Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Horizon 8 comparison

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. Horizon 8

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Categories and Ranking

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

124

Ranking in other categories

Application Virtualization (1st), Remote Access (5th), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)

Horizon 8

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

User Virtualization (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 8.7%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Horizon 8 is 9.4%, down from 14.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Featured Reviews

DavidWood1

Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Flexible Deployment, reliable performance, and fast transmission speeds

Provisioning Server is a fantastic option for image management in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. It offers excellent performance and reliability. On the other hand, while Machine Creation Services can be scaled easily, they can significantly increase storage consumption. For instance, creating a Windows 10 image in MCS typically requires at least 80 GB of storage, in addition to any separate disks needed. To store changes made by users in Machine Creation Services, the differencing disk must be equal in size to the base disk, leading to significant storage consumption. On the other hand, Provisioning Server uses image versioning, creating a new image version every time it's modified. As a result, virtual machines streamed from the server revert to their original state after a reboot, which is similar to their state during the first boot. Using the provisioning server, I start by configuring a virtual machine with either a 2016 or 2019 server operating system. I install the necessary Citrix client provisioning server target device software, followed by installing the required applications. After that, I capture the entire configuration to a file share. The image is then streamed from the file share to the hypervisor, which can handle multiple machines. In some large-scale deployments, we have used a single image to provision thousands of servers. Once the image is captured and stored on the file share, it is set to read-only mode, and any changes made to it are not accepted until it is put in read-write mode. When a virtual machine is rebooted, it returns to its previous state before the changes were made. This feature can be beneficial in situations like a virus outbreak, where a simple reboot of the virtual machines can remove any malicious code or changes. A provisioning server offers a faster recovery time from a bad change and is generally faster than machine creation services. With the provisioning server, changes are not accepted until the read-write mode is enabled, and if a virus outbreak occurs, rebooting the machines restores them to the previous state. On the other hand, machine creation services' speed is dependent on the storage's speed, and recovery time from a bad change can take longer, especially with a large number of devices. If a bad change is made with machine creation services, the replication process can take a while to revert, whereas, with a provisioning server, all machines can be rebooted quickly. Within thirty minutes, I can restore my system to its previous state using the provisioning server.

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RashidAnwar

Senior Project Lead at Tetra Pak

A product that offers an easy-to-use patch management option to users

The product supports remote work scenarios in our company, considering that we have different factory infrastructure devices, such as the remote operators in different areas of the plant, where it is used to access centralized applications from multiple types of devices, such as tablets, remote PCs, etc. The product facilitates virtual desktop management and deployment, which allows for centralized management. The tool allows our company to deploy multiple instances from one central repository simply. Security patches are much easier to deploy. The scalability part is also one of the advantages offered by the solution. The patch management is much easier, and access control of different devices is good in VMware Horizon View. The scalability or flexibility feature of VMware Horizon View enhances our company's IT operations by allowing us to use all the different security areas in the plant to be deployed and used in a few simple clicks. For production areas and warehousing zones, my company has created separate rules, after which we simply deploy from the central management and create clones of similar applications that are already designed during the first instance. I rate the user experience in terms of speed and reliability an eight out of ten. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of access and the confidentiality and security that it provides is what we like best."

"The tool helps me to connect with some apps of our company and resolve the tickets."

"Citrix offers a range of products that can be used straight out of the box."

"It provides the flexibility of being used on any device which makes the employee experience better, in terms of ease of use."

"The tech support is fast, knowledgeable, and customer-friendly."

"The most valuable feature is the seamless application edition with the low-level network bandwidth because we have between 10 and 15 sites in France with a low level of communication needs. We need to deploy our main application, the ERP system, and we needed an efficient solution to provide a solution to the remote sites, with very small links between the data center and the remote site."

"Relative to other solutions, Citrix has fewer conditions and fewer parameters. Citrix also provides some flexibility because it can be used on any device."

"My focus has primarily been on publishing virtual applications."

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

"It offers great flexibility, allowing us to access it as a complete virtual machine or even just as individual applications."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon 7 is that it can be accessed anywhere in my internal network. It has a lot of flexibility."

"It is easy to scale. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten."

"VMware is very helpful for customized platforms that offer auto-promotion and auto-deprovision."

"We are happy with the interface, configurations, pricing and support."

"The most valuable feature is that VMware Horizon is easy to setup."

"VMware Horizon is beneficial because it reduces bandwidth consumption when accessing VDI or the virtual infrastructure. It's more secure compared to accessing a Windows desktop using RDP. It enhances security, provides better app utilization, and improves performance using graphic-intensive tools like Photoshop or 3ds Max. Using the Horizon Client makes it easy to work on those tools."

"The initial setup is very simple."

More Horizon 8 pros

Cons

"If there are connectivity issues, there are stability issues."

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

"They can simplify the process of printers. Printers were quite a difficult issue. It took us a long time to iron this issue out. We have the most simple use case where people connect from home to either a virtual machine or their physical desktop. We tried more complex solutions like Machine Creation Services, and they were more overhead than they were worth for us. I found them difficult to work with and confusing, and they were not worth the work for us."

"Their customer support can be improved a lot as it lacks a lot of knowledgeable help."

"As an end-to-end solution for implementing Zero Trust principles I would rate it a six or a seven out of 10, because it doesn't cover all aspects of Zero Trust. There are quite a few aspects you need to cover."

"Pricing can be lower and roaming profiles need to be fixed to work consistently."

"Citrix has undergone significant changes, primarily due to its acquisition. This acquisition impacted Citrix's value because of increased licensing costs under the new model. As a result, many customers are now considering alternatives to Citrix."

"Tech support can be slow if you do not receive help from the US representatives."

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

"They need to make troubleshooting, diagnostics, and error reporting a little better."

"In the next release, I would like to have more support when optimizing the master templates for PDI. There are tools that are available to be used but they are not supported at the moment and are more, "use at your own risk.""

"The solution’s stability and initial setup could be improved."

"The tool is not future-proof anymore."

"The remote connection, bandwidth usage, and error connection can be improved. Working with the load balancer sites should also be improved. For example, with Horizon, we can use two clients with a one megabit connection, but with Citrix, we can use four or five clients with the same bandwidth through ICA protocol. VMware must improve remote connection, connection stability, and load balancing."

"The installation is complex and could be easier. The full installation with testing took a couple of weeks to complete."

"Areas for improvement in VMware Horizon 7 would be the logging and the troubleshooting, e.g. they could be made clearer."

"Sometimes, the protocol itself gets a bit laggy. If you have less than optimal switching and routing, it can get kind of laggy."

More Horizon 8 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't quite remember the specifics of what we had. I believe we had a 25-user license, and I don't recall it being overly expensive."

"In the past, the prices of the product were great. With the acquisition of Citrix by your company, the prices have drastically increased. For my company, it has become a bit of a problem to sell products from Citrix."

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

"Citrix is expensive."

"The licensing, in general, is expensive. A lot of customers battle to pay the amount. It's very difficult to ensure that your solution provides the business value that the customer is after."

"Based not only on the cost of Citrix, but additional costs like firewalls, IPS, and other solutions, the total cost of switching users from using normal laptops with VPNs to connection via Citrix were so huge that the CEO of our company decided to postpone the deployment process."

"You have to do some hard work in order to get the suitable licenses."

"The solution is expensive and I give the cost a four out of ten."

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

"I cannot provide a detailed comment on the pricing; however, I can say that it is quite expensive."

"The pricing is quite reasonable."

"For long-term use, perpetual licenses are more cost-effective, and for short-term use, subscription-based would be more cost-effective."

"The price of the solution is affordable. However, there are extra fees for support."

"We pay for the solution annually at a cost of approximately 10,000 HKD."

"The solution is expensive."

"The VMware Horizon 7 license is for three months. We are in the testing stage, we are still evaluating the product. We are sure now that we need to buy a license for the production environment."

"VMware Horizon View is an expensive product. My company needs to opt for a subscription-based pricing model when it comes to the licensing costs attached to the product."

More Horizon 8 pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user8922

Architect at Unisys Global Services India

Aug 23, 2013

Comparison of VMware View 5.2 VS Citrix XenDesktop 5.6

Recently I attended the VMware Partner Exchange 2013 and there was a session called “Technical Battleground – View VS XenDesktop”. In this post I will try and cover the differences that VMware showcased during their session and I am going to add an additional column for my comments and thoughts on…

Read full review

Answers from the Community

Dante Dano

Systems Engineer at Evaluation Services Inc.

Oct 26, 2021

VMware Horizon View vs Citrix XenApp: which is the better product and why?

See 2 answers

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Jun 29, 2021

Hi @Abbasi Poonawala, @David Grudek, @Payman Maher, @Michal Sadlik , @Tonatiuh Torres Zamorano , @JacquesBodenstein, and @Dan Withrow. Can you help @Dante Dano with your professional experience? Thank you.

Read full answer

Dan Reynolds

Director of IT at BLDD ARCHITECTS INC

Oct 26, 2021

I think VMware Horizon View is a very solid product. I think it is the most mature product on the whole spectrum. All virtual desktop environments require tuning for performance. Depending on the size of the company you don't need 1/10 of the bells & whistles that the vendors include. For example, I have a small environment - 70 employees. I don't use instant clones, personas, their analysis tools, ... Not only are they expensive (the tools) they overly complicate a complicated process. KISS. I have honed down the environment to what is just needed. Most of the industry will tell you otherwise. And I do all this as a one-man IT department.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

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 ...

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Product Reports

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

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

Horizon 8

Download Horizon 8 product report

Also Known As

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager

Learn More

Citrix

Omnissa

Overview

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.

VMware Horizon is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution designed to allow users to create secure and scalable virtual desktops and applications that work on any device, from any location. These virtualization capabilities help simplify and speed up application delivery and greatly reduce enterprise costs.

VMware Horizon’s centralized management console provides IT admins with comprehensive control over all of their virtual desktops and applications, making them simple to manage and secure. The solution enables using features such as identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, and encryption, to ensure ultimate data protection.

VMware Horizon benefits:

Some of key the benefits of using VMware Horizon include:

Increased security: VMware Horizon includes multiple security features such as identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, and encryption, to ensure a high level of security and data privacy.

Compliance: Meet regulatory and compliance requirements by providing users with secure and controlled access to data and applications.

Reduced costs: By using VMware Horizon, organizations can reduce the costs associated with managing and maintaining physical desktops and applications, as well as reduce the costs associated with providing secure remote access to these resources.

Easy management: VMware Horizon provides IT administrators with a user-friendly centralized management system, making it easier and faster to manage and secure their virtual desktops and applications.

Enhanced user experience: Users are able to access their virtual desktops and applications from any device, and from any location. Work from any location, without being tied to a specific device or area.

VMware Horizon features:

Some of the top features of VMware Horizon include:

Virtual desktops: Create secure and scalable virtual desktops, with a choice of operating systems and settings.

Virtual applications: Create virtual applications that can be run from any device or operating system.

Central management: Control and manage virtual desktops and applications from a single pane of glass.
Quick duplications: Clone virtual machines and applications instantly.

Scalability: VMware Horizon can scale on demand to meet the needs of any business large or small.

Reporting and analytics: Gain insight into user activity and behavior with detailed analytics and reporting.

Security features and ID management: Ensure the security and privacy of data with a wide variety of security features, including encryption, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on (SSO), and network security.

Seamless integration: VMware Horizon integrates easily with other VMware solutions, including VMware vSphere, VMware NSX, and VMware Workspace ONE.

Reviews from Real Users

VMware Horizon stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its high performance, flexibility, and powerful virtualization capabilities.

Natnael A., a consultant at IWM Network Solutions, writes, “The app virtualizing is a great feature. The system developers use it to deliver apps to targeted staff. It basically reduces the server infrastructure resource. The solution provides good functionality.”

Rob M., a systems administrator at Saint Tammany Parish Hospital, says, “The solution has provided flexibility by allowing an end user to remote in, log in, and get their VM. VDI session and have all the icons and applications they need to use and retain the same booking view regardless of location.”

Sample Customers

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

LCMC Health

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. Horizon 8