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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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

Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (2nd)
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.2%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 14.5%, down from 15.4% 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%
Other79.3%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

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

"In terms of the valuable features, I like the profile, the new version is really good."
"You can scale the product."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is managing the remote desktop end user or remote server."
"It is a stable product."
"The solution now includes a multi-screen feature which is great."
"It works fine, and it is largely issue-free."
"The most valuable feature is the remote application access."
"The performance is one of the main features of this solution."
"The product works well."
"The platform’s most valuable feature is snapshot."
"VMware Player's best feature is the ability to run different OS's simultaneously."
"It's really easy to build testing environments with VMware Player."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Player is the ability to snapshot with or without memory."
"The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up."
"The features are good."
"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."
 

Cons

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having graphical acceleration."
"I would like to see the hard drives work without locking up and integrate the local drives in the next release."
"It could offer better security for enterprises."
"I would like to see a web-based interface, instead of client installation to refresh the UI through HTML."
"We'd like them to continue to improve on security."
"Microsoft Desktop Services is stable but it takes up a lot of resources in the CPU. It's a bit heavier than some solutions."
"The administrative functionality is not enough for me."
"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."
"I would like to see more detailed reporting capabilities, particularly around snapshot activity. It would be helpful to have a summary of changes made prior to deploying an application, allowing us to provide comprehensive reports to our management on a regular basis."
"The price of VMware Workstation is an area of concern where improvements are needed."
"VMware Workstation could improve the export and import of virtual machines."
"It could have more platforms and CPUs."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"Performance could be improved, it's somewhat clunky."
"VMware Workstation has some network limitations which could improve, it is not as flexible as VMware NSX. Additionally, it could support operating systems better. I only run some Linux versions and Windows at the moment but it would be nice to be able to take whatever operating system you want and run it."
"I need to buy a newer version of the tool to support Windows Server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the solution is low."
"It's not an expensive solution."
"The solution has a pretty comparable pricing."
"The solution is overly expensive."
"It will probably cost about $500 USD to get the resources set up in the cloud."
"The price of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is reasonable."
"I recall that you don't need to pay for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services because that's included in Windows."
"The pricing could always be improved."
"Licensing costs are paid on a yearly basis."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
"I use the free version of VMware Workstation."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise16
 

Questions from the Community

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 version for enterprise requires RDS ( /products/amazon-rds-reviews ) CALs, or c...
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 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

Remote Desktop Services
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Akademiska Hus
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VMware Workstation and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,349 professionals have used our research since 2012.