When comparing Parallels Desktop vs XtraFinder, the Slant community recommends XtraFinder for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” XtraFinder is ranked 23rd while Parallels Desktop is ranked 59th.
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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 Free
Pro Old full-size color labels from OS X < 10.9
Pro Adds useful toolbar items
XtraFinder provides useful options for toolbar such as: Launch as Root, New Terminal Here, New File..., and Select...
Pro Additional right-click options
Xtra Finder provides additional options when performing the right click.
Pro Custom hotkeys
Pro Copy Path
Pro Can open a terminal in set position
XtraFinder can open up a terminal from the right-click menu in given path with "New Terminal Here".
Pro Dual panel
Split the Finder window into to windows to achieve better file handling.
Pro Colored icons in the Finder sidebar
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.
Con Doesn't work on recent macOS versions without a workaround
This tool doesn't work on recent macOS versions, except if you try workaraound that may or may not work. It involves disabling System Integrity Protection and details on how to do it can be found on the XtraFinder website.