VMware Fusion Review: Now Free for Personal Use.

Price upon review

Free (personal use) $120 (commercial use)

Best price now: VMware Fusion

Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion have been locked in a long battle for years to produce the best virtualization software for Mac users who need to run Windows software on their Mac. Every time Apple releases a new version of macOS, we see Parallels and VMware release their own updates, and this competition means a lot to Mac users because it means that both programs continue to offer new features and performance improvements every year. There was.

But in recent years, VMware has seemed to focus more on high-end enterprise products, and since the release of Apple Silicon in 2020, Fusion no longer competes with Parallels Desktop’s annual updates. And chipmaker Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware in late 2023 has raised some questions about Fusion’s future on the Mac. Now that the acquisition is complete, Broadcom appears to still be committed to Fusion’s future development. Of course, the emphasis on business and enterprise users may deter some home users and students who have used the app in the past.

Fusion Pro Pricing: How much does Fusion Pro cost and how can I get it?

Over the years, Fusion has offered three options depending on how you want to use the program: There was a basic version called Fusion Player that was available for free for non-commercial use such as individual users or students, but business users who needed additional technical support could also purchase Fusion Player with a commercial license for $149/£127.49. There was also a version called Fusion Pro that offered additional features for IT managers in larger organizations, priced at $199/£169.16.

Following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, the basic Fusion Player has now been discontinued and Fusion Pro is now available in two types of licenses. There is a free personal license for general users such as students and home users, and a paid commercial license for business users that costs $120 per year. The commercial model is available here and bundles the VMware Desktop Hypervisor app, Fusion Pro, and Workstation Pro.

Unfortunately, downloading Fusion Pro is a complicated and confusing process. You must register for a free account on Broadcom’s website and then wade through a maze of support pages to find the actual download file. And the fact that Broadcom sometimes refers to Fusion Pro as a Desktop Hypervisor doesn’t help matters. Broadcom is clearly more accustomed to dealing with large enterprise customers and IT managers, so it really needs to simplify the download and installation process if it wants to continue attracting regular users.

What is VMware Fusion Pro?

Like Parallels Desktop, Fusion Pro is a virtualization program that lets you create virtual machines (VMs) that run on your Mac like any other Mac application. This virtual machine uses software to simulate the hardware of a Windows PC, so you can install a full copy of Windows in the virtual machine and then run any Windows software or games you need to use. And, crucially, you can run Windows apps alongside your existing Mac apps without having to switch between Mac and Windows, as you do with Boot Camp on Intel Macs (although Boot Camp is no longer available on Macs with Apple Silicon). Both programs can also create virtual machines running other operating systems, including multiple versions of Linux, which is a useful feature for many developers and students.

VMware Fusion Pro: System Requirements

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The only downside to running Windows in a virtual machine on your Mac is that you’re effectively running two operating systems (macOS and Windows) on your Mac at the same time. To get good performance from Windows virtual machines, you’ll need a fairly fast Mac with plenty of memory and storage space. However, like Parallels Desktop, Fusion Pro allows you to specify the number of processor cores as well as the amount of memory used to run the virtual machine, allowing you to fine-tune the virtual machine’s performance. There are some differences between running Fusion Pro on Intel processors and Apple Silicon, but there is a comparison table available on Broadcom’s website.

How to Install Windows Using Fusion Pro

This is where things get a little complicated. If you have an older Mac with an Intel processor, you can use Fusion Pro to create a virtual machine on your Mac and then install the standard Intel version of Windows into the virtual machine. However, Apple’s M series processors, also known as Apple Silicon, are completely different from Intel’s processors and are also called Arm processors because they are based on the design of a British company called Arm Holdings.

Microsoft has developed a separate version of Windows called Windows On Arm that runs on computers using Arm processors. Therefore, Macs with Apple Silicon processors should install Windows On Arm instead. The problem here is that Microsoft typically only sells Windows On Arm directly to large PC manufacturers or enterprise customers with volume licensing, so it’s actually very difficult to get hold of Windows On Arm.

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Parallels Desktop solved this problem a few years ago by giving you the option to download Windows directly on Arm while creating a new virtual machine. VMware took longer to address this issue, with Fusion Pro only introducing the ability to download Windows On Arm with its version 13.5 update in late 2023.

Unfortunately, when using the latest Fusion Pro 13.6, I found myself getting several error messages while trying to download Windows On Arm (one time it actually crashed Fusion Pro while trying to download Windows). Even after creating a new virtual machine, there are quite a few technical details such as side-channel mitigation, encryption, and other settings that may seem quite daunting to less technical users. Parallels Desktop offers much greater ease of use here. Of course, the option of using Fusion Pro with a free personal license will still be attractive to many users.

Fusion Pro Features

When you create a virtual machine running Windows on your Mac, you’ll see the Windows desktop appear in its own window on your Mac screen, just like any other Mac app. Fusion included a feature called Unity that allowed you to hide the Windows desktop. It left individual Windows apps, like the Edge browser, on the Mac desktop and made them look like regular Mac apps (similar to Parallels’ Coherence feature). desktop). Unfortunately, while the latest version of Fusion Pro provides the ability to quickly change the size and resolution of virtual machine windows, it no longer supports Unity. You can even expand it to full screen size, hiding your Mac desktop and making it look like your Mac is running Windows (you can switch to other Mac apps using standard Cmd whenever you want). -Tab keyboard shortcut).

Other features available in Windows virtual machines include dragging and dropping files between Mac and Windows, and copying and pasting information between files. There is also an option called Snapshot. This option allows you to suspend the state of a Windows virtual machine while leaving multiple Windows apps still running, without completely shutting down Windows. This allows you to quit Fusion Pro if necessary and then return to your Windows virtual machine later with your apps and files still running as before.

And starting with version 13.5, Fusion Pro also supports 3D graphics using Microsoft’s DX11 technology. This lets you run a variety of Windows games and graphics apps for professional design work (provided you have a fast enough Mac). However, the latest DX12, which is used in many games these days, has proven to be tough to crack for both Fusion Pro and Parallels Desktop, so neither program has a clear advantage when it comes to running Windows games.

Should I Buy VMware Fusion Pro?

The good news, of course, is that you can use Fusion Pro with a free personal license, making it a cheaper option than competing virtualization programs like Parallels Desktop. However, due to its lack of Parallels Desktop’s sophistication and ease of use, and its increased emphasis on enterprise users, Fusion Pro may not be as appealing to casual users as it once was.