Alternatives to Xen Project
An open source type-1 hypervisor that runs several isolated operating systems on the same hardware. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Xen Project
An open source type-1 hypervisor that runs several isolated operating systems on the same hardware.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Xen Project.
KVM
The Linux kernel's built-in hypervisor for hardware-accelerated virtual machines.
KVM is the hypervisor built into the mainline Linux kernel, needing QEMU, libvirt or another front end, with broader hardware compatibility than Xen.
XCP-ng
Open-source bare-metal hypervisor built on Xen, managed through Xen Orchestra.
XCP-ng packages Xen as a complete bare-metal hypervisor managed through Xen Orchestra, with backup and replication across a pool of hosts.
VMware ESXi Free
Industry-standard bare-metal hypervisor with a free tier for small setups.
VMware ESXi Free is a closed source bare-metal hypervisor widely used in enterprise, with a free tier lacking centralized vSphere management.
Hyper-V
Microsoft's type-1 hypervisor built into Windows and Windows Server for running Windows and Linux virtual machines.
Hyper-V is Microsoft's closed source type-1 hypervisor built into Windows and Windows Server, running Windows and Linux guests without separate installation.
XenServer
A Xen-based server virtualization platform for running and managing virtual machines on your own hardware.
XenServer is a commercial Xen-based platform with paid licensing for full use, aimed at businesses and Citrix environments.
Proxmox VE
A bare-metal server platform that runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers from one web interface.
Proxmox VE is a bare-metal platform using KVM and LXC with a web interface, backups and clustering, installed from a single ISO.
SmartOS
An open-source illumos-based hypervisor operating system that runs zones and KVM or bhyve virtual machines.
SmartOS is an open source illumos-based hypervisor OS running zones and KVM or bhyve VMs, with ZFS and DTrace built in.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Xen Orchestra
A web interface for managing, backing up and monitoring XCP-ng and XenServer hosts.
Ganeti
An open-source cluster manager for running virtual machines on Xen or KVM across several servers.
libvirt
A toolkit, daemon and API for managing KVM, QEMU, Xen, LXC and other virtualization platforms.
QEMU
The machine emulator and virtualiser that most of the Linux virtualisation stack is built on.
FreeBSD
An open source Unix-like operating system with native ZFS, jails and the bhyve hypervisor.
