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Horizon 8 vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 4, 2022
 

Categories and Ranking

Horizon 8
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
User Virtualization (1st)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Horizon 8 is 11.3%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 11.3%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Carlos Ortiz - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 19, 2024
With a great user experience, the tool also offers good scalability features
I use VMware Horizon as a VDI software since I use a workstation where access is needed for the virtual desktop The benefits of the product stem from the fact that it is cheaper for a company when a user accesses the workstation with the help of Linux. It is possible to set up a workstation with…
Mihai Dinca - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 5, 2022
Easy to use with good availability and reliability
We use the solution for accessing services in our infrastructure, and also, since it's a remote service solution, the desktop infrastructure I use the solution as a necessity in order to connect to some servers or to some desktop infrastructure. The availability is very good.  It's easy to use.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of customizing the terminal, including the ability to add or decrease memory."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its reliability."
"The solution simplifies our work."
"This product works quickly and is reliable."
"VMware Horizon View is a stable solution."
"The console is straightforward and easy to understand for the end user. It can be deployed on any device, including iPads and Mac OS. Users can access their daily applications and resources provided by the VMware Horizon environment from any device."
"The most valuable features are the ability to manage a great number of desktops at once and the remote access for users who are working from outside of the office or from a different office in the country."
"The most important feature of this solution is the connectivity with every device, such as iPad, iPhone, and other terminals. The security of the solution is very good."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable and reliable."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is the ability to remote into a system that is not on-premises."
"We use cloud remote support because we need to assist our customers. It allows them to connect from the web. I"
"It's almost an out of the box function once you have installed the other components."
"The most valuable features of the solution are ease of use and the simple environment."
"The solution works well as a remote desktop."
"The performance is one of the main features of this solution."
"The most valuable feature is performance."
 

Cons

"The solution isn't quite mature yet. It needs more time to mature and to get more market recognition."
"The vendor must move the infrastructure into the public cloud."
"What I would like to see improved is not so much about the product. It's more about how to get information about products. It's always too much sales pitching and fancy works and stuff."
"The product has to improve its performance and connectivity."
"In the next release, I would like to have more support when optimizing the master templates for PDI. There are tools that are available to be used but they are not supported at the moment and are more, "use at your own risk.""
"The solution is very expensive."
"Using a printer with the VDI is not a straightforward process."
"The most important feature that is missing is the ability to do some remote support on the client itself. For example, if somebody has a Horizon client installed on his machine, there should be a way to support his local machine as well. That's because most of the problems can't be solved very often due to the computer or the setup that someone is using on his personal machine. Because a Horizon client is already installed on the machine to access the environment, it would be nice if the client itself possessed some sort of remote control tool in it so that if needed, we could support both the virtual setup and the actual setup of the machine. It pretty much does everything well. It is mostly the support aspect that can be improved. You have perfect control over your in-house environment. You have a solution that can pretty much be used anywhere, but you have no control over the machine that's being used to access your environment. Definitely, that's where most of the features are lacking. There should be an option for remote control and maybe some options for conformity."
"It could be made simpler from a management perspective."
"There have been some network issues in the solution. So, when we used to connect it, the solution suddenly got disconnected. So the network part needs to be improved."
"I would say it's expensive as there similar products available for free."
"I want to connect easily from an external network even when I'm not in my enterprise or company. It should be easy to connect or integrate Microsoft Teams, for example, 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 whole lot better than Windows 11."
"The stability could be improved."
"The price is too high."
"Users have to re-enter their ID and password every time they log on, which is tedious and repetitive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is expensive."
"VMware Horizon is expensive and I would rate it an eight out of ten."
"The license for this product is paid on a monthly basis."
"VMware Horizon View's licensing cost is not expensive."
"For long-term use, perpetual licenses are more cost-effective, and for short-term use, subscription-based would be more cost-effective."
"It falls on the more expensive end in terms of cost."
"The product is extremely expensive."
"It is an expensive product. We purchase its yearly license."
"The solution has a perpetual license and it is purchased upfront."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is less expensive than some other solutions on the market."
"It's not an expensive solution."
"The cost is fair."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comes free as part of Microsoft Windows."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
"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."
"Although not an expensive product, pricing is always something that can be improved."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does VMware Workspace One compare with VMware Horizon 7?
VMware Workspace One has a powerful set of helpful features. The solution offers very good documentation, the initial setup is easy, and the product is very stable and reliable. I think the fact th...
What do you like most about VMware Horizon 7?
VMware offers a friendly environment, and it's easy to provide the user with the package. It is a bundled solution that is readily deployable. The advantage lies in its simplicity, it requires mini...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Horizon 7?
We paid a lot of money for software that is not really fully operational out of the box. We had to have patches from VMware to get it into production. Hence, we lost a lot of time implementing the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
The tool must be cheaper. It should provide an option to pay the license fee once in a year or once in two years.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
When we update the environment, we face problems sometimes, and the users cannot use the system.
 

Also Known As

VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager
Remote Desktop Services, MS Remote Desktop Services
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LCMC Health
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Horizon 8 vs. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.