Android Studio vs VirtualBox: What are the differences?
Developers describe Android Studio as "Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA". Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. It provides new features and improvements over Eclipse ADT and will be the official Android IDE once it's ready. On the other hand, VirtualBox is detailed as "Run nearly any operating system on a single machine and to freely switch between OS instances running simultaneously". VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.
Android Studio can be classified as a tool in the "Integrated Development Environment" category, while VirtualBox is grouped under "Virtualization Platform".
Some of the features offered by Android Studio are:
- Flexible Gradle-based build system.
- Build variants and multiple APK generation.
- Expanded template support for Google Services and various device types.
On the other hand, VirtualBox provides the following key features:
- Portability
- No hardware virtualization required
- Guest Additions: shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization
"Android studio is a great tool, getting better and bet " is the primary reason why developers consider Android Studio over the competitors, whereas "Free" was stated as the key factor in picking VirtualBox.
According to the StackShare community, VirtualBox has a broader approval, being mentioned in 724 company stacks & 976 developers stacks; compared to Android Studio, which is listed in 928 company stacks and 691 developer stacks.
