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Amazon WorkSpaces vs Horizon Cloud Service comparison

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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

Amazon WorkSpaces
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
11th
Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Horizon Cloud Service
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
10th
Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 2.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Horizon Cloud Service is 4.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Horizon Cloud Service4.7%
Amazon WorkSpaces2.8%
Other92.5%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

JiteshRathod - PeerSpot reviewer
Expert Engineer at Apexon
Billing complexities affect financial predictability and resource optimization facilitates strategic use
Whenever there is an issue or incident that happens with the server part, I will provide support We are using Amazon WorkSpaces for some tools and testing purposes. We utilize the Workspace for running long-term scripting tasks. I have used the persistent storage feature for users in Amazon…
SivaKuppala - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Architect at Wipro Limited
Centralized management enhances multi-cloud flexibility with cost efficiency improvements
The cost of Horizon Cloud Service is high, however, it could be optimized. The licensing model is complex, particularly for hybrid deployments, and simplifying it could help. Improvements in application performance, especially for resource-heavy applications like intensive 3D workloads, are needed. More built-in automation for routine tasks like patching and upgrading could reduce administrative effort.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For anyone looking at the solution, I can say that it is a good solution and within well-defined price ranges, and a very scalable one."
"I recommend it, definitely, as it is a very flexible solution, scalable, and easy to use, and you can use it from any device, whether you have an iPad, a laptop, a Mac, or Windows, on every platform that supports Google Chrome."
"It has good speed and connects well with computers."
"The product is easy to access. You can access the solution from anywhere at any time."
"The infrastructure is readily available, with minimal latency, which each user can benefit from."
"Amazon WorkSpaces is very fast."
"The initial setup is simple."
"The best feature is that it operates very quickly. It depends on the regional location. If we choose a nearby location, nearby servers, it will be best for users to use."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is easy to use and the full development cloud is very good."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is easy to use and the full development cloud is very good. The main features of VMware are included. It's a cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure software that allows you to permit the virtual desktops and applications to any device from the single unified management control. These are managed from the dedicated remote session desktop."
"The main benefit of Horizon Cloud Service is that it is cloud-based, allowing our organization to leverage the service without having to manage all infrastructure directly."
"Its advanced management features are the most valuable, especially power management. One of the really important things was to be able to have power management in a consumption world. This means that unlike a Microsoft environment, you could actually turn off virtual desktops or have them start up and shut down. If you're consuming resources in the public cloud, you want to be able to do that because when you're not using those, such as at the weekend, you want to be able to turn them off. So, the advanced options for managing the BDIs are very important."
"The product’s on-premise version has the ability to create an image of any updates or changes in the system."
"The tool remains pretty stable."
"Horizon Cloud Service provides deployment flexibility across multiple clouds with a scalable architecture that easily scales virtual desktops and applications up or down based on demand."
"From the scalability perspective, that's one of the great things, because even with the basic setup, which has essentially very few components, you can run 10,000 desktops straight off the bat."
 

Cons

"There is always scope of improvement in the stability."
"The agent sometimes has connectivity issues, but otherwise, it's good."
"Configuration was a bit complicated at first but manageable."
"Amazon WorkSpaces can sometimes function as a black box, making it difficult to diagnose why a workspace is slow on any given day due to limited visibility into network latency from the client, real-time CPU and GPU utilization, and storage bottlenecks."
"O365 and other Microsoft products can become problematic at times, and there are some network health-related issues that appear occasionally regarding functionality inside Amazon WorkSpaces."
"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."
"The initial setup was somewhat difficult."
"An area that could be improved is it could work better on VPN. On VPN, it gets some issues, and frequent disconnections happen."
"The product has a lot of bugs."
"There should be more emphasis on the Workspace One access part of the solution. This is essentially identity management provided with Horizon. There needs to be some kind of integration because you are able to have all of these desktops on any device, but you have to have this other component to make it easier from a single sign-on perspective. That's why there should be an emphasis on Workspace One access. It actually comes free with the product, but people don't really know how powerful it can be."
"The application remoting features have some room for improvement."
"The licensing model needs to be adjusted, as a cloud license is currently required even for on-premises devices."
"The cost of Horizon Cloud Service is high, however, it could be optimized. The licensing model is complex, particularly for hybrid deployments, and simplifying it could help."
"It is too expensive as compared to other solutions because of which we don't use it that much."
"It is very expensive. Its price needs to be improved. They can do a better job with external resources such as a USB or a hard drive. When I tried to connect using these external resources, it failed a lot of times. I had to do a shared connection with a local laptop and then connect from a network standpoint, rather than through VMware Horizon point. They definitely have weaknesses with external connections. A lot of companies probably don't let people use external connections because it defeats the purpose of having a cloud solution and keeping the data in a secure area. You can copy to an external device, and you can lose the data. A lot of companies may not focus on this feature, but if you are providing it, you should make it work."
"Logging into VMware Horizon Cloud could be made easier. Additionally, the VMs could be better in their performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing depends on company turnover and the organization's relationship with Amazon. I rate it a six out of ten."
"There are several different options available, but it can range anywhere from $85 to $150 a month per machine."
"The solution is not very cheap and it is not too pricey."
"Price-wise Amazon Workspaces is cheaper than most services available."
"The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a two."
"It is very expensive."
"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."
"I rate VMware Horizon Cloud pricing a ten out of ten."
"There is a license required for the use of this solution and there are different tier levels available."
"For what you get, it is very compelling. You've got to look at the total cost of ownership of this type of piece of software in terms of being able to utilize it as a cloud service. I don't have to run everything on-premises. When you look at the total cost of just being able to use it and then being able to point it to any public or private cloud, it is very compelling. You have one less thing to manage."
"It is too expensive as compared to other solutions because of which we don't use it that much. We tend to go more for Hyper-V or Azure just because VMware licensing is quite up there. We sway people away from VMware Horizon Cloud. We have some clients who already have it. They stay on it for a little while, and then most of them end up moving off when we provide them a better solution that isn't as license heavy cost-wise."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is a low-cost solution. The model that they have is consumption-based. However, some features are expensive."
"Initially, the product is cheap, but it starts to get expensive when users try to scale out."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is an expensive solution. This solution is approximately 30 percent more than Microsoft Azure Cloud. There can be extra costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Performing Arts
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon WorkSpaces?
For Amazon WorkSpaces pricing, I think it is affordable; it is a final decision made through the management part. I am not satisfied with the billing part because sometimes it bills for huge usage ...
What needs improvement with Amazon WorkSpaces?
Desired improvements for Amazon WorkSpaces include faster and more flexible image updates, incremental image updates, patch-only updates, and a much faster push of software configuration changes to...
What is your primary use case for Amazon WorkSpaces?
Amazon WorkSpaces is used to provide a consistent environment for remote workers for testing purposes. Software testing is typically run on those desktops.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Horizon Cloud?
The cost is considered normal, not remarkable but not outrageous. In terms of expense, compared to other virtualization products, I would rate it as a six.
What needs improvement with VMware Horizon Cloud?
The licensing model needs to be adjusted, as a cloud license is currently required even for on-premises devices. Horizon Cloud Service should continue improving their protocol and work with other h...
What is your primary use case for VMware Horizon Cloud?
Our primary use case focuses on virtual desktop and application hosting. This is spread across different industries. We have a large number of employees, and we are one of the largest GSIs globally...
 

Also Known As

WorkSpaces
VMware Horizon Cloud, VMware Horizon DaaS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services
Marriott, Sprint
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkSpaces vs. Horizon Cloud Service and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.