MacVisor vs. Parallels Desktop

macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27 from Apple's installers or your own IPSW, with accelerated graphics, and set up for you on macOS 27 (account, SSH and guest agent). Apple allows two macOS VMs at a time.

macOS VMs on Apple's Virtualization framework, with limits: at most two at a time, no Coherence or drag and drop.

Any ARM64 distribution: a signed catalogue of cloud images (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Rocky, Alma, openSUSE, Alpine and more) set up by cloud-init, or any ARM64 ISO. Rosetta runs x86-64 Linux programs.

Ready-to-use ARM Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 26.04, Fedora 44 and Debian 13.6 in version 27.

Windows 11 on ARM, installed unattended from Microsoft's ISO with your account, Remote Desktop, optional SSH, the guest agent, Secure Boot and a TPM 2.0 that BitLocker can seal to. Needs macOS 27.2; no GPU acceleration.

A core use case. Authorized by Microsoft for Windows 11 on Arm (bring your own license); Parallels downloads and installs it, with Parallels Tools, virtual TPM 2.0, DirectX 11 and Coherence.

FreeBSD 15.1 and 16.0-CURRENT from FreeBSD's cloud images, with your SSH keys, the guest agent and snapshots. Console and SSH only, with no desktop, shared folders or clipboard.

Not a listed guest on Apple silicon. Forum users report FreeBSD 13.4 and 14.2 running unofficially as an "Other Linux" VM.

FreeBSD- and Linux-based firewalls and routers, and appliances such as Home Assistant OS, booted as they are from their ARM64 images, with USB passthrough for Zigbee and Z-Wave radios.

No documented way to boot a raw or qcow2 image as is; you convert the disk with qemu-img and prl_convert and attach it to a new Linux VM.

No: Apple Silicon (ARM64) guests only.

An x86_64 emulator, still an early preview (Pro and higher), with one vCPU and slow boots.

A signed catalogue of vendor cloud images (Linux and FreeBSD), or your own raw, ASIF or qcow2 image. cloud-init sets up your account, SSH keys, container runtime and home folder share from the New VM form or mvz create.

An assistant downloads several Linux distributions; cloud-init provisioning of the account, keys and runtime isn't a documented feature.

Docker, Podman, containerd or k3s, opt-in when you create the VM. The Docker or Podman socket and the k3s kubeconfig reach the Mac with no network setup.

Pro supports Docker and Kubernetes (with a Minikube driver), but you install the runtime in the guest yourself; no Docker socket forwarded to the Mac is documented.

macOS guests get accelerated graphics on the Mac's GPU. Linux and Windows guests have no GPU acceleration (Windows at any resolution on MacVisor's own display device). One display per VM.

DirectX 11 and OpenGL acceleration for Windows applications and games; version 27 moved OpenGL to a Metal-based driver.

Live (with memory) and disk-only snapshots of running VMs for every guest, near-free on APFS; suspend and resume; and shut down or suspend at logout, your choice.

Mature snapshot, suspend and rollback workflows, with SmartGuard for scheduled snapshots (not for macOS VMs).

Templates and instant linked clones that store only their own changes; every cloud-image VM is a linked clone of its image.

Full clones in every edition, linked clones in Pro and higher; templates are deprecated as of 26.3.

Several storage locations on internal, external or network volumes; a running VM moves between them in one step (suspend, move, resume).

VM bundles can be stored anywhere and moved by hand while stopped; no in-app migration of a running VM is documented.

The mvz CLI covers nearly everything the app does, from creating VMs to snapshots, networks, firewall rules and the MCP server, with --json output and documented exit codes.

prlctl and prlsrvctl, plus Packer, Vagrant, Jenkins, VS Code and Minikube, in Pro and higher; Standard has no CLI.

A background service runs one process per VM, so VMs keep running when the app quits or the service updates. The app and the mvz CLI control the same VMs.

Headless mode (Pro and higher) runs VMs as background processes, and a VM can start with Parallels Desktop; "Start when Mac starts" is deprecated in 27.1.

One process per VM: a crash stops only that VM, and quitting the app or restarting the service stops none.

Each VM has its own process, but the documentation doesn't promise VMs survive if the shared control service is terminated.

NAT, bridged (also to a VLAN), and named shared and host-only networks, with up to four adapters per VM; every VM answers as <vm>.mvz.

One shared (NAT) network and bridging are built in; Pro and higher add named host-only networks, but not more shared-NAT networks.

Creates 802.1Q VLAN interfaces on the Mac (tags 1-4094) for VMs to bridge to, or for a shared network to use as its uplink.

Bridges a VM to a VLAN the Mac is already on; creating the VLAN interface is left to macOS.

Per-network DHCP with MAC-to-IPv4 reservations, by hand or made for cloud-init VMs automatically (within macOS 27's network limits).

DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 servers per network with configurable ranges; MAC-to-address reservations aren't documented.

TCP and UDP forwards on shared networks, reachable from other devices, plus per-VM forwards through the guest agent; Linux VMs forward their listening ports to the Mac automatically.

TCP and UDP port-forwarding rules on the shared network (Pro and higher).

Allow and deny rules per network (protocol, address range, port), enforced by the Mac's packet filter outside the guest, even with the app closed. IPv4 only.

No per-network firewall rules are documented; isolation comes from the network type (shared, bridged or host-only).

Per-network switches for DHCP, DNS, NAT44, NAT66 and IPv6 router advertisements, plus the subnet, IPv6 prefix, MTU and uplink.

The DHCP servers can be switched off and their ranges set; per-network DNS, NAT and IPv6 RA switches aren't documented.

A built-in MCP server (Tech Preview): Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents use only the VMs you open to them, to run commands, read and write files, take snapshots and roll back, or see the screen. Local only, with every call logged.

Official: pdfm-mcp, an open-source MCP server installed separately, lets Claude, Codex and other clients start and stop VMs, run guest commands, use the screen, snapshot and clone. Pro and higher.

Per VM: Off (the default), View (state, screenshots, reading files) or Control (power, commands, files, snapshots, keyboard and mouse), set in VM Settings or with mvz set. Agents can't open a VM themselves, delete your snapshots or read stored passwords.

Scoped by launch arguments: --allow-vms limits it to listed VMs, --read-only allows only observing tools (all VMs at once), and tools can be filtered. By default every local VM is reachable; no audit log.

AI sandboxes (Tech Preview): coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex run in a disposable Linux or macOS VM with a copy of your project, API keys kept on the Mac and allow-listed internet; you review the diff before it lands.

None for AI coding agents. An agent can clone a VM and roll back snapshots through pdfm-mcp, but there is no project copy, network allow-list or reviewed diff.

Runs unattended with the app closed: VMs start at login, and High Availability restarts one that crashes. From 27.2.1, a watchdog, health checks and hooks restart VMs that stop responding.

Headless mode, VMs that start with Parallels Desktop ("Start when Mac starts" is deprecated in 27.1), and a choice of what happens at Mac shutdown (Pro and higher). Restart after a crash, watchdog and health checks aren't documented.

Built in from 27.2.1: daily, weekly or on demand, to another drive or a network share, running VMs included, checked by SHA-256 and restorable on any Mac.

No backup of its own: Time Machine backs up VMs with the Mac. SmartGuard schedules make snapshots inside the VM, not copies elsewhere, and aren't available for macOS VMs.

Free 30-day trial, no card needed. MacVisor 27 Pro is one-time: $59 for one Mac, $79 for two Macs (launch prices until 1 December 2026, then $69, $99), with every feature and every 27.x update. MacVisor Business is $79 per Mac a year from 3 Macs ($99 from 1 December 2026), with new major versions, email support (first reply within 2 business days, IST) and help deploying through your MDM. Enterprise support by quote.

One license per Mac: Standard is $99.99 a year or $219.99 once for version 27 (no CLI); Pro is $119.99 and Business $149.99 a year, subscription only. Enterprise by quote.