Virtual Machine reviews from Reddit
Summary
We analyzed 167 Reddit reviews across 37 subreddits and 46 posts to rank the best Virtual Machine brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/archlinux, r/linuxmint, r/Proxmox, r/cloudygamer, r/mac. Top-rated brands include VMware (4.0/5), Oracle (3.7/5), QEMU (4.7/5).
Stats
Reviews167
Subreddits37
Posts46
Brands59
Products40
167 reviews from
and
By Brand
/By Product
#1
VMware
4.0
(28)
"My primary choices for VMs: For Windows 11: VMware Fusion"
"Broadcom just made VMware Workstation Pro free, so there's that."
"Running both Windows 11 Pro and Kali Linux simultaneously on an M1 iMac is seamless with VMWare Fusion Pro."
"VMware has the best graphics acceleration unless you want to go GPU passthrough"
"I use VMware Workstation and its by far the best performing hypervisor for the desktop."
"I’ve found that VMWare is better suited for newer versions of Windows. It is faster and will recognize touch gestures"
"VMWare Workstation Pro or do a bare metal with ESXi."
"Vmware Player and Oracle VirtualBox exist."
"VMware Workstation Personal is far easier to set up than VBox."
"Use VMWare itself"
#2
Oracle
3.7
(26)
"It's free and cover my needs completely"
"I use VirtualBox for my virtual machine needs and it works flawlessly."
"I personally recommend VirtualBox, as that is the easiest (read: user-friendliest) to use."
"Virtual box or vmware"
"I use both Oracle VirtualBox and QEMU/KVM."
"VirtualBox works fine for non-intensive tasks."
"Oracle virtualbox is solid"
"VirtualBox 7 works on Mint 21.3, but the extension pack is missing."
"Virtualbox from oracles repository."
"Virtualbox"
#3
QEMU
4.7
(10)
"Im using qemu and its fast af."
"Just switched to QEMU, there's a learning curve but other than that it's miles better than OracleVM"
"Props to qemu kvm but with GUI virt-mager"
"Qemu/kvm + virt-manager"
"If you want near native or native performance use QEMU with virt-manager."
"Qemu-kvm or just kvm it gives you better hardware access so performance is better"
"KVMs are so much quicker then standard virtual machines on VirtualBox and VMware, it is not even comparable"
"There’s still a very valid reason to use qemu/kvm. thats why i use it."
"Qemu kvm for advanced"
"I recommend and use Qemu/KVM libvirt virt-manager."
#4
KVM
4.3
(6)
"I use KVM with Virt-Manager. It runs any OS smoothly."
"I exclusively use KVM when I'm on Arch hosts, but mix VirtualBox and VMware on Windows hosts."
"KVM. hands down."
"I wanted to let you know about KVM."
"KVM which is a kernel based virtual machine."
"No 3D acceleration on Windows guest unless using a separate GPU."
#5
VirtualBox
3.1
(8)
"VirtualBox with the extensions: you can attached a usb to a vm by just a click in the gui."
"Use VirtualBox. It's free."
"As for disconnecting the VM from internet, it depends on the VM but with most of them (like VMware or VirtualBox) you can disconnect it in the machine settings before booting."
"VirtualBox"
"VirtualBox is easier to install than QEMU/KVM."
"Virtual box is also decent."
"Apparently, word on the street is that virtualbox is more laggy than KVM."
"3D is buggy in Windows guest."
#6
Proxmox
4.6
(5)
"LXC can use significantly less resources than a VM."
"Highly recommended Proxmox OS for easy management of many different VMs and LXC containers."
"Try Proxmox. It's a free bare metal hypervisor that supports hardware pass through."
"Just use proxmox with gpu pass through for the gaming vm."
"Just use proxmox with gpu pass through for the gaming vm."
#7
UTM
3.7
(6)
"For Linux, BSD, MacOS, and legacy operating systems: UTM. Both UTM and VMware are free. UTM has a steep learning curve if you are unfamiliar with QEMU, but offers far more customization than VMware."
"I use UTM as a good free one."
"Start with UTM since it's free, but you may get better performance with Parallels."
"Try UTM for Mac. It has a readily available Archlinux VM in its gallery."
"Personally I like UTM, I believe it’s available for free on their site."
"You’ll need to emulate, not virtualize. UTM and your desired OS, though it’s still in its infancy so performance is horrible."
#8
Apple
3.6
(5)
"Get the new mac mini with M4 Pro, up the RAM a bit, and call it a day 👍🏼"
"I use UTM on my M2 mac. It runs 95, 98, ME, and XP very well."
"A refurbished M1 mini on eBay is also a good option. $300 vs whatever Apple wants for the M4 mini is probably suitable for just compiling stuff."
"A complete lack of graphics acceleration is noticeable."
"Arc on Windows has only about 30% of the features that macOS has."
#9
3.8
(4)
"Google "quickpassthrough" and check author profile there is comprehensive guide for you to follow if you want ultimate virtual machine experience."
"I have been using Kaggle Kernels for a while now to train my deep learning models."
"I dont know how it compares with google colab."
"The libva error is because you don't have a libva provider that works with the graphics provided by the virtual machine."
#10
Microsoft
3.5
(4)
"Windows Sandbox is my personal favorite"
"A virtual machine is ideal for running late 90s and early 2000s Windows games."
"If youre a Windows user, I would recommend using Hyper-V or VMware"
"Sound production and Adobe products are a nightmare on Windows 11."
#11
AWS
4.3
(3)
"Using AWS EC2 for Ubuntu image and installing ROS2 is efficient."
"AWS EC2 uses their own custom VM, making it easier for proof-of-concept startup."
"AWS?"
#12
virt-manager
4.0
(3)
"I had some issues with virtualbox on mint so i use virt-manager but both are great"
"Virt manager/Qemu/KVM will run on a my old potato laptops."
"Virt-manager is quite user friendly though."
#13
Windows
4.0
(3)
"32 bit windows 7 works just fine on HVACpro and all the dx9100 software."
"Personally I was able to get windows 10 32 bit to work with HVAC Pro"
"Try to configure GPU-P under Windows. It will allow the VM to utilize the GPU thus playing games in a VM."
#14
Boxes
3.7
(3)
"I use Boxes and it works well."
"Boxes is pretty much just plug and play"
"Pretty simple UI, not as comprehensive as Virtualbox but at least it gets the job done."
#15
Virtual Machine Manager
5.0
(2)
"I use Virtual Machine Manager and it's great!"
"On Linux I recommend Virtual Machine Manager since it’s using qemu and kvm."
#16
eXoDOS
5.0
(2)
"Take a look at eXoDOS and eXoWin3x, both hosted through retro-exo.com."
"If you perhaps want to play some DOS games, there's eXoDOS."
#17
Hyper-V
4.5
(2)
"Definitely Hyper-V."
"Hyper-V works good for running ubuntu concurrently."
#18
Plex
4.5
(2)
"Plex service split into LXC, using only 300 MB RAM."
"Plex is effectively used with LXC for media management."
#19
LXC
4.5
(2)
"LXC shares the kernel with the host, making it efficient for most use cases."
"Useful when uptime isn't a major concern."
#20
PCem
4.5
(2)
"PCem is great for playing 98 games."
"For emulation, you can look into PCem/86Box."
#21
Linux Mint
4.0
(2)
"It's a good option."
"Linux Mint is my main daily driver on an NVME drive."
#22
Parallels
4.0
(2)
"You may get better performance with Parallels, which may or may not matter."
"Parallels desktop, I’ve been working with it and Win11 without a problem."
#23
Windows Sandbox
3.5
(2)
"It is incredibly handy if you do any kind of scripting or packaging and just want to quickly try something out."
"Had no idea this was a thing. Looks neat. Could be useful."
#24
Workspot
5.0
(1)
"I worked at a company that used Workspot. It was great."
#25
Dosbox
5.0
(1)
"Dosbox works perfectly for DOS games."
#26
VM
5.0
(1)
"Highly available and able to live migrate."
#27
MinIO
5.0
(1)
"MinIO service split into LXC, using only 200 MB RAM."
#28
Duplicati
5.0
(1)
"Duplicati service split into LXC, using only 160 MB RAM."
#29
Alpine
5.0
(1)
"LXC is lightweight and efficient for running isolated applications."
#30
Grafana
5.0
(1)
"Grafana is a great tool for monitoring and works seamlessly in LXC."
#31
Hyonix
4.0
(1)
"Hyonix is an option many use."
#32
Wine
4.0
(1)
"Another option: Linux with Wine/Proton."
#33
Google Colab
4.0
(1)
"I’d recommend google colab."
#34
Runpod
4.0
(1)
"Try Runpod. Found it very quick and easy to set up."
#35
QuickEMU
4.0
(1)
"I liked QuickEMU when I bothered to use one."
#36
Gnome
4.0
(1)
"I use gnome boxes for the convenience."
#37
VFIO
4.0
(1)
"This is what I use for gaming is I don't know if you've heard of vfio."
#38
docker
4.0
(1)
"The docker setup is so easy, relatively."
#39
Wine Bottle/Proton
4.0
(1)
"Wine Bottle/Proton is useful for setting up XP games on Mac."
#40
Pi-hole
4.0
(1)
"Transformed from a VM to an LXC, reducing resource usage."
#41
winapps
4.0
(1)
"I tried it with Office 365 and it's great."
#42
Jellyfin
4.0
(1)
"Jellyfin works well with LXC for media streaming."
#43
GNOME Boxes
4.0
(1)
"Gnome-boxes makes setting up a vm very very easy."
#44
Linux
4.0
(1)
"Works perfectly for me."
#45
Sunshine
4.0
(1)
"I would suggest sunshine/moonlight."
#46
Moonlight
4.0
(1)
"Moonlight allow you to connect to your gaming pc and playing games from your office computer."
#47
Shadow
4.0
(1)
"Check out Shadow PC and/or Virtual Desktop."
#48
Virtual Desktop
4.0
(1)
"Check out Shadow PC and/or Virtual Desktop."
#49
Parsec
4.0
(1)
"You also need to be using something like Parsec or a combination of Sunshine/Moonlight to pass through the accelerated graphics."
#50
AWS EC2
4.0
(1)
"Just spin up the cheapest aws ec2 if you're that worried about."
#51
Docker
4.0
(1)
"You can use Docker"
#52
Vagon
4.0
(1)
"Vagon.io"
#53
Virtual PC
3.0
(1)
"Virtual PC is the main one I'm aware of."
#54
Whiskey
3.0
(1)
"Try using whiskey it might hold it up(you need good ram tho..)"
#55
Microsoft Virtual PC
3.0
(1)
"Make sure you have a lot of ram and a solid state drive, and even then it will be slow."
#56
Git
3.0
(1)
"Setting up a VM *just* for git practice seems a bit overkill."
#57
X8
1.0
(1)
"F1 & X8 unable to root despite trying different versions of magisk."
#58
F1
1.0
(1)
"F1 & X8 unable to root despite trying different versions of magisk."
#59
VPhoneOS
NaN
(0)
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