Amazon WorkSpaces vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) comparison

Amazon WorkSpaces vs. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon WorkSpaces

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

8th

Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

3rd

Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Application Virtualization (1st), Remote Access (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 0.7%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 9.5%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Featured Reviews

Bhaskar Rao

Network manager admin at Yamaha

Management console is very easy to use, readily available infrastructure and easy to scale

It's very stable. There is a big difference between traditional physical servers and cloud servers. With physical servers, we need to plan for purchasing, procurement, capacity, storage, get quotations, and then procure them. That took some time. Maybe it would take more than one month or maybe two months to procure and then install. With AWS, it is readily available. Just pay and immediately create the VPC, network, and everything. It is very easy. Within two or three hours, we can implement any server or launch any application. Within five minutes, we can just spin up and publish our servers on the Internet.

Read full review

Mohd Abdul Aziz Shah Sulaiman

Assistant General Manager Endpoint Application at Telekom Malaysia

Delivers secure and unified access to apps, desktops, and content for enhanced productivity

Citrix Workforce is good, but it needs improvement in diagnosing network issues. When errors occur, it is difficult to determine if they're due to network issues, Workspace issues, or environment issues. The error messages are too vague, just stating "connection error" without specifying if it's an IP address issue, connectivity problem, or something else related to the network. This lack of detail makes troubleshooting difficult. We often have to reinstall everything in Workspace, without knowing the root cause. Even after engaging with Citrix and sending logs, the feedback is often unsatisfactory, not meeting my expectations. This trial-and-error approach isn't effective problem-solving. While these issues aren't everyday occurrences, when they do happen, they can be catastrophic for our operations team.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The tool has low latency and multimedia support. For instance, running Zoom calls on Amazon WorkSpaces seamlessly supports local microphones, speakers, and web cameras. This feature is transparent for applications, allowing me to use the Zoom application without requiring exceptional support for remote web cameras or microphones. Amazon WorkSpaces provides this functionality at the operating system level, enabling effortless video conferencing. To my knowledge, Microsoft Remote Desktop does not offer the same support."

"The best feature is that it operates very quickly. It depends on the regional location. If we choose a nearby location, nearby servers, it will be best for users to use."

"The most valuable feature is the mobility. I can use it anywhere."

"They maintain it and manage it very well."

"The infrastructure is readily available, with minimal latency, which each user can benefit from."

"The product is easy to access. You can access the solution from anywhere at any time."

"We can work remotely using the solution."

"The experience is seamless and there is no delay. The performance is very good. Initial startup times is a little bit of wait time, but it is bearable."

More Amazon WorkSpaces pros

"Before we adopted a VDI storage solution, our customers' personal information was leaked. This happened a lot. But since we adopted a VDI solution, these kinds of issues have happened rarely."

"The remote desktop feature allows employees to work from home."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The most beneficial feature is seamless remote access, particularly for applications rather than full endpoints. Security features include full data encryption and integrated SSL VPN through NetScaler for secure access."

"Security is a shining point of the Citrix Workspace. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is a very robust solution when security is a concern. Furthermore, the content collaboration data-hosting that Citrix integrates with Virtual Apps and Desktops is among the best there is."

"Among the most valuable features is the Citrix Workspace, which allows us to drive that thin-client connection and the remote control/remote access capabilities. Those things have allowed us to connect an awful lot of people quickly from home and that's obviously helped during the pandemic."

"The solution provides everything in one integrated platform. When it comes to monitoring their solution, it is really easy. We have all the information in one place so we can have the right information at the right moment. We can be proactive when it comes to dealing with performance, maintenance, and security issues."

"XenApp is a fast, secure and reliable solution for remote connections that is completely different than and superior to older Windows solutions."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pros

Cons

"I would say that it is a little complex to configure."

"The solution lacks a shadow mode option, and it needs to have it."

"The product needs to improve its pricing. It should also improve corporate identity management and single sign-on."

"If they had a cheaper option for graphics pro, I think that it would be beneficial and I would use it."

"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."

"Configuration was a bit complicated at first but manageable."

"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve on releasing the most number of patches immediately as quickly as possible. And they need to enable more USB options to connect a mobile phone to that particular workspace."

"Its features for the hardware version could work faster."

More Amazon WorkSpaces cons

"This solution is resource-intensive, it takes a lot of Bandwidth and a lot of the resources of the server."

"Direct connection of USB devices on the terminals to be used by streamed applications is very important for printing and the usage of token authentication, but the current version does not support this one hundred percent."

"Latency is also a major problem when adopting Citrix for video editing software or 3D editing software, especially editing 4K video or large file size. The Citrix virtualized solution becomes too slow, so we cannot use the VDI."

"The ITSM adapters need to be enhanced."

"The solution's technical support is not so good."

"Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is a complex solution."

"We're running into all kinds of speed issues and reliability issues. There are frequent disconnects, and we're not sure whether that's a problem with the product, with the way the product has been deployed, or with server capacity or bandwidth. Our IT department pays attention to that, but we are feeling the impact of that."

"Citrix Workspace can improve by being more secure, but this would apply to any solution not only Citrix Workspace."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing depends on company turnover and the organization's relationship with Amazon. I rate it a six out of ten."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a two."

"The bundle works out to be approximately $20.00 per month."

"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."

"Price-wise Amazon Workspaces is cheaper than most services available."

"They have hourly and monthly pricing, and because our use case is, more of a sporadic use, so I go for hourly pricing. Again, the details of the pricing is handled by the procurement. From an end user perspective, pay as you use hourly is suitable"

"The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make."

"I think that the price can be lower. We have cases where the customer needs to have lower costs. So since we don't have options, like, shadow mode, they need to decrease pricing or have other models for reduced pricing."

More Amazon WorkSpaces pricing and cost advice

"It's my understanding that the solution license fee for each user is around $300 US. If we buy a personal laptop for each employee every five years, then the total cost is five times $300 US, or $1,500 USD. So we could buy 100 personal laptops instead of the Citrix solution."

"My company opts for the yearly subscription model to pay towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."

"The product, XenServer, is free to use, and XenApp has a one month free license."

"I think it is a little high priced."

"I suggest using the concurrent user licensing scheme."

"It is quite expensive, but so are the competitors on the market."

"We are seeing a return on investment with Citrix Workspace."

"The pricing is a little bit high, but it's good value for the product's stability and efficiency."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions are best for your needs.

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847,959 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Government

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon WorkSpaces?

Performance and scalability are valuable features.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon WorkSpaces?

The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make. The investment is almost the same as having your own on-premises solution, with the added costs of ...

What needs improvement with Amazon WorkSpaces?

There is always scope of improvement in the stability.

What do you like most about Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

My focus has primarily been on publishing virtual applications.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I have found that Citrix DaaS is still a complex product, especially on the desktop side, which affects scalability. Although it works well on the apps side, the desktop aspect still has room for i...

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Product Reports

Amazon WorkSpaces

Download Amazon WorkSpaces product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Download Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) report

Also Known As

WorkSpaces

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Citrix

Overview

Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solution provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows users to access a virtual desktop environment in the cloud from various devices, including laptops, tablets, and thin clients.

With Amazon WorkSpaces, users can have a complete desktop experience with their familiar applications and data, while the underlying infrastructure and management tasks are handled by AWS. The virtual desktops provided by Amazon WorkSpaces are persistent, meaning that user data and settings are retained even when disconnected from the virtual desktop.

Amazon WorkSpaces Features:

Desktop Experience: Provides a complete Windows or Linux desktop experience for users.
Device Flexibility: Accessible from various devices such as computers, tablets, and thin clients.
Managed Service: AWS manages infrastructure, updates, patches, and backups.
Flexible Scaling: Easily scale the number of virtual desktops based on needs.
Security and Compliance: Built-in security features and compliance capabilities.
Cost-Effective: Pay-as-you-go pricing model for optimized cost management.
Integration with AWS Services: Seamlessly integrates with other AWS services.
User Profile Management: Supports saving and applying user-specific settings.
Application Compatibility: Supports a wide range of applications.

Amazon WorkSpaces Benefits:

Flexible Accessibility: Users can access their virtual desktops from various devices, providing flexibility and mobility.
Simplified Management: AWS manages the underlying infrastructure, reducing the burden of desktop management for organizations.
Scalability: Easily scale the number of virtual desktops up or down based on business needs, accommodating workforce changes.
Enhanced Security: Built-in security features and compliance capabilities ensure data protection and regulatory compliance.
Cost Savings: Pay-as-you-go pricing eliminates upfront infrastructure costs, allowing organizations to optimize their desktop infrastructure expenses.
Integration with AWS Services: Seamlessly integrate with other AWS services for enhanced functionality and capabilities.
User-Friendly Experience: Offers a familiar desktop environment with customizable settings and application compatibility.

Reviews from Real Users

Sachin Narvekar, IT-IS LEAD at Tata Consultancy, writes that "Amazon WorkSpaces is a virtual desktop platform. So, instead of having your laptops, and desktops, you can have your data on the cloud.”, he also adds, "Security, streaming, faster performance, scalability, and the fact that it is very much cost-effective, are some of the solution's valuable features."

Ravi-Bhardwaj, Manager at Ravi RITS Enterprice, states that “The solution has improved the organization because now any user who doesn't have a corporate laptop can connect to the system, security is still high, and it uses very low bandwidth.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Enable secure, flexible work with the leader in virtual apps and desktops

Deliver desktop as a service (DaaS) from any cloud or datacenter

Get started with Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) in minutes to provide a familiar, high-performance digital workspace experience to your users. We’ll manage the infrastructure and security. You focus on your business.

Citrix

Sample Customers

GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services

Exelon, Aeronamic, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Alameda County Medical Center, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Aloysius Stichting, Amarchand Mangaldas, AmBev, Amnet Technology Solutions, Arval

Amazon WorkSpaces vs. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)