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Horizon 8 vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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

Horizon 8
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
User Virtualization (1st)
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Horizon 8 is 8.1%, down from 16.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 17.0%, up from 13.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Tim  Abboud - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly, reasonably priced, and simple to install
It can be challenging to assess the stability of Horizon because it relies heavily on the underlying infrastructure, including vCenter, network, and storage performance. It is important to pay attention to these factors when evaluating the stability of the system. We rely on vCenter, network, and storage performance, and any weakness in these areas will affect the performance of Horizon. When discussing this with customers, I always emphasize the importance of these factors. If the foundation is solid, Horizon should not experience any performance issues. If the fundamentals are weak, we will encounter issues with Horizon on a regular basis. However, the product itself, VMware Horizon, is highly stable. While the Horizon product itself is very stable, it is important to be well-informed about any potential side effects from using other related products.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution includes good user profiles and policies."
"The most valuable feature in this solution which really helped for my use case was the stand out three dimensional acceleration. It was really important for enhancing the performance for certain clients based on their scenarios."
"The solution is very user friendly."
"Horizon View's best features are that it gives you more control over the PCs on your infrastructure, and it's specialized for banking environments."
"The solution has enabled us to offer a secure desktop experience to our remote users. This ensures that our personally identifiable information and HIPAA data remain protected, eliminating the risk of being copied to a local, potentially mobile, device. Everything is contained within a centralized structure."
"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 minimal expertise."
"Horizon View provides virtual desktops on demand."
"The solution's most valuable feature is low bandwidth consumption. It helps to improve user experience."
"The product is really easy to use."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease to create a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop."
"VMware Workstation allows you to run a virtual machine."
"The tool’s GUI is very user-friendly."
"It is much more mature compared to Nutanix or SimpliVity when it's cross-platform based."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Player is the ability to snapshot with or without memory."
"Instead of relying on dual-boot operating systems, I can utilize open-source tools within my infrastructure. This approach allows me to create an in-house cloud platform suitable for testing. VMware Workstation enables me to perform tasks across various operating systems using a single device. It has helped me save time."
 

Cons

"The installation is complex and could be easier. The full installation with testing took a couple of weeks to complete."
"I would highlight the challenges related to integrating with Microsoft Azure services. Specifically, there are issues with MDM-managed devices and the necessity for MDM-managed compliant devices. In the non-persistent horizon model, there's a delay before each new desktop becomes compliant. Users can access these desktops before fully onboard into the MDM solution."
"The vendor must move the infrastructure into the public cloud."
"The system integration also needs some improvement."
"The initial setup is a little complicated."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"The support team's technicalities and the pricing of the solution need improvement."
"Areas for improvement in VMware Horizon 7 would be the logging and the troubleshooting, e.g. they could be made clearer."
"The price should be reduced."
"It could have more platforms and CPUs."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"VMware Workstation could improve the export and import of virtual machines."
"It takes too much time to load all the plug-ins and software."
"The solution can be expensive."
"The dashboard can be improved."
"There could be more integration with different tools."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are happy with the price."
"The product is extremely expensive."
"There is a monthly subscription for the use of this solution and it is expensive."
"The solution can be costly for customers who do not run mission-critical applications or who have less than 50 users."
"The pricing depends on the use cases. It depends on the company's needs and budget. For us, it was okay, not too expensive."
"VMware Horizon View's licensing cost is not expensive."
"VMware Horizon's costs are high."
"For long-term use, perpetual licenses are more cost-effective, and for short-term use, subscription-based would be more cost-effective."
"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."
"The cost differs depending on the customer's requirement."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"The product is expensive."
"It has the best licensing modules."
"VMware Workstation has a high price than competitors in the market."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive tool. I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low or good price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
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 ...
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

VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LCMC Health
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Horizon 8 vs. VMware Workstation and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.