Proxmox VE vs QEMU

Proxmox VE is an open-source, self-hosted server virtualization platform that manages KVM virtual machines and Linux Containers from an integrated web interface. A bare-metal installation includes a 64-bit Debian GNU/Linux operating system with a Proxmox kernel; installation uses the selected server and removes existing data on selected disks. Administrators can also manage the system through a command-line interface and REST API. The cluster stack supports multi-node management from any node, with high availability monitoring and automatic action when a VM or container fails. Running VMs can migrate between cluster nodes without noticeable end-user downtime. Storage options include NFS, SMB/CIFS, iSCSI, Ceph, GlusterFS, LVM, ZFS and directory storage. Proxmox Backup Server integration provides incremental encrypted backups, live restore and single-file recovery. The software is free to download under GNU AGPLv3. Paid subscriptions are per occupied physical CPU socket; each cluster server needs coverage at the same subscription level. The maker is Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, founded in 2005 and headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

QEMU is a free, open-source machine emulator and virtualizer. System emulation models an entire machine, including its CPU, memory and devices, so it can run a guest operating system. User-mode emulation runs processes built for one CPU architecture on another. The package also includes qemu-img, a command-line utility for creating, converting and modifying disk images. QEMU can work with KVM, Xen and Hypervisor.Framework so guests can run directly on the host CPU. Supported build platforms include Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Windows. Windows support is limited to 64-bit, while macOS requires the newest version currently available; support for the prior version is eventually dropped. For complex networking and storage configurations, the project recommends management tools such as virt-manager. Its security guidance distinguishes virtualization with an accelerator and listed machine type from TCG non-virtualization use, which does not provide guest-isolation or security guarantees. QEMU is released under GNU GPL version 2, with some components under specific licenses.