Alternatives to VirtualBuddy
Run macOS virtual machines on an Apple Silicon Mac. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
VirtualBuddy
Run macOS virtual machines on an Apple Silicon Mac.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as VirtualBuddy.
UTM
Runs Windows, Linux and other systems in a virtual machine on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
UTM also boots macOS guests on macOS 12 and later, and additionally runs Windows and Linux and emulates other architectures on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Parallels Desktop
Runs Windows and other operating systems in a virtual machine on a Mac.
Parallels Desktop is a paid, closed-source Mac hypervisor that runs Windows and other systems with Coherence mode, rather than a free macOS-focused tool.
Quickemu
Downloads an operating system and builds a properly configured QEMU virtual machine from one short config file.
Quickemu builds QEMU machines for macOS, Windows and BSD guests on Linux and macOS hosts, but macOS guests need Apple's images and it is command line only.
Tart
A command-line toolset for building, running and managing macOS and Linux virtual machines on Apple Silicon.
Tart runs macOS and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon through Virtualization.Framework from the command line, aimed at CI, and it is not open source.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Lima
Launches Linux virtual machines from the command line on macOS, Linux and Windows, with file sharing and port forwarding set up automatically.
Multipass
Canonical's tool for launching a fresh Ubuntu virtual machine with one command, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
VirtualBox
The free desktop hypervisor most people start with: run Windows, Linux or BSD in a window on the machine you already have.
OSX-KVM
Scripts, OpenCore files and firmware images for running macOS in a QEMU/KVM virtual machine on Linux.
