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

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

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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 January 2025, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 3.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 6.1%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 15.7%, down from 19.6% 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.

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DavidWood1

Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Flexible Deployment, reliable performance, and fast transmission speeds

Provisioning Server is a fantastic option for image management in Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. It offers excellent performance and reliability. On the other hand, while Machine Creation Services can be scaled easily, they can significantly increase storage consumption. For instance, creating a Windows 10 image in MCS typically requires at least 80 GB of storage, in addition to any separate disks needed. To store changes made by users in Machine Creation Services, the differencing disk must be equal in size to the base disk, leading to significant storage consumption. On the other hand, Provisioning Server uses image versioning, creating a new image version every time it's modified. As a result, virtual machines streamed from the server revert to their original state after a reboot, which is similar to their state during the first boot. Using the provisioning server, I start by configuring a virtual machine with either a 2016 or 2019 server operating system. I install the necessary Citrix client provisioning server target device software, followed by installing the required applications. After that, I capture the entire configuration to a file share. The image is then streamed from the file share to the hypervisor, which can handle multiple machines. In some large-scale deployments, we have used a single image to provision thousands of servers. Once the image is captured and stored on the file share, it is set to read-only mode, and any changes made to it are not accepted until it is put in read-write mode. When a virtual machine is rebooted, it returns to its previous state before the changes were made. This feature can be beneficial in situations like a virus outbreak, where a simple reboot of the virtual machines can remove any malicious code or changes. A provisioning server offers a faster recovery time from a bad change and is generally faster than machine creation services. With the provisioning server, changes are not accepted until the read-write mode is enabled, and if a virus outbreak occurs, rebooting the machines restores them to the previous state. On the other hand, machine creation services' speed is dependent on the storage's speed, and recovery time from a bad change can take longer, especially with a large number of devices. If a bad change is made with machine creation services, the replication process can take a while to revert, whereas, with a provisioning server, all machines can be rebooted quickly. Within thirty minutes, I can restore my system to its previous state using the provisioning server.

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BHARAT B SHARMA

Director at Shreenathji Solutions

Easy to set up and reliable, but needs an additional control panel

We've had issues with security breaches. The main problem is that if we are using this with the individual computer and using a remote desktop, there are some loopholes there. When I implemented this on an individual computer within two or three days it got captured. There is a problem with the printing and sharing of this program. There is a lot of customized software leaving the market due to this. If somebody wants to run a specific program with the specific settings, they don't want full access to the computer. Then there are some problems that have to be resolved. We'd like to have an additional control panel available in order o more easily give resources to the computers. There are a lot of restrictions and having a program panel would make things easier. It would help us set up the right access and permissions.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Conditional access helps me control uncontrolled access."

"At the moment, Autopilot is the most valuable feature."

"Microsoft Intune simplifies device management by replacing the traditional method of installing OS, joining a domain, and configuring everything manually."

"If the product works, remote access will be a benefit. To this point we have not had reason to have confidence in achieving that access."

"Among the most valuable features are the Company Portal that is built into Intune, and the update rings so that we can manage what types of future updates the devices get."

"I like how Microsoft Intune lets me lock down the email profile and make it accessible only on certain devices."

"Intune has significantly benefited our organization by providing comprehensive visibility into our device ecosystem."

"Intune has automated the deployment of patches and applications, which is more efficient and easier. It allows us to deploy applications, packages, Windows updates, and security updates like BitLocker encryption more efficiently and easily."

More Microsoft Intune pros

"The installation and maintenance are good."

"It is a stable solution. We don't usually have problems with the platform...It is a very scalable solution."

"I use Citrix DaaS to connect to devices."

"Before we adopted a VDI storage solution, our customers' personal information was leaked. This happened a lot. But since we adopted a VDI solution, these kinds of issues have happened rarely."

"For the most part, overall stability is what you would expect."

"The most valuable feature is the gateway to a remote connection, to a physical or a virtual PC. Compared to a normal VPN client and connection, the connection via Citrix is more stable and does not consume as much network bandwidth."

"The most valuable feature is the watermark because most of the time our employees connect from a remote location. In case they photograph the DDA or some data, the watermark will show which user did so and from which IP they connected. That makes it more secure."

"Citrix Workspace's standout feature is its flexibility."

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

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"Things can be made easier if someone is not with us or at a long distance since we can connect easily with those people. So, it's easy for us to use such features."

"It's simple to set up."

"The most valuable feature is that it gives me full accessibility to my servers."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is stable and reliable."

"The solution is user-friendly and has a good user experience."

"The solution works well as a remote desktop."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services pros

Cons

"I would like the ability to install the agent on devices from suppliers, which would enable us to implement a zero-trust strategy for guest devices."

"There are a lot of small use cases where we realized that some technical solution was missing in Microsoft in comparison to other products. For example, it lacks something similar to sensing or location-based rules and configurations."

"When somebody has a customized application or their own company's application, we cannot deploy that application."

"Manually syncing devices to enforce policies is cumbersome."

"Microsoft Intune lacks the ability to provide seamless remote assistance or remote control."

"There is still a gap between SCCM and Intune, especially in the reporting, inventory, and software deployment areas."

"The reporting could be improved, as it's pretty poor compared to other products of this type."

"The time we have to wait to deploy policies has room for improvement."

More Microsoft Intune cons

"Pricing and technical support needs improvement."

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

"The solution's cost has almost doubled this year, and it could be made cheaper."

"The product's technical support services need improvement."

"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 product’s customization feature needs improvement."

"I think Citrix's support is good, but sometimes it is a little slow."

"The video conferencing feature needs to be improved."

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

"The only issue I experienced was with the initialization of the session, which affected the stability of the solution."

"For Microsoft, maybe bandwidth optimization is one of the areas that need improvement."

"We'd like to see more integration with other vendors."

"Microsoft should be more compatible with other operating system."

"The solution isn't as good as the Citrix option."

"My customers are worried that the RDP protocol can be easily compromised and would like the option to use an alternative like Blast."

"Security in the connection between us and our clients' servers is something that can be improved."

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having a better application for managing multiple sessions. There used to be one but they stopped supporting it."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Generally, we get favorable discounts, so it's not too bad. Obviously, we're looking at decreasing those wherever we can to bring value back to the public purse because it's all charity based. It's all publicly funded."

"Microsoft Intune is not cost-effective as a standalone product."

"Pricing can be improved."

"Microsoft Intune is reasonably priced for large organizations that already have Microsoft Enterprise licenses, but it is less affordable for smaller businesses."

"We have a limited budget for security investments, so Microsoft should consider reducing pricing in our region. This would make investment more viable, especially since larger businesses in other countries can afford it easily."

"Microsoft Intune is a cost effective choice. It is less expensive than other products on the market."

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

"The pricing is competitive, but it is not cheap."

More Microsoft Intune pricing and cost advice

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

"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."

"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."

"I don't quite remember the specifics of what we had. I believe we had a 25-user license, and I don't recall it being overly expensive."

"Implementing Citrix DaaS with thin clients, rather than physical laptops, has resulted in savings of 27% to 29%. Additionally, moving 1,000 users from physical laptops to thin clients and VDI solutions can save around 40,000 kilograms of carbon emissions, benefiting both the environment and the company's economy, provided thin clients are used."

"The price of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is approximately $300 for the new version called Dash and the license is approximately $900 annually."

"The licenses are affordable, but the support is a bit expensive, though worth the value."

"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

"There is a licensing cost."

"The tool's pricing is high in the Slovenian market. I rate it a nine out of ten."

"I rate the price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services a three out of five."

"I would say it's expensive as there similar products available for free."

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services comes free as part of Microsoft Windows."

"The tool must be cheaper."

"I am aware that for Azure we do have an extra license because we are leveraging on different tenants."

"The solution is expensive. Since things are made to be a bit easier in the solution, the solution's cost is a bit on the higher side."

More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Remote Access solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

26%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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

My focus has primarily been on publishing virtual applications.

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.

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. ...

What do you like most about Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

The tool shares computer resources perfectly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

I've never had an issue with it. I've always thought the pricing for RDS was reasonable.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?

The current process I have to go through to get a Windows 11 VM up and running is difficult. Windows 10 worked a whol...

Jamf Pro vs Microsoft Intune

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Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Intune

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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VMware Workstation vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

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Product Reports

Microsoft Intune

Download Microsoft Intune product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

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

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

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

Download Microsoft Remote Desktop Services product report

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services report

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

Remote Desktop Services, MS Remote Desktop Services

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Citrix

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Intune is a comprehensive cloud-based service that allows you to remotely manage mobile devices and mobile applications without worrying about the security of your organization’s data. Device and app management can be used on company-owned devices as well as personal devices.

In an increasingly mobile workforce, Microsoft Intune keeps your sensitive data safe while on the move. Microsoft Intune makes it possible for your team members to work anywhere using their mobile devices. Microsoft Intune provides both the flexibility and the control needed for securing all your data on the cloud, no matter where the device with the data is located.

Microsoft Intune Device Management Key Features

With Microsoft Intune Device Management you can:

Ensure devices and apps are compliant with your security requirements.
Rapidly deploy and authenticate apps on all company devices.
Remotely access devices to troubleshoot issues or to remove data from them.
Generate reports for all devices in the system.
Monitor the way users access and share information to protect company information.
Set rules and configure settings on personal and organization-owned devices to access data and networks.
Create user groups and device groups, allowing you to rapidly access many users and devices simultaneously.

Mobile Application Management

Mobile application management in Intune is designed to protect your organization’s data at the application level.

With Microsoft Intune Application Management you can:

Configure apps to run with specific settings enabled.
Update existing apps that are already on the device.
See reports on which apps are used and monitor their usage.
Selectively wipe organization data from apps.
Add mobile apps to user groups and devices.

As part of Microsoft's Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) suite, Intune integrates with Microsoft Entra ID for access control and with Azure Information Protection for data protection. It also integrates with Microsoft 365 Applications.

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Intune stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to secure all devices under its management and the flexibility that the solution offers its users.

A computing services manager notes, "Its security is most valuable. It gives us a way to secure devices, not only those that are steady. We do have a few tablets and other devices, and it is a way for us to secure these devices and manage them. We know they're out there and what's their status. We can manage their life cycle and verify that they're updated properly."

The head of IT engineering at a financial services company writes, "The one feature we find most useful is the Mobile Application Manager. There are two types: we have the complete MDM and the Mobile Application Manager (MAM). We don't give our users phones, it is their own personal phone, and we need to allow them to have access to the company details on their phone. We need to create a balance between their own personal data and the company data. We deploy the Mobile Application Manager for them so that we won't be able to interfere with their own personal data."

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

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is a highly regarded remote access tool in addition to being a top-ranked Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution in the marketplace today.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) is a suite of valuable elements of the Windows operating system (OS) that serve specific desired objectives. Microsoft RDS integrates various features that allow approved users to gain access to graphical desktops and Windows applications remotely. Approved users are able to deploy applications or even a complete desktop without having to install anything on their devices. Everything remains in the cloud. This ensures that there are never any compatibility issues and keeps the organization's original network secure at all times. Administrators are also able to ensure that data cannot be stored in any unapproved location, such as the local device, unapproved drives, or any other location.

Microsoft RDS makes it easy for business organizations to access Windows Desktops and other Windows applications remotely to ensure today’s busy enterprise organizations are able to maintain the highest levels of productivity at all times. There are two basic ways organizations can effectively utilize RDS.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Component: This allows users to connect with various alternate desktops from their current device. Once the user has gained a secure connection based on the approved administrative permissions, the user can seamlessly access and interact with the remote desktop. Users have the feeling of having this new virtual desktop installed directly on their machine.

RemoteApp: Users are able to easily access cloud-based applications via their own personal desktop computers or other approved mobile devices. This application ensures overall application management is centralized and consistent throughout the entire business enterprise.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Benefits

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

Access Windows applications remotely from any device
Enhanced consistent application performance
Increased computing resources
Secure cloud-based data storage.
Streamlined management processes
Reduction in technical administrative resources
Reduction in hardware and device costs.
Improved employee productivity
Cost-effective
Improved Profitability
Reduce carbon footprint

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services makes it easy for busy enterprise organizations to stay productive and remain competitive in today’s aggressive marketplace. An organization's end-users can be given access to their own specific desktops from any location, anytime, using any approved device. Additionally, users can access Microsoft applications without having an effect on their device's resource capacity or performance.

Reviews from Real Users

“What I found most valuable in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is accessibility because the solution lets you take control of your computer remotely, and that's a good feature.” Pascal B., IT consultant at Secoptrial

“The most valuable features of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are unification, central management, and accessibility.” Jan S. Solution Architect at a tech services company

“The most valuable features are that it is fast and cost-effective. I am not aware of a replacement currently on the market.” Ramon H. Director at Empaco

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

Bank Alfalah Ltd.

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