It also taps deeper into Apple Metal 2 than other virtualization services, which is excellent if you need to run intense graphical apps on your Mac, like CAD or other design software. If you’ve ever been frustrated with Office 365 apps native to iPhone, Parallels is a great option for that reason alone.īut Parallels doesn’t stop there. It’s affordable, only costing $19.99 per year for a single user, and has options to run desktop apps on mobile devices. Parallels is the best choice for all Mac users who need virtualization. Sure, there’s the Apple virtual machine (Boot Camp) but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When picking a virtual machine Mac users have tons of options. Virtualization taps into a virtual machine hosted on a server, and you can open and run any Windows, Linux, or macOS variant you like in a secure environment on your desktop. Currently, Boot Camp only boots to Windows 10, and only on certain Macs. Apple Boot Camp is a built-in feature older Macs have for booting straight into Windows.īoot Camp is handy for those who need Windows, but Apple controls this environment.

Virtualization is the method for booting up virtual machines on your Mac without Apple oversight. Try free Virtualization vs Apple Boot Camp Windows also has many third-party apps macOS doesn’t, and PC gaming is just far better than macOS gaming!

But there are times you may need features Microsoft didn’t bundle into the Mac version of its apps.Ī macOS or mac OS X virtual machine allow you to quickly boot up a windows environment and get the full complement of tooling available for Office 365, including an Access database macOS doesn’t have. Sure, Macs have the full Office 365 suite, so running Windows on a Mac won’t appeal to everyone. This is handy a Mac virtual machine is an excellent choice for part-time use of Windows, Linux, or a different macOS version. You can use a virtual machine to run Windows or Linux as though you booted up a completely different machine. Virtual machines allow users to boot into completely different desktops from one Mac. So a virtual machine for your Mac is like having another computer – except there’s no hardware. ‘Virtual’ means it’s not really there, and ‘machine’ relates to the computer itself. What is a Virtual Machine?Ī virtual machine on Mac is best understood when breaking the term down. We’ll tell you how to run virtual machine on Mac, how to install virtual machine on Mac desktops, which is the best virtual machine for Mac, and the differences between some of the best macOS virtual machine options. Whatever the need, a good virtual machine for Mac can be just what you need to stay productive. Developers will often use a Mac VM to run an older version of macOS for testing software.

Make your Mac fast and secure with CleanMyMac X.įor Mac users, virtual machines (VM) are important when there’s a need for Windows or Linux to run on the desktop.

Virtual machine software for mac