Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Microsoft Virtual Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Citrix DaaS reduces costs and boosts flexibility, efficiency, and continuity, offering long-term savings and environmental benefits.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Virtual Server boosts efficiency, reduces costs by 15%, and delivers 20-30% ROI, offering significant financial benefits.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Citrix DaaS' customer support receives mixed reviews, with praise for expertise but concerns about response times and support quality.
Sentiment score
8.5
Microsoft Virtual Server support is praised for efficiency but faces challenges in accessibility, impacting overall user satisfaction.
The first level often wastes time because I usually have to escalate to an engineer for proper support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Citrix DaaS offers scalable, easy expansion, efficiently handling demands with flexible Azure integrations despite some expense concerns.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Virtual Server is scalable and versatile, accommodating various workloads and organizations of different sizes efficiently.
Citrix DaaS offers vast scalability options as workloads can be deployed across multiple data centers like Azure, Google, or AWS.
Scalability, flexibility, and performance are key factors, indicating no significant limitations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Citrix DaaS offers reliable, stable performance with high availability, ensuring user satisfaction for large-scale virtual desktop deployments.
Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Virtual Server is rated highly stable by users, with room for improvement in adapting to new features.
Citrix DaaS allows for satisfactory stability by facilitating workload deployment in various data centers including Azure, Google, or AWS.
There are a few features like user search, binary search, and LDAP search that have been well-implemented and are user-friendly, aiding many administrators.
 

Room For Improvement

Citrix DaaS struggles with performance, setup complexity, high costs, and requires enhancements in integration, support, and user experience.
Microsoft Virtual Server requires improvements in pricing, support, usability, performance, stability, compatibility, updates, and scalability for better user experience.
More direct access to engineers would speed up resolution.
Introducing a .NET experience with a drag-and-drop feature would enhance ease of report formation and monitoring tools.
 

Setup Cost

Citrix DaaS pricing is costly yet competitive, with versatile licensing, complex management, and strategies needed for cost optimizations.
Enterprise users have mixed opinions on Microsoft Virtual Server pricing, balancing high costs with potential savings and supportive benefits.
Citrix DaaS is considered expensive, especially for companies that do not require multi-cloud.
 

Valuable Features

Citrix DaaS offers high-performance remote access with strong security, seamless app virtualization, and scalability for consistent user experiences.
Microsoft Virtual Server offers scalability, seamless integration, enhanced security, and efficient server management with versatile OS compatibility and user-friendly features.
With Citrix, all connections are outgoing, minimizing firewall vulnerability.
Microsoft Virtual Server also handles a large number of users effectively, which benefits my organization.
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...
Ranking in Application Virtualization
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (4th), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (3rd), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)
Microsoft Virtual Server
Ranking in Application Virtualization
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Virtualization category, the mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 27.5%, up from 26.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Virtual Server is 1.8%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Virtualization
 

Featured Reviews

Grant Waddell - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
ChimeremezeNwabueze - PeerSpot reviewer
Eliminates the need for physical hardware and is not platform dependent
You can detach and reuse the storage drive without disrupting the virtual server, which is quite useful. Additionally, it provides options like network security groups to protect virtual machines from unauthorized access. The tool offers compatibility with various operating systems through the Azure Marketplace. You can access a wide range of Windows operating systems, both enterprise and commercial.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Virtualization solutions are best for your needs.
858,327 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
No data available
 

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.
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. Although it works well on the apps side, the desktop aspect still has room for i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Virtual Server?
I am not involved much in cost-related matters but heard from management that it is a better choice.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Virtual Server?
There is room for improvement in the user interface, which could be more user-friendly. Additionally, introducing a .NET experience with a drag-and-drop feature would enhance ease of report formati...
 

Also Known As

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace
Virtual Server, MS Virtual Server
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

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
Paylocity, ASELSAN, Sochi Organizing Committee, Supervisor of Elections, Orange County, Florida, Netgem, Nav Canada, The British & Irish Lions
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. Microsoft Virtual Server and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
858,327 professionals have used our research since 2012.