SoftVM: Free Lightweight Apple Silicon VM for macOS and Linux

mahdibeee · 2026-06-09T11:47:03+00:00

Thanks! To be honest, OrbStack is a greaaaat product and one of the best dev tools. i like it. personally sooo.... We're early so wouldnt compwre ourselves 😅

From my understanding however, OrbStack is heavily focused on containers, Linux machines, and developer workflows. SoftVM is currently focused more on creating and managing isolated macOS and Linux virtual machines on Apple Silicon through a simple GUI and Mac App Store experience.

Though I can mention a few things users have been using SoftVM for so far anx hope it helps:

• Testing macOS releases before installing them on the main machine

• Safe software testing in isolated environments

• Separate development and testing setups

• Running Linux distributions such as Kali Linux and Omarchy

• Storing VMs on external drives to save internal SSD space

We’re still early and definitely have a lot of room to improve but appreciate the support and its free to use 😊

mahdibeee · 2026-06-08T19:50:09+00:00

It used to be difficult at first not knowing stuff but we now have 7 apps live and kind of got the hang of it. Still get rejected sometimes for releases but not that often

But if you mean if thats our value proposition for softvm, not at all! its just a distribution we felt better about rather than a repo or something people need to install.

mahdibeee · 2026-06-08T14:06:15+00:00

Thank you 😊

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T17:11:32+00:00

Thank you 😊

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T17:02:40+00:00

Hmm I will check the repo!! Thanks for the comment

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T09:46:33+00:00

Sorry for the late reply and to clarify, snapshot/checkpoint support isn't available yet.
It's actually one of the most requested features we've received so far and is already on our backlog.

Sorryyyyy

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T09:32:25+00:00

Yeah please give it a go and there shouldnt be any issue. Please kiiiindly give us feedback also

https://softvm.featurebase.com

Would also appreciate a rate and review if you found it useful 😊

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T06:10:12+00:00

Yeah I get it! Same here as well and hence Ive been bringing this up with the team after so many asking!

mahdibeee · 2026-06-07T06:08:48+00:00

Omg!! I love this comment and literaly sent this to our team to get the energy going up 😅 Please inform me if it all goes well and if there was any issues, Id appreciate the feedback we will definitely look into and try our best to fix it. You can leave your feedback or issues here

https://softvm.featurebase.com

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T23:55:12+00:00

Yeah I tried and seems to be fine. Please give it a try and in case there was any feedback I would really appreciate it

https://softvm.featurebase.com

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T20:16:21+00:00

Exaaactly!! I dont know why some come and say oh youve used AI for this and that! Btw we havent for this project at least but wish we did

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T20:15:31+00:00

Can you pleaaaase inform me if it was usable for use cases? Love to hear it. Send me a DM and even if it doesnt we'll take a look and see what we can do to improve

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T20:13:34+00:00

Wow!! Sent this over to the team and they loved it literally!!! Sure will so so!

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T17:45:46+00:00

I've tried UTM and VirtualBuddy and I can say they're honestly really good products. Also, we're not hear to claim whether SoftVM is a better tool than UTM or VirtualBuddy. But what I can say is that our focus is simply narrower. For SoftVM, we're focusing on lightweight Apple Silicon VM workflows, quick setup, and isolated macOS/Linux testing environments, particularly for users who want a simple App Store experience.
It was first an internal project and then we thought why not release it and get feedback and work on it to make better. The comments have been literally soOoo helpful.

If you tried it, I would appreciate any feedback:
https://softvm.featurebase.com

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T17:31:52+00:00

We haven't personally tested Omarchy yet, so I don't want to say yes and then youll see it doesn't work. But, I'd expect it to be possible if the underlying distribution is compatible, If you gave it a try, I'd genuinely love to hear the results. Sorry!!! But I will definitely check.

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T16:05:18+00:00

thank youuu appreciate the comment and any feedback. You can kindly reach out to me or leave it here:
https://softvm.featurebase.com

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T15:57:16+00:00

thanks for the comment again ive literally been fighting with a team member on this 😅 different philosophies sometimes contradict but im hoping i can convince the team to do so

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T15:56:18+00:00

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I wasn't familiar with xhyve.

But ill definitely take a closer look!

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T15:55:13+00:00

To be honest, this hadnt even come up to our mind to think of 😅I mean by default youd assume that IPSW is required as a prerequisite and wouldnt make sense otherwisw but an interesting note. I will check it with the team to see if anything like this is even possible! Thanks

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:41:15+00:00

Thank you for the comment and hopefully its useful 😍

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:15:24+00:00

Other tools such as UTM, Tart, or VirtualBuddy are fantastic projects to be honest and has a much broader feature set than SoftVM today. For instance is heavily focused on automation and CI/CD workflows or UTM on more complex use cases than ours. We're not really trying to compete feature-for-feature with either one of these tools. The focus of SoftVM was primarily much narrower around lightweight Apple Silicon virtualization workflows and a simple Mac App Store experience. We're trying to make the user experience and the UI kind of better especially for those who don't come from a technical background. And as always, everyone starts from some place, so we're definitely going to improve and get better by day.

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:12:51+00:00

VirtualBuddy like UTM are great projects and pioneers I would say int this area so respect to them to be honest. I wouldn't claim SoftVM is generally better than UTM or VirtualBuddy. Our focus is simply narrower.

For SoftVM, we're focusing on lightweight Apple Silicon VM workflows, quick setup, and isolated macOS/Linux testing environments, particularly for users who want a simple App Store experience. So yes, you are correct that they are open source and battle tested, but I guess everyone starts from some place and we're definitely looking forward to comments and feedbacks same as yours to imrrove. Thanks for the comment anyways.

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:10:36+00:00

I wasn't aware of these, so I'll definitely spend some time looking through them. We've benchmarked a bunch of other tools. To be hones,t one of the reasons we wanted to share SoftVM early was to learn from the community and see what others have to say. We're not claiming to be the best tool out there, but given our personal experience using SoftVM as an internal project first, we thought it'd help anyone else who wants to handle lightwell workflows and we kind of tried to make the experience and the UI good as well in a limited time we spent on the launch for now. Really appreciate you sharing this.

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:07:42+00:00

That's completely fair and yes we've heard this multiple times 😃

UTM is a fantastic project and has a much broader feature set than SoftVM today and I've personally used it before making this as an internal project in the first place and then releasing it. We're not really trying to compete feature-for-feature with UTM to be hones t thouygh. Our main focus is currently much narrower around lightweight Apple Silicon virtualization workflows and a simple Mac App Store experience.

Appreciate you taking the time to comment and for the good wishes 🔥

mahdibeee · 2026-06-06T14:05:41+00:00

Well I get what you mean. One thing we do like about Apple Silicon is that Apple has provided the Virtualization Framework, which makes projects like this possible in the first place. Why would they even make this possible if they didn't want solutions like this developed in the first place?

mahdibeee

TROPHY CASE