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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Oracle VirtualBox

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AOracle VirtualBox is an open source, cross-platform, virtualization software, enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device.

    $0

    per month

    Portainer

    Score9.8 out of 10
    N/APortainer is a centralized container management platform for containerized apps and IoT device management. It helps accelerate container adoption and reduce time-to-value on Kubernetes, Docker, and Swarm with a management portal, allowing users to deliver and manage containerized applications from the data center to the edge. Portainer helps - Reduce the operational complexity associated with multi-cluster management Bridge the skills gap and facilitate feature…

    $0

    Pricing
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Portainer Business - 3 Nodes Free
    $0
    Home & Student
    $149
    per year
    Starter
    $995
    per year
    Professional
    $2995
    per year
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales for Pricing
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Considered Both Products
    Oracle
    No answer on this topic
    Portainer
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    94 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    87 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    94 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    75 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    17 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    92 Answers
    Features
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Oracle VirtualBox and Portainer
    Feature
    Oracle VirtualBox
    8.2
    50 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Portainer
    -
    Ratings
    Virtual machine automated provisioning8.036 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management console8.846 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup8.236 Ratings00 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration7.033 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security9.029 Ratings00 Ratings
    Container Management
    Comparison of Container Management features of Oracle VirtualBox and Portainer
    Feature
    Oracle VirtualBox
    -
    Ratings
    Portainer
    8.6
    94 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Security and Isolation00 Ratings8.790 Ratings
    Cluster Management00 Ratings8.575 Ratings
    Storage Management00 Ratings8.680 Ratings
    Resource Allocation and Optimization00 Ratings8.183 Ratings
    Discovery Tools00 Ratings8.970 Ratings
    Analytics, Monitoring, and Logging00 Ratings8.690 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Small Businesses
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Mirantis Kubernetes Engine
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.6 out of 10
    SUSE Rancher
    Score9.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.5
    (53 ratings)
    8.6
    (94 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    8.5
    (15 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Oracle VirtualBoxPortainer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Oracle
    It is best suited when you want to have different operating systems on your laptop or desktop. You can easily switch between operating systems without the need to uninstall one. In another scenario, if you expect some application to damage your device, it would be best to run the application on the VM such that the damage can only be done to the virtual machine. It is less appropriate when time synchronization is very important. At times the VMs run their own times differently from the host time and this may cause some losses if what you doing is critical. Another important thing to take note of is the licensing of the application you want to run your VM. Some licenses do not allow the applications to be run on virtual servers so it is not appropriate to use the VM at this time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    Many developers, especially lesser experienced developers, don't have a really good background in setting up containers from the command line. Portainer is invaluable to them. Giving a UI to them gives them much more confidence and allows them to learn properties and capabilities of containers under far less stress. On the flip side of this, giving then a UI on a production system can lead to chaos...never give junior developers access to production servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Oracle
    • It is simple to install - there is no advanced knowledge required to begin building virtual computers
    • It is easy to use - adding new virtual machines is simple with wizard-based deployment
    • It enables easy portability - moving virtual machines from one host to another is straight-forward and simple
    • It is free
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    • Separating server maintenance with application development, providing a clear user interface for developers who don't want to worry about the underlying server.
    • RBAC for container deployment linked to a SAML IDP, not something particularly easy in a native Docker instance but point and shoot in Portainer, allowing the use of Azure / Okta etc to provide user access.
    • Image management with multiple repositories is super clear and reduces incidents
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Oracle
    • I have had issues in the past when it has come to resizing VM disk storage. The issue is entirely detailed here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9103 -- the problem was caused because of having existing snapshots (which error message output was not detailing). I haven't had to deal with the issue due to my dynamic disk sizes not being small from the start anymore (this is mostly an issue for my Windows VMs where the base disk may need significant size for the OS). It looks like, for a resize, that a merge of all snapshots has to occur first -- one user on that list details a workaround to maintain snapshots by cloning the VM. (Note: 5.2 was just released a few weeks ago, and looks like it should prevent the problem happening in the future by properly informing users that it isn't possible with snapshots).
    • Certain scenarios, like resizing disks, required dropping into a terminal as there were no options to previously do so via the GUI. According to some recent posts, I've seen that v5.2 has added disk management stuff like that to the GUI (or will be adding it). I'm comfortable with dropping into the terminal, but in a teaching scenario or when evaluating the learnability of the tools, it complicates things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    • When setting up static IPs for a new container, having the used ones for a specific network at hand would be cool or something like a mini IPAM of some sort...
    • Using the developertools to see "oh, it's a 40x or 500" when something doesn't seem to load because the ui just states "Didn't work" is kinda annoying. expandable toasts or something would be nice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Oracle
    I give this rating because virtual box is inexpensive but there is another product such as vm ware that can also be used
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    It is an excellent tool.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Oracle
    I love using the Graphical User Interface. The VirtualBox Manager is very easy to understand and use. You can quickly create, configure and manage all your virtual machines in one window. It makes operating virtual machines easy and simple. When using VBoxManage it gives the user comprehensive control over VirtualBox so that you can use automation and scripting at the command-line interface
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    Accessibility for Non-Experts: even with some people having a bit longer on-boarding it is still very simple Quick setup is insanely useful, we can get it running in 10 seconds after installing docker Portainer has once again super clean UI and is very user friendly. Deployment/monitoring and management are super easy. I can tell just from a glance if something is out of date (watching at you Watchtower not doing your job for some reason)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Oracle
    Dependency on the Host OS means it is as reliable as it is possible to be. Application errors are beyond the purview of the application.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Oracle
    No issues, especially with the extensions addons.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Oracle
    Oracle have a very fast response rate and a strong user community. One can geet help from many sources if they choose to research for themselves.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    One of their staff members jumped on a video call immediately with me and led me through the problem and solution during a quick session of screen sharing. In this day and age that is above and beyond, especially when it comes to software. It took approximately 5-10 minutes to diagnose and fix, including pleasantries!
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Oracle
    We really enjoy using virtual box. We do not require to buy expensive hardware but instead we can minimize costs and maximize profits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    It is really easy. Just follow the documentation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Oracle
    VirutalBox is very similar to using Vmware with the slight difference in appearance and what might be considered a less polished look. However, what it lacks in polish and looks it makes up for in functionality, easy of use and the wide range of operating systems and features it supports without the need of buying the full professional edition
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    Portainer takes the cup in terms of usability and features. It is also more useful for smaller deployments, whereas Kubernetes in our opinion and experience, could probably be more suited to certain other use cases. Portainer is also a fresh feel among all the preexisting container management solutions and brings positivity and a new breeze in the industry.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Oracle
    The only problem I have found is that the deployment is dependent and intrinsically linked to the Host OS. This is different from bare metal solutions which remove that dependency on a Host OS. The latter is more reliable and removes a layer of potential failure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Oracle
    • Minimal-to-no support needed from the DevOps team.
    • Provides a direct and an easy way to access multiple VMs inside the same machines which enables performing various testing and QA tasks without the need to switch hardware.
    • Automatic provisioning using tools (esp. Vagrant) which enables developing a base image once, and allows for exporting/importing anywhere across the developers team.
    • Very cost-effective (no fees or monthly subscriptions).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Portainer
    • Increased productivity: Portainer's user-friendly interface and streamlined container management can help increase the productivity of IT teams.
    • Cost savings: By simplifying container management, Portainer can help reduce the time and resources required to manage container environments, potentially leading to cost savings.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Portainer Screenshots

    Screenshot of Portainer is a universal container management platform to help adopt and manage Docker, Kubernetes, Nomad and Edge environments.