VirtualBox vs Parallels: What are the differences?

Developers describe VirtualBox as "Run nearly any operating system on a single machine and to freely switch between OS instances running simultaneously". 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. On the other hand, Parallels is detailed as "Lets you run Windows applications like they were made for your Mac". It is an application and desktop virtualization software vendor that offers management and delivery platforms for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows desktop deployments.

VirtualBox and Parallels can be categorized as "Virtualization Platform" tools.

Some of the features offered by VirtualBox are:

• Portability
• No hardware virtualization required
• Guest Additions: shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization

On the other hand, Parallels provides the following key features:

• Secure connection
• Universal file manager
• Connection to Mac or PC