers. Other popular filters are Free, Linux, Windows, Open Source and Mac. You can also filter for EU-based alternatives if you prefer software from the European Union.
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Alternatives
VirtualBox alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. QEMU icon
     317 likes

    QEMU, an open-source hypervisor, performs hardware virtualization, emulates CPUs using dynamic binary translation, and supports various architectures. It runs diverse unmodified guest OS, provides device models, and offers mixed translation modes for efficient execution.

    50 QEMU alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    Good alternative?
     
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    8
  2. VMware Workstation Pro Lets You Run Multiple Operating Systems as Virtual Machines (including Windows VMs) on a Single Windows or Linux PC. VMware Workstation Pro is the industry standard for running multiple operating systems as virtual machines (VMs) on a single Linux or...

    40 VMware Workstation Pro alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
    |
    7
  3. 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.

    45 VMware Workstation Player alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
    |
    1
  4. Windows Sandbox icon
     26 likes

    a new lightweight desktop environment tailored for safely running applications in isolation.

    64 Windows Sandbox alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2019

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
    |
    2
  5. Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a free product that delivers enterprise-class virtualization for your datacenter and hybrid cloud.

    60 Microsoft Hyper-V Server alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2011

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
    |
    1
  6. VMware vSphere Hypervisor ( based on ESXi ) is a free bare-metal hypervisor that virtualizes servers so you can consolidate your applications on less hardware.

    45 VMware vSphere Hypervisor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2010

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • NVIDIA vGPU
    • AMD MxGPU
    Good alternative?
     
    |
    1
  7. RVVM icon
     5 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

    Since

    • Since 2024

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Windows
    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  8. (formerly XenServer) Citrix Hypervisor is a leading virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures.

    44 Citrix Hypervisor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2011

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • RadeonPro
    • NVIDIA vGPU
    • AMD MxGPU
    Good alternative?
     
  9. Multipass icon
     9 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.

    68 Multipass alternatives

    Cost / License

    Since

    • Since 2020

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    Good alternative?
     
  10. AQEMU icon
     15 likes

    Qt-based GUI for QEMU on Windows (x64 and ARM64) and Linux, with native ARM64 WHPX acceleration, VM snapshots and drag-and-drop file copy.

    32 AQEMU alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2013

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  11. VMware virtualizes computing, from the data center to the cloud to mobile devices, to help our customers be more agile, responsive, and profitable.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Since

    • Since 2015

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Self-Hosted
    Good alternative?
     
  12. Bochs icon
     17 likes

    Bochs is a highly portable open source IA-32 (x86) PC emulator written in C++, that runs on most popular platforms. It includes emulation of the Intel x86 CPU, common I/O devices, and a custom BIOS. Currently, Bochs can be compiled to emulate a 386, 486...

    42 Bochs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2011

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
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