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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 January 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 0.7%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 17.7%, up from 14.7% 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 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."
"Security, streaming, faster performance, scalability, and the fact that it is very much cost-effective, are some of the solution's valuable features."
"Amazon WorkSpaces is very fast."
"The most valuable feature is the mobility. I can use it anywhere."
"It has good speed and connects well with computers."
"The most valuable features are easy provisioning, an active directory, and mobile access."
"The best thing about Amazon WorkSpaces is the security it provides."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Great at solving connection problems."
"Technical support is very good."
"The features are good."
"The tool’s GUI is very user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is an easy-to-use product."
"I have found this product excellent for test/dev environments. This is 90% of what I use this product for."
"I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"It's stable."
 

Cons

"Its features for the hardware version could work faster."
"If they had a cheaper option for graphics pro, I think that it would be beneficial and I would use it."
"The agent sometimes has connectivity issues, but otherwise, it's good."
"The speed and performance are not always the greatest. It can be improved."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve its pricing."
"You cannot install external applications without doing some additional configurations inside the solution as opposed to your normal desktop or laptop."
"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."
"The product needs to improve its pricing. It should also improve corporate identity management and single sign-on."
"VMware Workstation could improve the export and import of virtual machines."
"VMware Workstation has some network limitations which could improve, it is not as flexible as VMware NSX. Additionally, it could support operating systems better. I only run some Linux versions and Windows at the moment but it would be nice to be able to take whatever operating system you want and run it."
"The solution can be expensive."
"The price should be reduced."
"The GUI interface could be improved."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
"It would be helpful if VMware Workstation included an in-built monitoring tool for monitoring things."
"The solution freezes sometimes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise Amazon Workspaces is cheaper than most services available."
"There are several different options available, but it can range anywhere from $85 to $150 a month per machine."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"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"
"It is very expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The cost differs depending on the customer's requirement."
"The solution is moderately priced. I rate the pricing a six out of ten."
"The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."
"The product is 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."
"The product has a moderate price."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
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: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.