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Citrix XenServer vs VMware vSphere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix XenServer
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware vSphere
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
449
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Citrix XenServer is 4.8%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSphere is 20.2%, up from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software
 

Q&A Highlights

AS
Mar 05, 2019
 

Featured Reviews

Siva Kuppala - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 29, 2024
Allows us to allocate CPU, memory, storage, and network resources across VMs and minimizes downtime in case of hardware failure or maintenance
It is a scalable product and provides great benefits for virtualization needs. However, there are a few considerations: * Cost: Citrix Hypervisor can be fairly expensive. * Complexity: There's a learning curve, especially for those coming from a Microsoft background. Setting it up and managing it can introduce some complexity. * Hardware Support: Not all major hardware vendors fully support Citrix Hypervisor. * Third-party Integration: Integrating Hypervisor with other technologies within a large ecosystem can sometimes be challenging. * Community Support: Compared to solutions like Microsoft Hyper-V, the community support for Citrix Hypervisor is somewhat less extensive. It is not vast. If there are any issues or errors, the community support is not that good. Those are definitely important disadvantages.
Vikas Dhumale - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 18, 2024
Offers good performance and is useful for banking systems
Speaking about the application deployment process, I work at the L1 level in my company. In my company, the L3 is a different department that manages the application deployment process, and most of them go for tools apart from the ones under VMware to manage the VMs. I am only creating new VMs and assigning RAM space, and if something comes up, then I create new RHEL-based systems. When it comes to the application deployment process, my company manually deploys the applications. For automation purposes, our company uses Jenkins to collect the logs and provide a GUI with the help of a username and password to the end user, after which they can collect the logs from Jenkins. I work at an L1 level in my company. The integrations and infrastructure-related areas of the product are managed by another team in my company. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Nowadays, people don't prefer to go for cloud-based solutions. Most of the companies prefer VMware as they want some level of security in the environment. VMware allows users to have in-house products. Most companies or banks are not moving over to cloud-based tools. VMware is used in banking systems. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature I find most valuable, is its performance"
"The solution's security is its most valuable aspect."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The most valuable features are being able to host many virtual machines and being able to patch machines."
"Citrix Hypervisor is quick to deploy and easy to manage."
"The compatibility of the solution is its most valuable feature. It's compatible on almost every cloud these days."
"What I like the most is the support of the GPU Graphics and the VM Live migration."
"The onboarding process is pretty straightforward."
"The enterprise direction is very complete and the data center provides almost everything you need."
"The built-in encryption of vSphere really helps us to secure our customers, especially customers in the medical field who need to be HIPAA compliant. Being able to encrypt the VM itself helps out a ton."
"It is highly scalable. We need to scale out and up, and we can do that with vSphere. We can easily add more storage, drives, or memory."
"The free ESXi hypervisor was a great way to get started, as it allowed us to introduce virtual machines so that users could start to experience the advantages."
"The easy of use with reduced space provides a better use of infrastructure"
"I think that the solution is perfect. It's the best on the market."
"The features in VMware vSphere data recovery are excellent. Sometimes I've deleted an entire server before and was able to recover the deleted VM. I just used some command line tools and I was able to restore the deleted VM."
"The stability of the solution is excellent."
 

Cons

"The solution is only in English. It would be ideal if it was in Portuguese."
"The solution needs better backup facilities that are available for virtual machines to create servers on."
"The graphics user interface is pretty bad."
"We'd like them to add more automation to the product."
"The built-in networking features are a little limited."
"The product could be faster and licensing options could be improved."
"Network management needs improvement because it is not very stable."
"The self-service user portal needs to be more granular and be more customizable."
"It could use a smaller learning curve."
"The UI of VMware could use some improvements, especially in dark mode."
"Although vSphere is a nearly perfect product, it does need a little improvement. Datacenter and Cluster structure should be mixed so that the management of clusters would be easier."
"The user interface could use some improvement."
"Customer support takes a long time to respond."
"The solution is stable. However, it could improve by being more secure."
"Get the HTML5 client to 100% parity to replace the Flash client."
"It is expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Citrix Hypervisor is expensive."
"There is a license required to use this solution. You need a license on every server, but the license is more for support than anything else. The cost is not expensive, it is a fraction of the cost of VMware. When you look at the cost overall and features, Citrix Hypervisor has a very attractive offering."
"The licensing is straight forward based on usage and features."
"To subscribe to the paid version with support, it is approximately $6,000 per year."
"We migrated from VMware to XenCenter to cut costs."
"The cost of this product is not high."
"VMware licensing and pricing are a bit more expensive compared to others, like Hyper-V. However, you get what you pay for."
"The price of this solution is mid-range."
"There are a lot of management and soft skills that we end up being able to save on. For example, my engineers in Canada could watch over systems in China, California, and Phoenix. Thus, it gives us the flexibility of administration."
"The pricing is a bit complex."
"Its price could be lower. There is the cost of one license, and then there is the subscription cost for support."
"vSphere has improved our organization by allowing us to deliver rock solid stability to our clients in a cost competitive fashion."
"It is a perpetual licensing but there is also an annual maintenance cost."
"It's a pricey solution."
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Comparison Review

VL
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…
 

Answers from the Community

AS
Mar 5, 2019
Mar 5, 2019
Sure, at a high level: VMware products allow you to set up multiple virtual servers on a single physical server. This allows you to run the virtual servers on the physical server resources. It is an easy way to replicate environments so that there are no surprises when you go to production. You can set up development, QA and UAT all on the same physical box which are identical. Citrix products...
2 out of 9 answers
it_user99459 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 23, 2014
Vmware and Citrix both do similar things. They both offer server virtualization and desktop virtualization (plus other related software). VMware is the clear market leader for server virtualzation (Vsphere) and Citrix is the leader in desktop / application virtualization (Xendesktop / Xenapp). They both offer network software enhancements (and Citrix has NetScaler hardware). If you have any questions, please email howieb@hotmail.com
it_user113568 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 23, 2014
Adding to Howard's points above, VMware uses their existing Hypervisor platform to enable customers build their own Cloud too.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
52%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Government
4%
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with one being very inexpensive and ten being very expensive.
What needs improvement with Citrix Hypervisor?
It would be very helpful if I could browse the data store directly in the GUI, similar to VMware and Hyper-V. This feature would be particularly useful when something goes wrong with a virtual mach...
What is IOMMU?
DEEPEN DHULLA did explain well IOMMU. IOMMU has to be activated at the bios level. It exists on Intel and AMD platforms. It is used a lot inside virtualization platforms like VMware VSphere. It pr...
Why KVM??? Help please!
We use VMware and KVM. We find that KVM is a lot simpler to use and it provides the virtualization we need for Linux and Windows. For us, VMware does not offer any advantage. Moreover, KVM is free.
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
Abu Dhabi Ports Company, ACS, AIA New Zealand, Consona, Corporate Express, CS Energy, and Digiweb.
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix XenServer vs. VMware vSphere and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
813,161 professionals have used our research since 2012.