Citrix Hypervisor vs KVM comparison

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Citrix Logo
10,846 views|7,639 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
KVM Logo
Read 39 KVM reviews
33,024 views|24,970 comparisons
90% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Citrix Hypervisor and KVM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Server Virtualization Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Citrix Hypervisor vs. KVM Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It is quite flexible and rugged. It is also easy to understand and user-friendly. It is not as complicated as some of the other solutions. It has its technicalities, but it is easy to understand. You can easily pick up in a short period of time and understand how to manage the infrastructure.""The initial setup is easy.""I find it very easy to manage and at a cost that small customers would never refuse (free).""The support for this solution is phenomenal.""This is a dependable solution for virtualization with a good community for product support.""The solution is extremely user friendly.""What I find most valuable in Citrix Hypervisor is its licensing policy, because you'll get it for free if you buy a Citrix XenDesktop license. You don't need to spend additional money on the Citrix Hypervisor because you can manage both the Citrix XenDesktop and the Citrix Hypervisor with just one license, so you can save on cost. I also like that the solution is good support-wise. Hardware support is also faster compared to other solutions.""The solution integrates well with other solutions, which makes it really strong as a primary solution to deploy."

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"Very cost-effective.""What I like most about KVM is that it's very easy to use. Everything is built-in, even when writing command lines.""I find the density of the product most valuable. It is density that a technologist can just assign page merging. This is what makes KVM one of the important players of the virtualization market.""One of the best features of KVM is its user-friendly interface.""If you are a Linux desktop user, KVM is the solution to go with if you have to start virtual machines with Linux or other operating systems with almost zero extra configuration needed.""It is easy to use, stable, and flexible. It is a pretty mature product, and it is faster than VirtualBox.""The GUI interface makes the management of KVM easier than ever before.""Our production servers are running in Linux, and this solution supports that environment well."

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Cons
"You need a licensed account to look up technical support.""I am not very sure about how flexible Citrix Hypervisor is with different types of infrastructures. I only know it is flexible with Nutanix, but I am not sure if it is also flexible with others. They can make its integration with other platforms or OEMs easy. They should also make it easy for users to manage their infrastructure. Citrix should make compatibility information related to a hypervisor easily available in a datasheet. Citrix isn't really recognized in this part of the world, and they need to expand their solution and make it more available. There are a lot of customers and companies that are looking for a solution like Citrix, and it should be available in this part of the world. They need to educate people more. Technically, it is good and flexible and has good ability, but it is not as much known as VMware or Microsoft. Their support should also be improved. Currently, if you don't have an updated version, they will not give you the attention.""The graphics user interface is pretty bad.""There's a learning curve, especially for those coming from a Microsoft background. Setting it up and managing it can introduce some complexity.""The USB support for the virtual server needs improvement.""Overall, I can't think of a feature that is lacking. We've been pretty satisfied overall.""There are several areas that need improvement including the stability of the networking stack and networking management.""Citrix is not investing in the virtual surroundings."

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"One problem I have is that it's not very scalable when it comes to resizing the VM disk dimensions. For example, if you have initially set a virtual drive to 10 GB and you want to upgrade it to 15 GB, it's not that easy.""Support for VF is needed, where you can, for example, export from VMware to KVM.""KVM is very difficult to manage and run on daily operations.""The product must provide better performance monitoring features.""In our setup, we do not have any dashboards or orchestration, and it is hard to manage. We have 25 gig network cards, but the software driver we have only supported 10 gigs.""The virtual manager and the graphical QEMU for KVM need some improvement.""The networking with wireless devices needs improvement.""I believe KVM offers a unified answer, while ProxMark addresses orchestration. KVM lacks orchestration. If the aim is to centrally oversee multiple KVMs – let's say to freeze them – a centralized management solution is absent."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The pricing and licensing is so important. Customers do consider the price seriously."
  • "The most valuable feature is the cost; it is a free product."
  • "To subscribe to the paid version with support, it is approximately $6,000 per year."
  • "There are free and paid versions. The free version is limited in features but not by time limit. The paid version has more features."
  • "While it is free for small networks, the pricing is high if your network grows past a certain size."
  • "We migrated from VMware to XenCenter to cut costs."
  • "This solution is open source, it's free."
  • "Citrix is a good low-cost alternative to VMware, so if budgeting is an issue then I would recommend it."
  • More Citrix Hypervisor Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "​It is free and can be run from your laptop, if needed, unlike VMware.​"
  • "It is cheaper than other competitors like VMware or Hyper-V."
  • "It is cheaper than other solutions out there on the market."
  • "This solution came with the Linux license."
  • "This solution is an open-source, free platform with paid support."
  • "It is free for everyone."
  • "The price is fair compared to others. But in our local market, it's a problem to get budget approval from management. That's why they are trying to get those products so we can give them the price benefit. But if you consider the international market or other products, it's sometimes better than their price."
  • "We had some problems with the licensing."
  • More KVM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Thang Le Toan (Victory Lee)
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Citrix Hypervisor is expensive. The cloud licenses are expensive. Only Citrix is earning money off those. It's the same with VMware and Microsoft.
    Top Answer:Citrix is not investing in the virtual surroundings. Third-party tools are bad for Citrix at the moment. No good backup recovery is available. On Microsoft, we can use Veeam, which is a great product… more »
    Top Answer:KVM scales better, orchestration better, performs better and supports a wider range of hardware and, also, you can implement at ZERO cost and with a very powerful web interface for management, from… more »
    Top Answer:Small support team, small cluster, low core count, use VMware products Large support team, large clusters with many cores, use KVM KVM scales better, orchestration better, performs better and… more »
    Top Answer:Far from being an expert, my opinion is that the positive sides of KVM are: Lower costs and open-source which gives the abilities to customize it according to the specific needs of each customer.
    Ranking
    Views
    10,846
    Comparisons
    7,639
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    580
    Rating
    8.8
    Views
    33,024
    Comparisons
    24,970
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    450
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Proxmox VE logo
    Compared 26% of the time.
    Oracle VM VirtualBox logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    Hyper-V logo
    Compared 12% of the time.
    VMware vSphere logo
    Compared 12% of the time.
    IBM PowerVM logo
    Compared 1% of the time.
    Also Known As
    XenServer
    Learn More
    KVM
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    Citrix Hypervisor is a leading virtualization management platform optimized for application, desktop and server virtualization infrastructures. Consolidation and containment of workloads on Citrix Hypervisor enables organizations of any vertical or size to transform their business IT compute infrastructures.

    KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, which is an open-source virtualization technology that is embedded in Linux. KVM allows users to seamlessly transform their Linux system into a hypervisor that, in turn, will enable a host machine to run numerous, isolated virtual environments or virtual machines (VMs).

    KVM is part of Linux. Users with Linux 2.6.20 or newer already have KVM. As KVM is already a component of the current Linux code, it automatically improves with every new Linux fix, feature, or upgrade. So KVM users are always current and up to date.

    KVM automatically transforms Linux to a type -1 (bare-metal) hypervisor. All hypervisors need operating system components, such as a process scheduler, I/O stack, device drivers, memory manager, and more, to run a VM. KVM already has these components embedded, as it is part of the Linux kernel. Each VM is generated as a basic Linux proces,s which is maintained by the standard Linux scheduler, with dedicated hardware such as a graphics adapter, memory, disks, network card, and CPUs.

    KVM Key Features:

    KVM has many valuable key features. Some of its most useful features include:

    • Storage: KVM has the ability to use any storage protocol supported by Linux, including network-attached storage (NAS) and some local disks. Multipath I/O can be utilized to provide redundancy and improve storage. Disk images use thin provisioning, ensuring storage is used on demand. KVM is also able to use shared file systems, enabling VM images to be shared on multiple hosts.
    • Hardware: KVM is able to use a vast number of Linux-certified supported hardware platforms. As hardware vendors routinely contribute to kernel improvement, the most up-to-date hardware features are generally quickly added to the Linux kernel.
    • Memory: KVM effectively utilizes the memory management features of Linux, such as kernel same-page emerging and non-uniform memory access. The memory of a VM can easily be switched, supported by large volumes for improved performance, then backed by a disk file or shared.
    • Migration: KVM actively supports live migration so users have the ability to move any running VM between physical hosts with no downtime.
    • Security: KVM uses a blend of secure virtualization (SVirt) and security-enhanced Linux (SELinux) for improved VM security and isolation. SELinux determines security boundaries surrounding VMs. sVirt expands SELinux’s processes, permitting Mandatory Access Control (MAC) security to be used for guest VMs and preventing any manual labeling issues.

    Reviews from Real Users

    “The most helpful aspect of KVM is the fact that the interface is so minimal. It includes just what you need to set up the VMs and manage them, and it's very simple to do so. KVM, as a native virtualization solution, is a complete and fully adequate system for small businesses that need to reduce costs, and also to make maintenance easier. “ - Georges E., Business Engineer and Consultant at All-Tech

    “The most valuable feature of KVM is the hypervisor environment and how we can configure it with ease. Additionally, the interface is intuitive.” Sonu S., Senior Solution Architect at Micro Focus

    Sample Customers
    U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
    MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikidata, Wikiversity, Commons
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Computer Software Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization48%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    Government5%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    Aerospace/Defense Firm13%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Government8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business53%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise55%
    Large Enterprise29%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business54%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise56%
    Buyer's Guide
    Citrix Hypervisor vs. KVM
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix Hypervisor vs. KVM and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Citrix Hypervisor is ranked 8th in Server Virtualization Software with 46 reviews while KVM is ranked 4th in Server Virtualization Software with 39 reviews. Citrix Hypervisor is rated 8.2, while KVM is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Citrix Hypervisor writes "Allows us to allocate CPU, memory, storage, and network resources across VMs and minimizes downtime in case of hardware failure or maintenance". On the other hand, the top reviewer of KVM writes "Delivers good performance because of kernel-based virtualization". Citrix Hypervisor is most compared with Proxmox VE, VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Oracle VM VirtualBox and Nutanix AHV Virtualization, whereas KVM is most compared with Proxmox VE, Oracle VM VirtualBox, Hyper-V, VMware vSphere and IBM PowerVM. See our Citrix Hypervisor vs. KVM report.

    See our list of best Server Virtualization Software vendors.

    We monitor all Server Virtualization Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.