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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs VMware Workstation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
3.9
Users find Microsoft Remote Desktop Services efficient and valuable for remote work, despite cost concerns and uncertain direct financial returns.
Sentiment score
1.0
VMware Workstation enhances cost savings, enabling efficient application testing and integration, resulting in improved job performance and satisfaction.
By unlocking a locked situation, I mean we couldn't connect to a server in any other way, so we had to use RDP.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
3.3
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services support experiences vary, with mixed feedback on response times, quality, and accessibility depending on resources.
Sentiment score
2.9
VMware Workstation's customer service is mixed, with varying responsiveness and reliance on community resources after HP acquisition.
On a scale of one to 10, I would rate their support or customer service a two or three since they never did anything.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
The documents provided for Workstation were not hard to understand.
Owner at Inforex
It's a very special way of working with VMware Workstation.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is scalable, suitable for small to medium organizations, with mixed reviews on large-scale implementation.
Sentiment score
6.7
VMware Workstation is versatile, supporting multiple VMs, though opinions vary on scalability for larger operations and single installations.
My impression is that most of the solutions, especially today, make sense for large corporations with 2000 seats or more.
CEO & Owner at Mono AS
VMware Workstation is scalable enough for larger companies, though it requires some skills.
Owner at Inforex
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Remote Desktop is stable and reliable, occasionally facing connectivity issues, with user ratings from seven to ten.
Sentiment score
7.8
VMware Workstation is highly reliable, with improved stability post-v6, though minor virtual network issues may occur in specific scenarios.
We are using the network in a very specific way, and this network adapter causes crashes in the VM.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services needs faster integration, modern UI, improved security, device compatibility, and better resource management and licensing.
VMware Workstation needs performance, usability, and cost improvements, enhanced stability, better documentation, and streamlined integration and scalability.
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services can be improved by better integrating it within Teams or providing a Teams integration to connect to customer support teams or other systems' accesses using Remote Desktop internally, rather than as a separate individual tool.
technology consultant at Bank of America
On macOS, we sometimes experience keyboard connectivity issues.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It should be easier to create a template and duplicate users.
CEO & Owner at Mono AS
Eventually, we had to get some licenses with Broadcom, and all the costs went up dramatically.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We faced challenges with backup due to limitations in the free version, requiring us to switch to a paid version.
Owner at Inforex
We are using the network in a very specific way, and this network adapter causes crashes in the VM.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services pricing is seen as fair but complex, influenced by CAL types and licensing options.
VMware Workstation is pricey but offers integration benefits with cost-saving opportunities through sales and varies by user needs.
These licenses are not cheap, as they add up in cost.
Chief Technology Officer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers accessibility, security, cost-effective scalability, and seamless integration, enhancing remote work productivity and management.
VMware Workstation offers user-friendly virtualization, multi-OS operation, and superior testing flexibility, outperforming alternatives like Oracle VirtualBox.
The main benefits that Microsoft Remote Desktop Services provide to me include streamlining my working process, ensuring security, and offering flexibility to connect to virtual desktops and apps from multiple devices.
Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers include providing me administrator access, certain inbuilt client tools, and the ability to remotely access enterprise applications, as well as helping me validate whether certificates exist or are missing, or near to expiry.
technology consultant at Bank of America
Using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has helped my team save time and improve productivity because we had Microsoft servers that were impossible to connect from our MacBook Pro laptops, and once we started using RDP, we could connect and move forward to deliver the project.
AWS Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox.
Owner at Inforex
VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem.
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simply being able to run several Windows PCs with different development environments has had the largest impact on our operational efficiency.
Owner at Secacon Gygli Engineering LLC
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (3rd)
VMware Workstation
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 6.0%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Workstation is 13.4%, down from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VMware Workstation13.4%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services6.0%
Other80.6%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

MN
technology consultant at Bank of America
Remote access has simplified certificate checks and daily support tasks across our organization
The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers include providing me administrator access, certain inbuilt client tools, and the ability to remotely access enterprise applications, as well as helping me validate whether certificates exist or are missing, or near to expiry. The product also allows for multiple session virtualizations even if users are based in remote locations and offers support for legacy applications that need to be upgraded. Out of those features, the one I rely on the most is certificate validation and plugin installation or removal in certain IDEs which developers or coders generally use. Being able to do this remotely makes my job significantly easier than going to everyone's desk in the office.
GC
Director of IT at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Creating and destroying test machines has simplified our operations and reduced manual recovery time
The Snapshot feature has helped with workflows by allowing us to more easily reconstruct something if we lose it or need it. We've been making Snapshots on a consistent basis, mainly of servers. The VX Rail has worked effectively because we can create machines as we need them. It's helpful for resetting and has helped with our operations because I had set up failover servers on Vertex, but we don't have to do that anymore since VMware will just create a new machine immediately if we have a problem. We're doing our domain servers on there, and we've been very happy with that. We appreciate that we can create machines simply to test things out and then destroy them. I use it for a test machine for checking emails, so if the email has a virus in it, we can just destroy the machine and create a new one. We're slowly moving into the VMware environment, although the pricing with Broadcom has been a disaster.
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881,036 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business40
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise32
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise17
 

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?
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could be improved because we have keyboard compatibility issues with some platforms; on macOS, we sometimes experience keyboard connectivity issues, and it can be ...
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: December 2025.
881,036 professionals have used our research since 2012.