MacVisor vs. VirtualBuddy

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.

Catalogue of Apple restore images (betas included), a local IPSW, or a custom URL. On macOS 27, guests can skip Setup Assistant with an account, automatic login and SSH.

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.

ARM64 Linux from installer ISOs (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Kali catalogue, or your own .iso), with Rosetta. No cloud images or cloud-init.

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.

No Windows guests: only macOS and Linux guest types.

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 documented or supported; a request to boot OpenBSD reportedly froze.

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 an existing disk image as the VM's disk; no qcow2 support.

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.

Not a feature; install a runtime yourself inside a Linux guest.

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.

VirtualBuddyGuest is installed by hand from a disk VirtualBuddy mounts in the VM, then updates itself. Linux clipboard sharing needs a SPICE agent you install.

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.

No VM-management CLI. virtualbuddy:// deep links can open, boot and stop a VM by name.

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.

VMs run in windows inside the app; closing it saves or shuts them down. No autostart or headless mode.

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

VMs run inside the app process; quitting it saves or shuts down every running VM.

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.

Save and resume for macOS guests: one saved state per VM. No snapshots, and Linux guests cannot be saved.

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

Duplicate a VM as an APFS clone, or copy settings from another VM. No template library or linked clones.

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

A single library folder, which can be on another volume. No migration between locations.

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.

Per-VM NAT or bridged to a chosen interface. No named shared-NAT or host-only segments.

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 to an existing interface, but cannot create a host 802.1Q VLAN interface.

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

Sets each VM's MAC address; no DHCP scope or address-reservation settings.

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.

No port-forwarding rules.

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 host firewall.

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

No per-network DHCP, DNS, NAT or IPv6 controls.

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.

No MCP server or AI-agent integration; deep links (open, boot, stop) are the only outside control.

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.

No MCP server, so no per-VM agent access levels.

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.

No sandboxes for AI coding agents. Duplicating a VM gives a throwaway copy by hand.

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.

Not built for unattended hosts: no autostart at login, headless mode, restart on crash or hooks.

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 backups. A VM is a bundle you copy or back up with Time Machine or another tool.

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

VirtualBuddyGuest shares the clipboard and mounts shared folders automatically; Linux uses a SPICE agent for the clipboard. No file transfer, shell or port tunnels.

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.

Apple's accelerated graphics for macOS guests; Linux guests use Virtio graphics without acceleration.

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.

Free and open source (BSD 2-Clause); optional support via Gumroad or GitHub Sponsors.