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Amazon WorkSpaces 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

Amazon WorkSpaces
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (2nd)
VMware Fusion Pro
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
4th
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 August 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 2.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Fusion Pro is 5.6%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Fusion Pro5.6%
Amazon WorkSpaces2.8%
Other91.6%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Sachin Narvekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead, AWS at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Migration to cloud for secure and shared workspaces enhances productivity
There could be an end-to-end tool similar to AWS Transform that helps from assessment to migration. A single orchestrator tool could assist with discovery, implementation, and image building for Amazon WorkSpaces. 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.
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 infrastructure is readily available, with minimal latency, which each user can benefit from."
"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."
"Persistent storage helps to maintain consistency and data availability across sessions."
"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 experience is seamless and there is no delay. The performance is very good. Initial startup times is a little bit of wait time, but it is bearable."
"Security, streaming, faster performance, scalability, and the fact that it is very much cost-effective, are some of the solution's valuable features."
"The tool has low latency and multimedia support. For instance, running Zoom calls on Amazon WorkSpaces seamlessly supports local microphones, speakers, and web cameras. This feature is transparent for applications, allowing me to use the Zoom application without requiring exceptional support for remote web cameras or microphones. Amazon WorkSpaces provides this functionality at the operating system level, enabling effortless video conferencing. To my knowledge, Microsoft Remote Desktop does not offer the same support."
"For me, VMware Fusion Pro has been invaluable, allowing me to meet all my needs with a single system."
"VMware Fusion Pro offers simplicity of use and stability."
"It is a highly stable solution."
"Veeam Backup and Replication is the common product for backing up virtual machines."
"My advice right now would be to download it for free and use that instead of a VirtualBox or some of the other free stuff because it is more flexible than other solutions."
"The primary advantage of VMware Fusion Pro is its simplicity in creating custom virtual machines."
"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 most important feature of VMware Fusion is that it helps me rapidly launch a new OS."
 

Cons

"Configuration was a bit complicated at first but manageable."
"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."
"The agent sometimes has connectivity issues, but otherwise, it's good."
"I am not satisfied with the billing part because sometimes it bills for huge usage we are not aware of when we trigger every EC2 instance or every RDS instance."
"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."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve its pricing."
"I would say that it is a little complex to configure."
"There is always scope of improvement in the stability."
"VMware Fusion's licensing cost needs improvement."
"I would like to see newer and updated cloud functions."
"The backups for the VMs themselves can also be improved. I pretty much have to rely on Windows backups and not something on VMware."
"Its installation process could be simpler."
"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."
"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."
"One of the problems with VMware Fusion Pro is limited redundancy; it is related to the infrastructure and the nature of the on-premises because on-premises you cannot have enough reliability since you have to fund all the resources on your own."
"Additionally, enhancing the API interactions could improve the ability to manage VS and deploy various kinds of guests."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make."
"I think that the price can be lower. We have cases where the customer needs to have lower costs. So since we don't have options, like, shadow mode, they need to decrease pricing or have other models for reduced pricing."
"It is very expensive."
"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."
"The solution is not very cheap and it is not too pricey."
"The tool's pricing depends on company turnover and the organization's relationship with Amazon. I rate it a six out of ten."
"Price-wise Amazon Workspaces is cheaper than most services available."
"The solution is expensive."
"Starting with version 12, it is now free on a Mac for personal use. Fusion Pro has a cost."
"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."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven or eight. It is highly-priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
17%
University
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

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 Business2
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise4
 

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 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

WorkSpaces
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services
NetApp
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkSpaces vs. VMware Fusion Pro and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.