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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs VMware Fusion Pro 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

Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (3rd)
VMware Fusion Pro
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.0%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Fusion Pro is 13.7%, down from 24.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Fusion Pro13.7%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services6.0%
Other80.3%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

MN
technology consultant at Bank of America
Remote access has simplified certificate checks and daily support tasks across our organization
The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers include providing me administrator access, certain inbuilt client tools, and the ability to remotely access enterprise applications, as well as helping me validate whether certificates exist or are missing, or near to expiry. The product also allows for multiple session virtualizations even if users are based in remote locations and offers support for legacy applications that need to be upgraded. Out of those features, the one I rely on the most is certificate validation and plugin installation or removal in certain IDEs which developers or coders generally use. Being able to do this remotely makes my job significantly easier than going to everyone's desk in the office.
Bruce Lundberg - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux HPC Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Create custom virtual environments quickly with minor macOS integration issues
The primary advantage of VMware Fusion Pro is its simplicity in creating custom virtual machines. It allows quick construction and provides connectivity to full VMware server systems, enabling remote management. It facilitates downloading images from main VMware servers for local testing. The ability to construct a virtual environment on my laptop meets my needs, even ones I wasn't aware of.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The installation of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services was easy."
"What I found most valuable in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is accessibility because the solution lets you take control of your computer remotely."
"The most valuable features are it is fast and cost-effective."
"I give the stability a nine out of ten."
"I would recommend Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, especially for general support."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has positively impacted my organization by leading to an overall productivity increase because it has simplified what used to be a physical task of going to certain users' machines for validation, allowing for remote management from geographically distributed locations."
"Installing Microsoft Desktop Services is straightforward."
"It's simple and easy to use."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"The product is easy to use and has a simple user interface."
"Veeam Backup and Replication is the common product for backing up virtual machines."
"The most important feature of VMware Fusion is that it helps me rapidly launch a new OS."
"The most value that it provides is that it is versatile."
"VMware Fusion Pro offers simplicity of use and stability."
"The whole point of it is to run Windows VMs on a Mac. This is the most valuable feature. There is snapshotting, but we don't really use that. The Pro version allows me to actually attach to the Windows ESXi infrastructure at the backend, and I'm able to create a session that I can attach to the VMware hooks at the backend, so one is running a VM, and the whole operating system is running on the actual Mac. The other one is literally a frontend to the VMs that are running in the infrastructure at the backend. These are the two main features I use."
"The primary advantage of VMware Fusion Pro is its simplicity in creating custom virtual machines."
 

Cons

"Remote Desktop Services doesn't scale well."
"The only problems that you're going to have with the remote desktop are going to be firewall ports, security, and NLA, which is a net network level access control, or TLS transfer layer security or some other SSL-type of security."
"Users have to re-enter their ID and password every time they log on, which is tedious and repetitive."
"We'd like to see more integration with other vendors."
"In a future release, they could improve by providing more advanced technology and better buffering for if the connection is degraded or lost."
"There is a limitation on the number of concurrent users."
"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."
"Sometimes, the updates break the system."
"The way they handle snapshotting can be improved. One time, I moved a machine from one to another, and I tried to pull it up on the second machine, but it didn't work. This was because I had not cleaned up the snapshot before I deleted it and moved it across. So, when I tried to pull it up, it wouldn't let me bring it up. The backups for the VMs themselves can also be improved. I pretty much have to rely on Windows backups and not something on VMware. That's where it needs improvement. I am able to upload from my Fusion into the ESXi easily. I'm able to spin something up on Fusion and push it into the big arena, but the reverse is not as easy, that is, trying to pull something down from that. I would love to have a functionality where I could pull something from the VMware infrastructure into Fusion, but I'm not sure if I can take something from ESXi and pull it into Fusion."
"Fusion is not meant to be scalable. It runs on desktops and laptops, indicating limitations in scalability."
"Additionally, enhancing the API interactions could improve the ability to manage VS and deploy various kinds of guests."
"The only issue I've experienced with VMware Fusion Pro is that it doesn't register correctly with the main macOS system, causing repeated notifications about background installations."
"I would like to see newer and updated cloud functions."
"Its installation process could be simpler."
"VMware Fusion's licensing cost needs improvement."
"The only issue I've experienced with VMware Fusion Pro is that it doesn't register correctly with the main macOS system, causing repeated notifications about background installations. This is a minor inconvenience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable. The solution can come for free for some clients with certain agreements."
"I rate the price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services a three out of five."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows."
"It will probably cost about $500 USD to get the resources set up in the cloud."
"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 cost is fair."
"I am aware that for Azure we do have an extra license because we are leveraging on different tenants."
"The cost varies depending on the season and whether it is scaled up or scaled down, but I would guess that it's approximately $1,000 per month."
"Starting with version 12, it is now free on a Mac for personal use. Fusion Pro has a cost."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven or eight. It is highly-priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
University
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
In limited use cases, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is free as it is defaulted by any Microsoft license. The paid version for enterprise requires RDS ( /products/amazon-rds-reviews ) CALs, or c...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could be improved because we have keyboard compatibility issues with some platforms; on macOS, we sometimes experience keyboard connectivity issues, and it can be ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Fusion?
The pricing of VMware Fusion Pro is reasonable. The licensing covers all minor version updates, while major updates require payment every three years. Buying it once can sustain you for years witho...
What needs improvement with VMware Fusion?
In future updates of VMware Fusion Pro, I think there should be another community to input features. It is an infrastructure tool that may need embedding some AI to help or catching up with the new...
What is your primary use case for VMware Fusion?
My specialty is about IBM AS/400 applications, so I got to be in contact with several packages, including LX, which is why I had this research on your website.I'm mostly interested in ERP packages;...
 

Also Known As

Remote Desktop Services
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd.
NetApp
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VMware Fusion Pro and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.