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Amazon WorkSpaces 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

Amazon WorkSpaces
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (2nd)
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 17.2%, up from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Bhaskar Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Management console is very easy to use, readily available infrastructure and easy to scale
It's very stable. There is a big difference between traditional physical servers and cloud servers. With physical servers, we need to plan for purchasing, procurement, capacity, storage, get quotations, and then procure them. That took some time. Maybe it would take more than one month or maybe two months to procure and then install. With AWS, it is readily available. Just pay and immediately create the VPC, network, and everything. It is very easy. Within two or three hours, we can implement any server or launch any application. Within five minutes, we can just spin up and publish our servers on the Internet.
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 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 best thing about Amazon WorkSpaces is the security it provides."
"They maintain it and manage it very well."
"We can work remotely using the solution."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Amazon WorkSpaces is very fast."
"It has good speed and connects well with computers."
"I appreciate the ease of backup and snapshot creation. The ability to revert to previous versions without losing data is very useful for our team."
"Technical support is very good."
"The most valuable features of the VMware Workstation solutions are the ESXi and vCenter."
"VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox."
"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."
"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."
"It will not harm any of the computer settings to run a specific program. For example, if a program needs a specific security policy, we don't have to use the shared configuration. We have an individual copy of Windows installed on the virtual machine, so anybody can access that. It helps us a lot."
"Great at solving connection problems."
 

Cons

"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."
"There is always scope of improvement in the stability."
"The product needs to improve its pricing. It should also improve corporate identity management and single sign-on."
"I would say that it is a little complex to configure."
"Configuration was a bit complicated at first but manageable."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve on releasing the most number of patches immediately as quickly as possible. And they need to enable more USB options to connect a mobile phone to that particular workspace."
"The solution lacks a shadow mode option, and it needs to have it."
"If they had a cheaper option for graphics pro, I think that it would be beneficial and I would use it."
"One improvement is mouse emulation. Some people in the office want to use a five—or seven-button mouse like they're used to at home, but they can't with the workstation setup."
"Lacks the ability to clone onto another system rather than starting from scratch."
"They could include official support for macOS virtualization within VMware Workstation."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
"The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes."
"I would want to see features included that make deployment easier."
"The solution freezes sometimes."
"The solution can be expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The bundle works out to be approximately $20.00 per month."
"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"Price-wise Amazon Workspaces is cheaper than most services available."
"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."
"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."
"The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make."
"The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."
"VMware Workstation has a high price than competitors in the market."
"Licensing costs are paid on a yearly basis."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"VMware is expensive. Licensing can be tricky. For example, I recently had a client running VMware vSphere Essentials and wanted to migrate to a more scalable solution. However, they had no choice but to purchase a completely new license and deploy a completely new instance of VMware."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon WorkSpaces?
Performance and scalability are valuable features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon WorkSpaces?
The pricing is based on consumption. You pay for each process based on the transactions you make. The investment is almost the same as having your own on-premises solution, with the added costs of ...
What needs improvement with Amazon WorkSpaces?
There is always scope of improvement in the stability.
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

WorkSpaces
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon WorkSpaces vs. VMware Workstation and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.