# Crossover Reviews **Vendor:** codeweavers **Category:** [Remote Desktop Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/remote-desktop) **Average Rating:** 3.7/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 21 ## About Crossover Crossover allows users to run Windows on Mac and Linux, easily and affordably. ## Crossover Reviews ### 1. Best option to execute .exe on Mac **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Diego R. | Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2026 **What do you like best about Crossover?** The chance to use windows exe in Mac. Is easy to understand and easy to do **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Is useful that the process is generally similar. Sometimes, the difficult thing is that not all the games works with the same behaviour **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can use differents exe that in my normal macbook will be impossible to install. ### 2. Good compatibility generally, but you need to test specific applications! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andy P. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Allows some Windows applications to run on MacOS without issues, performance improves all the time, vendor is very responsive to suggestions and comments, and product is relatively cheap (when compared to a Windows license plus a VM). The ability to run Windows applications on a machine with the new Apple M1 processor is very useful - although a lot of the business apps you'd like to use (like MS office) are limited in their operation. I'd strongly recommend you search for the specific application you wish to use, or download the demo and try, before purchasing! **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Support for main applications like Microsoft Office can be limited, performance can be poor, some apps just don't work at all. There is also an issue with applications 95% working and it not being obvious that something is wrong until quite a way down the line - this can lead to some surprises! **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** You'll see when you look at the website that it supports a lot of applications however you'll want to get it for a specific application - you should download and test it with the trial version prior to purchasing and be prepared to have to fully test - sometimes apps install, load, and run, but a menu option or a feature individually causes a crash. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** To enable specific Windows applications to be usable either on Linux or on MacOS. Several applications run without issue (particularly the older ones). Packaging of the applications makes deploying them quite easy. ### 3. Excellent alternative to running a Windows OS in VM or bare metal. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Crossover?** I love how simple it is to set up a crossover bottle. Setup takes away a lot of the frustration of manually setting up a wine instance to run applications like Office or Access. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** In newer Linux distributions, it seems that there are some very convoluted processes needed to get shared folders set up (sometimes this fails to be able to implement correctly). There is also a lot to be left for troubleshooting when you run into issues. It isn't easy to track down documentation and information. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am implementing Office, Access, and other Microsoft-centric solutions in a mixed environment that requires security focus. ### 4. Good for running windows Apps on MacOSX but no replacement for a Virtual Machine **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caleb P. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2021 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Some applications just run perfectly out of the box after installing, and it's great to have a Windows application running without effort and without running a Virtual Machine, for my use cases, it works very well since it saves me time and allows me to run some tests but don't expect that to happen often. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Many programs plain don't work or work in a partial or odd way, basically, it is a quicker and more intuitive frontend for WINE but if it does not work in WINE there is a 97% chance it won't work in Crossover. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** As a Linux user if you want to avoid the complexity of WINE, go for it, as a MacOSX user, unless you are testing or really want to avoid a VM it's just not worth it. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Working in Quality Assurance I have to test odd use cases even if they are not officially supported and WINE is slower than just using CrossOver. I would not recommend running most programs on MacOSX since most are supported natively there anyway and WINE is mainly a Linux project but it does save me some time when dealing with some scenarios. ### 5. Allows me to run Windows Applications on MacOSX **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rudy Elliot G. | Data Center Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2019 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Integrates really well, with this as long as the application is supported runs as it does in Windows, allowing me to use my favorite applications almost natively on MacOSX, some applications run even better than in Windows **What do you dislike about Crossover?** It does not allow me to run some Windows applications because my company locks down the installer but that's not crossover fault **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** It runs amazingly well but check with your company if they use a custom installer for company apps **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running some of my favorite Windows applications on MacOSX ### 6. Waste of time and money **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James Z. | Senior Systems Engineer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** It has nice GUI and pretty good documentation. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** I wasn't able to get any of the windows applications I really needed to use to run on it. Of course, these apps were unsupported, so I couldn't really expect much. What really burns me, is that I purchased 17.5.1 literally 18 days ago and they just released 18. Of course, if I want 18 I can pay to purchase it. They even offered a discount. Since 17.5.1 didn't do anything for me, I'm not going to shell out even more money for a produce that I've been using for less than a month. Apparently, they don't care if you purchase a version that will be obsoleted in less than a month. Any additional money I spend will be donated directly to the Wine Project. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Make sure you use the trial before you purchase. If I would have tested it first, it would have saved me the money of purchasing a product version that was going to be replaced in 18 days and I would have learned that it didn't meet my needs anyway. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** None. ### 7. Works great but recommend getting a version with updates and support **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sean L. | Freelance UX copywriter, End-user support , Public Relations and Communications, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** I love that everything I need to do that is Windows can easily be done on any and all of my MacOS machines. Buy one license and it works across the board. Just sign in with your credentials and go. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** This is 100% my fault but after a MacOS Developer Beta update, the program is nearly useless - HOWEVER, I do blame myself because I paid for one single version and no updates and no tech support. So when it did work it worked great. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Wish support section (searchable, not human contact kind) gave info about potential solutions when using a beta OS or if there was something in the works to correct it once the GM version comes out. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Things we've resolved are things that were Windows only are now able to be done on MacOS and this has, of course, saved a ton of money. ### 8. Makes running Windows software on linux easier but feels like playing catch up **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rob T. | Partner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Downloading dependencies is taken care of automatically, and other things are automatd too. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** You buy one version and then have to buy again if you want the advantages of the new one. It costs as much to buy this as a non profit pays for a Microsoft Office license and 3 times as much as Windows license. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Using a native product tensds to be a much better and easier to manage experience. Be realistic about what a non native application can provide. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Those that prefer a linux desktop get to use Windows software not available natively in linux. This increases staff freedom and may reduce liscensing costs, it certainly simplifies updates and security. ### 9. Always improving, but still has limitations **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott A. | Private Cloud and Storage Services Administrator, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** The latest office works great! As well as many games and other one off pieces of software. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** The latest Outlook does not work so great. Java version 7 and above does not install. Microsoft SRAT tools are still a no go. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** This software is always playing catch-up with windows development. You WILL find programs that wont work, it's just the nature of the beast. Make use of their available compatibility list before purchase if you have hard requirements that need met. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running need windows only software on linux desktops ### 10. Crossover Software Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** The main reason we bought it was so our Mac users could use Windows products on their Macbooks. It's easy to use, and updates are simple. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** The price for the newest version is very expensive. If you aren't worried about using new and improved features, this wouldn't be something to worry about. But there were new features in a new released version that we were interested in utilizing, but had to decide if it was worth forking over the cash. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Definitely helpful to anyone who likes the comfort of their Mac, but doesn't want to lose out on not being able to use Windows products. You should weigh the price of the new content releases to make sure the features are things you really want, because the upgrade can be pricey. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's definitely helpful to our staff that prefer Apple products, because they can comfortably use their preferred computer without having to make sacrifices in comfort. We've also been able to save money that we would've spent by buying more computers, instead of allowing staff to use their Macbooks. ### 11. Awesome app to let you run windows applications **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dave O. | Web Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2017 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Awesome software to let you run windows applications on other OS like Linux, Mac or Chrome OS. Very useful to run all your applications that are not supported on other OS than Windows. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Some applications wont run with this software, but this is not the fault of Crossover, this is mainly because the application you want to run use some dependencies that are not supported. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** With this software, we can use our windows applications, even if we are using Linux OS ### 12. Review on Crossover **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hatif Bin B. | Chief Financial Officer / Academic Advisor, Primary/Secondary Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** The best feature is that everything is automatically. Also, with no issues or interference Windows software and applications run on apple. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** The main reason I came across with this was because I wanted to use Autodesk Revit and McNeel Rhinoceros... it didnt work **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** It's cheap enough to try out first before buying a Windows license. One of the best thing is, its very user friendly. its pretty easy to use! **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to run various Windows software on non Windows operating systems. ### 13. Great software to run Windows applications on Mac, if you know how to make it work. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Printing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** I liked that is free and allows the freedom of running windows apps on a macOS environment. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** The times I've used I haven't been able to make it work. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. The bottle feature is complicated for a beginner user. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Make it more straight forward for non-technical users. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been trying to run work SW on my mac at home with not great success. It might Crossover's lack of support to the software I run in my company. We have so many old tools that Crossover is struggling. ### 14. Convenient Windows environment on Mac **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Easy to use interface and convenient Windows environment setup on Mac **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Not really, except that I was still used to running programs in Windows environment (the Crossover Bottles feature works great in Mac, though) unless running Mac if absolutely necessary **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Give it a try **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allowed me to work on projects across Windows and Mac without resorting to sophisticated alternatives ### 15. A very cheap way to use Windows only programs on a Mac. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Crossover?** It's so cheap - about $25/year, compared to Parallels or Bootcamp and having to buy a Windows license and keep updating it. This allows us to use our software that only works on Windows machines on our Mac, almost like Wine but much more user friendly. Wine requires one to know a bit more about computers than CrossOver does. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** It costs money per phone call to get help, but since it's so cheap, you can't really complain about it. They also have NO promises that something will work. We use specific, not very popular software that nobody leaves reviews for on the Crossover website so it was a bit of a leap of faith to buy it and see if it worked, but it did work. I think most people use Crossover to play PC games on their Mac. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** It's cheap enough to try out first before buying a Windows license and splitting your hard drive. Pretty user friendly too. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** We streamlined the amount of software and licenses that we needed in the office, reducing the software upkeep and licensing requirements per year. Excellent for that. ### 16. my experience **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2016 **What do you like best about Crossover?** The use of microsoft work tools without the installation of the same. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** I find this application very pleasant. For the moment I just do not like the tools that can be used only be from Microsoft. It would be excellent that it existed for the applications of linux or mac in its defenco. For what they do not use mac or windows **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Allow its implementation in the use of other areas such as linux plugins for those who use windows. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** Read documents sent by clients, for documenting requirements in software design ### 17. CrossOver is the easiest way to run Windows applications on Mac or Linux **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tom W. | Owner, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2016 **What do you like best about Crossover?** CrossOver is by far the easiest Wine solution on the market and unlike other solutions it doesn't require a Windows license. The performance is nearly the same as a native Windows application. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** Not every application or game currently runs **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** You can also purchase CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac or Linux in the www.wine-reviews.net online store at a discounted price. The store is located here : http://www.wine-reviews.net/p/store.html **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to run Windows productivity applications on Linux and Mac ### 18. A friendly front-end to WINE, but leaves a lot to be desired. **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Benjamin B. | Web Developer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 11, 2016 **What do you like best about Crossover?** - Enables a user running Apple OSX or various distributions of Linux to run a wide selection of Windows applications & games on their machines, helping deal with the 'app gap' that the operating systems have compared to Windows - Developed and supported by the same team who primarily develop and maintain the WINE (WINE is not an emulator) Windows compatibility layer project. - The ability to 'vote' for applications that should be supported next. - Free trial to test the software before purchasing. - No need to purchase a Windows license. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** - Applications are often much slower than running natively on Windows (to be expected) and also can be quite buggy or outdated (The latest fully-supported version of Microsoft Office is 2007, the current version is 2016!). - There's alternative applications out there that do a very similar job (PlayOnLinux for example) as this software is only really a simplified front-end to the WINE project. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** If you're on Linux, take a look at PlayOnLinux (free and open-source) before trying this. Using a Windows Virtual Machine might be a better idea (especially Parallels on OSX) as you'll be able to run practically any software rather than just what Crossover supports and without the potential bugs. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to run various pieces of Windows software on non Windows operating systems. ### 19. Good solution for particular use cases **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stefan B. | sr. BIM Manager, Information Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 08, 2015 **What do you like best about Crossover?** Crossover is an alternative approach to run Windows applications in another environment (OSX, Linux). Not by running Windows, but by fooling Windows applications that they are running inside Windows. It uses Wine (an Open Source system - Wine Is Not an Emulator - typical Linux recursive acronym) but packages it in a more user-oriented and friendly application. You don't really need it, but it makes it more convenient. While initially focused on gaming, it has fair support for many business applications too. Each application is (or can be) installed in a separate "Bottle", isolating it from others. Performance was adequate. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** It did not run the main applications I was hoping to run: Autodesk Revit and McNeel Rhinoceros with the Grasshopper plug-in. The amount of out-of-the-box supported applications is still limited and they are often outdated versions of the applications (e.g. Office 2007, 2010). The separation of applications into separate Bottles makes they more independent, but they take more space on your hard disk. This can become fairly big on smaller SSD drives. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Use the trial version and look out for promotional offers to get the license at 50%. It does solve some use cases, but not all. If you really rely on many Windows applications, it might be more convenient to use Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare Fusion. **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** While it did help me to run a few Windows games directly inside my Mac, other applications had limited success. More specifically, I was aiming to get Rhinoceros + Grasshopper running. While I have been able to run Rhinoceros (even using our Network License at the University), other aspects of the software did not work (e.g. dragging the Grasshopper installer). In practice, I have more success with Parallels and a full Windows 10 installation in the Bootcamp partition. ### 20. Works as expected, a must for Linux Users **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michele A. | Software Engineer, Computer Software, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2016 **What do you like best about Crossover?** CrossOver is one of the best tools for virtualizing platforms and running software on other operating systems. It was one of the first software to support the setup of Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop on Linux. The CrossOver Games adds additional support to Windows Games, most of them not supported or supported with limitations by wine and PlayOnLinux **What do you dislike about Crossover?** The price is one of the dislikes, because for comparison, PlayOnLinux and Wine do the same job but they are opensource/free **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** Nothing to recommend, the software speaks for itself and it's very easy to set up **What problems is Crossover solving and how is that benefiting you?** I had problems with some customers, who wanted Microsoft Office under Linux environment, because they didn't want to use LibreOffice or OpenOffice due their limitations. With Wine it wasn't possible for Office 2007/2013, but with CrossOver I had the possibility of set a list of Ubuntu machines with those Office versions without any problem ### 21. Helpful for Linux novices fearful of leaving Windows behind **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Greg M. | Senior Consultant, Internet, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 10, 2013 **What do you like best about Crossover?** CrossOver is a help to Linux novices who can't or won't leave certain Windows applications behind. CrossOver probably doesn't do anything you couldn't do yourself with Wine and some time/expertise/willingness to tinker, but it does simplify the task of getting Windows programs installed and running virtually on your Linux computer. They have an extensive list of supported programs and a Bronze/Silver/Gold medal rating system that describes how well programs should be expected to work, so your expectations are set up front. **What do you dislike about Crossover?** This isn't necessarily a limitation of CrossOver, but newer versions of some major apps don't run as well (i.e. Microsoft Office). Again, not that I blame CrossOver, but the utility of such a product decreases if it can't solidly support newer versions. **Recommendations to others considering Crossover:** A decent package for Linux novices. For Mac, I'd recommend Parallels Desktop instead. ## Crossover Discussions - [Is CrossOver Linux free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-crossover-linux-free) - [Is CrossOver a subscription?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-crossover-a-subscription) - [Can CrossOver run any Windows app?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-crossover-run-any-windows-app) - [What does CrossOver app do?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-does-crossover-app-do) - [Does Crossover and/or its client companies hire candidates with no graduation but experience?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/does-crossover-and-or-its-client-companies-hire-candidates-with-no-graduation-but-experience) - [View Crossover pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/crossover/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-15+10%3A20%3A42+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=15af6e4f-4270-4c51-9c86-c01b5f5e8094&secure%5Btoken%5D=2046c877abbdbc73128c5f8154f1c699c363662c879b6ff5b61f075de99edcea&format=llm_user) ## Crossover Features **Administration** - Usage Information - Integrations - Diagnostics - Session Recording - Session Transfer - Unattended Access - File Sharing **Platform** - Cross-Platform Access - Mobile Device Access - Applications Management - Remote Device Control **Security** - Remote Wipe - Device Management - Device Enrollment ## Top Crossover Alternatives - [Parallels Desktop for Mac](https://www.g2.com/products/parallels-desktop-for-mac/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (59 reviews) - [QEMU](https://www.g2.com/products/qemu/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (26 reviews) - [TeamViewer](https://www.g2.com/products/teamviewer/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (3,788 reviews)