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Amazon WorkSpaces vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (2nd)
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 VMware Workstation is 17.0%, up from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Bhaskar Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The infrastructure is readily available, with minimal latency, which each user can benefit from."
"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."
"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 best thing about Amazon WorkSpaces is the security it provides."
"It has good speed and connects well with computers."
"They maintain it and manage it very well."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is snapshot."
"VMware Workstation allows multiple operating systems in the same physical machine."
"Having ten people working off a single piece of hardware reduces costs."
"It is much more mature compared to Nutanix or SimpliVity when it's cross-platform based."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease to create a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop."
"The solution's technical support team is excellent."
"The product is really easy to use."
 

Cons

"You cannot install external applications without doing some additional configurations inside the solution as opposed to your normal desktop or laptop."
"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."
"The agent sometimes has connectivity issues, but otherwise, it's good."
"The product needs to improve its pricing. It should also improve corporate identity management and single sign-on."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve its pricing."
"If they had a cheaper option for graphics pro, I think that it would be beneficial and I would use it."
"An area that could be improved is it could work better on VPN."
"Making it more self-service friendly would be the implement I'd be looking for. When we have to add new applications, we have to go through the IT to do that, and they need to do some configuration changes. I believe they have to reevaluate the computation and storage and the memory. So this is this is something that as an unrequired and should be changed. Also, the initial start time takes couple of minutes and it is easy for get distracted during the time. So if it can reduce the start time to a reasonable start of time to a reasonable time of five to ten seconds. That will be great."
"It would be better if software updates occur automatically."
"The solution freezes sometimes."
"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"It would be great if VMware Workstation had more networking options and compatibility, that would be great. I would like to deploy virtual switches and play around with networking a bit more. Otherwise, I have to deploy ESXi Virtual Edition and emulate it, which is painful and clunky."
"They could bring in many different features from VMware vSphere to Workstation."
"I need to buy a newer version of the tool to support Windows Server."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The bundle works out to be approximately $20.00 per month."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a two."
"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 tool's pricing depends on company turnover and the organization's relationship with Amazon. I rate it a six out of ten."
"The solution is not very cheap and it is not too pricey."
"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."
"It is very expensive."
"There are several different options available, but it can range anywhere from $85 to $150 a month per machine."
"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."
"The cost differs depending on the customer's requirement."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive solution in Asian countries."
"The tool is not the cheapest."
"I use the free version of VMware Workstation."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Government
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

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.
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Also Known As

WorkSpaces
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkSpaces vs. VMware Workstation and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.