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Citrix XenServer vs RHEV comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

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

Citrix XenServer
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
RHEV
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Citrix XenServer is 4.4%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Citrix XenServer4.4%
RHEV2.4%
Other93.2%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

SP
Citrix Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Support team resolves issues quickly and receives positive feedback
We can improve Citrix XenServer Performance Management in the server base by enabling CPU virtualization extensions such as Intel VT or AMD-V. We can use Paravirtualization (PV) drivers to enhance network performance. We can implement dedicated storage not shared with other applications and use thin provisioning for more efficient storage usage. Regular updates should be given to patches and hotfixes. XenCenter or web-based solutions provide better control and monitoring, which is useful for automatic tasks with PowerShell scripts. We can implement high availability and live migration with pools, along with security and backup to enable role-based access control for safer management. We can schedule VM snapshots and use VM export for backup and recovery. While Citrix Hypervisor remains a reliable virtualization platform, several areas could be improved to better meet enterprise needs. The user interface, though functional, lacks a more modern web-based experience compared to tools such as Proxmox VE or VMware vSphere. A more responsive browser-accessible interface would simplify management, especially for remote administrators. Citrix Cloud needs improved support for containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, which are essential in today's hybrid cloud environments. Backup and disaster recovery features are somewhat limited, often requiring third-party tools. Better built-in snapshot management and cloud integration would enhance usability. Community support and documentation have fallen behind compared to open-source projects such as Proxmox. More transparent development and a stronger ecosystem would greatly benefit users. The streaming licensing and feature access make Citrix Hypervisor more competitive in a growing market of free and open-source hypervisors.
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance
In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Ability to move your virtual machines from one host to another."
"I've found the following features to be the most valuable: user personalization layer, app layering, provisioning, and notification services for integration between different domains."
"The solution is extremely stable."
"Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective, and organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple."
"The solution is easy to deploy. It's very easy to understand problems and read logs."
"We find there are good central maintenance and central management panels."
"I find it very easy to manage and at a cost that small customers would never refuse (free)."
"Scripting can automate procedures."
"The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is its pricing."
"It's a scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the support portal."
"The solution makes migration easy."
"Customers are moving to open source and Red Hat is the leader in this particular space. I think customers feel more confident running Red Hat Virtualization than VMware."
"Stability and speed are the most valuable aspects."
"For the Windows side, we also initiated a digital transformation project, moving a lot of Windows applications to the container side and the open-source software side, which resulted in almost 70% savings of our past expenses."
"I can control and manage everything. I know everything that's cooking inside. This is the best part for me."
 

Cons

"Citrix is not investing in the virtual surroundings."
"The graphics user interface is pretty bad."
"I did not favor Citrix XenServer in the past due to numerous issues and complications that made it a nightmare to use."
"You need a licensed account to look up technical support."
"The built-in networking features are a little limited."
"Citrix could provide more tools to help the client manage the solution because we need to build our own tools in some cases. Everything is available through PowerShell, but then you need to build your own scripts to do the more advanced work."
"Citrix needs to improve the hypervisor, specifically in security and performance."
"The marketing of Citrix lacks effectiveness. Although the product is technically competitive, it is not widely known or used due to poor marketing."
"The solution should be made more user-friendly."
"There is not any proper documentation on the site to reference."
"RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years."
"It lags behind in that you need to go to something like Fedora to get all the extra bells and whistles."
"The UI should be more interactive with additional features."
"Configuring the network interfaces is much better in Ubuntu and should be improved."
"When we do a direct comparison, then obviously VMware does better in terms of having Fault Tolerance and doing active disaster recovery and these kind of things. This is something that can be improved within Red Hat."
"The solution could use network virtualization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The most valuable feature is the cost; it is a free product."
"The licensing is straight forward based on usage and features."
"The pricing and licensing is so important. Customers do consider the price seriously."
"While it is free for small networks, the pricing is high if your network grows past a certain size."
"There are three editions available and I believe they are perpetual licenses."
"We used it only for some desktop licenses, so the pricing is great. We used the free licenses for server virtualization."
"There are free and paid versions. The free version is limited in features but not by time limit. The paid version has more features."
"Citrix Hypervisor can be fairly expensive."
"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."
"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."
"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."
"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."
"I would say the price is acceptable."
"We are using the free version of Red Hat."
"I believe we pay on a yearly basis."
"Its price depends on the use cases."
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Comparison Review

VL
CIO at Robusta Technology & Training
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Hypervisor?
The core function enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. This maximizes hardware utilization and efficiency.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Hypervisor?
Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective. Organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple. If you are using Citrix load only, t...
What needs improvement with Citrix Hypervisor?
There could be improvements in Citrix XenServer, but I cannot think of any at the moment. Overall, we are very happy with it.
What do you like most about RHEV?
The initial setup is fairly straightforward and well-documented. The process is very similar to its competitors. The success of your setup depends on how well you plan.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?
It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.
What needs improvement with RHEV?
RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix XenServer vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.