QEMU vs Xen Project Hypervisor
QEMU
qemu.org
Xen Project Hypervisor
xenproject.orgSide by side
| Figure | QEMU | Xen Project Hypervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Virtual machine software | 9.0 (#2) | 8.3 (#7) |
| Spec score · Server Virtualization Software | 8.5 (#3) | 7.6 (#10) |
| Spec score · Hypervisor Software | 8.5 (#7) | 7.6 (#18) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| License | QEMU and its manual are released under GNU General Public License version 2, although some components have specific licenses. | The project says software hosted on XenProject.org is open source and licensed under GPL2. |
| Purpose | QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer. | Xen is a type-1 bare-metal hypervisor that runs multiple operating systems in parallel on one host. |
| Security reporting | QEMU requires potential security issues to be filed as confidential GitLab issues and provides no SLA for responses. | The security policy asks vulnerability reporters to contact [email protected] and describes private downstream notification followed by public disclosure. |
Plans
In their own words
QEMU
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.
Xen Project Hypervisor
Xen Project Hypervisor is a free, open-source type-1 hypervisor that runs multiple operating systems on one host. The project describes uses including server and desktop virtualization, IaaS, embedded systems, security applications, and hardware appliances. Linux is the most common control stack; NetBSD and FreeBSD are also named as host options. Xen’s microkernel design has a small memory footprint and restricts the interface exposed to guests. It can run a system’s main device driver inside a VM, allowing that VM to be restarted after a driver crash or compromise without affecting the rest of the system. On x86, fully paravirtualized guests can run without virtualization extensions. Listed capabilities include snapshots, nested virtualization, and GPU acceleration. The separate XAPI toolstack supports multi-host management, snapshots and migration, resource pools, storage migration, Open vSwitch, event tracking, upgrades, patching, and monitoring. Its built-in guest support and templates cover Windows and Linux. Downloads are source releases for building, packaging, and platform integration.