Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs ConnectWise ScreenConnect comparison

Citrix and ConnectWise are both solutions in the Remote Access category. Citrix is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2, while ConnectWise is ranked #17 with an average rating of 9.3. Citrix holds a 4.3% mindshare in VUS, compared to ConnectWise’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Citrix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of ConnectWise users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Citrix DaaS and ConnectWise ScreenConnect both compete in the remote desktop solutions category. Citrix DaaS seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive features, especially for enterprise needs.

Features: Citrix DaaS offers advanced capabilities such as multi-session management, seamless integration with various apps, and enhanced security features. ConnectWise ScreenConnect provides a straightforward remote access experience with features like remote printing and file sharing, which users find practical.

Room for Improvement: Citrix DaaS could improve in login times, interface complexity, and provide a more streamlined experience. ConnectWise ScreenConnect could benefit from enhanced multi-platform support, additional customization options, and more enterprise-level features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Citrix DaaS is more complex to deploy due to various integrations but offers robust customer support. ConnectWise ScreenConnect is easier to deploy with a straightforward setup, though it sometimes faces slow support response times.

Pricing and ROI: Citrix DaaS generally involves higher setup costs but offers a significant ROI through its extensive feature set and strong support. ConnectWise ScreenConnect is more affordable with lower initial costs, providing quick ROI, ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ConnectWise ScreenConnect Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ConnectWise ScreenConnect

April 2025

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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 Intune

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.4%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 4.3%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ConnectWise ScreenConnect is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Remote Access

Featured Reviews

Joseph Merusi

Collaborations engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Everything has worked better since we started using it

Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.

Read full review

Mohd Abdul Aziz Shah Sulaiman

Assistant General Manager Endpoint Application at Telekom Malaysia

Delivers secure and unified access to apps, desktops, and content for enhanced productivity

Citrix Workforce is good, but it needs improvement in diagnosing network issues. When errors occur, it is difficult to determine if they're due to network issues, Workspace issues, or environment issues. The error messages are too vague, just stating "connection error" without specifying if it's an IP address issue, connectivity problem, or something else related to the network. This lack of detail makes troubleshooting difficult. We often have to reinstall everything in Workspace, without knowing the root cause. Even after engaging with Citrix and sending logs, the feedback is often unsatisfactory, not meeting my expectations. This trial-and-error approach isn't effective problem-solving. While these issues aren't everyday occurrences, when they do happen, they can be catastrophic for our operations team.

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Todd Blake

Senior IT Specialist at COMMUNITY HEALTH CONNECTIONS INC

Simple to set up, reasonable pricing, and useful remote control capabilities

I'm on the latest version of the solution. I just updated it yesterday. While we have the solution on-premises at this time, we'll likely move to the cloud later this year. They have a trial version that you can try. They have a free version that you can try as well. I use it myself to support my family. I would try the free version or the trial version depending on your business. They can set you up and you can get to see all the features. I would also advocate going to the cloud version. Don't bother with the on-prem. It's just easier to jump to the cloud. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With on-premises Active Directory, the main challenge was that we had no control when a user was working from home. We didn't know what exactly a user was doing and whether the AV was up to date or not. Intune provides better control of their machines."

"Conditional access helps me control uncontrolled access."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Intune include remote updates. The update runs in the background, so there's no need in most cases to go on-site to do it."

"It's very informative when there is an error. It allows us to backtrace where the error is and resolve that ourselves. It's a bit of a Swiss Army penknife. We find that it fixes most issues."

"The most valuable feature is the UEM capabilities."

"I like the tool's integration with Apple. Anyone who creates an ID in Intune will get an Apple ID."

"Intune makes our organization more secure and flexible. We can onboard new employees faster and more securely. We are a governmental organization with strict regulations, and Intune helps us comply with those requirements."

"Microsoft Intune's autopilot has been nice to have."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The ease of access and the confidentiality and security that it provides is what we like best."

"The installation and maintenance are good."

"Citrix offers a range of products that can be used straight out of the box."

"The solution provides everything in one integrated platform. When it comes to monitoring their solution, it is really easy. We have all the information in one place so we can have the right information at the right moment. We can be proactive when it comes to dealing with performance, maintenance, and security issues."

"Security is a shining point of the Citrix Workspace. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is a very robust solution when security is a concern. Furthermore, the content collaboration data-hosting that Citrix integrates with Virtual Apps and Desktops is among the best there is."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the desktop virtualization, which allows me to connect from anywhere."

"Getting access to the applications for which we otherwise have to be on-site is probably the biggest advantage"

"Troubleshooting Citrix is pretty straightforward."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pros

"Being able to flip quickly between however many monitors that I have running, detune the video for black and white, or with fewer colors to make it faster, is amazing."

"Better than TeamViewer and useful for fixing problems remotely."

"It's very easy to use, very easy to understand. It gives us remote access to the PC without any issues."

"The initial setup is fairly straightforward."

"The product is really easy to deploy."

"The remote management piece is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us due to the fact that we can support our clients after hours."

"The product's two-factor authentication means we are not worried like before about the state of our security."

"Remote support is efficient and easy for our end users to receive support."

More ConnectWise ScreenConnect pros

Cons

"It just doesn't handle software updates well at all by itself. You need to be a scripting wizard to make those happen properly, or you use third-party tools. The Windows feature updates are very difficult to implement. I would like to see a proprietary built-in remote control tool. I know that they have Team Viewer integrated, but it is not seamless. It would be nice if they had a seamless remote desktop capability directly from the Intune console."

"What would make this product better is adding more security policies and features in the next upgrade."

"The reporting causes problems because we're trying to gather data to present to the management, but we can't get the data they request. If a user has removed an application from his device, but it won't report it at exactly the right time. It takes time to sync from the device to the portal. Let's say we are preparing a list or deck for the number of compliant devices that meet all of the organization's requirements. In a real-time scenario, that device could be compliant, but it is showing as non-compliant on the portal. It sometimes hampers the overall decisions that we make on our end."

"Reporting needs improvement."

"The technical support by Microsoft is not so good. We have to manage many things by ourselves and do not receive responses in a timely manner."

"The most significant challenge is reporting and monitoring. The reporting accuracy for deploying applications and all aspects of Intune needs to be improved."

"While the ability to deploy applications at startup is reliable, the policy-based application deployment method has not reached the same level of consistency."

"The difficulty of the the roll out is surprisingly difficult considering this product is supposed to be an integrated part of the 365 suite."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"There is room for slight improvement in performance optimization and interface refinement."

"The dashboard should be more user-friendly as the tabs are not organized clearly."

"The sales team does not focus on client needs but instead focuses on selling higher-priced items."

"The Endpoint Management solution needs improvement when it comes to mobile device management. For example, they are still not supporting Windows 10 and this feature is required by many customers."

"The product advances really fast. For some customers, we need better backwards compatibility."

"Pricing and technical support needs improvement."

"It is not easy to set up."

"It would be great if they included VPN features and improved connectivity."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) cons

"If it had Chrome capability, that would be great; being able to use it on a Chrome device. Right now, I can't use it on my Chrome device."

"The recent redesign has made it slower and basically worthless."

"I was not thrilled with their support. I do not have a lot of time to deal with the attention which is needed to fix issues."

"There is one back-end issue that I am running into at some of locations where I login to provide support, and sometimes port 443 is blocked. That is what it uses to connect. So, I am having to do workarounds to get a session started."

"I would like to see more overlap, meaning, I would like to be able to see what processes are running on a computer, for example, or what services are running."

"They could provide a toolbox for the plan I'm on."

"The solution is a little bit complicated when you want to implement it."

"What we need this product to do is to be able to control Windows Updates. LogMeIn Central allowed us remote access but also allowed to push and install Windows Updates, and third-party updates... When we made the switch to ConnectWise we lost the ability to do patching. That forced us, for our larger clients, to move to WSUS. We had to set up a VM on those larger clients to push Windows Updates and patches into the network."

More ConnectWise ScreenConnect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a license needed for this solution and it is either included in one of the enterprise license agreements. Microsoft licensing is a mathematical institute, it could be quite complex. We tend to ask specialized organizations to research what the most profitable way it would be for us to use licenses in the organizations."

"The overall pricing of Microsoft Intune is good for companies that have big IT budgets, 3,000 or more users and devices."

"If you're subscribing to Premium or E3, there are no additional costs for Intune, it's included."

"With our standard E5 agreement with Microsoft, there have been no pricing concerns. Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs."

"It is not expensive."

"We work in the charity sector, so a lot of our clients get Microsoft Premium licenses or Business Premium for free. They get ten licenses free, and a lot of our clients do not have more than ten staff members. They are getting the tool for free, so its cost is not an issue."

"I rate Intune an eight out of ten for affordability. It's bundled with the 365 licensing, which is competitive overall."

"Microsoft Intune is included in the E5 license at no additional cost."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is a little bit high, but it's good value for the product's stability and efficiency."

"The licensing of Citrix Workspace is worth it. However, it is expensive. Citrix is probably more competitive now than VMware, but it is still a costly solution."

"It's costly in the market. But it is not expensive for the company. For the company, it's relatively inexpensive because the core of the work is compensated with the price."

"They offer licensing per user. From time to time, they give discounts. Because it's a hybrid model, you can deploy some portion of it on cloud and some portion your on-prem."

"Where Citrix really needs to improve is in their support and in the way that they manage their licenses. Everything else comes second because if I'm not in a position where I can get proper support or manage my own licenses in an easy way, then it is pointless. Today, I am at a point where I may not be able to use Citrix anymore because they want to take away some of the licenses that I bought, pretending they are not valid anymore. That is frankly unacceptable. If they don't solve this, everything comes second because I cannot use my product."

"It's my understanding that the solution license fee for each user is around $300 US. If we buy a personal laptop for each employee every five years, then the total cost is five times $300 US, or $1,500 USD. So we could buy 100 personal laptops instead of the Citrix solution."

"You can buy an on-cloud or on-prem license. You can switch between on-cloud users and on-prem users. Its licensing is cheap. It is from $8 to $15 per user. It is not that expensive when you compare the cost of buying new hardware with the cost of the license. For example, at $15 per user, it costs around $180 for a year, which is cheaper than buying a $600 PC that at a certain stage, you will again have to change because its hardware is not supported. It may also get damaged or stolen. So, you can compare the cost of the actual hardware that you have to buy and the time spent in supporting the clients with the cost of its license."

"Based not only on the cost of Citrix, but additional costs like firewalls, IPS, and other solutions, the total cost of switching users from using normal laptops with VPNs to connection via Citrix were so huge that the CEO of our company decided to postpone the deployment process."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pricing and cost advice

"The cloud version is relatively inexpensive, but the on-premise version is expensive if you do not need three technicians, only one or two for concurrent sessions."

"Make sure you have enough licensing for all the techs that you have."

"I download the product for free with ConnectWise RMM's license."

"Pricing is fair for Control and the licensing is simple."

"Their licensing model is good, their pricing model is good, their service is good; bandwidth is excellent. They're consistent."

"It is priced well and it is still a great value. Although I have been reading a lot about Splashtop. They are getting pretty competitive on their pricing, including a fairly easy to use remote support for mobile applications, like iOS and Android."

"For the price we pay, we definitely feel it's worth it, but there are some contenders in the market that are coming out now, whose products are as good; they are offering more features and the price is actually less than ConnectWise. All things considered, the biggest thing is the lack of patching in ConnectWise. If they could integrate that into the product, that would be a game changer, if offered at the same price point."

"ConnectWise Control is not an overly expensive tool. Its pricing is reasonable."

More ConnectWise ScreenConnect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?

Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...

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What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...

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How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...

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What do you like most about Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

My focus has primarily been on publishing virtual applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I have found that Citrix DaaS is still a complex product, especially on the desktop side, which affects scalability. ...

See all answers

What do you like most about ConnectWise Control?

The product is really easy to deploy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ConnectWise Control?

I download the product for free with ConnectWise RMM's license.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ConnectWise Control?

All the features provided by the product in terms of screen connectors have been good. There can be some complexities...

See all answers

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Compared 42% of the time

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Compared 29% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Intune

April 2025

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Buyer's Guide

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

May 2025

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) report

Download Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) product report

Buyer's Guide

ConnectWise ScreenConnect

May 2025

Download ConnectWise ScreenConnect product report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

ConnectWise Control, ScreenConnect

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Microsoft

Citrix

Demo not available

ConnectWise

Overview

Microsoft Intune provides centralized management of mobile devices and applications, ensuring security, compliance, and productivity through integration with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory.

Organizations use Intune for managing mobile devices and applications, enhancing security and compliance across platforms. With features like single sign-on, conditional access, and zero-touch deployment via Autopilot, it facilitates efficient operations. Intune's scalability, easy enrollment, and capabilities such as remote wipe support diverse device management, offering robust data protection and efficient operation. Despite its features, improvement areas include reporting, compatibility with non-Microsoft devices, and better support for macOS and Linux devices.

What are the key features of Microsoft Intune?

Seamless Integration: Works with Microsoft 365, Azure Active Directory, and System Center for streamlined management.
Conditional Access: Enhances security with policies that restrict access based on conditions.
Autopilot: Provides zero-touch deployment for setting up new devices efficiently.
Mobile Device Management: Enables control over both personal and corporate devices.
Application Deployment: Facilitates app delivery across a range of devices.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Centralized Management: Reduces complexity by managing devices and applications in one place.
Security Enhancement: Protects data with features like remote wipe and compliance monitoring.
Improved Productivity: Enhances efficiency with seamless integration and automation features.
Device Scalability: Supports diverse device management for growing business needs.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and education, Microsoft Intune is implemented to ensure secure and compliant device management. Companies leverage its capabilities to deploy security policies and manage both corporate-owned and BYOD environments, facilitating a unified approach to data protection and compliance.

Microsoft

Enable secure, flexible work with the leader in virtual apps and desktops

Deliver desktop as a service (DaaS) from any cloud or datacenter

Get started with Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) in minutes to provide a familiar, high-performance digital workspace experience to your users. We’ll manage the infrastructure and security. You focus on your business.

Citrix

With ConnectWise ScreenConnect, you can seamlessly connect to desktops, mobile devices, and more, ensuring that customer downtime is a thing of the past. With world-class security features, including AES-256 encryption and two-factor authentication, ConnectWise ScreenConnect is ready to safeguard your interactions right out of the box. What sets ConnectWise ScreenConnect apart is the power of customization – white-label your software with hundreds of appearance options to showcase your unique brand in every support interaction. In the ScreenConnect Support Premium edition, experience ConnectWise View, enabling live stream sessions for real-time hardware troubleshooting via the user's mobile device camera. Plus, with our robust configurability and granular permissions, you can tailor the experience to your exact needs, equipping your team with the precise access they require.

ConnectWise

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway

Exelon, Aeronamic, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Alameda County Medical Center, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Aloysius Stichting, Amarchand Mangaldas, AmBev, Amnet Technology Solutions, Arval

Jon Rosen Systems

Buyer's Guide

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ConnectWise ScreenConnect

April 2025

Free Report: Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ConnectWise ScreenConnect

Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. ConnectWise ScreenConnect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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