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

Citrix XenServer vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Citrix XenServer
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (11th)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Citrix XenServer is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 4.8%, up 4.5% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 15.1% mindshare, down 15.4% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Köhler - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting benefits from robust consulting while also recognizing the need for improved disk management
When it comes to optimization, that's one of the weaker points of Citrix XenServer, especially regarding disk management, which is somewhat clumsy. Backup-related issues and disk management should be improved. Especially concerning backup, as discussions with Veeam engineers about Citrix XenServer backup strategy indicate there might not be a solution from Veeam soon. License optimization is not such a significant problem, but licenses are quite complicated. Vendors constantly invent new license models, making it difficult to order the correct licenses needed. There is not a big difference between Citrix and VMware products because Citrix can implement Windows and Linux anyway.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I haven't had any significant issues with Citrix XenServer installations over the last 10-15 years."
"It is quite flexible and rugged. It is also easy to understand and user-friendly. It is not as complicated as some of the other solutions. It has its technicalities, but it is easy to understand. You can easily pick up in a short period of time and understand how to manage the infrastructure."
"Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective, and organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple."
"The ability to move a virtual machine while it is running is a big advantage."
"The price is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The most valuable features are being able to host many virtual machines and being able to patch machines."
"This solution allows the end users to clone, start, stop, or remotely control their VMs."
"Ability to move your virtual machines from one host to another."
"VMware Workstation’s most valuable features are backup and data transfer from one server to another."
"It's really easy to build testing environments with VMware Player."
"We initially intended to work with Hyper-V because we are selling a virtual appliance and thought our customers would want to run that on Hyper-V."
"The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up."
"The product is really easy to use."
"The solution's customer service is good."
"I like that it's easy to use. It's easy to deploy virtual machines. You have to insert your ISO and the image of your OS and configure it. They provide a step-by-step guide, and you have to follow it. In the end, you have to start the machine, and that's all you have to do. I liked that they synchronized the mouse, keyboard, and everything. When you finish the installation, it directly links to your laptop. This makes copying and pasting things from my laptop inside the virtual machine easy."
"VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox."
 

Cons

"Something that could be improved in Citrix XenServer is its centralized management since the Citrix XenServer Center should be deployed in Windows."
"The solution should be more flexible and allow for greater customization."
"The licensing costs are too high on the solution. They should work to make the costs more reasonable."
"While Citrix Hypervisor remains a reliable virtualization platform, several areas could be improved to better meet enterprise needs."
"The solution is only in English. It would be ideal if it was in Portuguese."
"The marketing of Citrix lacks effectiveness."
"The main problem with Citrix Hypervisor is getting readily available backup solutions for it. It would be wonderful if Hypervisor were better integrated with third-party backup solutions."
"Integration with other vendors and other applications could be improved."
"The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes."
"Lacks the ability to clone onto another system rather than starting from scratch."
"I would want to see features included that make deployment easier."
"I need to buy a newer version of the tool to support Windows Server."
"The solution should provide a guide on its installation."
"They could add more integration between them, and compatibility with the standard virtualization format."
"The GUI interface could be improved."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citrix Hypervisor is a licensed product, and customers who buy the Citrix XenDesktop get Citrix Hypervisor for free. If they don't buy the license for Citrix XenDesktop, they'll need to pay for Citrix Hypervisor and its price is high. Pricing is even higher than VMware. The licensing policy for Citrix Hypervisor is good. It's straightforward. The only issue is the price because it's an expensive product."
"Citrix Hypervisor is expensive."
"This solution is open source, it's free."
"We used it only for some desktop licenses, so the pricing is great. We used the free licenses for server virtualization."
"There are three editions available and I believe they are perpetual licenses."
"There are free and paid versions. The free version is limited in features but not by time limit. The paid version has more features."
"The cost of this product is not high."
"The most valuable feature is the cost; it is a free product."
"It is an expensive solution."
"With a VDI solution, there is always extra cost running a VDI solution but it's not for cost purposes anymore. In the beginning, it was to save money on hardware but at the moment it's other aspects that are more important why you should use a VDI solution."
"You need to pay for a license, but I don't think it costs that much. I think it's a one-time payment."
"The solution is moderately priced. I rate the pricing a six out of ten."
"The product is expensive."
"VMware is expensive. Licensing can be tricky. For example, I recently had a client running VMware vSphere Essentials and wanted to migrate to a more scalable solution. However, they had no choice but to purchase a completely new license and deploy a completely new instance of VMware."
"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."
"The pricing is reasonable."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Server Virtualization Software solutions are best for your needs.
864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VL
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Hypervisor?
The core function enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. This maximizes hardware utilization and efficiency.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Hypervisor?
Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective. Organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple. If you are using Citrix load only, t...
What needs improvement with Citrix Hypervisor?
In a DC, DR situation, if applications are self-dependent and self-DR replicated, then it works fine. However, if hypervisor-level backup or replication is required, very few backup software option...
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Proxmox, VMware, Microsoft and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: July 2025.
864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.