VirtualBox Vs. VMware Player: Which is Best for Virtualization?

As a computer user, if you have ever used virtual machines, you might know it is quite a conflict between these two. Some prefer one over the other; they actually have a fan club on their own. However, if you don’t know a virtual machine or have a faint idea, this article will also help you. So, we request that you read this post through to the end to get answers to your questions, like what is VirtualBox and VMware player, and know the winner of VirtualBox vs. VMware Player conflict. Let’s first understand what is VirtualBox, the features of VirtualBox, the disadvantages of VirtualBox, the advantages of VMware player, etc.

VirtualBox Vs. VMware Player: Which is Best for Virtualization?

You will get to know the difference between VirtualBox vs. VMware Player further in this article. Keep reading to learn more about it in detail.

What is Virtual Machine?

If you want to understand this article, the first thing you should know is the virtual machine. This is a quite technical thing, but read ahead and you’ll understand it clearly.

You can think of them as software which is actually a computer. And whoever is installing the software can use that computer. Ok, we know that it might go over your head, which is normally so. However, let us give you an example and things will get clear.

Let’s suppose you have a Windows laptop. However, you want to use Linux Operating System. So, what can be done? The answer is simple, downloading a virtual machine can solve this problem. With using this software, you can access a computer which have Linux installed in it. So virtual machines allow someone to use another computer environment, just by downloading software. So, on your laptop or desktop, you can use another computer that is physically present somewhere else, but you are emulating it by a virtual machine in your device.

What is VirtualBox?

Innotek GmbH developed VirtualBox at first. But later it was purchased by Sun Microsystem in 2008. However, later it was again purchased by Oracle in 2010.

VirtualBox is a software that can create and run virtual machine software. So, it is pretty clear now, that it works like a separate computer in your device. The main difference between this one and VMware is that one is acquired by Oracle, and Broadcom acquires the other one.

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What are the Features of VirtualBox?

Oracle Virtual Box is one of the most famous software that people use. So, what’s the reason for its popularity? The answer is quite simple, Its features. They make this app loved by all. So, let’s see some of them.

• Multi-OS Support: This software by Oracle offers many operating systems to use, like, macOS, Windows XP, Linux, Ubuntu, etc.
• Used By Professionals: It is used by professionals.
• Remote Access: You can use VirtualBox with many screens as it supports screen resolution that is much more than a physical screen.
• VRDE Technology: With VRDE or VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension technology which supports Remote Desktop Protocol originally developed by Microsoft, you can have high-performance access to any of your running virtual machines. However, as VRDE does not use RDP technology, that’s why you can easily use this feature in other OS than windows.
• VirtualBox Group Feature: With the help of this VirtualBox, you can create groups to collect virtual machines. It helps to organize things and access them easily.
• Hardware Visualisation Not Required: For many cases, Oracle’s Virtual Machine doesn’t need hardware support, like Intel and AMD processors, so you can use many functions that hardware doesn’t support.

These were the features of VirtualBox. Keep reading further to understand the advantages of VMware player, the disadvantages of VirtualBox, and the features of VirtualBox.

What are the Advantages of VirtualBox?

Let’s see some of the advantages of VirtualBox:

• Install and Use Easily: You can easily install Virtual Box on your PC. As it is a very famous software, there are many tutorials available on YouTube and also on many websites, including TechCult.
• Free and Open-Source: As we said just now, this software is free to use and open-source. So, you can download it without spending your money and have the experience of using a Virtual Machine.
• Risk-Free: If you want to host multiple Virtual Machine in VirtualBox, and thinking about the risk of software crashing, then create a virtual hard disk. So it won’t affect your hardware.
• All Updated: If you want to use the latest virtual hardware, then using this software allows you to do that. Also, if some use VirtualBox, then they can also use obsolete software. This feature comes in very handy.
• Use Multiple OS: As we mentioned earlier, you can easily install multiple OS, and the best thing is you don’t need to dual boot the new OS to run it along side the existing one.

Now that you know the advantages of VirtualBox, let’s discuss some of its disadvantages.

What are the Disadvantages of VirtualBox?

Below are some of the disadvantages of VirtualBox that you should note:

• Less Efficient: When you use this software by Oracle, as it doesn’t use real virtual machines, it is less efficient. For example, you need to get approval for requests from the host processor. This decreases VirtualBox’s usability.
• Everything Depends on Host: VirtualBox depends on the host for everything as it uses the hardware of the host machine. So, the problem you face is this, the more powerful the host machine is more powerful will be your virtual machine. The less powerful the host is, the less power will be on your virtual machine.

These are some of the disadvantages of VirtualBox.

What is VMware Player?

VMware player, now known as VMware Workstation Player, is a virtual machine that is free and open-source. Just like VirtualBox, it lets you create virtual machines and run them in your system. However, both are the same in some ways but different in others, which we will discuss later in this article. It is a freemium software, and the majority of the shares of its parent company remain with Dell EMC. Although VMware player and VMware workstation were two different things, however after 2015, they were combined and formed VMware Workstation Pro 12.

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What are the Features of VMware Player?

After reading the features of VirtualBox, let’s see the features of VMware Player:

• OS Support: VMware supports many OS, like Windows, Ubuntu, Linux, etc.
• Independent: Without using the VI Web Access Management interface, you can use your virtual machine using VMware.
• Better Hardware Support: You can use x86 hardware, and two-processor Virtual SMP, which helps you to use it effectively.
• Supports 64-bit OS: 64-bit operating system supports to enable you to experience more scalable and higher preformation computing.
• Easy Migration: You can easily migrate from free VMware go to VMware vSphere.

Now you know some of the features of VMware Player, let’s know some advantages of VMware player.

What are the Advantages of VMware Player?

There are a few advantages of using VMware Player, they are discussed below,

• Free Software: VMware is free software, which means you can easily access it for free.
• Easy Installation: VMware is pretty famous among techy people, that’s why there are many tutorials available on the internet, just like VirtualBox. However, you might not need to watch any tutorial to install this app.
• Cost Effectiveness: If you use this software, it can easily cut the cost of your business operating.
• Safety: If you install an OS on your computer and it gets attacked, it can create havoc. However, if you install a virtual machine using VMware, then it becomes very safe. If it gets attacked or any other problem arises, you can install another virtual machine.
• Increased Performance: Downloading extra software decreases your computer speed. However, that’s not true for VMware. It actually increases the speed of your system, which in turn makes your experience better.

So, we think that this solves your query advantages of VMware. Now let’s know some disadvantages.

What are the Disadvantages of VMware Player?

You can learn the disadvantages of VMware Player with the help of the pointers listed below:

• Freemium: Although it is free software, a better term is freeware. This means it is free. However, there is a premium option. And that’s a disadvantage. Although compared to other virtual machines, it is not that expensive. However, to access some very handy features, you need to pay.
• Problems With Software: This software is effective, and many software works fine with virtual machines. But some software can create problems and can get crash on virtualization. That is a problem.
• More Complexity: There are many benefits of using software like VMware. However, it also creates complexity, which makes it very difficult to find the root cause if something happens. This is also a problem that prevents many to use Virtual machines like VMware.

So these are some of the disadvantages of VMware player. Now, let’s find out which is better, VMware or VirtualBox by oracle for creating virtual machines.

Also Read: How to Fix VirtualBox Installation Failed in Windows 10

What is the Difference Between VirtualBox vs. VMware Player?

As we previously said, these two software are similar as they both have similar implications. However, there are some differences which we will tell you now about VirtualBox Vs. VMware player. We created a table format to tell you the differences between VirtualBox and VMware players.

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We hope that you learned about the difference between VirtualBox vs. VMware Player, advantages of VMware player, disadvantages of VirtualBox, features of VirtualBox, etc. Feel free to reach out to us with your queries and suggestions via the comments section below. Also, let us know what topic you want to learn about in our next article.