Best virtual machine software for Mac

Parallels Desktop allows you to create a virtual machine on your Mac. The software simulates the physical hardware of a Windows PC and lets you run Windows on your Mac.  

One of the benefits is Parallels Desktop allows you to run Mac and Windows apps side by side, without having to reboot to switch between the operating systems.

With Parallels you can keep Windows and macOS completely separate or you can use Coherence mode to fully integrate your Windows apps on your Mac–you can even add them to your Dock.

Parallels also offers a Rollback mode, which is useful for experimenting developers. Nothing is saved, so when you restart the computer the VM will return to it’s original state. 

Parallels makes installing Windows really easy. Since Parallels Desktop version 18 it has been possible to download and buy the ARM version of Windows 11 within Parallels. You do need to buy a license for the ARM version of Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise (unfortunately, the cheaper Home edition isn’t supported).

If it’s the old x86 version of Windows you want then Parallels has been working to support this on M-series Macs. The 20.2.0 update in January 2025 introduced the limited ability to create virtual machines (VMs) that run certain versions of Windows that were written for Intel processors (sometimes known as ‘x86_64’, referring to 64-bit software written for Intel’s x86 processors). It’s important to note, though, that there are some major limitations such as a lack of sound and assigning a maximum of 8GB memory to each VM. It’s also slow. But that’s only going to apply to you if you are running an Intel version on an M-series Mac.

Parallels Desktop has a regular update cycle that tends to coincide with Apple’s big macOS updates. Parallels Desktop was updated in September 2025, bringing support for macOS Tahoe and it’s new features. Parallels Desktop 26 includes technical updates that allow it to run smoothly with the new system for handling background processes that has been introduced with macOS 26. It’s also compatible with the latest Windows 11 25H2.

A number of new AI-specific features aimed at developers were introduced with the September 2024 update (Parallels Desktop 20). A ‘Parallels AI Package’ allows developers to create a new virtual machine with a pre-installed set of AI tools and features, including the ability to control Parallels Desktop using plain language commands (more info here).  

For many years, VMware Fusion was in lock-step with Parallels Desktop, with the two rivals releasing regular updates and competing for the top spot in the Mac virtualization market. In recent years, though, VMware seems to have taken its foot off the pedal and has allowed Fusion to fall behind a bit (in fact, you actually have to dig around quite a bit simply to find Fusion on the VMware website these days).

When Fusion version 13 arrived in November 2022, it brought support for ARM virtualization on Apple’s M1 and M2-series chips. As is the case with Parallels Desktop, you can only run the Arm version of Windows on M-series Macs. Unfortunately, installing the Arm version of Windows via VMware isn’t as simple as it is with Parallels, VMware told us that it’s up to the user to buy a license from Microsoft (which is a challenge due to it not being available to individual users).

Version 13.5 arrived in October 2023 and with it much needed support for DirectX 11 3D graphics and an easier way to install Windows 11 on Arm via a “Get Windows” button. VMware Fusion 13.6 arrived in September 2024 and brought vmcli command line support and new guest operating system support.

With the arrival of Fusion 12 in 2020, VMware started to offer a free version of the program – called Fusion Player – for personal use only, for home users and students. It’s since changed this strategy and is offering the Fusion Pro for free as long as it is for personal use. You’ll need to register for a VMware account, but Fusion Pro is free to download here.

While Fusion hasn’t kept up to date with the latest developments in Mac hardware and software, the availability of the free version of Fusion Pro still makes it a great option for home users and students who occasionally need to run Windows apps or games on their Intel Macs.

CrossOver is based on WINE (see below), and uses a similar compatibility layer to allow Windows apps to run on the Mac without requiring a full version of Windows to be installed as well (you need to buy a copy of Windows for use with virtualization programs such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion).

Although WINE is a free, open-source program, it’s complicated to use. In contrast, Codeweavers have developed CrossOver as a user-friendly alternative. A copy of CrossOver with a year of technical support is $74/£60, or you can pay $494/£414 for lifetime support. There is a 14-day free trial available.

With CrossOver you install Windows apps in Bottles, which are self-contained files that can be launched and run on your Mac without requiring a full copy of Windows. You can create lots of different bottles for different apps, and bottles can even be configured to provide compatibility with different versions of Windows. This is useful as it allows you to create bottles that are suitable for older games and software that might require a particular version of Windows in order to run properly.

Simplifying things further, CrossOver has a Mac-like interface and offers assistance for installing Windows apps and games. For example, when you launch CrossOver you see the main Install window, which lists popular Windows apps and games, such as Grand Theft Auto V and the Quicken accounting software for business users. You can even search for information on hundreds of Windows apps, and get an indication of how well they run with CrossOver.

CrossOver 25 (March 2025) was one of the biggest updates of recent years, promising to bring “next level gaming to the Mac”. Some of the new features in v25 are under-the-bonnet changes, such as adopting the latest version of the underlying WINE technology, which Codeweavers claims includes thousands of programming updates to improve performance and compatibility. This update also introduces a new graphics technology, called DXMT that, according to Codeweavers, provides better performance for less powerful Mac models when running Windows games that use DX11 graphics.

There’s improved compatibility with lots of big-name Windows games, allowing you to play games such as Path Of Exile 2, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Fallout 76 for the first time. And, along with Steam, CrossOver 25 now supports the Windows versions of the GoG and Epic game stores so that you can download games that you own from those stores.

CrossOver is based on code written for Intel processors, so it relies on Apple’s Rosetta to run on Macs with Apple Silicon, but we found that performance was pretty good regardless. Codeweavers says that it is working on native support for Apple Silicon.

The Codeweavers team puts a lot of effort into regular updates for CrossOver and the tech support is impressive. Even so, CrossOver can still be a little daunting at times, so it’s worth downloading the trial version to see how well it works with your favorite Windows games and other Windows software.

It the main reason you want to run Windows on your Mac is so you can play Windows games on your Mac this is the solution for you. Just be aware that the developer of Whisky has said he will no longer be updating the software, so it’s days may well be numbered.

Whisky emerged following Apple’s launch of the Game Porting Toolkit in 2023 and is based on GPTK and is focused on running Windows games rather than more serious business software that the other VM solutions focus on. 

Whisky isn’t an emulator or virtualization program, like Parallels Desktop or UTM. Rather than letting you run Windows on a virtual machine, it’s more like CrossOver in that it allows you to run a variety of Windows apps and software on your Mac without needing to install Windows. CrossOver and Whisky – and even Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit – are all based on the open-source WINE (see below for our review of WINE), which acts as a translation layer that converts the programming code in Windows apps and software into the Mac equivalent (a bit like Apple’s own Rosetta software, which translates software written for older Intel Macs to run on Macs with Apple Silicon processors).

Whisky is a free, open-source alternative to CrossOver (CrossOver is also open-source, but has a $64 annual ‘license fee’ for technical support).

Whisky allows you to create bottles, which are files that act as a container for the Windows apps you want to run. The bottles provide compatibility with various versions of Windows (right back to Windows 7 and XP for 32-bit era games). Once a bottle is created press Run to launch the installer program for the Windows game and that game then becomes part of that bottle. Whisky also allows you to install the Windows version of Steam within a bottle and install Windows games that you own on Steam in that bottle.

In comparison to CrossOver, Whisky isn’t quite as easy to use, lacks the step-by-step help, and doesn’t work with the same wide range of games, but Whisky still does an impressive job for a free open-source app that was developed by just one person (and a 17 year old one at that).

In our tests Whisky had no trouble at all with Call Of Cthulhu from 2018 and Guild Wars 2, providing very good performance on my MacBook Pro with M2 processor. Whisky supports a number of Windows games that use Microsoft’s DX12 graphics software. However, it doesn’t currently work with games such as Diablo IV and Fortnite. There’s a list of compatible games on the Whisky website.

UTM Virtual Machines from Turing Software is currently sitting at no.1 on the Business section of the Mac App Store. It costs $9.99/£9.99 on the Mac App Store, but, because UTM is an open-source project, there’s also a free version–simply called UTM–available on the Turing website.

UTM can run on Macs with either Intel or Apple Silicon processors (running macOS Big Sur 11.3 or later). It provides two different options depending on the type of Mac you’re using–virtualization and emulation.

So, if you have an Intel Mac, UTM can use virtualization to create a virtual machine that runs the Intel version of Windows. And, if you have a Mac with Apple Silicon you can use virtualization to create a virtual machine that runs Windows On Arm. But, if you want to run the older Intel version of Windows on a Mac with Apple Silicon, then UTM will use emulation in order to run Window since that version isn’t designed for the Mac processors. Virtualization provides better performance, but emulation is useful if you need to run Windows apps or software that require a specific version of Windows.

Having those two options available within UTM makes it a more versatile than Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion, which focus on virtualization rather than emulation. However, this adds complexity to UTM, and the app lacks the polished interface and ease of use of Parallels and VMware. You’ll need a basic understanding of Windows disk image files, such as ISO and VHDX, in order to download and install your copy of Windows. Don’t expect the level of step-by-step help available in Parallels Desktop.

Performance is good, though. The one weakness is that UTM doesn’t currently support 3D graphics acceleration on its Windows virtual machines, which means that you won’t be able to play most Windows games that have 3D graphics. But if you just want to run business apps or check out the new AI features in Windows, then UTM is a good, low-cost option that will appeal to developers and technical users.

Windows 365 (which launched in July 2021) has the potential to really challenge traditional virtualization programs such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. However, at the moment, Windows 365 is still pretty expensive and is very much aimed at large corporate users, rather than the individuals and smaller businesses that tend to use Parallels and Fusion.

Microsoft describes Windows 365 as a Cloud PC, but its technical notes make it clear that Windows 365 is a form of virtual machine. The difference is that Parallels and Fusion create virtual machines that are stored locally on your Mac itself, and these virtual machines rely on your Mac’s own processor power, memory and storage to run Windows and Windows apps.

In contrast, Windows 365 creates a virtual machine that is stored up in the cloud, and runs on Microsoft’s own servers. The video image for the Windows desktop on your cloud PC is then streamed to your Mac – or any other device, such as an iPad or even another Windows PC – via your broadband connection.

This form of virtual machine can work well, as long as you have a fast enough – and always-on – Internet connection. But, as mentioned, Windows 365 is quite expensive, with prices ranging from $31/£26.40 to $66/£56.20 per month. That’s compared to $99.99/£89.99 for a full year for the home user version of Parallels Desktop, while Fusion even has a completely free version for home users and students.

Windows 365 certainly has appeal to larger businesses that want to provide a standardized cloud PC that their staff can connect to from any location that has an Internet connection – it’s ideal for hybrid working and the ‘new normal’. However, it’s too expensive for ordinary home users, students and smaller businesses, so existing users of Parallels and Fusion will probably want to stick with those apps for the time being.

Read more here: How to use Windows 365 on Mac, iPad and iPhone.

As we mentioned above, the third technology option – after Boot Camp and virtualization – is Wine, which allows you to run Windows apps without Windows itself.

Version 8 of Wine arrived at the end of January 2023, like version 7.5 of Wine, which arrived in March 2022, Wine still runs on M1 and M2 Macs via Rosetta 2. Wine 8 includes support for the latest versions of the Vulkan graphics engine and Microsoft Direct3D. It also adds support for the OCSP networking protocol.

If you don’t mind rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands a bit dirty, then Wine is an unusual but feasible option for running Windows software on your Mac.

Like VirtualBox, Wine is an open-source program that you can download for free. However, it doesn’t use conventional virtualization technology to create a virtual machine for installing Windows – in fact, Wine is the only program in this group that doesn’t even require a copy of Windows at all.

Instead, Wine acts as a kind of software middleman that translates the programming routines – called APIs – in Windows apps so that they can talk directly to macOS, without needing a full copy of Windows itself. And as you don’t need a lot of extra memory or processor power in order to run Windows, you may find that Wine can actually provide better performance than using a virtual machine (especially for games and graphics apps).

Wine also gets very regular updates from a team of dedicated developers who provide the software for free.

The downside is that Wine can be spectacularly confusing for beginners – to the point where we can only really recommend it to hobbyists who like a bit of a challenge.

CodeWeavers CrossOver for Mac is a little easier to use than Wine, despite being closely related to the software. But of course Wine is free, which is a big bonus.