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Azure Virtual Desktop vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Azure Virtual Desktop
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
57
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 Azure Virtual Desktop is 7.1%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 9.5%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware Workstation9.5%
Azure Virtual Desktop7.1%
Other83.4%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

RC
Senior Advisor at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhanced collaboration and security with seamless remote access has transformed work efficiency
We can integrate anything with Azure Virtual Desktop from an application perspective. The App-V has evolved into MSIX. To deliver an application to Azure Virtual Desktop, MSIX can be used by expanding it as a virtual hard disk and attaching it to the virtual machine. When this is done, users who need the application will have immediate access through Active Directory group assignment. One challenge with Virtual Desktop infrastructure is application delivery. From an infrastructure perspective, it's beneficial as we can have a fallback point - if one machine is down, we can have a disaster recovery site for redirection. The delivery of applications is a tedious process. Microsoft is working on building new products for efficient application installation. This feature might be included in upcoming releases. Currently, it's burdensome for IT administrators to create applications compatible with Virtual Desktop infrastructure, unlike traditional machines where direct installation is possible.
GC
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Creating and destroying test machines has simplified our operations and reduced manual recovery time
The Snapshot feature has helped with workflows by allowing us to more easily reconstruct something if we lose it or need it. We've been making Snapshots on a consistent basis, mainly of servers. The VX Rail has worked effectively because we can create machines as we need them. It's helpful for resetting and has helped with our operations because I had set up failover servers on Vertex, but we don't have to do that anymore since VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem. We're doing our domain servers on there, and we've been very happy with that. We appreciate that we can create machines simply to test things out and then destroy them. I use it for a test machine for checking emails, so if the email has a virus in it, we can just destroy the machine and create a new one. We're slowly moving into the VMware environment, although the pricing with Broadcom has been a disaster.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The scalability is probably the most valuable feature since I can quickly add or remove machines or increase or decrease the size depending on resources to manage the cost better."
"Scalability is very straightforward with Azure Virtual Desktop."
"I've always found Azure Virtual Desktop to work for me without issues."
"The ability to spin up virtual machines quickly and speedily in Azure has been really valuable."
"Azure Virtual Desktop enables anyone connecting to Microsoft to use MFA (multi-factor authentication), totally secured to connect and has end-to-end encryption through tunnel encryption."
"Azure Virtual Desktop provides users the ability to do remote work in a secure environment that is easy to manage."
"I rate the overall solution nine out of ten."
"Azure pricing is quite cheap due to licensing benefits with Microsoft."
"The features are good."
"We initially intended to work with Hyper-V because we are selling a virtual appliance and thought our customers would want to run that on Hyper-V."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"The tool’s GUI is very user-friendly."
"If you have a small-to-middle-sized environment, VMware Player is a good choice."
"Having ten people working off a single piece of hardware reduces costs."
"VMware workstation is expensive but with its excellent features and performance for a desktop, the cost is nothing."
"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."
 

Cons

"The initial setup of Azure Virtual Desktop overall is complex. The complexities I've noticed are with application optimizations, and it can get complex by meeting customers' security requirements."
"There are challenges when upgrading the OS from Windows 10 to Windows 11, such as facing a black screen during testing. It is essential for Microsoft to ensure better testing and smoother transitions when decommissioning previous versions."
"Access from Entra ID should be implemented to provide only tenant access to users connecting to the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, eliminating the need for on-premises requirements."
"The delivery of applications is a tedious process."
"The costs are a bit difficult to predict upfront. When I am trying to sell it to a customer as a consultant, it is hard to give them a fixed price."
"The primary area for improvement is around the scalability of Azure, specifically on the desktop side."
"The main issue is the response time, which needs improvement to be faster."
"Azure could improve its uptime and the scaling aspect, as it lacks intelligent scaling."
"I have encountered stability issues with the virtual networks and have had run into issue with copying or moving VMs."
"VMware Workstations is for desktop use only and is pricey."
"VMware Workstation’s scalability could be improved."
"The dashboard can be improved."
"The GUI interface could be improved."
"I would like to see the stability improve. We have experienced some crashes on our devices."
"It's been a struggle at times to keep drive shares and video drivers working across updates."
"The tool has limited scalability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I use the free version of VMware Workstation."
"It has the best licensing modules."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"VMware Workstation has a high price than competitors in the market."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive solution in Asian countries."
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908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Media Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Virtual Desktop?
The usual amount customers pay for this tool varies. I have seen large deployments catering to 500 or 700 users. Enterprises do use it, and they pay quite a bit for this.
What needs improvement with Azure Virtual Desktop?
I see areas for improvement in Azure Virtual Desktop, specifically regarding cost, as it is a little bit expensive. However, when you account for replacing dedicated hardware and the maintenance it...
What is your primary use case for Azure Virtual Desktop?
We use RDP with Azure and have some virtual desktops. A major use case for Azure Virtual Desktop is that we give access to external consultants so they can access our information and interact with ...
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 needs improvement with VMware Player?
Here's what happened with us regarding the prices for VMware Workstation: we purchased everything through Dell, and as is common, we got busy and didn't get everything activated. By the time we tri...
What is your primary use case for VMware Player?
I have a bunch of VMware servers set up, including our domain servers, our data servers, and some test machines on VMware. We're not really using VMware Workstation as workstations. We've got a cou...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Virtual Desktop vs. VMware Workstation and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.