Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs ISL Online comparison

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ISL Online

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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

Microsoft Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 3.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 6.1%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ISL Online is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Remote Access

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

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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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Stephen Yarrow

Remote Support Engineer at Driver Information Systems Limited

Great for remote support sessions with no maintenance and excellent technical support

The remote support session is great. We really like ISL Light. That's what we use all the time. We use it almost every day. Some people use other solutions like Splashtop, for instance, where you can do unattended support. Personally, I don't like unattended support. I would worry if it would be secure. There's no way I'd want someone logging onto my machine when I'm not here. With this, I log to ISL, I give them a pin number, and they have to physically type in the pin number and physically agree to them sharing their screen. It's much more secure than some of the other solutions like TeamViewer and Splashtop where you can do unattended support. It's more secure than any of the other products out there, available at the moment. The stability is great. It's got very good uptime. The technical support is great. Setting up the solution is easy and there's no maintenance involved.

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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

"We have found the solution is capable of scaling."

"We are using the mobile feature, and we are also using MDM to lock the devices, to push restrictions, et cetera"

"In terms of technical support, you will get an immediate response."

"It is a stable solution."

"It has helped with compliance. It has helped to ensure that devices comply with the organization's policy. If they are not compliant and secure, they cannot access the resources."

"Stable solution at a good price."

"The core management feature in Intune is invaluable to us, especially considering the challenges we often face with System Center when pushing external updates."

"At the moment, Autopilot is the most valuable feature."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The only thing that is really important for me is being able to connect from wherever I am. It is important for me because sometimes I am in places where there are not enough safe conditions to be able to work safely, in terms of security and confidentiality of my data. Being able to access internal resources from a secure platform allows me to work without fearing that my data has been stolen."

"It has the best remote working features."

"Stable product with straightforward setup."

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

"The architecture I built had a robust failover mechanism for the endpoints, and the interface was user-friendly."

"Citrix Workspace allows you to work in a remote environment and gives you data security."

"The most valuable feature of Citrix Workspace is its security."

"In terms of scalability, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops have a lot of technologies baked in there that allow an organization to scale up or down, as required. Further, leveraging Azure for scalability has added value to our organization. For example, pre-COVID-19, we had very few resources in Azure. We had some Virtual Desktops and no application servers. When COVID-19 came along, we knew people were going to be home. We knew that we had to ramp up very quickly. We fully leveraged MCS to be able to scale. Being able to take a single image and build 400,000 Virtual Desktops, all within minutes, was second to none in terms of any other technology out there that we could have used. The scalability to be able to do that in Azure, where we really don't have to worry about storage and compute power because Microsoft does that for us, was fantastic. It was almost like giving our environments steroids. It has been amazing in terms of that scalability. Now, as people start coming back to the office, we can just as quickly scale down so the compute and resource costs in Azure aren't so great anymore."

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

"Setting up the solution is easy and there's no maintenance involved."

"It's much easier to connect with other services, and it's working great. We haven't had any problems."

"The code can be delivered in multiple ways, including an email with a link for an unattended connection."

"We can also monitor our systems at any time from practically anywhere."

"The most valuable feature is safety."

"We like drawing utilities inside ISL. That helps us mark specific regions on the screen, so that end users know what to focus on."

"The solution has a lot of features. It does what it is made to do and that's all we can ask for, really."

"ISL Online is easy to use. It provides a single platform on which we can do everything, and it's very low maintenance. After installation, you don't need an IT manager or staff to watch over it. It's secure. It's most important for us."

More ISL Online pros

Cons

"We need the capabilities of the Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) to be enhanced through Intune instead of Azure."

"I know that their AI pieces are at the infancy stage, but allowing users to do more tagging for information would be an interesting thing because Intune also directly integrates with Azure. Because a lot of the devices are hosted with that, you also get a lot of tagging of user data and other things like that."

"The Mac integration has room for improvement."

"Intune is not the most user-friendly mobile device management platform available."

"Intune endpoint analytics can be challenging."

"Cost is the biggest factor for us right now. Microsoft Intune and AD P1 together in a bundle is a good thing to have, but it is very costly compared to other products in the market. Otherwise, Microsoft Intune is the best."

"The solution could be improved by the opportunity to connect third-party application databases, such as Chocolatey or another setup store, to Intune."

"There needs to be more support for Mac operating systems."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"It takes time to load."

"The ITSM adapters need to be enhanced."

"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."

"The initial setup has room for improvement."

"The Citrix Workspace interface could improve. Additionally, if they are able to provide a mobile application"

"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."

"The only thing we have found to be detrimental is when we have tried to find training. I realize that we're looking at it at the worst time possible, with a pandemic going on, but it seems that most of the training offered is learn-by-yourself online."

"There are a lot of shortfalls with supporting printing over XenApp."

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

"It would be helpful if they had iSupport for supporting Apple phones."

"I would like to be able to access and manage all brands of smartphones."

"I would like to have a little bit more information when new features are released. They have added features that I didn't know about in the past. It would be easier for me to implement new features and consolidate them with other systems in our network if I knew beforehand."

"If there is an update or new feature on ISL Online, I don't know about it. I would be happy to receive a newsletter or notification of new features or updates."

"They need to better advertise the features."

"They should improve the integrations with other incident management software to be able to send the link directly from these platforms."

"We miss the possibility to communicate via head-set in ISL. At the moment, we combine ISL for visual communication with Skype for verbal communication."

"There could be a section in the menu describing the new features and changes."

More ISL Online cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the price a four out of ten with ten being the most expensive."

"Microsoft Intune's costliness stems from licensing fees and the overhead associated with its management, user experience, and device remediation."

"The pricing is competitive, but it is not cheap."

"Any bundle package, such as Security E3, covers multiple things, such as AAP, BitLocker, etc. If you go for them individually, they would be more expensive. Bundling makes the price more attractive and competitive."

"There is a license required to use this solution. However, it was part of a bundle package. Microsoft Intune is far less expensive than other solutions, such as Workspace ONE."

"Pricing depends on the features. Microsoft offers special packages if there are more than 10,000 users, and you may be able to get a reduced rate."

"Intune is moderately expensive. You can get the license bundled with Office 365 E3 or E5 licenses. The E5s are a bit expensive, but you get some cheaper solutions with Intune."

"Its price is in the medium range. It is acceptable because you're paying for the features. I am not aware of any additional costs."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"The cost of the Citrix software reflects what I would expect a product of that nature, in that market, to be. Understanding the licensing is quite a bit more complicated, because one of the things about Citrix is that you can buy licensing at different levels... Yet I still like the idea because it means that if all you need is a basic load balancing solution, then you don't need to buy an advanced or premium license."

"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."

"As for the cost, it is neither cheap nor expensive. Personally, I find it quite expensive, especially if you want to add more features. The security features we use include App Protect and Endpoint Protection."

"The licenses are affordable, but the support is a bit expensive, though worth the value."

"The product, XenServer, is free to use, and XenApp has a one month free license."

"Where Citrix really needs to improve is in their support and in the way that they manage their licenses. Everything else comes second because if I'm not in a position where I can get proper support or manage my own licenses in an easy way, then it is pointless. Today, I am at a point where I may not be able to use Citrix anymore because they want to take away some of the licenses that I bought, pretending they are not valid anymore. That is frankly unacceptable. If they don't solve this, everything comes second because I cannot use my product."

"My company opts for the yearly subscription model to pay towards the licensing costs attached to the solution."

"We have more than a million seats under management so we get the best price."

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

"We have a pay-per-use license available for 500 minutes within one year for 95 Euros. However, this option is not popular. Alternatively, we can purchase a one-year license for 339 Euros; if we need two licenses, the cost is double, and for three licenses, the cost is triple with a ten percent discount. For 99 Euros a year, we can open multiple sessions on the same computer with a multi-session subscription."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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. ...

What do you like most about ISL Online?

The most valuable feature is safety.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ISL Online?

The cost of one license is static; however, if we buy multiple licenses, we will receive a discounted rate. Furthermo...

What needs improvement with ISL Online?

I would like to be able to manage all brands of smartphones.

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Endpoint Central vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

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

Compared 8% of the time

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 8% of the time

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TeamViewer vs ISL Online

Compared 100% of the time

More ISL Online Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Intune

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

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

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

ISL Online

Download ISL Online product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

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

No data available

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Microsoft

Citrix

Demo not available

ISL Online

Overview

Microsoft Intune is a comprehensive cloud-based service that allows you to remotely manage mobile devices and mobile applications without worrying about the security of your organization’s data. Device and app management can be used on company-owned devices as well as personal devices.

In an increasingly mobile workforce, Microsoft Intune keeps your sensitive data safe while on the move. Microsoft Intune makes it possible for your team members to work anywhere using their mobile devices. Microsoft Intune provides both the flexibility and the control needed for securing all your data on the cloud, no matter where the device with the data is located.

Microsoft Intune Device Management Key Features

With Microsoft Intune Device Management you can:

Ensure devices and apps are compliant with your security requirements.
Rapidly deploy and authenticate apps on all company devices.
Remotely access devices to troubleshoot issues or to remove data from them.
Generate reports for all devices in the system.
Monitor the way users access and share information to protect company information.
Set rules and configure settings on personal and organization-owned devices to access data and networks.
Create user groups and device groups, allowing you to rapidly access many users and devices simultaneously.

Mobile Application Management

Mobile application management in Intune is designed to protect your organization’s data at the application level.

With Microsoft Intune Application Management you can:

Configure apps to run with specific settings enabled.
Update existing apps that are already on the device.
See reports on which apps are used and monitor their usage.
Selectively wipe organization data from apps.
Add mobile apps to user groups and devices.

As part of Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite, Intune integrates with Microsoft Entra ID for access control and with Azure Information Protection for data protection. It also integrates with Microsoft 365 Applications.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Intune stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to secure all devices under its management and the flexibility that the solution offers its users.

A computing services manager notes, "Its security is most valuable. It gives us a way to secure devices, not only those that are steady. We do have a few tablets and other devices, and it is a way for us to secure these devices and manage them. We know they're out there and what's their status. We can manage their life cycle and verify that they're updated properly."

The head of IT engineering at a financial services company writes, "The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types: we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager (MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company details on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."

Microsoft

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.

Citrix

ISL Online empowers organizations by providing versatile remote support solutions. It connects IT professionals with clients seamlessly, allowing efficient management of servers and business applications across different platforms.

ISL Online stands out in the industry by facilitating remote customer support with reliability and security. It enables IT companies to troubleshoot and assist clients by establishing stable connections effortlessly. The software ensures easy file transfers and categorization of devices, supporting multiple platforms for high uptime. With simple setup, users can manage devices remotely without interference. Enhancements include session recording, drawing tools, and an easily accessible code for remote connections. These features support organizations in maintaining efficiency and high service levels.

What are the key features of ISL Online?

Seamless Remote Connections: Facilitates interference-free connectivity.
Efficient File Transfer: Simplifies file retrieval and updates.
Platform Support: Ensures stability across devices and operating systems.
Security: Offers secure, attended access with ISL Light.
Session Tools: Includes drawing utilities and session recording.

What benefits to look for in ISL Online reviews?

Responsiveness: Offers quick customer support and feedback.
Reliability: Maintains consistent performance and uptime.
Security: Provides secure connections with simple code access.
Flexibility: Allows easy management of unattended devices.

ISL Online is extensively implemented in sectors like national broadcasting companies and public administration offices, aiding in secure remote support and unattended server control. Its flexibility allows these industries to manage devices efficiently, ensuring quick and effective technical assistance.

ISL Online

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

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

Mitsubishi Chemicals, Konica Minolta, Raifeissen bank, Terpel, Singtel, Teleroute, SOS Kinderdorf, Arsys, EMAAR, Dutco, Alterdata

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ISL Online