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Cisco VXI vs Horizon 8 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

Cisco VXI
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
22nd
Average Rating
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Horizon 8
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
116
Ranking in other categories
User Virtualization (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Cisco VXI is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Horizon 8 is 6.6%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Horizon 86.6%
Cisco VXI0.8%
Other92.6%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Sina Ghozati - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Specialist at Arrow Electronics
Straightforward implementation, scalable, but performance could improve
When using Cisco VXI in virtual environments there tends to be a lot of bugs with files you have to deploy across the virtual environment. You configure for hours, and then there is a bug that stops you, and you notice that you wasted hours. There's always room for improvement with these virtual environments because you're not dealing with the actual equipment, you're dealing with a virtual version of it that you have to install in a virtual environment. The performance of Cisco VXI could improve. It requires a lot of hardware and even if you install it on a server it is heavy on resources.
MB
Owner at CoBSS
Experience with remote access facilitates seamless user management, though improvements in integration and analytics are desired
From the analytical aspects, we used Horizon 8 Advanced Analytics and most companies switched to another product to gain insights because the insight is not as helpful as other products that are built for it. What was missing in Horizon 8 to make it a better tool was in analytics, specifically getting the right information and the drill-down process to find out where the problem is. If a user has an issue, it is crucial to determine what the issue is that the user is having and since when they have the issue. For example, if a user reports back that they had an issue yesterday evening, getting that information and ensuring that you have it was hard to find, especially to pinpoint if the issue lies with the network or the Horizon 8 platform. We utilized the multi-factor authentication, conditional access in Horizon 8, but we are not satisfied with that. It lacks some integration options that make it easy to run with Microsoft Entra, for example, and authenticate using your regular authenticator besides just getting a pop-up that says, 'I'm the one that's trying to log on.' Nowadays, there are many more complex authentication methods, but even a basic confirmation with a number to verify that you are the person connecting is not supported. I would like to see improvements in Horizon 8, specifically integration with NVIDIA for graphical performance upgrades because it creates many issues such as crashing and black screen systems, causing users to lose access to their current desktop and work. This is a real issue at the moment for many customers worldwide.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has been doing a good job for us."
"The initial setup of Cisco VXI is straightforward."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"Instant Clone instantly creates another VM with a Delta disk, which is just the VMware backend. This helps with scalability and management."
"Managing all operating systems in a single environment helped a lot in organizing and integrating it."
"The local hardware pass-throughs are valuable; I like being able to have access to local hardware."
"When COVID-19 started, we organized our call center remotely and the solution allowed our users to work from home."
"We used to have desktops in our class rooms, and now 30% of our classrooms are on VDI, which is very easy to manage centrally and has reduced complaints about PCs in classrooms to less than 5%."
"VMware Horizon 7 has its proprietary Elastic streaming protocol, which is very good for delivering VDI."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
 

Cons

"When using Cisco VXI in virtual environments there tends to be a lot of bugs with files you have to deploy across the virtual environment. You configure for hours, and then there is a bug that stops you, and you notice that you wasted hours."
"When using Cisco VXI in virtual environments there tends to be a lot of bugs with files you have to deploy across the virtual environment."
"User profiles are something that needs to be improved."
"It is a little bit complex. You need a little bit of experience with ESXi installation and VMware before using this solution."
"There is room for improvement in support. The response time could be faster."
"The support team's technicalities and the pricing of the solution need improvement."
"The customer service and support team could be better."
"VMware Horizon View needs to improve orchestration and integrate additional images. I would also like to see its statistics."
"The solution’s stability and initial setup could be improved."
"We have seen and face notable challenges in the configuration aspect specifically while creating and assigning groups which have proven to be a very cumbersome and tiring process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution when there are bugs. I'm always ready to give money for a complete solution where there are no bugs in it, but you will never find it."
"The pricing can be relatively competitive, but sometimes you have to go back to VMware and ask for additional discounts. You can make it competitive If you're prepared to put in the work. The list prices and standard discounts may not be competitive, but if you push hard enough, you can get the price to where you need it to be."
"Licensing and hardware outsourcing is expensive, but can be cost-effective in the three to five-year range."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Pricing can be an obstacle for smaller businesses. Pricing is fixed, and there are no additional costs."
"The license for this product is paid on a monthly basis."
"The pricing is quite reasonable."
"I don't know about the price. I know there are different tiers with the license, but I'm not sure exactly what it costs anymore."
"We pay for the solution annually at a cost of approximately 10,000 HKD."
"The solution's pricing depends on certain factors. It would be best if you know which components you are looking for, as you may have other hardware costs. It is recommended if users want to use the VMware HPE as the hypervisor."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business61
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

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How does VMware Workspace One compare with VMware Horizon 7?
VMware Workspace One has a powerful set of helpful features. The solution offers very good documentation, the initial setup is easy, and the product is very stable and reliable. I think the fact th...
What do you like most about VMware Horizon 7?
VMware offers a friendly environment, and it's easy to provide the user with the package. It is a bundled solution that is readily deployable. The advantage lies in its simplicity, it requires mini...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Horizon 7?
We paid a lot of money for software that is not really fully operational out of the box. We had to have patches from VMware to get it into production. Hence, we lost a lot of time implementing the ...
 

Also Known As

VXI
VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Artoni Transporti, Calligaris, CIPCO, Citrix, Comcast, Desktone, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), LightEdge, Management Science Associates, Molina Healthcare, North West Redwater, Outscale
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Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix, Broadcom, Omnissa and others in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.