Private and open-source alternatives to Hyper-V
7 virtual machines rated against the same public privacy criteria as Hyper-V, with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. Hyper-V runs as part of Windows, which sends required diagnostic data to Microsoft that can only be turned off on Enterprise, Education and Server editions.
- No ads or data sales: no. Included with Windows, which has an advertising ID for personalized ads, and Microsoft uses product usage data for advertising.
- Independent audit: partial. Hyper-V has Common Criteria certifications against the virtualization protection profiles, with validation reports published, but no full security audit report is public.
The alternatives
GNOME Boxes Grade B
GNOME desktop app for creating, running and viewing local and remote virtual machines, built on QEMU, KVM and libvirt. It can download operating system images and set up guests automatically.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). GNOME Boxes scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
QEMU Grade B
Open source machine emulator and virtualizer. It emulates many CPU architectures and, with KVM, Xen, Hypervisor.framework or WHPX, runs virtual machines at near-native speed.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). QEMU scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
virt-manager Grade B
Desktop app for managing virtual machines through libvirt, mainly KVM guests, with Xen and LXC support. It includes creation wizards, performance statistics and a built-in VNC and SPICE console.
virt-manager scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Xen Project Grade B
Open source type-1 hypervisor that runs directly on hardware and hosts multiple isolated operating systems side by side. Used in servers, cloud platforms, embedded systems and Qubes OS.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). Xen Project scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
Proxmox VE Grade C
Open source server virtualization platform based on Debian that manages KVM virtual machines and LXC containers through a web interface, with clustering, software-defined storage and backup integration.
Based in Austria. Proxmox VE scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
VirtualBox Grade C
Type 2 hypervisor from Oracle for x86-64 and ARM hosts, running on Windows, macOS, Linux and Solaris. It runs guest operating systems in virtual machines on a desktop or server.
Based in the United States (Five Eyes). VirtualBox scores 65 out of 100 (grade C) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.
UTM Grade D
Virtual machine app for macOS and iOS built on QEMU and Apple Virtualization. It can run and emulate x86-64, ARM and other guest systems, including on Apple Silicon Macs.
UTM scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the virtual machines criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales.