StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Follow on

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Infrastructure as a Service
  4. Virtualization Platform
  5. Parallels Desktop vs Qemu

Parallels Desktop vs Qemu

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Qemu
Qemu
Stacks105
Followers131
Votes3
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop
Stacks39
Followers76
Votes2

Parallels Desktop vs Qemu: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will be discussing the key differences between Parallels Desktop and Qemu. Parallels Desktop and Qemu are both virtualization software that allow users to run virtual machines on their computers. However, there are several differences between the two that set them apart.

  1. Performance: Parallels Desktop offers a high-performance virtualization solution, specifically designed for Mac users, providing a seamless experience with smooth integration between the host and guest operating systems. On the other hand, Qemu is a more versatile virtualization software that supports various architectures and operating systems but may have slightly lower performance compared to Parallels Desktop.

  2. Ease of use: Parallels Desktop is known for its user-friendly interface and ease of use. It provides a simplified and straightforward setup, allowing users to quickly create and manage virtual machines. Qemu, on the other hand, requires a bit more technical expertise and configuration, making it a better choice for users with a deeper understanding of virtualization.

  3. Platform compatibility: Parallels Desktop is primarily built for Mac users, offering seamless integration and compatibility with macOS. It provides features like Coherence mode, which integrates Windows applications into the macOS desktop. On the other hand, Qemu is a cross-platform virtualization software that can be used on different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

  4. Supported virtual machine formats: Parallels Desktop supports a wide range of pre-configured virtual machines, making it easy to set up and run popular operating systems like Windows, Linux, and even Android on Mac. Qemu, on the other hand, supports a wide variety of virtual machine disk formats, giving users greater flexibility and compatibility with different virtual machine setups.

  5. Commercial vs Open-source: Parallels Desktop is a commercial virtualization software that requires a license for use. It provides dedicated customer support and regular updates. Qemu, on the other hand, is an open-source virtualization software that is free to use and has an active community of developers. However, support for Qemu may rely more on community forums and resources.

  6. Advanced features and customization: Parallels Desktop offers a range of advanced features like snapshots, which enable users to save a specific state of a virtual machine. It also provides integration with Mac features like Touch Bar support. Qemu, being a more flexible and customizable virtualization software, allows users to customize virtual hardware, network configurations, and other advanced options.

In summary, Parallels Desktop is a high-performance, user-friendly virtualization solution specifically designed for Mac users, offering seamless integration with macOS and support for various pre-configured virtual machines. On the other hand, Qemu is a versatile, cross-platform, open-source virtualization software that requires more technical expertise but offers greater customization options and supports various architectures and operating systems.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs
CLI (Node.js)
or
Manual

Detailed Comparison

Qemu
Qemu
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop

When used as a machine emulator, it can run OSes and programs made for one machine (e.g. an ARM board) on a different machine (e.g. your own PC). By using dynamic translation, it achieves very good performance. When used as a virtualizer, it achieves near native performance by executing the guest code directly on the host CPU. it supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using KVM, it can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, 64-bit POWER, S390, 32-bit and 64-bit ARM, and MIPS guests.

Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to seamlessly run both Windows and MacOS applications side-by-side with speed, control and confidence.

machine emulator and virtualizer; dynamic translation;
Seamless;Easy Setup;Lightning Fast;Coherence mode;Retina Display Support;Touch Bar;Office 365 Integration;Automatic resolution change;Drag and drop;Picture-in-Picture;macOS guest support
Statistics
Stacks
105
Stacks
39
Followers
131
Followers
76
Votes
3
Votes
2
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1
    Performance
  • 1
    Free
  • 1
    Easy to use
Pros
  • 1
    Retina support
  • 1
    Works out of the box with zero config
Integrations
Linux
Linux
KVM
KVM
Vagrant
Vagrant
Chef
Chef
Docker
Docker

What are some alternatives to Qemu, Parallels Desktop?

VirtualBox

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Proxmox VE

Proxmox VE

It is a complete open-source platform for all-inclusive enterprise virtualization that tightly integrates KVM hypervisor and LXC containers, software-defined storage and networking functionality on a single platform, and easily manages high availability clusters and disaster recovery tools with the built-in web management interface.

VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere

vSphere is the world’s leading server virtualization platform. Run fewer servers and reduce capital and operating costs using VMware vSphere to build a cloud computing infrastructure.

KVM

KVM

KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).

Parallels

Parallels

It is an application and desktop virtualization software vendor that offers management and delivery platforms for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows desktop deployments.

VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion

It gives Mac users the power to run Windows on Mac along with hundreds of other operating systems side by side with Mac applications, without rebooting. It is simple enough for home users and powerful enough for IT professionals, developers and businesses.

Xen

Xen

It is a hypervisor using a microkernel design, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was developed by the Linux Foundation and is supported by Intel.

VMware vSAN

VMware vSAN

It is enterprise-class, storage virtualization software that, when combined with vSphere, allows you to manage compute and storage with a single platform. You can reduce the cost and complexity of traditional storage and take the easiest path to hyperconverged infrastructure and hybrid cloud. Evolve to an integrated hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution with vSAN to improve business agility, all while speeding operations and lowering costs.

Oracle VM Server

Oracle VM Server

It is a zero license cost server virtualization and management solution that makes enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. Backed worldwide by affordable enterprise-quality support for both Oracle and non-Oracle environments, it reduces operations and support costs while increasing IT efficiency and agility.

Virtuozzo

Virtuozzo

It is an operating system-level server virtualization solution designed to centralize server management and consolidate workloads, which reduces overhead by reducing the number of physical servers required. Organizations use it for server consolidation, disaster recovery, and server workload agility.

Related Comparisons

GitHub
Bitbucket

Bitbucket vs GitHub vs GitLab

GitHub
Bitbucket

AWS CodeCommit vs Bitbucket vs GitHub

Kubernetes
Rancher

Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes vs Rancher

gulp
Grunt

Grunt vs Webpack vs gulp

Graphite
Kibana

Grafana vs Graphite vs Kibana