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

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

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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 Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 15.7%, down from 19.6% 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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BHARAT B SHARMA

Director at Shreenathji Solutions

Easy to set up and reliable, but needs an additional control panel

We've had issues with security breaches. The main problem is that if we are using this with the individual computer and using a remote desktop, there are some loopholes there. When I implemented this on an individual computer within two or three days it got captured. There is a problem with the printing and sharing of this program. There is a lot of customized software leaving the market due to this. If somebody wants to run a specific program with the specific settings, they don't want full access to the computer. Then there are some problems that have to be resolved. We'd like to have an additional control panel available in order o more easily give resources to the computers. There are a lot of restrictions and having a program panel would make things easier. It would help us set up the right access and permissions.

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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

"Easy to use."

"The navigation, the keys, and the settings are easy to find. It is easy to understand."

"If any user tries to access company data, it directly interacts with the conditional access policy. This helps us protect our data and set the criteria for how data can be accessed and shared."

"The solution is fully integrated with the Microsoft platform and the Autopilot feature, which is a unique feature."

"I like how Intune brings everything into one place. For example, you can set up conditional access to applications and devices inside Intune. I also like the segregation inside the Intune devices. You can segregate them by Windows, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Android. You can sort it by platform, so you don't need to go into the devices section."

"With on-premises Active Directory, the main challenge was that we had no control when a user was working from home. We didn't know what exactly a user was doing and whether the AV was up to date or not. Intune provides better control of their machines."

"The most valuable features are the ones that make sure that the deployment is of a standard operating system and the Zero Touch deployment, which is very useful. This allows users to have an out of box experience."

"The security-related tools are excellent; these features allow us to secure devices, lock them down, and ensure compliance."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The remote desktop feature allows employees to work from home."

"Before we adopted a VDI storage solution, our customers' personal information was leaked. This happened a lot. But since we adopted a VDI solution, these kinds of issues have happened rarely."

"The Provisioning Services are the most valuable feature. We have Premium licensing, so Provisioning Services is huge for us, along with the Virtual Apps and Desktops part. It allows us to have a vDisk for every region, one that can easily be copied between them if we need to, to limit the amount of updates we have to do."

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

"It is stable, easy to scale, and provides secure remote access."

"Remote work has been enhanced"

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

"It is a very scalable solution."

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

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is the ability to remote into a system that is not on-premises."

"Microsoft is very reasonable in its approach to cost."

"The most valuable features are it is fast and cost-effective."

"Installing Microsoft Desktop Services is straightforward."

"The performance meets our requirements and the stability is good."

"We have scaled the solution and find this easy to do."

"It is a stable product."

"The solution is now stable."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services pros

Cons

"We faced issues with macOS support. The product should have better inventory and asset management."

"There is improvement needed in integrating with the installed Office solutions versions, such as Office 2019. The Office 365 integrates without a problem."

"It should be easier to define policies and comply with those policies."

"Historically, Group Policy has simplified the management of various items, such as printer and drive mappings and while Intune offers workarounds, it lacks native support for these functionalities. This is an area I believe needs improvement."

"The most significant challenge is reporting and monitoring. The reporting accuracy for deploying applications and all aspects of Intune needs to be improved."

"There could be more competent processes and improvements in the policy space."

"I'm still playing around with it and haven't had any issues with the product yet, but support can definitely be improved."

"I have a lot of Apple products in my environment. It would be nice to have an improved integration of Apple products with Microsoft Intune without Jam."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"There is room for slight improvement in performance optimization and interface refinement."

"Direct connection of USB devices on the terminals to be used by streamed applications is very important for printing and the usage of token authentication, but the current version does not support this one hundred percent."

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

"Dependency on server virtualization after v7.x is an issue which I encountered in small environments."

"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."

"I've recently tried to use Citrix on Ubuntu, and I don't know if this is an Ubuntu issue or a vendor issue, but you can't use Citrix right now on Ubuntu 20.04."

"The product is currently not working well in hosting conferencing software like Zoom, Team, and Salon."

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

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

"There could be some improvement in the integration of the solution."

"The current process I have to go through to get a Windows 11 VM up and running is difficult. Windows 10 worked a whole lot better than Windows 11."

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services needs to improve its security."

"Lacks a notification feature when internet is down."

"The administrative functionality is not enough for me."

"It could be made simpler from a management perspective."

"The solution isn't as good as the Citrix option."

"Microsoft Desktop Services is stable but it takes up a lot of resources in the CPU. It's a bit heavier than some solutions."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They have categorized the licenses according to the size of the business. So, if it's a smaller organization, we can choose the license accordingly. If it's a big organization, then we can choose accordingly. Everything is clearly mentioned, and we can decide. It's suitable for all kinds of infrastructure, and that's very goo"

"Microsoft Intune has been incorporated into our Microsoft E5 licenses."

"The pricing is inherently reasonable, as Microsoft leverages market insights to maintain the total cost of ownership at around ninety to ninety-five percent of what would be incurred in an on-premise scenario."

"While I can't provide insights from a business perspective, it's worth noting that the pricing may differ significantly, and the discount we received might not be reflective of standard business rates."

"In terms of the product price and licensing costs, my company finds the product to be reasonably priced."

"It's affordable. In comparison to the competitors, the price depends on what features you need from Intune, but it's affordable. There are no hidden costs, but there are some features that go for a premium price. Those are the add-ons for which you have to pay extra."

"On a scale of one to ten with one being the cheapest, the cost of Microsoft Intune is a five."

"There are licenses required for this solution. We enable licenses on the devices we need to manage."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

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

"We are just now approaching the end of our initial purchase, which was an excellent price for us as an academic institution. We got a very good deal to get us on board. That license is up for renewal in about a year, and we are nervously waiting to see what the pricing will be."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. There are different versions to their solution and the price keeps increasing."

"We are seeing a return on investment with Citrix Workspace."

"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."

"Citrix is a mid-range cost solution compared to some others out there."

"The Citrix licensing scheme is really straightforward and simple. It doesn't have hidden costs. You get what you pay for. It is easy to understand what is on the product, so it's simple to get a clear idea of how much it costs. Licensing is not an issue."

"Citrix is expensive."

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

"I rate the price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services a three out of five."

"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable."

"The solution is expensive. My company pays toward the monthly licensing costs of the solution...The additional cost, apart from the solution's licensing cost, is related to the technical support a user wants."

"The solution is overly expensive."

"The solution has a pretty comparable pricing."

"The tool must be cheaper."

"The solution is expensive. Since things are made to be a bit easier in the solution, the solution's cost is a bit on the higher side."

"I am aware that for Azure we do have an extra license because we are leveraging on different tenants."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

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 Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

The tool shares computer resources perfectly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

I've never had an issue with it. I've always thought the pricing for RDS was reasonable.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

The current process I have to go through to get a Windows 11 VM up and running is difficult. Windows 10 worked a whol...

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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

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

Download Microsoft Remote Desktop Services product report

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

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

Remote Desktop Services, MS Remote Desktop Services

Learn More

Citrix

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Citrix

Demo not available

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."

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.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is a highly regarded remote access tool in addition to being a top-ranked Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in the marketplace today.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a suite of valuable elements of the Windows operating system (OS) that serve specific desired objectives. Microsoft RDS integrates various features that allow approved users to gain access to graphical desktops and Windows applications remotely. Approved users are able to deploy applications or even a complete desktop without having to install anything on their devices. Everything remains in the cloud. This ensures that there are never any compatibility issues and keeps the organization's original network secure at all times. Administrators are also able to ensure that data cannot be stored in any unapproved location, such as the local device, unapproved drives, or any other location.

Microsoft RDS makes it easy for business organizations to access Windows Desktops and other Windows applications remotely to ensure today’s busy enterprise organizations are able to maintain the highest levels of productivity at all times. There are two basic ways organizations can effectively utilize RDS.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Component: This allows users to connect with various alternate desktops from their current device. Once the user has gained a secure connection based on the approved administrative permissions, the user can seamlessly access and interact with the remote desktop. Users have the feeling of having this new virtual desktop installed directly on their machine.

RemoteApp: Users are able to easily access cloud-based applications via their own personal desktop computers or other approved mobile devices. This application ensures overall application management is centralized and consistent throughout the entire business enterprise.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Benefits

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

Access Windows applications remotely from any device
Enhanced consistent application performance
Increased computing resources
Secure cloud-based data storage.
Streamlined management processes
Reduction in technical administrative resources
Reduction in hardware and device costs.
Improved employee productivity
Cost-effective
Improved Profitability
Reduce carbon footprint

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services makes it easy for busy enterprise organizations to stay productive and remain competitive in today’s aggressive marketplace. An organization's end-users can be given access to their own specific desktops from any location, anytime, using any approved device. Additionally, users can access Microsoft applications without having an effect on their device's resource capacity or performance.

Reviews from Real Users

“What I found most valuable in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is accessibility because the solution lets you take control of your computer remotely, and that's a good feature.” Pascal B., IT consultant at Secoptrial

“The most valuable features of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are unification, central management, and accessibility.” Jan S. Solution Architect at a tech services company

“The most valuable features are that it is fast and cost-effective. I am not aware of a replacement currently on the market.” Ramon H. Director at Empaco

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

Bank Alfalah Ltd.

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