TrustRadius Insights for VMware Fusion are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Intuitive User Interface: Reviewers have consistently praised the intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface of VMware Fusion. Many users have found it straightforward to locate and customize settings, such as adjusting the hard disk size. This user-friendly interface has made it convenient for users to manage their virtual machines without any hassle.
Snapshot Functionality: The option to create and restore snapshots in VMware Fusion has received high praise from a significant number of reviewers. Users have found this feature to be both useful and easy to use. It allows them to quickly revert back to a previous state if any issues arise during their work, providing them with peace of mind.
Seamless Integration with macOS: The seamless integration of VMware Fusion with macOS has been highly regarded by many users. They appreciate features like the ability to copy and paste between environments, run applications in full screen mode for an immersive experience, and launch apps directly from the Mac desktop. This tight integration enhances productivity and convenience for users working across different operating systems on their Mac computers.
VMware Fusion is used to virtualize Windows environment where needed. It's doing is job very well, the vm are stable, fast and reliable. The software has quite often updates that increment the reliability and addresses the security issue. During last period VMware Fusion pro has been switched free for personal use so most of my collegues also use it at home, this is good because increment the knowledge and confidence about the sw.
Pros
Virtualize OS
Stable
Secure
reliable
Cons
it could be slow in graphical operation compared to competitor
it could lack in macOS integration compared to competitor
the prices for business use could be better
Likelihood to Recommend
complete OS virtualization: if you need to run Windows or Linux on a macOS machine, it's a good and viable runner. IT's stable , it runs and it's more compatible with linux guest than the main competitor.
less appropriate than competitor if you need only windows virtualization and if you would like to use OS integration
VMware Fusion is used in a multitude of development scenarios including spinning up Linux servers for early-stage development before the code is pushed to an internet-facing dev server for clients to see. It allows easy maintenance of different VM images to test different application environments easily and safely. It is also a great "lab rat" to test code against bleeding edge versions of PHP and popular web apps. Fusion is also used to run Windows-only business-related applications on the intel mac platform, thereby eliminating having to reboot or run maintain multiple physical hardware. While the Mac software library has grown, Windows counterparts from the same developer are often still better so Fusion helps eliminates this shortfall.
Pros
The option for a perpetual license makes it a cost-effective option for occasional-use scenarios.
Features like "Unity" are well implemented to make windows applications appear as if they were native macOS apps.
Support for external USB devices (especially audio) runs more stable than Parallels.
Snapshots are helpful in quickly returning to a previous state if a setting or application causes issues.
The low power footprint makes it a great option for laptops on battery power. (Idle power consumption of the VM is negligible when measured at the wall using a Kill-A-watt).
Cons
Configuring a boot camp install to run inside macOS via VMware fusion can be tricky to configure and sometimes leads to license/activation issues depending on the application.
Some apps become sluggish/do not behave well when running the VM in "Unity" mode.
Fusion lags behind its competitors in terms of graphics API support.
Although early at this time, lack of M1 support is an area of concern for the future.
Likelihood to Recommend
Due to its perpetual licensing model, VMware Fusion is a great option for users whose needs do not change as much over time. It is also great for occasional-use scenarios such as testing and preparing code to run on newer platforms. Fusion is not really recommended for running graphics-intense applications as graphics acceleration in Fusion is fairly limited in both performance and API support. It has, however, come a very long way and offers near-native performance for many tasks.
We use VMWare Fusion to run disk images of Windows operating systems on a Mac, as well as running VMWare Fusion on a Debian Linux machine to run other Linux environments. The reason for this is so we can save a pristine climate configured perfectly for a project without risk of corrupting the environment by changing configuration variables on the host operating system.
Pros
Running isolated software development environments. Setting up environment variables and installing the right software versions for a given project can be time consuming and fragile. By doing all of this within a virtual disk image, we can easily switch between software environments without risk of breaking anything.
Running Windows-only programs on a Mac is invaluable. We use MacBook Pro laptops for our primary development environment. There are simply some programs we cannot run on OS X. Having VMWare Fusion is an invaluable asset for running Windows apps on Mac laptops on the go.
Cons
This is not the fault of VMWare Fusion, per se, but the disk images are rather large. Being able to have one parent disk image and then save smaller variants of the disk image with slight changes would be nice.
Copying files to and from the disk image and its host machine is a little bit clunky. It would be nice to be able to drag-and-drop files. I have read that this is possible but have not personally been able to get it working, so instead, I just put files in a shared folder. It's not too tricky, and I imagine there is a way to get drag-and-drop working, but it doesn't seem to work right out of the box, at least for me.
Likelihood to Recommend
<ul><li>VMWare Fusion is well-suited when you need to share development environments between developers, or when you need to run a Windows environment on a Mac (or vice versa). It is also well-suited for backing up development environments so you can be guaranteed that you've saved the necessary configuration to build a software project, even if the hard drive fails.</li><li>VMWare Fusion is less well-suited for software projects that are not complex to set up, as there is no need to add the extra step (and use the extra disk space) of saving an image of the environment when you can just put the code on GitHub.</li></ul>
Our company switched from PC based to Mac based back in 2012. For the most part, our applications are MAC OS. However, we have not found a suitable Mac version of our bookkeeping software, QuickBooks. We found the simplest and most elegant solution is to partition our computer and run the PC version of QuickBooks on the Mac. I'm quite satisfied with the combo and the recent upgrade to VMware 11 is FANTASTIC.
Pros
Running PC software on a Mac.
Easy file transfer and file sharing across platforms.
Cons
Setup a bit too cryptic.
Options could use some easier direction.
Likelihood to Recommend
We could NOT use our preferred bookkeeping software without this fantastic tool. Well implemented. I'm sure if there was another software application that required the Microsoft Operating System, I would not hesitate to install it on VMware.
As a charter school management organization, we strive to provide the best educational tools to our students. As such, we have deployed Mac labs utilizing Apple iMac computers, which work great for almost all curriculum, except some STEM and liberal arts applications that are not available for Mac. The decision to go with VMware Fusion was an easy one after we evaluated the available options for virtualizing MS Windows on the iMacs in order to get compatibility with some of the Windows-only programs. Unlike the competition, the VMware Fusion upgrade and update process as new versions come out is much simpler and as easy as point and click. it is also cheaper and its performance is on par with all the other visualization desktop products. A great addition to anyone's toolkit.
Pros
Accelerates Windows applications on Mac very smoothly.
Great options for VM management down to CPU cores and host RAM utilization.
Very easy to update/upgrade with just a click of the mouse.
Cons
Video Acceleration could be improved.
More features can be added for integration to the host OS, such as to send email to VM client.
Smoother coherence.
Likelihood to Recommend
<ul><li>Wherever there is a need to run Windows applications on Macs and one needs a quick and simple way to deploy this support as well as an easy way to update the application.</li><li>Environments where batch deployment is valued (enterprise) will be best suited by VMware Fusion with its ease of deployment.</li><li>Cost-conscious buyers would appreciate the lower costs of purchase, update, and upgrades that come with VMware Fusion.</li></ul>
VMware Fusion is being used as a virtual machine monitor to allow Mac users to test how things work on Windows machines. It is used mostly by developers and quality analysts, since most of them are using Mac, and the core business is web development, so we need to use VMware Fusion to test how things run on Window's browsers, like Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.
Pros
Allows users to install a lot of operating systems, like the latest Windows 10 release.
It's possible to integrate with Chef and Vagrant.
Cons
The price is too expensive to do things that you can do with other products for free.
It has a lot of lag when testing a Windows 10 environment, it was supposed to be faster.
Likelihood to Recommend
VMware Fusion is pretty decent if you're locked in a MacOS environment as VMware Fusion allows Mac users to run software design only for PC. An interesting mode of VMware Fusion is the Unity View Mode. With this option enabled, users are allowed to use a window that looks integrated with MacOS, as it's available for them to open from Spotlight search.
I use VMware Fusion on my Mac so that I can run business-related software that is only available on the PC. This allows me to run Windows-based software seamlessly on my Mac, which is a huge improvement over having to use two computers (one Mac, one PC) side-by-side on my desk or, worse yet while traveling.
Pros
Runs a full version of Windows on a Mac, allowing access to both environments.
Gives an immersive Windows experience when running the app in full screen. It is like having two computers in one.
Allows for copying and pasting from one environment to another, which is very handy.
Cons
It is very rare for this to happen, but sometimes the Windows environment loses the internet connection while the Mac environment still has it. Rebooting the Windows environment in VMware Fusion fixes it.
It does not always recognize printers that are set up through the Mac, particularly if they are connected via WiFi instead of hardwired.
Likelihood to Recommend
VMware Fusion is great for a user of Mac computers who still needs access to Windows-only applications. It is very easy to have both MacOS and Windows running simultaneously and switch back and forth between the two seamlessly. If you are a Mac user and never need to access Windows-only applications, there is no need for VMware Fusion at all.
VMware Fusion is primarily used by clients who need to access Windows-specific applications on their Macs. In most organizations I manage, VMware is used as a last resort, when no Mac alternatives are available. Typically, VMware is used on a user-by-user basis, only those users that need to run a specific Windows program will have access to VMware, to reduce licensing costs. In addition, VMware Fusion is also used by myself personally to create multiple virtual machines across different OSs (Windows, Linux varieties, and macOS) for testing and experimentation purposes.
Pros
In general, VMware Fusion is very easy to set up and manage, with a fairly comprehensive step-by-step install process for different OSs.
For non-3D work, VMware is quite fast and can handle a number of CPU-demanding work loads.
VMware has tight integration with macOS through various ways of sharing files b/w virtual machines and the real machine, window management (such as using macOS' native full-screen mode and its Unity mode, wherein virtual applications appear to be running natively within the OS) and printer sharing.
VMware has a very good and reasonable licensing system - a single license is good for two computers, especially when compared to Parallels.
VMware Fusion is designed to work with other VMware products, such as VMware Workstation, ESC and vCenter Server. This allows VMware Fusion to create a virtual machine on a remote server.
Cons
For 3D work or 3D gaming, VMware Fusion falls short of the main competition of Parallels. Though, 3D work in general is not well suited for virtual machines.
VMware Fusion lacks some more professional features such as a headless mode, by being run as a service in the background. In order for a virtual machine to be up and running, the VMware Fusion application must be open and the virtual machine visible. By comparison, Parallels allows for a virtual machine to automatically open at login, and in the background without the Parallels program needing to be opened. This is a great feature if a VM is being used a server and does not require regular user interaction.
VMware Fusion's integration with Apple's Bootcamp technology is severely lacking when compared to Parallels. Whereas Parallels can boot directly from a Bootcamp partition, or even use a Bootcamp partition as a disk within a VM, VMware Fusion can only create a new VM based on a Bootcamp partition.
While Fusion supports most Linux variations, it lacks the ability to automatically download the freely available OS install images (unlike Parallels).
Likelihood to Recommend
VMware Fusion is very well suited for creating virtual machines that are regularly accessed by users and not designed to just be run in the background as a service or server. Fusion's licensing terms also make it a more ideal product when used on a large scale as compared to its main competition in Parallels. In addition, Fusion is a good solution when other VMware products are already being used on other systems, and the interoperability between Fusion and other VMware products is quite good.
Fusion is not an ideal solution for those that need to run 3D programs, as its support for 3D-based workflows is somewhat lackluster. In addition, while a virtual machine can be run in the background as a minimized window, it really isn't designed to run a virtual machine as a background service.
VMware Fusion is the preferred workstation virtualization application for Mac users. It allows users to virtualize a multitude of operating systems on their workstation. We have used Fusion to virtualize firewalls, test systems for development and running OS specific applications that are unavailable on Macs.
Pros
Managing workstation-specific virtualization for Mac.
Host/Guest resource management.
Feature and patch releases are added several times a year to make sure Fusion maintains its leadership role
Cons
With OSX - 10.14.1 and the latest version of Fusion - 11.0.2 the user interface has taken a step back IMHO.
I would like to see price decrease.
Better remote host connection capabilities - remote server connections are available but connections are spotty.
Likelihood to Recommend
VM Fusion is the best virtualization platform for Macs. It is suited for any implementation for workstation virtualization.
I use VMware Fusion primarily for my own use. My organization does not have many Macs deployed, but for my work it makes the most sense and gives me the best productivity. However, there are times when Windows software must be used, such as managing Active Directory or creating diagrams with Visio. VMware Fusion gives me the ability to run this handful of apps in a Windows VM, which is more convenient than having a second machine. It also works well for testing new OS deployment scripts and running Linux-based applications.
Pros
Lightweight desktop hypervisor. Less invasive into the system than the main competitor.
Good performance. I don't notice VMs being any slower than the native OS.
Conveniently integrates with VMware ESXi servers. Good for working with standalone servers.
Cons
Not as tightly integrated with the host filesystem as competitors. Creates the occasional challenge if you want to open a file from someplace outside your Desktop, Documents or Downloads folders.
Video performance is fine for business apps, but doesn't seem to cut it for demanding video applications.
USB drivers are sometimes flaky with Windows VMs and don't work as well as one could hope.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you work with VMware servers or need to work with multiple VMs and operating systems, Fusion is your go-to choice. If you really only need one Windows VM, I might not recommend Fusion, as competing products can work better for the single purpose. Fusion is better when you need flexibility or use many VMs for testing. VMware Fusion Pro also includes some very slick tools for testing network applications, such as limiting bandwidth and injecting packet loss into a VMs network connection.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
