Item: Oracle VM VirtualBox
Rating: 9
Author: Chris Putnam

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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

Return on Investment

Improved QA
Improved Efficiency

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi

I have used VMware ESXi for the purpose of running virtual productions servers. It's a different use case from VirtualBox, but they can be compared in some aspects:
- Both have room for improvement in UI - but VBox is somewhat more intuitive
- Both have decent performance in my experience
- Both can be challenging to configure if you do not have prior experience/training, but VBox is certainly the easier of the two to get up and running

Other Software Used

VMware ESXi, Vagrant, Ubuntu Linux

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Free Virtualization? Why Not?

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle VM VirtualBox