When comparing Parallels Desktop vs Growl, the Slant community recommends Growl for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Growl is ranked 15th while Parallels Desktop is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Growl is:
In addition to all the applications that other people have written that support Growl, Growl includes several 'Extras' that serve various functions.
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Pros
Pro Best-in-class gaming performance
Compared to other VMs, Parallels has the best gaming performance. Still, a good framerate can only be achieved with games that have very low resource requirements. A much better option for resource intensive games is dual booting Windows (via Boot Camp).
Pro Easy to use
Parallels has an easy to learn and use UI. All important features are wizard based. It requires only a few clicks for the wizard to download and set up the latest Chrome OS, Windows or Linux build.
Pro Can run Windows apps as native OS X apps
Parallels has a "Coherence View" mode that allows running Windows applications as if they were native OS X apps. In this mode Windows is virtualized in background and Windows features like Jump Lists, Taskbar, Start Menu, etc can be embedded directly within OS X.
Pro Best integration ever
Pro Support for a lot more applications than the default notification system
In addition to all the applications that other people have written that support Growl, Growl includes several 'Extras' that serve various functions.
Pro Ability to be themed
Growl comes with almost 20 themes pre-installed so you can pick what works best for you. You can also create and install your own custom themes.
Pro Sync with mobile phone via Prowl
Prowl is the Growl client for iOS. Push to your iOS device notifications from your Mac or Windows computer, or from a multitude of apps and services.
Cons
Con Very expensive
Parallels upgrades are very expensive. Even if I bough several versions of Parallels I will switch back to free VirtualBox as they even "invented" the Pro version - mainly doubled the price you have to pay each year to have the software updated.
Con Can't import OVA files
OVA files are useful because they include all of its supporting files. Unfortunately, Parallels doesn't support these useful files.
Con Requires buying a new version of the software with each new OS X release
Chances are that the same version of Parallels won't work with different OS X releases, requiring a separate purchase of Parallels for each OS X version.
Con Home edition doesn't work with Vagrant or Docker Machine
Make sure you purchase the Pro edition (the subscription) if you need command-line access to the hypervisor.
Con Can't export OVA files
One you use parallel you get trapped into a proprietary format.
Can't share disk blocks on two unrelated virtual machines (KSM for disk) too.