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VirtualBox Logo

Open-source cross-platform virtualization application

VirtualBox Pricing, Features, Reviews and Alternatives

VirtualBox FAQs

Q. What type of pricing plans does VirtualBox offer?

VirtualBox has the following pricing plans:
Pricing model: Free, Open Source

These products have better value for money


Q. Who are the typical users of VirtualBox?

VirtualBox has the following typical customers:
Freelancers, Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Public Administrations, Small Business


Q. What languages does VirtualBox support?

VirtualBox supports the following languages:
English


Q. Does VirtualBox offer an API?

Yes, VirtualBox has an API available for use.


Q. What level of support does VirtualBox offer?

VirtualBox offers the following support options:
Knowledge Base, Email/Help Desk, Phone Support

VirtualBox product overview

What is VirtualBox?

Oracle VM VirtualBox is an open-source cross-platform virtualization software, which helps organizations create, manage, and run multiple virtual machines (VMs) simultaneously. Features include guest multiprocessing, USB device support, remote machine display, RDP authentication, and soft keyboard.

Typical customers

Freelancers
Small businesses
Mid size businesses
Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web
Android
iPhone/iPad

Support options

Knowledge Base
Email/Help Desk
Phone Support

VirtualBox pricing information

Value for money

4.7

/5

873

Starting from

Free

Pricing options

Free plan
Subscription
Free trial
Pricing range

Value for money contenders

VirtualBox features

Functionality

4.5

/5

873

Total features

13

2 categories

Most valued features by users

API
Authentication
Configuration Management
DaaS
Data Synchronization
Desktop Virtualization
Desktop/Application Virtualization
Graphical User Interface

Functionality contenders

VirtualBox users reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

/5

873

Positive reviews

94

%

Rating breakdown
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend8.82/10
Rating distribution

5

4

3

2

1

542

281

49

1

0

Pros
I like the fact that Oracle has given some time to create this free version of a Hypervisor platform and it pretty good for something free.
VirtualBox is probably the best tool for using virtual machines. The ease of being able to install and test various operating systems on virtual machines is excellent for many users.
Its ease of use, fantastic features and the possibility of different configurations for using operating systems on the same machine without the need to install them.
Cons
The problem is that the software is not recognized from a small group of users. Not every pouch is needed, but sometimes it's bad to not be able to use it when you need it.
Its performance is low especially if you are running in windows machines. Sometimes it gets stuck or doesn't respond which makes it frustrating to use.
The only problem I ever have is mst of the display resoltions other than recomended always seem to cut off part of the screen.

Overall rating contenders

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Ashutosh M.

Student

Computer & Network Security, self-employed

Review source

Overall Rating

One of the good VM solutions

Reviewed 3 years ago

Transcript

Ashutosh M.: Hi, I'm Ashutosh. I'm a student in computer science. I'll give VirtualBox four out of five...

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Grant W.

DevOps Engineer

Education Management, 51-200 employees

Review source

Overall Rating

Average Free Hypervisor platform

Reviewed 3 years ago

Transcript

Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Grant. I'm a Senior Cloud Engineer. I would give VirtualBox a rating of three...

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Sébastien L.

Computer Software, 1-10 employees

Used weekly for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Real Problems No Longer Feel Real Inside a Perfectly Replicated Virtual System with VirtualBox

Reviewed 6 years ago

Thanks to VirtualBox, I have been able to test different systems under controlled conditions. I was able to quickly test the minimum requirements of specific applications by simply changing the settings affecting the virtual machine before using it. It has also allowed me to get comfortable with other operating systems that I don't use regularly and to open native applications flawlessly as opposed to trying to emulate those with an incompatible system. It has saved me many times when deploying destructive scripts for testing purposes that would otherwise have wiped out my real hard drive or infected my machine directly. I feel this is a very well built software and I would be confident in recommending its use to anyone who is looking into virtualization.

Pros

The ability to install almost any operating system with great support for USB, ACPI and SMP without the risk of breaking the machine that is being used for virtualization is a strong advantage of VirtualBox. Apart from the fact that it is free and backed by a legendary company, one of its great features resides in the guest additions, which makes it possible to get better performance and communication...

Cons

When not used to the software, it is confusing why some functions might not be available without the guest additions. On some systems, using a desktop environment with fixed sized windows may distort the aspect ratio of the virtual machine. Instead of auto-scaling, it is then necessary to switch the window into "floating mode" to resize manually. Depending on the resources available, the virtual machine...

BB
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Benny B.

Computer & Network Security, 1-10 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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VirtualBox review

Reviewed a year ago

Free Opensource & Multi platform application for managing and deployment of Virtual machines. No matter if a new OS inside your main system or virtualize your own computer and use it as a Sandbox...

Pros

Easy to deploy new machines in no mater what your original desktop system comes from; you can virtualize a bunch of Linux, MacOS, Windows machines and ChromeOS & Android too!

Cons

In a Windows Server environment, the Virtual machines can't start when booting the main Server OS (only after you login with Administrator credentials) and you need the help of third party programs to do that. In Linux environment is easier to deploy thanks to Cron.

WI
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Wassim I.

Computer Networking, 501-1,000 employees

Used daily for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend3/10

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VirtualBox: An Oracle Software that doesn't Meet Oracle's Standards

Reviewed a year ago

I faithfully prefer VMWare Workstation (Windows host) or Parallels (MAC host) to support OS virtualization. Much more advanced features that can overcome the limitations in VirtualBox.

Pros

VirtualBox was an Open source OS virtualization software that Oracle bought to support its cloud client virtualization platform. VirtualBox is easy to deploy and use. I use it on Windows to run Linux servers to test networking and cryptography packages. If needed for basic OS virtualization, then this would be a very cost efficient solution.

Cons

The main limitations in VirtualBox is the lack of support of Graphics acceleration in Guest OSes and in the lack of automatic support of high resolutions in the Guest OS desktop. The copy-and-paste functionality is also crippled between the host and guest OSes. I many times needed to send files by email to emulate this simple task. Moreover, sharing drives between the host and guest is not always supported. USB sticks need a lot of configuration to be mounted in to the guest OS to make it work. I wonder how can Oracle produce or manage this low quality softaware.

AH
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André H.

Computer Software, 1-10 employees

Used weekly for 1-2 years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend9/10

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Amazing and free virtualization software!

Reviewed 5 years ago

Virtualbox has been an amazing tool for us. We’ve never encountered any errors/problems and we were able to use their virtualization software just fine!

Pros

The simplicity, and ease of use caught my eye. I was looking for a great tool to run virtual machines, and Virtualbox was the one!

Cons

There aren’t alot of cons, because this software is so professional and efficient!

TB
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Travis B.

Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees

Used monthly for 2+ years

Review source

Overall Rating
  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Features
  • Customer support
  • Likelihood to recommend10/10

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Virtual Hardware Saver

Reviewed 2 years ago

My biggest use case is to have a backup copy of a system that I am working to replace. Once the newer system has become well established and it is clear there is no need for information from the previous hardware I can clear out the old virtual machine. This doesn't support every use case when there was legacy hardware that was used for physical I/O as the host system would need the same I/O. Drivers don't carry over in those instances.

Pros

There is a wide array of virtual hardware supported in VirtualBox. This makes it very easy to have backup copies of archaic hardware that is no longer available but the software on them is still needed. The virtualization is fairly seamless for occasional use.

Cons

There isn't much to not like about this software. The number of prompts when installing a new version and the 'extra' packages for USB support can be tiresome when it could just as well be automatic, but that is a minor issue.

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