Parallels Desktop
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 19 virtual machine tools by recommenders
Mac virtualization app for running Windows, Linux and macOS guests, valued for near-native speed and GPU acceleration. Critics point to the subscription pricing and limited copy-and-paste.
Mac virtualization app for running Windows, Linux and macOS guests, valued for near-native speed and GPU acceleration. Critics point to the subscription pricing and limited copy-and-paste.
39 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs Windows and Linux near native speed
“windows on Arm in a parallels VM runs better on my macbook pro than it does natively on an x86 laptop”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Framework Laptop 13 gets ARM processor with 12 cores via upgrade kit” “arm native linux or windows installations in utm/parallels/whatever run damn near native speed”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Apple Silicon and Virtual Machines: Beating the 2 VM Limit” “I used to run Win 10 in Parallels on MacOS and it was excellent”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results” - Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman”
- Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Isn't WSL2 just a VM?”
- Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Apple, Intel have reached preliminary chip-making deal”
GPU acceleration for graphics apps
“Parallels is way better if you need any GPU, which you do, since everything uses that these days.”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different” “SOLIDWORKS is usable on a windows VM via Parallels thanks to their GPU acceleration”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating” “Parallels' proprietary GPU driver is the only reason to pay for it.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine” - Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine”
Seen as best option for Windows
“if you want acceleration to work better in a VM you should use Parallels instead”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Windows 11½” “in my experience Parallels still works better than the alternatives for Windows”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different” “Parallels is going to be your best bet.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “New 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M6” - Comment from 7 May 2026 in “I switched from Mac to a Lenovo Chromebook, and you can too”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Costly license and subscription model
“Few will buy a cheap computer and then pay what Parallels charges for a license”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine” “they both switched to a subscription model, which is an immediate nope”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “SupererDuperer” Limited copy and paste between systems
“Parallels does not have copy-and-paste for M1-on-M1 macOS-on-macOS virtualization”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different” “bidirectional shared clipboard is an explicit non-feature at this time”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different” Weaker performance than some alternatives
“they may lead to better performance than Parallels”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Parallels Confirms MacBook Neo Can Run Windows in a Virtual Machine” “running a 1997 game in Parallels sucks”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Open Annihilation – Spent the GDP of a Small Nation Remaking a Classic 90s Game”
Other virtual machine tools people recommend
The four most recommended other virtual machine tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QEMU | 114 | 42 | 73% | 12 | 16 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| UTM | 49 | 11 | 82% | 12 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| VirtualBox | 34 | 33 | 51% | 12 | 18 yrs3 owners | — |
| Lima | 31 | 3 | 91% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Parallels DesktopThis page | 26 | 13 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
39 of the 45 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Parallels is going to be your best bet.”
“if you want acceleration to work better in a VM you should use Parallels instead”
“running a 1997 game in Parallels sucks”
“some proprietary (VMware Fusion, Parallels)”
“We need something as seamless as Parallels for remote remote apps”
“they both switched to a subscription model, which is an immediate nope”
“The OP has a thing that solves it for many: update to a beta version.”
“I couldn't get bridged networking to work with my M5 machine and VMs running on Parallels.”
“Arm-based windows support via Parallels does work”
“Parallels has a better EXPERIENCE”
“If you need a full VM with GUI and all, then maybe use something like Parallels”
“I run a MacOS VM on Parallels, not connected to my iCloud account. I think it’s nice for OpenClaw and CI.”
“I have copy paste working bi directional on Parallels”
“There are other pieces like Parallels, Composio, sandboxing, etc.”
“Parallels is way better if you need any GPU, which you do, since everything uses that these days.”
“bidirectional shared clipboard is an explicit non-feature at this time”
“in my experience Parallels still works better than the alternatives for Windows”
“Parallels does not have copy-and-paste for M1-on-M1 macOS-on-macOS virtualization”
“utm or parallels has linux going at near native speed”
“arm native linux or windows installations in utm/parallels/whatever run damn near native speed”
“The goal is to make local GUI apps and terminal-driven workflows feel much more natural on macOS.”
“SOLIDWORKS is usable on a windows VM via Parallels thanks to their GPU acceleration”
“they may lead to better performance than Parallels”
“they'll screwup support for anything that matters like graphics or gpu-compute stack”
“that generally works and is usable”
“I dropped parallels for UTM”
“GPU acceleration that makes Arm windows on apple silicon usable”
“Parallels' proprietary GPU driver is the only reason to pay for it.”
“Few will buy a cheap computer and then pay what Parallels charges for a license”
“The interesting part is that effects are state-aware.”
“I used to run Win 10 in Parallels on MacOS and it was excellent”
“had to do everything inside Parallells etc and it was a giant PITA”
“I can run a 32 bit game built for windows xp in parallels and not have to think much”
“windows on Arm in a parallels VM runs better on my macbook pro than it does natively on an x86 laptop”
“Parallels on macOS makes Windows a very nice guest.”
“I really liked using parallels”
“I built Parall, a macOS app that creates real app bundles as shortcuts.”
“that's a whole new price range for just using Notepad++”
“It now works with the majority of macOS apps.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.