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Citrix XenServer vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Citrix XenServer support is praised for expertise and quick resolutions, but some find it slower than VMware with limited direct access.
No sentiment score available
VMware's support varies, praised for issue resolution but criticized for slow responses; smaller businesses prefer pay-as-you-go options.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
4.5
Citrix XenServer faces challenges with usability, third-party integration, high-availability, and flexibility, needing better support and management tools.
Sentiment score
4.7
VMware Workstation needs enhanced performance, easier configuration, better compatibility, and improved pricing, usability, and support for greater user satisfaction.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Citrix XenServer offers scalability, supports diverse business sizes, seamless upgrades, and user-friendly management despite some storage concerns.
Sentiment score
7.1
VMware Workstation is praised for scalability, handling many users, but efficiency and resource constraints highlight areas needing improvement.
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
6.8
Citrix XenServer offers a free solution with optional paid features, viewed variably as affordable or costly, yet competitive.
No sentiment score available
VMware Workstation pricing is seen as both affordable and expensive, varying by licensing, user needs, and region.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Citrix XenServer is praised for strong stability, with minimal issues, good support, and reliability, especially with regular updates.
Sentiment score
8.4
VMware Workstation is praised for stability and performance, despite high RAM usage and minor issues in virtual networks.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.4
Citrix XenServer offers robust virtualization with strong security, easy management, cost-effectiveness, and supports various operating systems and storage.
Sentiment score
8.3
VMware Workstation offers easy installation, supports multiple OS, powerful snapshots, hardware compatibility, and an intuitive interface for efficient VM management.
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix XenServer
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (9th)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Citrix XenServer is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 4.9%, up 3.6% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 16.9% mindshare, up 14.4% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Siva Kuppala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
52%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
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...
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

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.
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