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VMWare > Parallels.

I think both offer a free trial so give each one a spin. In my experience VMWare performs better, is cheaper, no ads, and no stupid tweet/facebook buttons.

Agreed. I use multiple VMware products and Fusion wins all day long.

I can see how Parallels works for some people but I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
 
Why not try out virtualbox first (it is free after all) before you pay for a VM ?

^ This.

Even if it wasn't free, I've found it to be so much more useable that Parallels which I've found to be a big, buggy, bloated mess since it first arrived.
 
Some people just get a bug up their butt about a product then think they have to bad mouth it whenever they can.

Parallels runs fine and checking the 'Don't show again' box solves the so called 'ad problem'.

Yup. Other than Parallels releasing new version that cost money to upgrade to annually, I got nothing bad to say about them. Their program is faster than Fusion and it's stable. I own Fusion versions 2 to 4 and now I'm using Parallels.
 
I'm another who made the switch from Parallels to Fusion, around v6/7.

Don't think there is much between them in reality, but I prefer the interface and config of Fusion. I think Fusion tends to work out a little cheaper too given the frequency of Parallels upgrades.
 
Right now, Virtual Box doesn't allow virtualization of Snow Leopard Server. :( Fusion and Parallels have no problem with this.
 
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