Alternatives to oVirt

Centralised management platform for KVM virtual machines across a cluster. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as oVirt.

  • Proxmox VE

    A bare-metal server platform that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface.

    FreemiumOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Proxmox VE manages KVM virtual machines and LXC containers with built-in backup and high-availability clustering, and suits smaller setups, though it has a subscription reminder.

  • XCP-ng

    Open-source bare-metal hypervisor built on Xen, managed through Xen Orchestra.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    XCP-ng uses the Xen hypervisor instead of KVM and is managed through Xen Orchestra, whose prebuilt appliance is paid unless you build it from source.

  • Harvester

    Hyper-converged infrastructure that runs virtual machines on top of Kubernetes.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Harvester runs virtual machines and containers on Kubernetes with shared storage, installing on bare metal with at least three nodes for production.

  • VMware ESXi Free

    Industry-standard bare-metal hypervisor with a free tier for small setups.

    FreemiumProprietarySelf-hosted

    VMware ESXi Free is a closed-source bare-metal hypervisor, and its free edition lacks the centralized cluster management that oVirt provides.

  • Incus

    Manage Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hosted

    Incus manages Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface and is lighter to set up than oVirt's enterprise shared storage model.

  • OpenNebula

    An open-source platform for building private and hybrid clouds that manage virtual machines and Kubernetes.

    FreemiumOpen sourceLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    OpenNebula manages virtual machines and Kubernetes for private and hybrid clouds with multi-site federation, with support and some integrations sold as paid subscriptions.

  • OpenStack

    A set of open-source components for running cloud infrastructure with virtual machines, bare metal and containers.

    FreeOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted

    OpenStack covers compute, storage and networking for large clouds through many components, with regular scheduled releases but more complex deployment and upgrades.

  • Apache CloudStack

    An open-source infrastructure-as-a-service platform for deploying and managing large networks of virtual machines.

    FreeOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted

    Apache CloudStack provides a full IaaS stack with accounts and accounting, a web UI and an API compatible with AWS EC2 and S3, with active releases.

Also worth comparing

These listings name oVirt as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • Ganeti

    An open-source cluster manager for running virtual machines on Xen or KVM across several servers.

    FreeOpen sourceLinuxSelf-hostedCommand line

    oVirt manages KVM clusters from a web portal with live migration, high availability and storage domains, but it expects enterprise shared storage and development has slowed.

  • Virtual Machine Manager

    The standard desktop front end for KVM on Linux, plus the command line tools that go with it.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    oVirt manages KVM virtual machines across a cluster from a web portal with live migration, but expects enterprise shared storage and is heavy for a homelab.

  • WebVirtCloud

    A self-hosted web interface for managing KVM virtual machines through libvirt, for admins and users.

    FreeProprietaryLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    oVirt is an open source web portal for KVM clusters with live migration and high availability, but it expects enterprise shared storage and development has slowed.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.