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Free VMware Fusion Alternatives

The best free alternative to VMware Fusion is VirtualBox, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to VMware Fusion and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to VMware Fusion are KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), VMware Workstation Player, Parallels Desktop and Boxes.

VMware Fusion alternatives are mainly Virtualization Tools but may also be Compatibility Layer Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of VMware Fusion.
This page was last updated Jun 29, 2022
VMware Fusion
  105
  • Free Personal • Proprietary
  • Mac

Seamlessly run your favorite Windows applications and devices, on any Intel-based Mac.

Learn more about VMware Fusion

  1. VirtualBox

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Solaris

    VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use.

    VirtualBox vs VMware Fusion opinions
    Almost everyone thinks VirtualBox is a great alternative to VMware Fusion.
    ByteRanger

    While VirtualBox has never failed me on a Linux host, I have never been able to get VirtualBox working reliably on MacOS. The free/opensource part of VirtualBox doesn't even hold a candle to VMware feature wise. The added extensions module that makes it more comparable to VMware is only free for personal use, and the commercial license is priced like VMware's server offerings, many times more expensive than VMware Fusion Pro.

    Negative comment • over 1 year ago
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    vb078

    Open source and free with nearly the same options.

    Positive comment • about 4 years ago
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    -1
    JohnFastman

    VirtualBox is almost always the better option compared to VMWare. Open source and free, works on Windows, Mac and Linux. Vital and important software for running virtual machines, testing other operating systems, etc.

    Positive comment • over 5 years ago
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    -3
    Hansaplast

    VirtualBox is a free alternative

    Positive comment • over 3 years ago
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  2. KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.

  4. VMware Workstation Player

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    • Free Personal • Proprietary
    • Windows
    • Linux

    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.

    VMware Workstation Player vs VMware Fusion opinions
    pros, cons and recent comments
    ByteRanger

    Does not run on MacOS. VMware has released Fusion Player as the MacOS equivalent of Workstation Player.

    Negative comment • over 1 year ago
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  5. Parallels Desktop gives Mac users the ability to run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their critical applications at the same time as macOS. Parallels Desktop is optimized for Intel and Apple M1 chip.

  6. Boxes

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Linux
    • BSD

    A simple GNOME application to access virtual systems. It is based on a design from Jon McCann and Jakub Steiner.

  8. Windows Sandbox

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    • Free • Proprietary
    • Windows

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

  9. Portable Virtualbox

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Windows

    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.

    Discontinued

    It has not been updated since 2017 and does not work with any version of Virtualbox beyond v5.1.22.

  10. Darling

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Linux

    Run macOS applications on Linux.

    No screenshots yet

  11. bhyve

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    • Free • Open Source
    • BSD
    • FreeBSD

    bhyve (pronounced "bee hive", formerly written as BHyVe) is a type-2 hypervisor that runs FreeBSD 9+, OpenBSD, Linux and MS Window desktop (versions Vista, 7, 8/8.1/8.

    No screenshots yet

  12. Qemu Simple Boot

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    • Free • Proprietary
    • Windows

    Qemu Simple Boot lets you to Boot ISO images without having to burn them to disc first , it is is a portable freeware virtualization tool

Showing 10 of 31 alternatives