What is the difference between Standard and Pro Edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac?

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Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition was designed for developers, web and graphic designers, power users, and other demanding pros.

Whether you are testing applications across platforms or building websites for many different browsers, Parallels Desktop Pro Edition will simplify your workspace. Productivity is at the heart of every feature that was added to the all-new Pro Edition: do more in less time with higher quality.

Parallels Desktop Pro Edition is available as a subscription; you will always enjoy running the latest version of Parallels Desktop as a benefit of your subscription. Pro Edition also includes no-charge subscriptions to Parallels Access - the easiest way to remotely access your computer from anywhere; and Parallels Toolbox - a set of essential Mac tools.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition includes the following features and capabilities:

Feature Pro Edition Standard Edition

General

Download and install Windows 11 with one click
Use Windows from Boot Camp**
Virtual RAM for each virtual machine Up to 128GB vRAM Up to 8GB vRAM
Virtual CPUs for each virtual machine Up to 32 CPUs Up to 4 CPUs
Download ready-to-go Windows 10 virtual machine with Visual Studio**  
Nested Virtualization to work with WSL 2, Docker, Android/iPhone® emulator for VS, and others**  
Use Linked Clones for convenient testing and development  
Rollback Mode: revert changes on virtual machine shutdown  
Limit VM resource usage (per every virtual machine)  
Share smart card readers with Windows  
Support for mmap() in Linux Shared Folders**  
Use 8.3 filenames for Shared Folders  
Use EFI Secure Boot  
Virtual TPM support ✓***
Prepare VM for transfer to another Mac or cloud storage  

Develop

Use Jenkins to run a build server on Mac  
Debug, dump VM, or start an SSH session from the menu  
Guest OS debugging support  
The addition of a Microsoft Visual Studio plug-in  
Parallels Vagrant plugin to work with reproducible and portable work environments  
Linked clones in Vagrant plugin to create new boxes fast and save disk space  
Support running Docker containers in a VM via a Docker Machine  
Use the Parallels SDK with Python 3.0 support  
Run x86_64 Docker containers in a Linux VM on a Mac with Apple silicon using Rosetta  

Network

An enhanced network editor that allows you to test different connectivity issues  
Port forwarding: pass traffic from a Mac port to VM or IP address and desired port  
Create custom host-only networks and specify their names  
Use DNS requests over TCP in Shared Network  
Use virtual machine names as their DNS names  
Use tcpdump with virtual networks  
Resolve DNS requests from VM using info in  /etc/resolver from the host macOS  

Appearance

Headless mode  

Other features

Sort virtual machines in Control Center  
Set a custom icon for every virtual machine  
Archive/unarchive VMs in Control Center to save disk space  
Connect physical disks to VMs as internal disks  
Use Command Line Interface tools to control Parallels Desktop and manage virtual machines  
Use bash (zsh) autocompletion for the Parallels CLI tools  

** These features are currently not supported on Mac computers with Apple silicon chip.

*** These features are supported in Parallels Desktop 17 and newer.

In addition, Parallels Desktop Pro Edition extends all the features and capabilities of Parallels Desktop for Mac, such as:

Visit the Parallels website for more information on the differences between Parallels Desktop editions.

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