VMware Workstation Player Alternatives for Mac

VMware Workstation Player is not available for Mac but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best Mac 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 14 are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to VMware Workstation Player are QEMU, Parallels Desktop, UTM and VMware Fusion.

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VMware Workstation Player alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. VirtualBox icon
     2968 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.

    70 VirtualBox alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Oracle Solaris
     
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  2. QEMU icon
     306 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
     
  3. Virtualization software for running Windows, Linux, and other OSes on Mac. Supports Windows 11 on Apple Silicon, resource adjustments, and seamless app access and file sharing between OS environments.

    58 Parallels Desktop alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  4. UTM icon
     30 likes

    UTM is a full featured system emulator and virtual machine host for iOS and macOS. It is based off of QEMU. In short, it allows you to run Windows, Linux, and more on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

    60 UTM alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • visionOS
     
  5. VMware Fusion icon
     119 likes

    Seamlessly run your favorite Windows applications and devices, on any Intel-based Mac. Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion is the easiest way to switch to Mac—letting you bring all of your Windows applications with you, making the most of your Windows software...

    42 VMware Fusion alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  6. Lima icon
     3 likes

    Lima launches Linux virtual machines on macOS, with automatic file sharing, port forwarding, and containerd.

    63 Lima alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  7. Multipass icon
     8 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
     
  8. RVVM icon
     4 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
     
  9. lume VM icon
     3 likes

    A lightweight CLI and local API server to create, run and manage macOS and Linux virtual machines (VMs) natively on Apple Silicon.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Python
    • Apple Swift
    • Homebrew
     
  10.  4 likes

    JavaQemu is a Graphical User Interface Front End for QEMU, written in Java.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  11. VirtualBuddy icon
     1 like

    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.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  12. Quickgui icon
     Like

    Quickgui is a graphical user interface for the Quickemu virtual machine manager. Quickgui enables you to create and manage virtual machines from a simple and elegant interface. Nearly 1000 operating systems supported including Windows, macOS, BSDs, and 100s of Linux distros.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • QEMU
     
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