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Azure Virtual Desktop vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Azure Virtual Desktop
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Application Virtualization (1st), Remote Access (5th), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

Makarand-Shrikhande - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables flexible remote application access with auto-scaling and hybrid work support
The use cases include providing application access to users through Azure Virtual Desktop using MSIX App Attach or remote app, enabling remote users like BPO or contact center resources to connect and work on applications, and allowing vendors to access specific applications securely without a…
Mohd Abdul Aziz Shah Sulaiman - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Absolutely, this solution is probably the leader in its field."
"The cost-effectiveness of Azure Virtual Machines is one of the most valuable features."
"Scalability is very straightforward with Azure Virtual Desktop."
"The auto-scaling option allows provisioning additional virtual desktops based on user demand, making it scalable and flexible."
"I've always found Azure Virtual Desktop to work for me without issues."
"The scalability is probably the most valuable feature since I can quickly add or remove machines or increase or decrease the size depending on resources to manage the cost better."
"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."
"The ability to spin up virtual machines quickly and speedily in Azure has been really valuable."
"Ability to connect remotely."
"With this product, everyone can have a similar kind of desktop environment."
"The ease of access and the confidentiality and security that it provides is what we like best."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the desktop virtualization, which allows me to connect from anywhere."
"The app protection feature is one of the most valuable because it provides good security, as nobody is going to be able to look into your screen while you are sharing the screen. And if someone has installed a keylogger in your system, your keystrokes will be jumbled up and they would not make any sense to the keylogger. App protection is one of the coolest security features that I have encountered on any platform."
"Centralization and security are the most valuable features of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops."
"The service dash and Workspace Environment Manager service are good features."
"You can connect to any printer, and from anywhere you can print documents using a compressed channel. It is easy and the bandwidth is very low."
 

Cons

"Azure could improve its uptime and the scaling aspect, as it lacks intelligent scaling."
"One of the issues I had was the ability to add an internet proxy. I would like to see built-in proxy and internet filtering."
"The costs are a bit difficult to predict upfront."
"Access from Entra ID should be implemented to provide only tenant access to users connecting to the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, eliminating the need for on-premises requirements."
"I would like to see built-in proxy and internet filtering."
"Azure is vast, and perhaps an architect-level experience could provide more insights into potential improvements."
"My overall rating of Azure Virtual Desktop is five out of ten. While the stability and cost-effectiveness are commendable, there is room for improvement in technical support."
"Access from Entra ID should be implemented to provide only tenant access to users connecting to the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, eliminating the need for on-premises requirements."
"Compared with the Outlook mobile app, the Citrix mobile app shows some lag in authentication."
"We would like to be able to provide VDI, a full desktop, to each of our users."
"This solution is resource-intensive, it takes a lot of Bandwidth and a lot of the resources of the server."
"The dashboard should be more user-friendly as the tabs are not organized clearly."
"Where improvement could be driven is in terms of clarity as to the functionality of some of the solutions. If you go back to the older Citrix Xen products that we had, we understood those really well. As we've come into the new workstation premium suite, there is a lot of additional functionality that we perhaps have not yet fully exploited. It is not because we can't, but simply because we don't yet understand the depth of functionality that's offered."
"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 application is now very complex. We started with Citrix on PCs. Now, to access the same application, we need to have a StoreFront Server, the Delivery Controller, and Citrix License Server. It's now very complex."
"It would help if it were a little simpler. It's a bit complicated and we have hired Citrix administrators. But it's a good solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"In terms of pricing with the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, I think it has gotten better over the years. Citrix has found more dynamic ways to be able to revive licensing models that fit many different scenarios that organizations have. We have been able to evolve our own licensing over the years to accommodate our situations between concurrent versus user device licenses. Now, when we move into the Citrix Workspace realm, we definitely have some awesome options there."
"Citrix is expensive."
"Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is an expensive solution."
"The tool is expensive."
"We have more than a million seats under management so we get the best price."
"We don't have a lot to compare it to, but we certainly think whatever we pay is worthwhile at this point in time. It's very reasonable."
"A perpetual enterprise license costs approximately $300 USD."
"The licenses are affordable, but the support is a bit expensive, though worth the value.​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
54%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Virtual Desktop?
Purchasing high-configured virtual machines can be costly, but Azure Virtual Desktop offers cost-effective opportunities by allowing us to utilize resources as needed and shut them down when not in...
What needs improvement with Azure Virtual Desktop?
Currently, based on my understanding and knowledge, everything is good and meets customer requirements. However, Azure is vast, and perhaps an architect-level experience could provide more insights...
What is your primary use case for Azure Virtual Desktop?
We are dealing with Azure Virtual Desktops as well as physical desktops and laptops. We manage the endpoints and customers, so we use this solution in collaboration with a distributor partner for A...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Exelon, Aeronamic, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Alameda County Medical Center, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Aloysius Stichting, Amarchand Mangaldas, AmBev, Amnet Technology Solutions, Arval
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Virtual Desktop vs. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.