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Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Horizon 8 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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
6.8
Citrix DaaS offers varied ROI, enhances efficiency, flexibility, data protection, and supports continuity, with unquantified access and productivity benefits.
Sentiment score
5.6
Horizon 8 reduces IT costs and boosts productivity, offering hardware savings and efficiency improvements in education and business.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Customer service is praised for responsiveness, but technical support quality varies, especially needing improvement in first-level interactions.
Sentiment score
5.6
Horizon 8's support is knowledgeable and reliable, though some customers report delays and varying service quality.
The best support I have received is from Ireland, Dublin.
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
The first level often wastes time because I usually have to escalate to an engineer for proper support.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Citrix support is better than Microsoft support.
IT Technical Advisor Specialist at Intact
The main areas needing improvement are response speed and quality of answers.
Systems Engineer-Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The support team is helpful and offers assistance.
Owner at CoBSS
Our support from VMware expired last December.
Sr. VDI Engineer at Afiniti.com
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Citrix DaaS enables scalable, adaptable deployments for thousands of users, overcoming diagnostic challenges with strategic planning and regular updates.
Sentiment score
8.2
Horizon 8 provides high scalability, allowing organizations to easily expand users and devices with flexibility and efficiency.
The platform can scale to very large numbers.
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
It supports over 100 apps and 20,000 users in our organization, demonstrating impressive scalability.
IT Technical Advisor Specialist at Intact
Citrix DaaS offers vast scalability options as workloads can be deployed across multiple data centers like Azure, Google, or AWS.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Citrix DaaS is reliable and efficient, with improvements enhancing stability and scalability, despite occasional network-related stability issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Horizon 8 is stable and reliable, scoring 7-10/10, with minor issues often linked to infrastructure.
The fact that it is scalable makes it easy to adapt to new business directions and adopt other software.
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
Citrix DaaS allows for satisfactory stability by facilitating workload deployment in various data centers including Azure, Google, or AWS.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Especially with the integration of NVIDIA, we experience multiple problems including crashing applications, crashing desktops, spontaneous logoffs, black screens, and systems that no longer respond or cannot reconnect.
Owner at CoBSS
We can scale by adding additional servers and connection servers.
Systems Engineer-Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Citrix DaaS has configuration complexities, high costs, and integration challenges, with users seeking better performance, usability, and scalability.
Horizon 8 needs enhanced usability, cloud integration, security, Linux support, documentation, analytics, and clearer licensing for cost-effective deployment.
Creating App-V applications is not an easy task and could take from hours to weeks without success.
IT Technical Advisor Specialist at Intact
Citrix should have different pricing based on company size.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
This makes it challenging to remain with them, and it becomes necessary to explore alternatives to achieve the same performance with less expense.
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
I would like to see improvements in Horizon 8, specifically integration with NVIDIA for graphical performance upgrades because it creates many issues such as crashing and black screen systems, causing users to lose access to their current desktop and work.
Owner at CoBSS
We have limited capabilities since we are not using a multi-instance solution, just single instances.
Sr. VDI Engineer at Afiniti.com
For Horizon 8, it would be beneficial to integrate more monitoring capabilities in advanced editions.
Systems Engineer-Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Citrix DaaS is costly, especially with added Microsoft licensing, though offers comprehensive features and negotiable pricing options.
Horizon 8 is a premium solution with high initial costs, offering cost-effective long-term benefits and flexible licensing options.
Citrix DaaS is considered expensive, especially for companies that do not require multi-cloud.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
I rate the cost-effectiveness of GenApp of Citrix equal to our CMS; it is quite cost-effective.
Sr. VDI Engineer at Afiniti.com
After VMware was bought by Broadcom, the pricing was ridiculous, but now that Onmises has VMware Horizon 8, the pricing is back to an acceptable level.
Owner at CoBSS
 

Valuable Features

Citrix DaaS provides scalable, secure remote access with low bandwidth, centralized management, and multi-device compatibility for seamless user experience.
Horizon 8 offers centralized management, virtual machine provisioning, and cost-effective scalability for seamless integration and diverse device support.
With Citrix, all connections are outgoing, minimizing firewall vulnerability.
Pre-Sales at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The scalability of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is impressive, supporting over 100 apps and a user base of 20,000 within our organization.
IT Technical Advisor Specialist at Intact
Multi-factor authentication has helped secure applications because users typically have two-way authentication software on their phones.
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
Centralized management of desktops is one of the main reasons customers choose this solution.
Systems Engineer-Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The solution has data leak prevention features that ensure data is not copied from the base machine to VDI.
Sr. VDI Engineer at Afiniti.com
From a security point of view, security in Horizon 8 is one of the main points in keeping the system resources from the company away from bad actors. You can keep the desktops completely isolated, and you don't need to share your file shares or database with the end-user system.
Owner at CoBSS
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
128
Ranking in other categories
Application Virtualization (1st), Remote Access (4th), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)
Horizon 8
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
User Virtualization (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 15.4%, up from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Horizon 8 is 6.7%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)15.4%
Horizon 86.7%
Other77.9%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

SN
Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange
Has delivered consistent desktop experiences across remote locations and has supported multimedia workloads efficiently
I have utilized the HDX protocol for compression and audio-video capabilities. When users need to conduct meetings with customers or colleagues, they can use Teams solutions and open a bridge where video and audio are encapsulated within the ICA protocol, which is protected by SSL and certificates for security. This provides secure communication at good quality through the HDX protocol. HDX protocol has improved application performance as it is specifically designed for multimedia applications. If processing audio or video files, such as in telecom where discussions are recorded and then prepared as video or audio, this does not consume excessive bandwidth during the operation compared to a normal remote desktop connection provided by Microsoft. Everything is compressed and provides sufficient bandwidth for multiple people to perform similar tasks without interruption or session disconnection. All multimedia-related activities, such as playing content on YouTube, deliver a better experience with this protocol overall. I use multi-factor authentication for opening sessions to the data center where users access their machines or software. Multi-factor authentication has helped secure applications because users typically have two-way authentication software on their phones. They use a password first and then authenticate themselves through their mobile application to grant access to resources. This approach is effective because if a hacker attacks a user, they need more than just the password and username. They must also possess the device that provides authentication. The device typically has facial recognition, a password, and provides better security overall.
MB
Owner at CoBSS
Experience with remote access facilitates seamless user management, though improvements in integration and analytics are desired
From the analytical aspects, we used Horizon 8 Advanced Analytics and most companies switched to another product to gain insights because the insight is not as helpful as other products that are built for it. What was missing in Horizon 8 to make it a better tool was in analytics, specifically getting the right information and the drill-down process to find out where the problem is. If a user has an issue, it is crucial to determine what the issue is that the user is having and since when they have the issue. For example, if a user reports back that they had an issue yesterday evening, getting that information and ensuring that you have it was hard to find, especially to pinpoint if the issue lies with the network or the Horizon 8 platform. We utilized the multi-factor authentication, conditional access in Horizon 8, but we are not satisfied with that. It lacks some integration options that make it easy to run with Microsoft Entra, for example, and authenticate using your regular authenticator besides just getting a pop-up that says, 'I'm the one that's trying to log on.' Nowadays, there are many more complex authentication methods, but even a basic confirmation with a number to verify that you are the person connecting is not supported. I would like to see improvements in Horizon 8, specifically integration with NVIDIA for graphical performance upgrades because it creates many issues such as crashing and black screen systems, causing users to lose access to their current desktop and work. This is a real issue at the moment for many customers worldwide.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions are best for your needs.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user8922 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Aug 23, 2013
Comparison of VMware View 5.2 VS Citrix XenDesktop 5.6
Recently I attended the VMware Partner Exchange 2013 and there was a session called “Technical Battleground – View VS XenDesktop”. In this post I will try and cover the differences that VMware showcased during their session and I am going to add an additional column for my comments and thoughts on…
 

Answers from the Community

DD
Systems Engineer at Evaluation Services Inc.
Oct 26, 2021
Oct 26, 2021
I think VMware Horizon View is a very solid product. I think it is the most mature product on the whole spectrum. All virtual desktop environments require tuning for performance. Depending on the size of the company you don't need 1/10 of the bells & whistles that the vendors include. For example, I have a small environment - 70 employees. I don't use instant clones, personas, their analys...
See 2 answers
EB
Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
Jun 29, 2021
Hi @Abbasi Poonawala, @David Grudek​, @Payman Maher​, @Michal Sadlik ​, @Tonatiuh Torres Zamorano ​ , @JacquesBodenstein, and @Dan Withrow. Can you help @Dante Dano ​with your professional experience? Thank you.
DR
Director of IT at BLDD ARCHITECTS INC
Oct 26, 2021
I think VMware Horizon View is a very solid product.  I think it is the most mature product on the whole spectrum. All virtual desktop environments require tuning for performance. Depending on the size of the company you don't need 1/10 of the bells & whistles that the vendors include. For example, I have a small environment - 70 employees. I don't use instant clones, personas, their analysis tools, ... Not only are they expensive (the tools) they overly complicate a complicated process. KISS.  I have honed down the environment to what is just needed. Most of the industry will tell you otherwise. And I do all this as a one-man IT department. 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business61
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise44
 

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...
How does VMware Workspace One compare with VMware Horizon 7?
VMware Workspace One has a powerful set of helpful features. The solution offers very good documentation, the initial setup is easy, and the product is very stable and reliable. I think the fact th...
What do you like most about VMware Horizon 7?
VMware offers a friendly environment, and it's easy to provide the user with the package. It is a bundled solution that is readily deployable. The advantage lies in its simplicity, it requires mini...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Horizon 7?
We paid a lot of money for software that is not really fully operational out of the box. We had to have patches from VMware to get it into production. Hence, we lost a lot of time implementing the ...
 

Also Known As

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace
VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager
 

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
LCMC Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. Horizon 8 and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.