Parallels Desktop for Mac

Score9.7 out of 10

87 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Parallels Desktop for Mac?

Parallels® Desktop for Mac is used to run Windows on Intel or Apple silicon. Users can switch between Mac and Windows applications, while retaining the macOS appearance, or use the familiar Windows desktop aesthetic.

Categories & Use Cases

Application Virtualization

Media

Screenshot of Parallels Desktop running Windows applications, on a Mac.

Screenshot of the ability to switch between operating systems without rebooting.

Screenshot of Coherence Mode, which minimizes distraction.

Screenshot of file sharing between Mac and Windows.

Screenshot of application development and testing in Windows, Linux, and virtual macOS (Pro & Business Edition).

Screenshot of license management in Parallels Desktop (Business Edition).

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Screenshot of Parallels Desktop running Windows applications, on a Mac.

Ease of deployment
Level of difficulty installed on host servers
Category average: 8.1
Security
Limiting access to apps by domain authentication, IP address etc.
Category average: 7.2
Application support
Support for a wide range of applications and application types
Category average: 7.2

Bruce Carter View profile

Senior Systems Engineer in Information Technology at University of Notre Dame (5001-10,000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have some software that requires the Windows operating system for various enterprise activities. We used to put a separate PC on people's desks, then we moved to a bank of VMs that people could remote into, but with the release and support of Apple Silicon by Parallels, we are able to simply use a local virtual machine on macOS machines to simple and easily cover that intermittent need. This requirement covers several hundred endpoints and thus results in a fairly substantial savings of capital expenditures.

Pros

Immediate access to needed Windows apps
On demand Windows instance without needing to spin up a remote VM
Integrates access to both platforms in one unit
Easy to install and maintain
Central vendor console for licensing
Easily managed with existing enterprise tools

Cons

Configuration dialogs could use some embedded help
ARM incompatibility is sometimes a problem (this is more a Windows issue than Parallels)
USB passthrough is sometimes quirky

Return on Investment

Capital budget savings due to not having to buy multiple machines or pay for a VM bank
Quick and easy in and out use.
Can be left running in more or less idle state in the background with minimal resource impact.
Locally portable.
Works without a high speed network connection

Usability

Alternatives Considered

VMware Fusion, CrossOver and UTM

Other Software Used

1Password, BBEdit, CoPilot AI, FileZilla, Google Drive, Grammarly, macOS, Jamf Pro, Jamf Connect, Apple Keynote, ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes, Microsoft 365, Okta, OneDrive

Verified User

Administrator (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Parallels Desktop for Mac to run Windows 10, allowing QuickBooks Desktop to run on my Mac. This allows other accounting professionals to use QBs in a format they are familiar with, versus QB for Mac. Creates efficiency and workflow.

Pros

Windows 10.
Quickbooks Desktop.
Operates smoothly without crashing.
Mirrors my Mac desktop.

Cons

Correct the Quit Parallels function. It often stalls and freezes.
The program is a bit slow when utilizing Logmein remotely.

Return on Investment

ROI is the subscription cost. Excellent.
ROI in accounting is substantial with having QBD layered in.
The responsiveness of Parallels is amazing.

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Lightspeed Retail, Deputy

Eddie Galvez

VP in Engineering at Cloud Software Group (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Parallels are used to run VMs locally on MacBook developer machines - most commonly to run Windows applications or to check bugs and code pertaining to Windows from the standard-issued MacBooks. This is important as, while development productivity is highest using MacBooks, our customers are more often using the UI tools on Windows for authoring tasks.

Pros

Installs new VMs including OS configuration.
Integrates mac and windows seamlessly.
It can be configured to run a VM "the old-fashioned way" or simply let you run applications no matter the OS.

Cons

Having to buy a new upgrade whenever Apple updates the OS with its yearly releases seems a bit excessive.
The integration features between Windows and Mac are enabled by default, which can clutter both sides; I would rather it was not default.

Return on Investment

The cost versus benefit is definitely in the users' favor - the licensing terms for simple desktop usage are very generous, and the business impact is enormous, being able to seamlessly jump from one OS to the other without dealing with multiple physical VMs or cloud remote sessions.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle VM VirtualBox

Jose Almiñana View profile

SAP Solution Architect in Information Technology at Ebro Foods S.A (5001-10,000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Parallels desktop is installed for selected individuals using Mac computers and who also need to have access to software that is only developed for Windows OS (or in some instances that the Windows version is much more powerful than the Mac OS version).

Primarily these users are running SAP software in the Parallels partition, using the rest of their software in the Mac OS.

Pros

Installation process is clean and simple
The "Coherence" option allows for seamless user interface integration with Mac OS
Sharing files across the different partitions is transparent for the user

Cons

Windows partition requires often reboot, as some user interface features have issues
Updates to newer version require additional licensing
No additional suggestions

Return on Investment

Inversion is minimum, for a great productivity improvement.
Allows for experimental use of other OS platforms, while still running your current software base.
User satisfaction as it allows to choose their platform of preference regarding the software they need to run.

Alternatives Considered

VMware Fusion

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Wrike, macOS

Kris Giorgetti

Partner in Corporate at Giorgetti, LLC (1-10 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Parallels to run various operating systems on my MacBook Pro. This includes Windows, Windows Server, Linux, and more. There are many programs only written for Windows such as MS Project which works well as I recently had a project plan with over 12,000 lines in it for a major construction effort and MS Project worked as well on my Parallels enabled MacBook Pro M3 as on other native Windows systems. You can also use applications written for Linux that can help with DevOps use cases and helped with some MLOps use cases.

Pros

Fast Windows Emulation
Multiple OS Support
Parallels Tools with many useful apps
Ability to unify MacOS and Windows

Cons

The ability to do snapshots, backups, and other types of branching for VMs is a little confusing and takes a bit to get used to
The Parallels tools frequently pop up windows advertising functionality, while this is helpful at times it can also happen when you are doing a presentation or typing in a password.
Careful using the VMs on a shared cloud drive such as Dropbox or OneDrive, there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of files which are updated when running a VM and this can clog up your Dropbox or OneDrive sync for minutes to hours even on a 2gb connection.

Return on Investment

Saves money on having to buy a Windows and MacBook, as the MacBook can run almost 99% of all Windows software and usually run it faster and share between your MacBook transparently.
Gives employers the most flexibility with regards to which OS to adopt across an enterprise
We are a media company and everyone uses Macs in our industry, Fortune 500 companies also use Windows and MS Project, Parallels gives you the most flexibility for almost all of these use cases
Improves efficiency as the MacBook Pro M3 systems are much faster than some of the fastest corporate issued Windows laptops. What takes me 3-10 seconds for a video export can take 5 minutes on a similar Windows laptop

Alternatives Considered

Azure Virtual Machines, Windows Server, Windows Server Failover Clustering, Hyper-V, Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), VMware Cloud on AWS and Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)

Other Software Used

ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Chrome, Safari, Adobe Premiere Pro, Canva, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Serverless Cloud, Google Cloud CLI, Azure DevOps Services, Apple Health, Apple iCloud, Apple Pay

Parallels Desktop for Mac

What is Parallels Desktop for Mac?

Categories & Use Cases

Media