When comparing Transmit 4 vs Parallels Desktop, the Slant community recommends Transmit 4 for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Transmit 4 is ranked 4th while Parallels Desktop is ranked 59th. The most important reason people chose Transmit 4 is:
Exchange data with FTP, SFTP or WebDAV servers or your Amazon S3 storage.
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Pros
Pro Fast and powerful file exchange client
Exchange data with FTP, SFTP or WebDAV servers or your Amazon S3 storage.
Pro Supports Amazon S3 & WebDAV
In addition to FTP, allows exchanging data with SFTP or WebDAV servers or your Amazon S3 storage.
Pro Enable a server connection as a normal disk in your Finder
So you can access your storage without the Transmit client.
Pro FTP Sync
Scans local and remote for difference and only transfer modified files. It's not rsync, but it's the next best thing
Pro Can enable a server connection as a normal disk in your Finder
So you can access your storage without the Transmit client.
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
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.