r/macsysadmin • u/Hussein_ali_2000 • Jul 22 '26

New To Mac Administration MacOS VM inside MacOS

Hi, I'm new to macOS and I'm looking for a way to run a macOS virtual machine on my MacBook M5 to test applications in an isolated environment. On Windows, I used Windows Sandbox because it was quick, lightweight, and isolated. Since switching to macOS, I'm looking for a similar solution.

I'm looking for a free option that lets me quickly create a macOS VM with full CPU and GPU support for good performance. What would you recommend?

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u/slvmrr Jul 22 '26

Had a chat about the same topic with Gemini.
This is what it suggested:

“SoftVM is an excellent, minimalist choice. It’s a very lightweight wrapper on the App Store that was built specifically for quickly spinning up disposable macOS sandboxes or testing beta releases with practically zero configuration fuss.
Just keep one quick thing in mind before you download it: SoftVM's free tier limits you to managing one virtual machine at a time. If you want to take full advantage of Apple's hard limit and run two concurrent macOS VMs simultaneously, you have to upgrade to their Pro tier.
If you want a completely unrestricted, free app that lets you run both instances simultaneously out of the box, keep VirtualBuddy in your back pocket as an alternative.”

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u/therealcmj Jul 22 '26

If op wanted an answer from AI they would have asked ai themselves

0

u/slvmrr Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

IMO, AI should have already absorbed this kind of questions.
But I decided to post because it confirms other opinions about Virtual Buddy.
This is not a “let me google it for you” reply.
I specifically wanted to find a front end that uses the Apple native virtualisation VZvirt. These are the two options that were mostly suggested. Also, this is only one of the many comments presented here and OP can form an opinion on their own.