Apache CloudStack vs oVirt
Apache CloudStack
cloudstack.apache.orgoVirt
ovirt.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache CloudStack | oVirt |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Virtualization Management Software | 9.0 (#1) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Current release | The downloads page identifies 4.23.0.0 as the latest regular release and 4.22.1.1 as the current LTS release. | The download page identifies oVirt 4.5.7 as intended for production use. |
| Deployment | Organizations use CloudStack to build public, private, and hybrid clouds. | oVirt supports self-hosted Engine and standalone Engine deployments, and recommends the self-hosted Engine option. |
| High availability | Management servers can run in a load-balanced multi-node installation and MySQL can use replication for failover. | Highly available virtual machines can restart on another cluster host after host failure or other interruptions. |
| Integrations | The integrations page lists Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, Prometheus, VMware NSX, Ceph, MinIO, and billing portal integrations. | The feature catalog lists OVN/OpenStack providers, Glance, Cinder, GlusterFS, SR-IOV, OpenShift, Cloud-init and Terraform-related integrations. |
| License | The project website states that Apache CloudStack is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. | oVirt uses Apache License 2.0 as its primary license, while some complementary projects may use LGPL or GPL. |
| Networking | Networking features include VLANs, virtual routers, firewalls, load balancers, VPN, IPv6, static routing, BGP and VNF support. | The current homepage identifies OVN networking as a built-in industry-standard foundation. |
| Purpose | Apache CloudStack deploys and manages large networks of virtual machines as a highly available, scalable IaaS cloud platform. | oVirt is a free open-source distributed virtualization solution designed to manage enterprise infrastructure. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.4 out of 5 from 27 reviews | 4.2 out of 5 from 3 reviews |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 9.4 out of 10 from 18 reviews | 10 out of 10 from 3 reviews |
| Storage | Storage capabilities include iSCSI, NFS, Ceph RBD with KVM, block volumes, encryption, snapshots, templates and ISO management. | oVirt uses centralized storage for virtual machine disks, ISO files, and snapshots, with options including NFS, GlusterFS, iSCSI, local storage, Fibre Channel, pNFS, and other POSIX-compliant filesystems. |
| What it does | Apache CloudStack deploys and manages large virtual-machine networks as a highly available, scalable IaaS platform. | oVirt is a free, open-source distributed virtualization platform for managing enterprise infrastructure through a centralized interface. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache CloudStack
Apache CloudStack is free, open-source software for deploying and managing networks of virtual machines as a highly available, scalable IaaS cloud platform. Organizations can use it to build public, private, or hybrid clouds. Its features include compute orchestration, network services, account management, resource accounting, a web interface, and an open API. Operators can manage clouds through a web UI, command-line tools, or REST API, with optional AWS EC2- and S3-compatible APIs. Supported hypervisors include XenServer or XCP, KVM, Hyper-V, and VMware ESXi with vSphere. Storage options include iSCSI, NFS, Ceph RBD with KVM, volume encryption, snapshots, and storage tiering. Authentication options include OAuth2 single sign-on, two-factor authentication, TOTP, SAML, and LDAP. The project says CloudStack can manage tens of thousands of physical servers across geographically distributed data centers. Long Term Support releases receive bug and security fixes for 18 months after the main release. Operators remain responsible for protections such as monitoring, host security, and defenses against DoS and brute-force attacks.
oVirt
oVirt is a free, open-source distributed virtualization system for managing enterprise infrastructure. It uses the KVM hypervisor and builds on community projects including libvirt, Gluster, PatternFly, and Ansible. Deployment options include a self-hosted Engine and a standalone Engine; the project recommends the self-hosted option, which runs as a virtual machine on specialized hosts and is highly available without external HA management. Centralized storage holds virtual machine disks, ISO files, and snapshots, with options including NFS, GlusterFS, iSCSI, local storage, Fibre Channel, pNFS, and other POSIX-compliant filesystems. Automation and integration are available through Ansible roles and collections, Python, Java, and Ruby SDKs, and a REST API. The download page identifies version 4.5.7 as intended for production use, with Engine and host support for Enterprise Linux 9 or 10 and CentOS Stream 9 or 10. Installation is by command line. At least one additional host is required for advanced features such as migration and high availability. The project points users to community forums, IRC, and Matrix, and invites contributions.