MacVisor vs. VirtualBox

Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 27.

Windows, Linux, Solaris and Intel Macs; Apple silicon Macs on macOS 13 to 26; Windows 11 on Arm as an experimental host.

Made for macOS 27 on Apple Silicon, and tested on 27.2.

Not listed: Oracle's 7.2 manual names macOS 13 to 26 as Apple silicon hosts. Users run 7.2.22 on macOS 27, and report open bugs there, such as bridged networking that won't start on 27.2.

macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27 from Apple's installers, your own IPSW or a registry image such as Tart's, with accelerated graphics, and set up for you on macOS 27 (account, SSH and the MacVisor Agent). Apple allows two macOS VMs at a time.

No. macOS guests run only on Intel Mac hosts; on Apple silicon the guest list is Arm Linux and Windows 11.

Any ARM64 distribution: a signed catalogue of cloud images (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Rocky, Alma, openSUSE, Alpine and more) set up by cloud-init, a registry image, or any ARM64 ISO. Rosetta runs x86-64 Linux programs, and a TPM 2.0 is there if you turn it on (27.2.1).

Arm64 Linux from an ISO, with Guest Additions: Oracle Linux and RHEL 7 to 10 with premier support, and Debian, Ubuntu and SLES with limited support. No unattended installation on Arm hosts.

Windows 11 on ARM, installed unattended from Microsoft's ISO with your account, Remote Desktop, optional SSH, the MacVisor Agent and sound. UEFI Secure Boot and a TPM 2.0 sealed to the Mac's Secure Enclave, so BitLocker unlocks from the TPM; mvz tpm export and import move it to another Mac (27.2.1). Tested on macOS 27.2. No GPU acceleration or TPM attestation.

Since 7.2, from a Windows 11 Arm64 ISO you supply, with Guest Additions (shared folders and a WDDM driver) and premier support on macOS hosts. Setup isn't unattended on Arm hosts, and 3D is experimental.

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

Not a listed guest on Arm hosts. 7.1 announced Arm virtualization for Linux and BSD VMs on macOS, but the 7.2 guest table lists only Linux and Windows 11.

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.

OVF and OVA appliances import on Arm (fixed in 7.2.0), and VBoxManage convertfromraw turns a raw image into a VDI. qcow2 isn't a supported disk format, and no appliance workflow is documented.

A TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot on new Windows VMs, so BitLocker unlocks from the TPM. The TPM is sealed to the Mac's Secure Enclave; mvz tpm export and import move it to another Mac under a passphrase, and a clone gets a TPM of its own. Linux VMs can have one too. No TPM attestation.

A Windows 11 on Arm VM is created with EFI, Secure Boot and a TPM 2.0 (VirtualBox's OS type defaults); the manual says the TPM setting isn't available for Arm VMs. BitLocker on Apple silicon isn't documented.

No: Apple Silicon (ARM64) guests only; x86-64 programs run inside Linux guests through Rosetta.

Not on Apple silicon: "x86-based guest operating systems will not run", and there is no emulator. On Intel and AMD hosts, VirtualBox runs x86 Windows, Linux, BSD, Solaris and older systems.

A signed catalogue of vendor cloud images (Linux and FreeBSD), your own raw, ASIF or qcow2 image, or a VM image from any OCI registry, Tart's included (27.2.1). cloud-init sets up your account, SSH keys, container runtime and home folder share from the New VM form or mvz create.

Installs from an ISO; unattended installation isn't available on Arm hosts, and there is no cloud-image catalogue or built-in cloud-init. Vagrant boxes and OVA appliances are the usual shortcuts.

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.

None built in; containers run inside a guest you set up yourself.

The MacVisor Agent, installed for you: by cloud-init on Linux, over SSH on macOS 27 and FreeBSD, and by Windows setup. Older macOS and ISO installs use the guest tools disc; appliances can use a QEMU guest agent.

Guest Additions from a disc image you mount and run in the guest: Linux on Arm from 7.1, Windows 11 on Arm from 7.2. The manual lists guest additions among the limits of Arm hosts.

Clipboard, file transfer, port forwards, guest addresses and a clean shutdown over a virtual socket, with no network needed; VirtioFS shared folders, ISOs attached to a running VM, and Rosetta for Linux.

Guest Additions add shared folders (global ones from 7.2), clipboard, drag and drop and display resizing. On Apple silicon the manual notes limits with sound, storage, graphics and guest additions; no Rosetta for Linux.

macOS guests get accelerated graphics on the Mac's GPU. Linux and Windows guests have no GPU acceleration, so no 3D; Windows takes the window's exact size as you resize it, on MacVisor's own display device. One display per VM.

Experimental on Apple silicon: 3D for Arm VMs from 7.1.2, and DirectX through DXMT for Windows 11 on Arm from 7.2. Arm VMs use only the VMSVGA controller.

USB passthrough for devices such as Zigbee or Z-Wave radios, security keys and serial adapters, reattached whenever the VM runs (from 27.2.1). No audio devices or webcams.

USB 2 and 3 passthrough by device or filter, in the free base package; 7.2.10 fixed attaching devices to headless VMs on Apple silicon.

Live (with memory) and disk-only snapshots of running VMs for every guest, near-free on APFS, plus automatic snapshots hourly, daily or weekly (27.2.1); suspend and resume; and shut down or suspend at logout, your choice.

Snapshot trees, live snapshots of running VMs (VBoxManage snapshot take --live) and saved state. Saved states and online snapshots of Arm VMs from 7.1 don't work in 7.2.

Templates and instant linked clones that store only their own changes; every cloud-image VM is a linked clone of its image. From 27.2.1, templates pull from OCI registries and VMs push to them.

Full clones, linked clones made from a snapshot, and OVF and OVA export; no templates as such.

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

VMs can live in any folder; Move in VirtualBox Manager or VBoxManage movevm takes a stopped VM elsewhere. No running-VM migration.

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

Each running VM has its own process, and VMs started headless or with a detachable GUI keep running when VirtualBox Manager closes. All of them work through the VBoxSVC service.

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

VBoxManage covers nearly everything, with VBoxHeadless and startvm --type headless, guest control (with Guest Additions), a SOAP web service (on Arm hosts from 7.2) and an SDK. Vagrant supports VirtualBox 4.0 to 7.2, and HashiCorp maintains a Packer plugin.

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.

NAT, bridged and internal modes, plus named NAT Networks and named host-only networks (on macOS these replace host-only adapters), with up to eight adapters per VM.

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.

No 802.1Q VLAN interfaces or tagging of its own; bridging uses an interface the host already has.

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

A DHCP server per NAT Network or host-only network; VBoxManage dhcpserver gives a MAC address or VM a fixed address (command line only).

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

TCP and UDP port-forwarding rules per VM on NAT, and per network on NAT Networks (IPv4 and IPv6), from the GUI or VBoxManage.

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 firewall rules. Isolation comes from the mode: internal and host-only networks don't reach the internet.

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

A NAT Network switches DHCP and IPv6 on or off, and per-VM NAT can proxy DNS; there are no per-network DNS, NAT66 or router-advertisement switches.

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

No official MCP server or AI-agent integration; an agent with a shell can run VBoxManage, with access to every VM.

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, read stored passwords, or delete a VM you protected.

No per-VM access levels for AI agents.

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. A linked clone or snapshot gives a throwaway VM by hand, with 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.

An autostart service starts chosen VMs at boot through launchd, set up by hand: a plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons, a config file, and VBoxManage modifyvm --autostart-enabled on. 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 built-in VM backups. Snapshots stay with the VM; export an OVA or copy the stopped VM by hand.

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 single-Mac feature and every 27.x update. MacVisor Business is $79 per Mac a year from 3 Macs ($119 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.

Free: the base package is GPLv3. The Oracle VirtualBox Extension Pack is free only for personal and educational use under the PUEL, and commercial use of it needs a paid Oracle license. The VRDP server, disk encryption and the virtual webcam moved to the free base package in 7.2.2 and 7.2.6.