VirtualBox is a popular open-source virtualization software that allows users to run multiple operating systems on a single physical machine. While VirtualBox offers useful features like portability and easy setup, there are also some downsides that users should consider before choosing it as their main virtualization tool.
What is VirtualBox?
VirtualBox is a type I hypervisor developed by Oracle that creates virtual machines on x86 based computers. It can run on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris, Haiku, OS/2, and others.
Some key features of VirtualBox include:
- Open source software released under GPLv2
- Easy to install and set up new virtual machines
- Portable – virtual machines can be moved between hosts
- Virtual machine snapshots allow restoring to previous states
- Guest additions to improve performance and integration
- Supports USB pass-through for extra functionality
- Shared folders allow accessing host files from the guest OS
This combination of portability, easy of use and open source availability has made VirtualBox a popular choice for developers, sysadmins, and regular users who want to run multiple operating systems. VirtualBox competes with commercial hypervisors like VMware Workstation and Parallels Desktop in the desktop virtualization space.
Why Consider Not Using VirtualBox?
While VirtualBox has many benefits, there are also some downsides to consider before choosing it as your main virtualization tool:
Performance and Compatibility Issues
In terms of performance and compatibility, VirtualBox falls behind commercial competitors like VMware Workstation. While CPU and memory performance is usually adequate, VirtualBox’s virtualized graphics, disk I/O, and networking can be noticeably slower than native speeds. This becomes most apparent when running graphically intensive applications like games or CAD software.
Compatibility can also be an issue, with some guest operating systems and applications not behaving 100% correctly in VirtualBox virtual machines. For example, running Mac OS releases requires jumping through extra hoops compared to VMware. Certain apps like anti-cheat games software may not work properly or block running in a virtual machine.
Limited Features
Commercial solutions like VMware Workstation contain many power user features that VirtualBox lacks. Examples include:
- Limited snapshot tree depth – VirtualBox only allows 128 snapshots per VM
- No linked clones – copying an existing VM results in a full duplicate
- No checkpoint merging
- No support for nested virtualization – running hypervisor inside a VM
- No support for hypervisor specific guest tools like VMware Tools or Hyper-V Integration Services
- No built-in container virtualization features like Docker support
- No built-in restore points for recovering from failures
This can limit more complex deployment options that advanced and enterprise users may require. Workarounds exist in some cases but are not as seamless as native solutions.
Lack of Professional Support
As open source software, VirtualBox does not come with professional support services or Service Level Agreements (SLAs) like those offered by VMware, Parallels, and others. The open source community provides best effort support through forums and bug trackers. Lacking priority support can be a dealbreaker for some organizations.
Bugs and issues may go unfixed for longer. If a critical issue is encountered, there is no dedicated team that can be contacted for quick troubleshooting and resolution. Workarounds for issues must be self-sourced instead of provided by a support team.
Alternatives to VirtualBox
Given the disadvantages above, what are some alternatives to consider instead of or in addition to VirtualBox?
VMware Workstation / Fusion
For desktop virtualization, VMware Workstation (Windows/Linux) and Fusion (Mac) are the leading commercial solutions. They offer excellent performance, broad guest OS support, and a robust feature set for power users and enterprises.
Benefits include:
- Industry leading performance
- Commercial guest OS support like Windows licenses
- More stable and reliable than VirtualBox
- Feature rich including snapshots, cloning, teams, automation
- Host-guest file sharing and system integration
- Support for advanced features like nested virtualization
- Priority support and SLAs available
Downsides are the cost and the fact it is a closed source proprietary product. But for a reliable and full-featured solution, VMware is hard to beat.
Hyper-V
Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor is a free option included in Windows. It provides native virtualization on Windows hosts that can match or exceed VirtualBox performance.
Benefits of Hyper-V include:
- No additional software installation required
- Fast network and disk I/O performance
- Dynamic Memory allocation
- Easy migration between Windows hosts
- Integrates with other Windows management tools
- Supports Kubernetes containers
Downsides are it is limited to Windows hosts only and has a more complex management interface compared to VirtualBox. But as a native virtualization solution, it can deliver better VM performance than non-native options.
KVM
On Linux, KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) offers an open source native virtualization solution. KVM performance and features can rival proprietary hypervisors if configured properly.
Benefits of KVM include:
- Native Linux virtualization built on QEMU
- Uses hardware acceleration for fast guest performance
- Open source with no licensing costs
- Supports live migration of VMs between hosts
- Can use libvirt management tools
- Integrates well with Linux control groups (cgroups) and namespaces for isolation
Downsides are the learning curve to get KVM set up properly compared to out-of-the-box solutions like VirtualBox. Proper OS and driver configuration is also important for maximum performance. But KVM is a powerful open source alternative for Linux users.
Conclusion
VirtualBox deserves its popularity – it is an excellent open source virtualization tool that is easy to get started with. But the disadvantages around performance, compatibility, features, and lack of support should be considered before adopting it long term, especially for enterprise use.
For users that require reliability, native-level performance, or advanced features, alternatives like VMware, Hyper-V or KVM are worth evaluating. These solutions can deliver a smoother virtualization experience but may require an upfront investment of time and money.
In the end there is no “one size fits all” virtualization tool. Specific use cases and requirements determine whether VirtualBox is the right choice or if another option is preferable. VirtualBox can still serve a useful role as part of a broader virtualization toolkit. But be aware of its limitations so it can be deployed strategically rather than as a one-stop solution.