Alternatives to Virtual Machine Manager
The standard desktop front end for KVM on Linux, plus the command line tools that go with it. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Virtual Machine Manager
The standard desktop front end for KVM on Linux, plus the command line tools that go with it.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Virtual Machine Manager.
VirtualBox
The free desktop hypervisor most people start with: run Windows, Linux or BSD in a window on the machine you already have.
VirtualBox runs on Windows, macOS and Linux with its own hypervisor, rather than KVM and libvirt, though its Linux kernel modules can break after updates.
VMware Workstation Pro
Type-2 hypervisor for running virtual machines on Windows and Linux desktops.
VMware Workstation Pro is a closed-source desktop hypervisor for Windows and Linux with mature snapshots and cloning, free for personal use only.
Quickemu
Downloads an operating system and builds a properly configured QEMU virtual machine from one short config file.
Quickemu builds QEMU machines from a short config file and downloads guest images for you, but it is command line only without libvirt remote management.
Proxmox VE
A bare-metal server platform that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface.
Proxmox VE manages KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from a web interface, but it installs as a full operating system on dedicated hardware.
Incus
Manage Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface.
Incus manages Linux system containers and virtual machines through one interface on a Linux host, with clients available on other systems.
oVirt
Centralised management platform for KVM virtual machines across a cluster.
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.
GNOME Boxes
A simple GNOME desktop app for creating and running virtual machines on Linux.
GNOME Boxes is a simpler Linux desktop app that downloads operating systems automatically, but it offers fewer advanced settings than Virtual Machine Manager.
WebVirtCloud
A self-hosted web interface for managing KVM virtual machines through libvirt, for admins and users.
WebVirtCloud manages KVM hosts through libvirt from a web panel with separate admin and user accounts, instead of a desktop window.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Virtual Machine Manager as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Quickgui
A graphical desktop front end for Quickemu that downloads operating systems and launches virtual machines.
Virtual Machine Manager is the standard open-source graphical front end for KVM on Linux, with more settings but assuming some libvirt knowledge.
Windows (dockur)
A Docker container that downloads, installs and runs Windows inside a KVM-accelerated virtual machine.
Virtual Machine Manager runs Windows as a KVM guest through a Linux desktop app and libvirt, with manual installation instead of automatic download and Docker Compose configuration.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
QEMU
The machine emulator and virtualiser that most of the Linux virtualisation stack is built on.
UTM
Runs Windows, Linux and other systems in a virtual machine on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
KVM
The Linux kernel's built-in hypervisor for hardware-accelerated virtual machines.
Multipass
Canonical's tool for launching a fresh Ubuntu virtual machine with one command, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
libvirt
A toolkit, daemon and API for managing KVM, QEMU, Xen, LXC and other virtualization platforms.
Vagrant
Builds reproducible development virtual machines from a single file.
