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Oracle VM VirtualBox

Oracle VM VirtualBox

Overview

What is Oracle VM VirtualBox?

Open source, cross-platform, virtualization software that enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device, used to deploy applications on-premises and to the cloud. Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired with…

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Recent Reviews

Fantastic and Free

10 out of 10
May 10, 2023
Incentivized
We used Oracle VM VirtualBox as a quick and simple way to virtualize and consolidate multiple compute servers onto a single server. It is …
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Virtualization at its Best

9 out of 10
July 23, 2020
Oracle VM VirtualBox is being heavily used to recreate network designs on servers for both troubleshooting purposes as well as deployment …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

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  • Live virtual machine backup (37)
    8.2
    82%
  • Virtual machine automated provisioning (36)
    7.8
    78%
  • Management console (44)
    7.2
    72%
  • Live virtual machine migration (32)
    6.9
    69%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Oracle VM VirtualBox?

Open source, cross-platform, virtualization software that enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device, used to deploy applications on-premises and to the cloud. Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions is designed to make cloud adoption easier, allowing the user to optimize the value of existing on-premises infrastructure, while leveraging the same tools, technologies and skills in the cloud. The solution provides rapid scalability, deployment in 35+ global data…

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Product Demos

Building a Demo Environment using Oracle VM VirtualBox Part 2

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Export Any OS From Oracle VM VirtualBox

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Oracle VirtualBox | Basic functionalities and live demo

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Building a Demo Environment using Oracle VM VirtualBox

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Demo - Building reliable Oracle Database 18c DevOps

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VirtualBox Demo 1 - Work with Critical Applications Securely (For end users)

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Features

Server Virtualization

Server virtualization allows multiple operating systems to be run completely independently on a single server

7.3
Avg 8.3
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Product Details

What is Oracle VM VirtualBox?

Open source, cross-platform, virtualization software that enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device, used to deploy applications on-premises and to the cloud. Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired with Sun Microsystems in early 2010. The software was originally developed by Innotek GmbH.

Oracle VM VirtualBox Videos

VirtualBox Demo
To help you decide if VirtualBox is right for you, we've synthesized reviews from TrustRadius to see what the strengths, limitations, and best use cases of VirtualBox are.

Oracle VM VirtualBox Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Open source, cross-platform, virtualization software that enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device, used to deploy applications on-premises and to the cloud. Oracle VM VIrtualBox is Oracle's cross-platform virtualization offering, acquired with Sun Microsystems in early 2010. The software was originally developed by Innotek GmbH.

Hyper-V, Parallels Desktop, and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are common alternatives for Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Reviewers rate Live virtual machine backup highest, with a score of 8.2.

The most common users of Oracle VM VirtualBox are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(151)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-50 of 52)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Justin Bongard | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If we need a Linux environment, we create it in VirtualBox. We'll use the environment for running tools like penetration testing or checking items for malicious code.
  • VM used by one person at a time on that user's PC
  • running a VM server on a server
  • Running Windows or Linux
  • Using with BOINC so they can run virtual environments on your PC
  • Last I used it, there wasn't a great wizard to convert a machine like VMware's Conversion wizard
  • No way to move a running VM to another drive
  • Not a great snapshot management system.
It's suited for basic VM hosting. If you are needing a hypervisor, load balancer for running VMs, to replicate them across servers, etc, you'll definitely want to go for vmWare instead.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Virtualbox is being used by our company for infrastructure on demand. We also use it for testing and spinning up sandboxes. Vbox is really helpful because it gives us so much control over what we are trying to spin up and how we would like to spin it up. It is being used by many developers within our company as a default standard for virtualization.
  • It is very easy for users to and navigate through the interface. The learning curve is not too high.
  • VM Vbox also integrates very well with our DevOps tools such as Jenkins and Chef.
  • Vbox also comes with great enterprise support from a very well dedicated company.
  • The API documentation would be more detailed
  • An increase in the speed it takes for a VM to spin up would help our pipeless hang less
  • Having support for older versions of windows and AIX would be great
Overall it is a great tool, especially for users who want to spin up sandboxes locally, at a quick pace. This allowed for our team to reduce the need for cloud infrastructure, and have more control and customization over what we spun up. VMs were created, saved, copied, and destroy as we saw fit.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are testing an AI product in the company, and VirtualBox VM helps us in testing several OS, environments, and applications.
  • Very easy to install.
  • Numerous options available for customization.
  • Open-source.
  • Variety of disk images format available, allowing the user to run multiple OS simultaneously.
  • Updated often.
  • Great community support.
  • Documentation could be made better.
  • It could be a little confusing to use for the first time, as the interface is not the best.
  • It could be slow at times.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a great product for people working in IT, as you can get access to a working framework for testing the code before releasing it. Small companies can make good use of this product as it is free and has a great support community.
Jordan Squire | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Oracle VM VirtualBox quite extensively at our company to virtualize software. The main use case that we have is for our software engineers. Our engineering team has a single approved developer virtual machine that all of us use. It makes developer support and the replication of problems much easier knowing we are all on identical environments. Also for new hires it makes getting their environments set up a quick and easy process. Other departments use it to run Windows or Linux applications on their Macs.
  • Software virtualization.
  • Environment replication.
  • Environment portability.
  • Multiple operating systems on one machine.
  • Environment snapshots for easy recovery after or to revert changes.
  • Detailed environment configuration with suggestions based on your host system's resources.
  • It's free.
  • VM errors typically crash the VM.
  • If the host machine runs out of disk space the VM will become unreadable even after freeing space. Fortunately VirtualBox keeps a previous copy, but you have to manually restore it.
  • Somewhat buggy, so you learn how to work around the bugs.
  • Some host hardware is not supported.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VirtualBox is a very light-weight software which is available as a hypervisor. This software can be installed on any OS (Windows, Mac or any flavour of Linux) and be leveraged for virtualization. Within our organisation, VirtualBox is used by couple of departments. The departments which handle the internal and external development or testing of the applications highly rely on this piece of software. As per business problems, it is always better to have 10 machines in a single base machine rather than 10 different physical machines. So with VirtualBox these types of problems are solved and multiple systems/ servers are deployed in the base machine which help us to do multiple tasks and once and keep a number of servers live at a single point in time.
  • Total size of the software: is one of the best part of this hypervisor. I have used tons in my career and this is the lightest among all of them so far. This is a great plus point because:
  • It keeps you hard disk happy because whatever space the virtual instance will take is the only space being occupied since the space captured by the software is negligible.
  • The performance of the CPU as well as the virtualisation engine boosts up to a very huge level.
  • Supports up to 32 virtual machines: This software can hold the power of 32 virtual machines which might take up physical space of the entire small sized office. This can hold an entire company in one installation of VirtualBox.
  • Support for all the OS: It can be installed either in Mac or Linux and of course the widely used Windows and all of them can be linked in a local network seamlessly. So there are no such boundaries regarding the Operating Systems.
  • VirtualBox still have some features which I am still not able to understand even after having used the software from so long time. I have never found proper videos which provide full fledged training materials on this software. This is a big lag as there might be some option available that can help in our day to day life, but we are still not aware about that option.
  • The design can be revamped and transformed to a fancy one. There are no animations and even the Mac version of the software contains comes pixels at times. This can decrease the overall liking of the people which can become a serious issue in the near future.
Oracle VirtualBox is best suited if you work on multiple machines/ OS's at one time or even during different parts of the day. This will help you work from your single base machine and help you to achieve all the tasks very easily and efficiently. It is even helpful for students who want to learn new things and try new Operating Systems without actually migrating to one.
If you do not use multiple machines or maybe just using Windows the whole day for your job functions, then this software might not be useful for you.
September 18, 2019

Good product

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used for educational and evaluation processes. It can also be used for personal processes. It is being used in several departments.
  • Can be run on Windows and Linux.
  • Ease of use.
  • Cloud-based.
  • Development environment.
It is suitable for working on all applications.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I used VirtualBox to test various operating system configurations, and occasionally to enable users to use Windows applications on Mac computers. I've used various virtualization suites such as Parallels VM but VirtualBox is easy to deploy and gets the job done without having to worry about costly upgrade fees. I especially have had better luck networking virtual machines than with other virtualization solutions.
  • Networking
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Testing
  • Speed of installation
  • I've found it could use better and more detailed settings for optimizing the screen output for various displays.
It's especially well suited whenever a quick solution is needed due to the ease of deployment. I've found it's less suited for graphics design compared to other VM solutions which seem to optimize the display output better on various types of monitors.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Virtualbox is a complete virtualization solution, works great on servers or home needs.
  • The main advantage is the cost: zero. It offers all the virtualization technologies available in the market, compatibility with operating systems, through additional guests.
  • Virtualization performance is easily compared to your paid competitors.
  • The user interface is very easy to use, very intuitive.
  • If you do not have much technical knowledge, just a few clicks and that's it, you have any operating system, according to your needs.
  • Easy to find, easy to install and very easy to use.
  • Intuitive interface. The creation of virtual machines is fast, and access to them is uncomplicated.
  • All available virtualization technology. Compatibility with Intel and processors, and their technologies. Compatibility with all hardware.
  • I did not find any difficulty in using Virtualbox, I can not define "cons".
  • I can suggest creating a cloud, where the user can export their technical settings with other users, or even multiple computers.
I think the best scenario for using Virtualbox is: small and medium businesses, or home applications. However, nothing prevents you from using it in large companies. However, I believe that the technical support of paid tools is more "customized".
May 31, 2019

Quick and Easy

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VirtualBox is used in multiple different ways including test virtual machines, jumpboxes, and production machines.
  • Simple and easy to use, setup took only a few minutes and was not too complicated.
  • Free! I had tried other products that were not free, and they were not as good as this one.
  • The ability to quickly spin up, or down, a dev and test environment, quickly and easily is very nice.
  • Support. I've had a few issues, and would love a response from support or help with it, but none found.
  • Stability. Sometimes restoring VMs fails.
If you are looking to quickly spin up VMs without having to pay for a product and know that they will most likely not be in a production environment, VirtualBox is the way to go. Set up is quick and simple and your dev environment will be up and running in minutes.
David Currier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Oracle VM VirtualBox to build isolated virtual workstations and for building development and test environments. Isolated virtual workstations allow me to access customer environments without the need to reconfigure my primary workstation to match the specific remote access requirements of each system. This dramatically speeds up access and prevents unintentional damage to my own system and access to my primary environment. I can also quickly spin up entire virtual environments to test specific design scenarios.
  • 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
  • You get what you pay for - yes, VirtualBox is free, but I've had occasional stability issues, just like any other computer I use
  • Many host resources (like networking) are blindly simple to use, some (like folder sharing) can be a bit shaky at times or challenging to get working correctly
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a perfect solution for the developer who needs to run a few virtual machines for development and testing purposes. It can also work very well in cases where a large complex virtual environment and advanced storage is not required. In general, it requires a host OS, so it will not function quite like a true headless virtual server. Don't expect it to become your solution to replace a bunch of servers with a massive, redundant, automated virtual environment. That's not what it is for.
December 14, 2018

Open Source VM

Mauro Carrillo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Oracle VM VirtualBox is used by our internal IT department to test various operating systems and applications. It's a very useful tool to stand up to a virtualized environment for testing. It's easy to use and manage.
  • This open source software is a powerful tool to test deployment of any new OS and applications.
  • VirtualBox is a general-purpose virtualizer of hardware that can host any targeted server or desktop.
  • Compatibility issues. At times there seems to be errors when configuring a virtual machine with newer OS. For example, Windows 10.
  • Lack of support. Being that this is an Open Source software there is very little support as far as articles available to troubleshoot issues.
This solution is great for anyone who needs to virtualize a system and is looking for an inexpensive way of creating a test environment. This is, however, not a cloud-based solution in any way. This is more of a stand alone for a quick deployment.
October 22, 2018

A great software

Benard Mutua | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Oracle VirtualBox is a great addition to my organization's software collection, as it gives us the ability to make use of other software available, such as Genie Motion, by running them directly on the virtual environment. It is so simple to do this using VirtualBox, as the user interface gives the user the ability to change most of the parameters involved.
  • Oracle VirtualBox has guides for optimum virtual machine performance, but does not limit the user to using them.
  • VirtualBox is fast to setup and simple to use
  • The user interface gives users the ability to change a wide range of the machines parameters before starting the Virtual Machine
  • In some computers, for the Virtual Machine to work one must allow virtualization through the bios
  • VirtualBox settings, such as sound drivers, are not available
  • To use some drivers one must install guest OS features, which is an addon
Oracle VM is well situated in a scenario where one wants to evaluate an operating system before buying it. It is a great way to use other software without necessarily installing them to the host machine, and also very useful in events where the users computer has minimal resources such as little memory
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used to build virtual Linux instances on Windows X86 boxes to help facilitate our DevOps processes and development processes, including our move to containers. It allows the ability to do this without the developers having to have full admin rights on their machines.
  • Creating of VMs for Linux with very little work
  • Facilitating the use of docker and containerizing workloads via development desktops
  • Provides standard ways to share environments between developers
  • It takes a while to start up
  • Slows down machines a bit
Well Suited for docker and virtualization of environments for development
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use VirtualBox to deploy our testing VMs. As our primary developer on our installer, we support over 5 operating systems. Each of those OSs can have different flavors and versions we support as well. We use VirtualBox to locally store multiple VMs that will be booted up to be tested on.
  • It is open source, easy to install, and generally a very easy application to get started with.
  • All the core functionality of what you expect from a VM manager is there. Save state, rollback, and partitions. All this is done without overly complicated menus or instructions.
  • Very popular and well used. This is very nice when looking for help or documentation.
  • Overall compared to the more expensive VM software, it can be a bit sluggish at times.
  • Full-screen mode can be cumbersome. I have often had an issue with VirtualBox rendering my VMs correctly in full-screen mode.
Virtual Box (VB) is perfect for someone who just needs to spin up a VM, do some testing, and then shut it off. I wouldn't recommend VB for a VM that would need to be stable over a long period of time.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use VirtualBox so that everyone can have, build, and share standard developer environments. If there is an issue with an environment, one can rebuild it if needed. As the environment changes or needs updating, everyone can run the same build scripts to do so. By taking snap shots of the VM, we can also roll back to a previous states in the development environment if an update does not go as planned.
  • VM's provide a common development environment across all developers
  • VM's allow moving an existing environment form an old system to a new system with less setup
  • The only downside of running a VM along side another system is the memory usage. Once we have two OS's running at the same time your RAM is split in half, or how everyone allocated it. If we allow the VM to use 8GB it will take all 8GB regardless if it is using it or not. Ideally the VM will allocate or release the RAM as needed.
If you are limited on system hardware (disk space, RAM, CPU) then running one or more VMs may result in a reduction of performance. In this case, I would suggest running a developer environment directly on the hardware.
Chris Putnam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use VirtualBox primarily in our department. It allows us to quickly develop and test in various standardized environments on our own PCs. Testing is the primary use case - whether testing a back-end application before deploying to a live server or testing front-end applications with a variety of operating systems and browsers.
  • Free
  • Actively updated & quite stable
  • Popular - Good community support
  • Some interface elements could be more intuitive
  • Documentation is good, but there's room for improvement
  • Performance in some areas might have room for improvement
VirtualBox is well-suited for a super user or generally, anyone that is comfortable searching, learning, and experimenting. There's a large variety of applications for virtualization on desktop, and VirtualBox is well suited for all with the right configuration and potentially additional third-party tools. Users looking for a one-click out of the box solution may or may not be satisfied with VirtualBox - with the right documentation and/or starter box, it can be very accessible.
Derek Ardolf | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've worked in multiple environments where I, and co-workers, used Oracle VirtualBox for local sandbox environments. I have used it to test out PowerShell scripts against mock Active Directory environments that I have spun up, allowing me to test code for demonstrations. When I have presented at user groups or a conference, I was able to have an environment the way I wanted it and could properly show code executing against Windows systems. I have been able to also test out Vagrant, Test-Kitchen, Chef, and Desired State Configuration (DSC) with Oracle VirtualBox as the virtual environment targeted with those tools.
  • Can spin up multiple VMs on a host-only network that speak to each other and allow for interesting test environments spun up at will.
  • Cross-platform functionality allows me to run it on my Linux Desktop and know that tutorials I make with it could be approached by someone on a Windows or Mac OSX system. Hyper-V is limited to Windows, and VMware Workstation requires a license (VMware Player is free, but is not open-source and is more limited in comparison to VirtualBox).
  • If you are testing tools like Vagrant and Test-Kitchen, VirtualBox often seems to have the highest amount of support and documentation when it comes to compatibility (though, many people do use Hyper-V or VMware Workstation without issues).
  • 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.
  • When playing around with automation and configuration management tools like Vagrant and Test-Kitchen, my experience with VirtualBox has been great.
  • For testing out newer/different versions of operating systems locally, VirtualBox has become my virtualization tool of choice. I don't just use it for evaluation, either, as I run a licensed version of Windows 10 in VirtualBox for the times I'm testing something out in the Windows realm (my primary desktop OS is Ubuntu).
  • For learning a local virtualization solution that is cross-platform, allowing one to be comfortable in virtualizing locally across whichever OS happens to be in use.
  • In my experience, many open-source and automation toolsets related to DevOps-minded workflows are made, demoed with, and have tutorials for execution with VirtualBox.
  • Working lean? Oracle VM VirtualBox is open-source and free to use.
  • If evaluating VirtualBox in a business that is dependent on the VirtualBox Extension Pack, one would need to evaluate whether they are in need of an Enterprise license. I've never been in that situation. For more details on that: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Licensing_FAQ and https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL
  • I would not consider this a hypervisor for use in production, but only for local host/lab usage.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Across the organization we have a bunch of virtualization applications like VirtualBox (primarily local use), VmWare, Parallels etc. My team and I use Oracle VM VirtualBox daily for our virtualization needs and have had no issues with the same. VirtualBox is simplistic, efficient and extremely reliable with a ton of customizations available.
  • Extremely easy to use, don't think I have ever had any issues with it.
  • Honestly, for my day to day needs it has been far better than VmWare which I've faced plenty of issues with.
  • Support backed by Oracle which is a BIG plus!
  • Did I mention the non-commercial use Oracle VM VirtualBox is free? Yes, it is free!!
  • Could use an upgrade for a better looking User Interface.
  • Sometimes end up mixing up where my Virtual machines are created if I'm downloading them and running them, but that's just me.
If its for personal use, I'd recommend it a 100% - does (almost) everything VmWare and Parallels do but free of charge, on-time updates and bug fixes and if you're an Open Source lover like me this is the one! However, there is stiff competition in the enterprise world with VmWare currently offering impeccable support and the extra features making virtualization easier to use for everyday Joe.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by a wide range of employees both individually and within teams to create and manage test networks for new software. Allows the end user to implement and explore new software, to test suitability for business needs, and even the compatibility of said software into the system already in place.
Additionally, we can create internal networks or similar environments which are not on the business network and then use them for training exercises and the like with no risk to the wider network.

And, of course IT'S FREE.
  • Manages multiple VM's simultaneously. As a software used to create environments with several machines, this is a great strength.
  • Allows a bridged network to be built with extreme ease.
  • Central dashboard is concise and informative, without being cluttered.
  • Seriously easy to pick up as a first time user. Never counter-intuitive.
  • Can be run across a range of OS - not restricted to Windows !
  • Full screen mode - it is not always the easiest job getting out of a machine when in full screen mode.
  • Network settings - all new VM's use NAT by default, which whilst ok for most may be an annoyance if you want a Bridged network in place - you have to power down the machine to change the network settings each time.
  • Lacks in system integration features that paid-for competitors do have, such as printing direct to host's printer. Minor annoyance for network building purposes however.
Well suited for small network building - dependent on host RAM and how much RAM you allocate per machine, you can only run a finite number of machines simultaneously. I use a 16gb host with 6 machines, each with 2gb RAM, but a seventh is a struggle. This is a drawback.

Allows a 'safe' environment for experimentation with new OS or software.

Practice exercises for systems assurance employees.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Used by software developers for running machines that are required to run the development environment. Thanks to VirtualBox development machines can be quickly installed for new developers or re-installed for existing developers if required. Each developer can have own machines running in their own environment and they don't interfere with other members of the team.
  • Free solution. No hassle with licenses.
  • Works well with Vagrant. Enables easily setting up machines in desired state.
  • UI shows everything about machines in one place. You can easily see what state machines are in and what are their specifications. Their management is simple too.
  • If the host computer has entered into sleep mode, machines seem to lose network connectivity. Also their clock goes out of sync if host goes to sleep or hibernate.
  • 3D graphics acceleration performance could be improved.
  • If Windows 10 host computer is being shut down, VirtualBox doesn't close automatically and blocks Windows from shutting down unless user presses "Force shutdown".
It's well suited for running machines in the background, like servers and databases that require little user interaction. It's not so ideal for programs that require 3D hardware acceleration. Because it's free and supports Vagrant well it's very good for software developers who need separate machines for developing or testing their work.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VirtualBox is being used by developers in our company to simulate environments different from their own for testing and day to day work.
  • VirtualBox is very good at running both Windows and Linux environments.
  • VirtualBox makes it very easy and straightforward to configure a system to mimic specific hardware scenarios.
  • Simulating a Mac environment is somewhat challenging.
  • VirtualBox uses a fair amount of memory so local hardware requirements are higher than normally required.
If a colleague had a need to run a VM with a GUI I would recommend VirtualBox very highly, but for headless VM there are better options.
Casey Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for testing software on different operating systems and their default web browsers. It addresses the problem of needing to maintain multiple computers with different OSes; instead, we each run Oracle VM on our local machines and instantly have access to Windows or Mac OS.
  • Provides a native environment for testing different OSes
  • It launches the environments very quickly
  • It's very customizable so we can attach to different networks, change environment settings, etc
  • Setting up a new VM could be a little more intuitive
It's very well suited for testing software specific to operating systems. It's not as well suited for actually developing software on the VMs because you can lose your data if you're not careful.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a virtualization tool that can handle different operating systems and applications using less hardware that it could take if running in dedicated servers. It lets you easily manage all your virtual machines and customize the resources with no effort. There is a lot of documentation out there so you can customize your solutions to your company.
  • Virtual Machine management. It is easy to manage the resources of a VM.
  • Online documentation. Oracle provides a place where you can find complete documentation.
  • The ability to run different operating systems. This let you use different a OS on a single computer/server.
  • It's very hard to keep it up to date. The update process is manual.
  • Sometimes you need to change BIOS settings to enable virtualization.
  • Not easy to find answers in the online documentation.
It instantly works when virtualization is enabled in the computer or server. It will not work if virtualization is disabled. When you manage to make it work, it will respond like a real computer and it is easy to deploy operating systems and to install software, devices or drivers. It is amazing how they created a solution for every scenario because you can add memory or shrink or expand the hard drive. Most of the configurations can be done using the GUI, but there are a ton of tools and commands that can be used through the CLI.
Miguel Angel Merino Vega | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use virtualization software throughout our company. From developers, analysts, implementers and support staff. It is really useful to have virtualized infrastructure saving us purchase equipment, and above all that can simulate conditions of our customers where incidents occur.
  • Adaptive learning curve. Probably the best platform to learn the concept of virtualization.
  • Closely mimics the features of its major competitors free of charge. Its open source.
  • High compatibility between host platforms and multiple possibilities to virtualize
  • Support and documentation is not as wide as your competition, especially when running machines with unusual drivers.
  • If it is not used on a host with sufficient resources, can cause major lag problems.
If you are learning to virtualize or not you have a good budget, Virtual Box is the alternative for you. Also, if you want a platform to quickly virtualize a team given a specific requirement, Virtual Box can be helpful. If you have the budget and require a supreme performance, you could opt for more demanding alternatives,although this does not mean that Virtualbox can not offer very similar results.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've been using Oracle VM VirtualBox during the last 3 years as a hypervisor for many virtual machines I use to develop and test software. Oracle VM VirtualBox provides a very easy interface with a clear step by step process to set up, run and export/import VMs. Oracle VM VirtualBox allows me to use a Windows OS inside my MacBook Pro without the need to purchase a separate Windows installed laptop. I've also used Oracle VM VirtualBox to run many Linux based virtual machines without any issues. On Oracle VM VirtualBox, I can save all my VM images and export it for future use, or to share it with my colleagues. It's free and very reliable.
  • Hypervisor to run any versions of Windows and Linux without any issues.
  • Ability to import and export VM images to reuse or share them.
  • Very easy set of commands to control functionality as well as a simple UI if you are not a terminal guy.
  • I use it with vagrant to set up a provisioning process on-the-go.
  • Free of any fees or subscriptions and very cost effective to manage and handle.
  • Good documentation and a lot of support and updates.
  • The memory footprint is high, and requires above 8 GB of memory to run an Ubuntu VM smoothly (considering developing inside ubuntu OS inside a MacBook Pro).
  • Some known issues with OVF/OVA images import/export. We had the issue of some sections in OVF being ignored (especially Startup and Install sections).
  • Some intermittent issues when mounting external hard drives and trying to access them from within the running VM.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a very good choice for small to mid-sized teams seeking working with VMs without paying a lot of money and with the minimum amout of support. Oracle VM VirtualBox is well-documented and you can start from the website explaining most of the instructions you would need on average, and they're responsive when it comes to questions and providing answers to unique situations.
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