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Horizon Cloud Service vs Microsoft Remote Desktop Services 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Horizon Cloud Service is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.2%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 14.5%, down from 15.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Workstation14.5%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services6.2%
Horizon Cloud Service2.0%
Other77.3%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

SivaKuppala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Terje Romen - PeerSpot reviewer
Accessing the same desktop experience from anywhere but user template creation needs improvement
Mostly we are quite happy with it. However, some of us want a more powerful desktop. When not present, we use a remote tool called Splashtop, which is a good solution for some users. We have about ten licenses for those who need a powerful workstation at the office. We have not used many different tools. We are never in contact with Microsoft. These are quite basic configurations, to be honest. It's not complicated. AI is coming to or is already in some applications we are using. Not system-wise, however, it might be good. I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It's quite good, yet certainly not perfect.
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

"Its advanced management features are the most valuable, especially power management. One of the really important things was to be able to have power management in a consumption world. This means that unlike a Microsoft environment, you could actually turn off virtual desktops or have them start up and shut down. If you're consuming resources in the public cloud, you want to be able to do that because when you're not using those, such as at the weekend, you want to be able to turn them off. So, the advanced options for managing the BDIs are very important."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is easy to use and the full development cloud is very good. The main features of VMware are included. It's a cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure software that allows you to permit the virtual desktops and applications to any device from the single unified management control. These are managed from the dedicated remote session desktop."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon Cloud is the ability to manage a great number of desktops at once and the remote access for users that are working from outside of the office or from different offices in the country."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon Cloud is all of its capabilities together."
"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 product’s on-premise version has the ability to create an image of any updates or changes in the system."
"The solution has very smooth connectivity and is very user friendly."
"It is a stable product."
"The solution is scalable."
"The technical support is good."
"The initial setup is not that difficult. I have gone through the RDS initialization steps, which only seem easy."
"It's almost an out of the box function once you have installed the other components."
"The performance meets our requirements and the stability is good."
"The most valuable feature is that it gives me full accessibility to my servers."
"The features are good."
"VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox."
"We can undo some changes using the snapshot feature."
"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 most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the speed of access and quality of upgrade. Those are the more important and pertinent aspects as far as we were concerned. Functionality and features were relevant for the customers. What a customer chose, we had to make sure that it operated."
"VMware Player's best feature is the ability to run different OS's simultaneously."
"Technical support is very good."
"The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the DirectX support, you can run Microsoft Hyper-V in virtual environments which is good for me to test different installations. Additionally, you can set up different VLANs, and overall it is a complete solution."
 

Cons

"It can be very expensive to scale up because each part of scaling up requires you to have new components of the infrastructure."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The licensing model is complex, particularly for hybrid deployments, and simplifying it could help."
"The licensing model needs to be adjusted, as a cloud license is currently required even for on-premises devices."
"The product has a lot of bugs."
"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 DB card needs improvement. I have a lot of experience with other competitors and Citrix is better than VMware and Microsoft. Citrix has more extensive features."
"The only problem I see is that when I am connected, there is a certain lag because of the network."
"The product is not very scalable."
"From the perspective of an IT professional, Microsoft Remote Desktop is very easy to use. However, it could be made easier to use for the end user, especially when it comes to activating it."
"The solution isn't as good as the Citrix option."
"There have been some network issues in the solution. So, when we used to connect it, the solution suddenly got disconnected. So the network part needs to be improved."
"There is a limitation on the number of concurrent users."
"The biggest reason we don't use the solution for our company's clients is the solution's prices."
"One improvement is mouse emulation. Some people in the office want to use a five—or seven-button mouse like they're used to at home, but they can't with the workstation setup."
"For some virtual machine configurations, you have to go to the text editor and make the configuration changes, which could be improved."
"I would want to see features included that make deployment easier."
"Eventually, we had to get some licenses with Broadcom, and all the costs went up dramatically to the point where if I had it to do over again, I might have made a different decision."
"The solution can be expensive."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"It could have more platforms and CPUs."
"It would be helpful if VMware Workstation included an in-built monitoring tool for monitoring things."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"VMware Horizon Cloud is a low-cost solution. The model that they have is consumption-based. However, some features are expensive."
"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."
"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."
"There is a license required for the use of this solution and there are different tier levels available."
"Initially, the product is cheap, but it starts to get expensive when users try to scale out."
"I rate VMware Horizon Cloud pricing a ten out of ten."
"VMware Horizon Cloud is an expensive solution. This solution is approximately 30 percent more than Microsoft Azure Cloud. There can be extra costs."
"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."
"Although not an expensive product, pricing is always something that can be improved."
"It's not an expensive product."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows."
"The solution is overly expensive."
"The tool must be cheaper."
"It's not an expensive solution."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"VMware Workstation is an expensive tool. I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low or good price."
"The solution is moderately priced. I rate the pricing a six out of ten."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options."
"The tool is not the cheapest."
"The licensing costs are cheap. I pay approximately $100 per year."
"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Media Company
10%
Performing Arts
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
In limited use cases, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is free as it is defaulted by any Microsoft license. The paid...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
The only problem I see is that when I am connected, there is a certain lag because of the network.
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 ...
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

VMware Horizon Cloud, VMware Horizon DaaS
Remote Desktop Services
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Marriott, Sprint
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Citrix, Omnissa and others in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Updated: October 2025.
872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.