VMware Workstation Player Alternatives for Linux

There are many alternatives to VMware Workstation Player for Linux and since it's discontinued a lot of people are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is VirtualBox, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to VMware Workstation Player and many of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to VMware Workstation Player are WinBoat, QEMU, VMware Workstation Pro and KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine).

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VMware Workstation Player alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. VirtualBox icon
     2953 likes

    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.

    69 VirtualBox alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Oracle Solaris
     
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    3
    VirtualBox vs VMware Workstation Player Comments
    ph soft
    Positive
    0

    Open source but problems with 3D accelerations (works better in VMWare for me).

    Felippe Henrique Diniz de Castro
    Positive
    -1

    Way better than VMware and Open Source.

    Guest
    Negative
    -10

    Windows guest sound are crackle.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • VirtualBox is Free and Open SourceVMware Workstation Player is Free Personal and Proprietary
    • VirtualBox is Lightweight and Privacy focusedVMware Workstation Player is not according to our users
  2. WinBoat icon
     71 likes

    Runs Windows applications, individual apps, or full desktops inside Linux with native OS-level integration, sleek interface, advanced filesystem sharing, smartcard passthrough, and resource monitoring while supporting simple installation and ongoing feature updates.

    53 WinBoat alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Docker
     
  3. QEMU icon
     304 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.

    45 QEMU alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  4. 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...

    37 VMware Workstation Pro alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  5. 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.

    42 KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Android
     
  6. virt-manager icon
     84 likes

    Comprehensive desktop tool for managing virtual machines using libvirt, supporting KVM, Xen, and Linux Containers. It offers performance stats, resource allocation and virtual hardware configuration with VNC and SPICE clients for graphical consoles.

    34 virt-manager alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  7. Boxes icon
     32 likes

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

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
     
  8. AQEMU icon
     14 likes

    Cross-platform GUI virtual machine manager using QEMU as backend. Support Linux/BSD/Windows 8/10/11

    23 AQEMU alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  9. Bochs icon
     16 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...

    40 Bochs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. Multipass icon
     7 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.

    63 Multipass alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
     
  11. RVVM icon
     3 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

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Windows
    • Mac
     
  12. QtEmu icon
     7 likes

    QtEmu is a graphical user interface for QEMU.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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