Boot Camp vs Parallels Desktop Comparison

It’s not specifically a virtual machine, but you cannot avoid talking about Boot Camp when it comes to running Windows on a Mac. Boot Camp is Apple’s own answer to consumer demand, and as a part of macOS represents a huge advantage as it eliminates the need to download any third-party apps. Parallels Desktop, on the other hand, seeks to solve a widespread demand for running not one but multiple operating systems on a single computer in a secure and trusted environment. But which can cater to your needs, and are there more benefits for one than the other?

Boot Camp is Apple’s way of running a guest operating system (specifically Windows) on a Mac. The on-screen installation instructions are easy to follow and require little input from the user beyond the presence of the Windows ISO file or installation disk. Once the process is complete users will have access to the ultimate Windows experience as the operating system takes full advantage of the Mac’s hardware resources without the performance penalty of a virtual machine.

The downside of Boot Camp, however, is that users need to allocate storage space on the startup disk for the Windows OS, which will be formatted to NTFS. Alongside this minimum allocation of 40GB of space, users will only be able to read the Boot Camp partition’s content and not write to it. This means that they will have to figure out how to create a communication channel between the two completely isolated operating systems to allow for file transfers across platforms.

Maybe the biggest downside of all is the reboot process. Every time a user wants to use the guest operating system for whatever, a full reboot is required. This could easily become a hassle over time but considering that Boot Camp is available for free it is an acceptable compromise.

What makes a virtual machine such as Parallels Desktop highly appealing is the convenience of being able to run two or more operating systems simultaneously. However, it’s the tiny automation of certain aspects that makes or break such software, and Parallels Desktop incorporates a wide variety of these.

For example, Parallels will download Windows directly from Microsoft and install it at a speed that matches Boot Camp. And when Windows (or another guest OS) is running on a Mac, users of Parallels can take bidirectional sharing for granted since the software has smoothly integrated this function, meaning you can focus on getting the job done instead of figuring out how to share a file between the two operating systems. The same goes for apps: this deep integration allows users to run Windows in Seamless mode as if it would be part of macOS and use features such as Call with iPhone or Quick Look while still running Windows.

Parallels Desktop charges $79.99 per year for a single Mac license or $99.99 for a lifetime license, but users can test the software free for 14 days.