Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Horizon Cloud Service vs VMware Fusion Pro comparison

Citrix and Omnissa are both solutions in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category. Citrix is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Omnissa is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Citrix holds a 10.5% mindshare in VD, compared to Omnissa’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Citrix users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Omnissa users who would recommend it.

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...

Read 126 Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) reviews

7,174 Views
3,119 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Horizon Cloud Service

Read 11 Horizon Cloud Service reviews

1,066 Views
394 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

VMware Fusion Pro

Read 8 VMware Fusion Pro reviews

8,203 Views
7,742 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...

Horizon Cloud Service

VMware Fusion Pro

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), Horizon Cloud Service, and VMware Fusion Pro based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about VMware, Citrix, Omnissa and others in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

To learn more, read our detailed Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

May 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 10.5%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Horizon Cloud Service is 1.1%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Fusion Pro is 24.7%, up from 14.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Featured Reviews

Grant Waddell

Head of IT Architecture & Operations Support at Lyntia

User-friendly and easily accessible, but cost could be made cheaper

We use Citrix Workspace on Citrix Cloud. We have all of our servers on the AWS public cloud. There are a number of tools that we can implement that would save us costs. However, we've stuck to Citrix for convenience. If the prices keep increasing, we will have to consider other solutions. Users need to understand the tool's limitations correctly and what they require from a usability perspective. They should also understand the configuration of security policies. In some cases, people are unable to download or upload files onto their PCs, which is necessary for them to do their work. Users should understand the limitations of the product or the configuration options. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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SivaKuppala

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.

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Bruce Lundberg

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.

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

"It provides all of the features required for the protection of data. For example, we don't want to allow any copy/paste of data to an outside environment, and we are able to restrict the VDI to not allow any data transfer from the VDI to the local laptop's hard drives. That is one of the greatest advantages the solution provides."

"The most valuable feature is connectivity. The remote connection is the reason we are using this solution."

"The remote desktop feature allows employees to work from home."

"We've been able to scale the environment quite nicely by using the Citrix Remote PC. I can't say enough about that. And because that relies on utilizing your existing hardware resources, and making those available as a part of your Citrix farm — with a second level of authentication and security pieces around it — we added some 4,000 workstations without an additional overhead or cost."

"The initial setup is easy."

"I use Citrix DaaS to connect to devices."

"ICA/HDX optimization policies."

"I can access it from anywhere."

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

"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."

"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."

"I honestly liked the application itself because it was just like using a desktop. You could copy and paste, inside and outside, and you could use multiple monitors. You could access it anytime, anywhere, no matter whether you were in the office or out of the office. I could leave the office, go somewhere, go back in, and everything would be there. I could just leave it up and running. I absolutely love this feature in VMware Horizon Cloud."

"The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon Cloud is all of its capabilities together."

"The product allows a VPN connection, adding extra value to its features."

"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."

"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."

More Horizon Cloud Service pros

"The most value that it provides is that it is versatile."

"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."

"VMware Fusion Pro offers simplicity of use and stability."

"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."

"The most important feature of VMware Fusion is that it helps me rapidly launch a new OS."

"The product is easy to use and has a simple user interface."

"It is a highly stable solution."

More VMware Fusion Pro pros

Cons

"Compared with the Outlook mobile app, the Citrix mobile app shows some lag in authentication."

"This solution is resource-intensive, it takes a lot of Bandwidth and a lot of the resources of the server."

"There is room for improvement because it has a lot of dependency on Active Directory and other things. If they could come up with something similar and native, a complete solution portfolio would help."

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

"Where improvement could be driven is in terms of clarity as to the functionality of some of the solutions. If you go back to the older Citrix Xen products that we had, we understood those really well. As we've come into the new workstation premium suite, there is a lot of additional functionality that we perhaps have not yet fully exploited. It is not because we can't, but simply because we don't yet understand the depth of functionality that's offered."

"There have been many issues with stability."

"When there are technical issues, sometimes we can't get on the cloud."

"Dependency on server virtualization after v7.x is an issue which I encountered in small environments."

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

"The product has a lot of bugs."

"It can be very expensive to scale up because each part of scaling up requires you to have new components of the infrastructure."

"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."

"In the design phase, sometimes the tools for designing Horizon solutions have issues when they're calculating the number of nodes and platforms needed to support the VDI systems."

"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 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."

More Horizon Cloud Service cons

"VMware Fusion's licensing cost needs improvement."

"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."

"Its installation process could be simpler."

"Fusion is not meant to be scalable as it runs on desktops and laptops."

"Fusion is not meant to be scalable. It runs on desktops and laptops, indicating limitations in scalability."

"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."

"I would like to see newer and updated cloud functions."

"Additionally, enhancing the API interactions could improve the ability to manage VS and deploy various kinds of guests."

More VMware Fusion Pro cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It is quite expensive, but so are the competitors on the market."

"The price of the solution could be less expensive. There are different versions to their solution and the price keeps increasing."

"I think it is a little high priced."

"The tool is expensive."

"We have more than a million seats under management so we get the best price."

"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."

"We recouped 60 to 70 percent of the hardware costs."

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

"VMware Horizon Cloud is an expensive solution. This solution is approximately 30 percent more than Microsoft Azure Cloud. There can be extra costs."

"Initially, the product is cheap, but it starts to get expensive when users try to scale out."

"VMware Horizon Cloud is a low-cost solution. The model that they have is consumption-based. However, some features are expensive."

"I rate VMware Horizon Cloud pricing a ten out of ten."

"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."

"There is a license required for the use of this solution and there are different tier levels available."

"I rate the product's pricing a seven or eight. It is highly-priced."

"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."

"Starting with version 12, it is now free on a Mac for personal use. Fusion Pro has a cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

13%

University

10%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 VMware Horizon Cloud?

The tool remains pretty stable.

See all answers

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 virtualizati...

See all answers

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. Hori...

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Fusion?

The product is easy to use and has a simple user interface.

See all answers

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 r...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Fusion?

The only issue I've experienced with VMware Fusion Pro is that it doesn't register correctly with the main macOS syst...

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Virtual Desktop vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 45% of the time

Amazon Appstream vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 7% of the time

Rocket Exceed TurboX vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 5% of the time

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Compared 4% of the time

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

Horizon 8 vs Horizon Cloud Service

Compared 32% of the time

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs Horizon Cloud Service

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon Appstream vs Horizon Cloud Service

Compared 11% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Horizon Cloud Service

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle VDI vs Horizon Cloud Service

Compared 7% of the time

More Horizon Cloud Service Competitors

VMware Workstation vs VMware Fusion Pro

Compared 50% of the time

Parallels Desktop vs VMware Fusion Pro

Compared 47% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs VMware Fusion Pro

Compared 1% of the time

Horizon 8 vs VMware Fusion Pro

Compared 1% of the time

More VMware Fusion Pro Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

June 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

Horizon Cloud Service

June 2025

Download Horizon Cloud Service product report

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

May 2025

Download VMware Fusion Pro product report

Also Known As

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

VMware Horizon Cloud, VMware Horizon DaaS

No data available

Interactive Demo

Citrix

Demo not available

Omnissa

Demo not available

VMware

Overview

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

The VMware Horizon Cloud Service delivers feature-rich virtual desktops and applications using a purpose-built cloud platform that is scalable across multiple deployment options, including fully managed infrastructure from VMware, public cloud infrastructure from Microsoft Azure, or on-premises hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). The service supports a cloud-scale architecture that makes it easy to deliver virtualized Windows desktops and applications to any device, anytime. And, with a flexible subscription model and turnkey solutions, organizations can easily get up and running and scale quickly.

Omnissa

VMware Fusion Pro enables Mac users to efficiently run Windows environments, serving tasks like network support and virtual server management, all while maintaining cross-platform flexibility and robust virtualization capabilities.

Offering a seamless virtualization experience, VMware Fusion Pro supports a wide range of computing needs on Mac systems. It efficiently manages virtual machines, integrates well with Windows ESXi infrastructure, and eases OS deployment. The platform’s functionality includes testing on Apple devices, virtualization with Cisco Modeling Labs, and conducting virtual machine maintenance. Users appreciate its ability to facilitate a flexible, reliable virtual environment with consistent updates and support.

What are the key features of VMware Fusion Pro?

Windows VM on Mac - Run Windows operating systems seamlessly on Mac devices.
ESXi Integration - Provides compatibility and integration with Windows ESXi infrastructure.
Snapshot and Cloning - Simplifies backup and recovery with snapshot and cloning options.
Efficient OS Launch - Quick and effective operating system deployment capabilities.
User-Friendly - Intuitive interface supporting diverse computing tasks.

What benefits and returns can users expect from VMware Fusion Pro?

Versatility - Ideal for leveraging cross-platform compatibility.
Practicality and Reliability - Consistent performance with stable environment management.
Flexible Testing - Simplifies testing processes on Apple laptops.
Improved Backup Processes - Enhanced efficiency in backup management.

VMware Fusion Pro finds applications in industries requiring advanced virtualization such as IT, where it aids network server support and testing environments. Educational institutions employ it for virtual labs and environments, while enterprises use it to manage various OS applications and employee computing needs.

VMware

Sample Customers

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

Marriott, Sprint

NetApp

Buyer's Guide

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

May 2025

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