Best Virtual Machine Software in 2026
Updated
In short: Proxmox VE is ranked #1 of 26 as of 2 October 2026, ahead of OpenNebula and Oracle VirtualBox. The best-ranked option with a free plan is oVirt. The lowest first paid tier on this page is Proxmox VE at €10/mo.
If you’re weighing virtual machine software, start with the mix of guests, hosts and management workflows your infrastructure needs. Proxmox VE, OpenNebula and oVirt appear among the first entries, alongside options such as QEMU and Oracle VirtualBox. Compare host platforms and guest architecture, then check whether GPU acceleration and nested virtualization matter for your workloads. VM snapshots and the management interface can shape day-to-day operations, while free plans and the starting paid price help you assess cost. The 22 entries are ranked, with these comparison fields giving you practical points to weigh as you match a platform to your environment.
26 virtual machine software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
| # | Platform | Score | Why | From | Free plan | Paid from | Host platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proxmox VE | 9.0 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | €10/mo | Yes | Free | ARM64 | View |
| 2 | OpenNebula | 7.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 3 | Oracle VirtualBox | 7.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Windows, macOS, Linux, Oracle Solaris | View |
| 4 | oVirt | 7.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | — | View |
| 5 | VMware Workstation Pro | 7.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Windows, Linux | View |
| 6 | QEMU | 7.1 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | — | View |
| 7 |  KVM | 7.1 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Linux | View |
| 8 | Xen Project Hypervisor | 6.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD | View |
| 9 |  Multipass | 6.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux, macOS, Windows | View |
| 10 |  virt-manager | 6.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux; OpenBSD | View |
| 11 | Parallels Desktop | 6.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | macOS | View |
| 12 | Citrix XenServer | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | XenServer OS on 64-bit x86 bare-metal servers | View |
| 13 | GNOME Boxes | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux | View |
| 14 | Cloud Hypervisor | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux | View |
| 15 |  UTM | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | macOS | View |
| 16 | Proxmox Backup Server | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | €46.67/mo | Yes | — | — | View |
| 17 | Scale Computing Platform | 5.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | — | — | — | View |
| 18 |  Firecracker | 5.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux | View |
| 19 | IBM PowerVM | 5.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | — | View |
| 20 | IBM z/VM | 5.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | IBM Z and LinuxONE | View |
| 21 |  XenServer | 5.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | bare-metal x86-64 server | View |
| 22 |  VergeOS | 5.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | — | — | bare-metal x86 hardware | View |
| 23 |  HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM) | 5.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Linux | View |
| 24 | Citrix Secure Private Access | 5.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | XenServer OS on 64-bit x86 bare-metal servers | View |
| 25 |  JamaicaVM | 4.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | — | — | Linux, Windows, macOS | View |
Is your platform on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which virtual machine software is ranked first on Inferse?
Proxmox VE is ranked #1 of 26 with a score of 9.0. OpenNebula is second and Oracle VirtualBox third.
How many of these have a free plan?
6 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, Proxmox VE has the lowest first paid tier we found: €10/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, open and connectable first: a public API, open-source code, the depth of its documentation and a free tier to try it on. Model lists are sorted by the figure in their title, exactly as each provider publishes it. Paid placements never change a rank.