We performed a comparison between Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and VMware Horizon based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both solutions are easy to deploy and have good features. However, users of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are happier with the price and more satisfied with the technical support.
"Installing Microsoft Desktop Services is straightforward."
"I give the stability a nine out of ten."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"We have scaled the solution and find this easy to do."
"Good screen draw feature and ability to use two monitors."
"The technical support is good."
"The product is stable."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is managing the remote desktop end user or remote server."
"It is easy to scale. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten."
"We are happy with the interface, configurations, pricing and support."
"We like that VMware is the top competitor in virtualization."
"We use VMware Horizon to digitalize environments."
"Scalable and stable virtualization solution, with good technical support offering timely responses."
"I appreciate the ability to have a more centralized environment."
"From my standpoint, the desktop is the most valuable feature."
"It offers great flexibility, allowing us to access it as a complete virtual machine or even just as individual applications."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"It could offer better security for enterprises."
"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."
"Remote Desktop Services doesn't scale well."
"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."
"It could be made simpler from a management perspective."
"We'd like them to continue to improve on security."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in the integration with other parts of the suite. For example, you currently need separate windows to manage app volumes and the dynamic environment manager (DEM)."
"VMware Horizon 7 could improve by supporting the active-active data center. At this time we are only deploying it in the production environment. Our customer is considered to deploy the VMware Horizon 7 to a secondary data center, but we found out that it cannot fully support the user in the deployment in the active-active data center. Any improvement on this would be beneficial."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"I would like to see simple load-balancing for smaller environments that lack large solutions like F5, or NSX; it should be redundant or unavailable but in a simple way. Perhaps limited to only two components; if more are required, a paid load balancing solution can be used. Load balancing for simple environments, or simple redundancy, is sorely lacking."
"The product integration on local client machines running Linux needs improvement."
"Horizon 7's performance could be improved."
"I would highlight the challenges related to integrating with Microsoft Azure services. Specifically, there are issues with MDM-managed devices and the necessity for MDM-managed compliant devices. In the non-persistent horizon model, there's a delay before each new desktop becomes compliant. Users can access these desktops before fully onboard into the MDM solution."
"Areas for improvement in VMware Horizon 7 would be the logging and the troubleshooting, e.g. they could be made clearer."
More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is ranked 1st in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 75 reviews while VMware Horizon is ranked 3rd in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 34 reviews. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is rated 8.0, while VMware Horizon is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services writes "Easy to set up and reliable, but needs an additional control panel". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware Horizon writes "Compelling solution for virtual desktop infrastructure with advanced technology, straightforward licensing, easy setup, and seamless integration". Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is most compared with TeamViewer, VMware Workstation, Citrix Workspace, Parallels Access and Apache Guacamole, whereas VMware Horizon is most compared with VMware Workspace ONE, VMware Horizon View, VMware Player, VMware Horizon Cloud and VMware Workstation. See our Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VMware Horizon report.
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We monitor all Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
