What is libvirt used for?

libvirt is a C toolkit and API for managing virtualization platforms such as QEMU/KVM, Xen and LXC containers. It is a good fit for building virtualization management tools and managing KVM guests on Linux servers.

Is libvirt open source?

Yes. libvirt is open source under the LGPL-2.1 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at libvirt/libvirt and is written mainly in C.

Yes. libvirt is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host libvirt?

Yes. libvirt can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is libvirt an alternative to?

libvirt is an open-source alternative to VMware vSphere. Other open-source alternatives to VMware vSphere include KubeVirt, Incus and LXD.

Is libvirt actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to libvirt was on 1 October 2026. The project has 1.7k stars on GitHub.

libvirt: open-source alternative to VMware vSphere

About libvirt

libvirt is an open-source virtualization management library written in C and released under the LGPL-2.1. It provides a common API and tooling layer for managing virtual machines and containers across different hypervisors and technologies, so that management software does not have to speak each platform's own interface.

Other projects build on it, for example the virt-manager desktop tool, which manages QEMU/KVM, Xen and LXC through libvirt drivers. Administrators and tool authors use libvirt to create, configure, start and stop guests and to manage their storage and networks, usually through command-line tools or bindings for other languages.

The GitHub repository is a read-only mirror. Merge requests and issues go to the project's GitLab instance, where development takes place, so the GitHub copy is mainly useful for browsing the source.

Key features

Common API for managing virtual machines
Supports QEMU/KVM, Xen and LXC drivers
Library written in C
Foundation for tools like virt-manager

Good fit for

→Building virtualization management tools
→Managing KVM guests on Linux servers

Built with: C
Tags: virtualization; libvirt; kvm; qemu; xen; api; hypervisor; linux

libvirt: questions and answers

What is libvirt used for?: libvirt is a C toolkit and API for managing virtualization platforms such as QEMU/KVM, Xen and LXC containers. It is a good fit for building virtualization management tools and managing KVM guests on Linux servers.
Is libvirt open source?: Yes. libvirt is open source under the LGPL-2.1 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at libvirt/libvirt and is written mainly in C.
Is libvirt free?: Yes. libvirt is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host libvirt?: Yes. libvirt can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is libvirt an alternative to?: libvirt is an open-source alternative to VMware vSphere. Other open-source alternatives to VMware vSphere include KubeVirt, Incus and LXD.
Is libvirt actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to libvirt was on 1 October 2026. The project has 1.7k stars on GitHub.