VMware Workstation Reviews

We use the product for testing environments and technologies before implementing business solutions.

VMware Workstation’s most valuable feature is virtualization technology. It has all the essential features and capabilities to use one computer for implementing solutions in many environments.

The product’s virtual machine data backup feature needs upgrading.

We have been using VMware Workstation for many years.

The product is very stable. I rate its stability an eight out of ten.

We used Oracle VirtualBox before. We switched to VMware Workstation for better stability.

The initial setup is very easy for creating virtual machines. It does not require any prior experience. The deployment time depends on the number of machines and services to be implemented. It takes approximately ten minutes to deploy one machine.

The product generates a return on investment for us. It allows us to test the solutions in test environments before publishing them in production. 

I recommend VMware Workstation for IT technicians and rate it an eight out of ten.

It is used to spin up games on a desktop. It can also run VMs on a desktop on-premises.

The performance is good and depends on your PC.

It could have more platforms and CPUs.

We have been using this solution for more than ten years. It is deployed both on cloud and on-premises.

It is a stable product.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

There were no problems with the initial setup, and the deployment was good.

It is not an expensive solution, and I rate the pricing a nine out of ten.

I rate this solution a ten out of ten and recommend it to others.

My company used to manufacture equipment that worked in conjunction with Citrix, VMware, or anything else that had either a cloud-based solution or a thin client or a thin client operating system requirement.

Our clients already were already a VMware Workstation, Citrix, Parallels, or a Microsoft customer, and we were only presenting them with the technology to physically connect to that solution. We provided a way in which they could present a connection to the target operating system or application. We were the OS that sat on the actual physical customer's desktop, and then they would connect to, for example, Citrix, VMware, or Microsoft.

Instead of having a whole full-blown copy of Microsoft Windows on a desktop to access another copy of Microsoft Windows, that's in the cloud, we are were presenting them with an alternative method to get to the virtual desktop or virtual application. We provided an endpoint computer solutions space. We didn't influence what the customers' endpoint was connecting to, we would facilitate the connection only.

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. 

The big issue that we've always had with VMware, was the disparity between what was presented for a Windows-based client and a Linux-based client. The Windows client was always two or three releases ahead of the Linux client. We always wanted VMware to change and improve the feature sets between the client connector on Linux and on Windows.

We have used Citrix and they are very good because they keep both in step with one another. When they release a new endpoint client, very close to the same between the Microsoft Windows OS 10, Apple iOS, and Android.  VMware Workstation tends to leave Windows first for its client OS and sometimes doesn't catch up with the other OS's. A good example is the offloading of Teams. Teams works on Microsoft Windows, but there's no Linux client. 

I have been using VMware Workstation for approximately six years.

VMware Workstation is highly reliable and stable.

I have used Citrix previously. I would rate VMware Workstation and Citrix the same. They have small differences and they both have areas to improve.

VMware Workstation's initial setup is straightforward. It's not a difficult solution to implement. It's incredibly similar to Citrix. It's quite easy because most sites that employ Horizon or VMware Workstation have already a VMware implementation, it's not extensive in that respect. However, what is difficult for all clients, it's how to make it work reliably, quickly, and stream well. After the initial installation, it's the second configuration that is what takes more work.

I would recommend this solution for customers. However, the solution has to match the customer's use case.

I rate VMware Workstation a ten out of ten.

It's a very good tool for testing labs on my own computer. This is only the use.

VMware Workstation is great for migrating and patching operating systems. 

My experience with Workstation is limited, so I don't know all the functionalities of this tool. Maybe Workstation could add some more compatibility with other vendors.

I used VMware Workstation in a testing lab two months ago, but it was only for internal testing. We only tried it out for about five days.

Workstation is stable and scalable. 

Workstation is easy to set up. It only took about 15 minutes. 

I rate VMware Workstation nine out of 10. It's a very good product. 

The primary use case of this product is to connect to my virtual interpreter of VMs and the like. In the event of an emergency, or if the user wants to deploy a VM on his own virtual system, Workstation can create a number of VMs in their own system, without having to connect back to the network. We deploy this solution for our clients and have around 15 customers that are using it. We are resellers of VMware Workstation.  

This product has a lot of good features and the basic one is for solving connection problems. Users can deploy the test machines or the VM machines on their own system and do the testing part. They can set up their own lab or own test set up on their system and do what they need.

I think that performance could be improved by making it more effective and less resource consuming. It's a little clunky. 

The solution is stable, we haven't had any issues.

This solution is scalable - you can install it on your system and run a number of VMs which connect back to the central data, so it's inter-connectable, connecting access to VPNs.

The initial setup of this product was straightforward. 

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Our primary use case for VMware Workstation is testing. We also provide some online services on VMware ESXi. 

The feature I find the most valuable is the product's usability. I prefer it over the Oracle solution, especially APEX. 

VMwate Workstation's virtualization is great as well. 

The price should be reduced. 

Visio stencils must be made available for technical documentation.

I have been using this solution for five years. 

I haven't faced any inconveniences working with this solution. It is very easy to use. 

I haven't had a reason to contact technical support. We have not had any significant difficulties with the product. 

I recommend this product. 

VM management - ability to very easily create and manage multiple VMs of various platforms. Portability and ease of saving and copying entire VMs from machine to machine.

As a systems admin, I use it to run multiple instances of systems on my host machine to get better usability and for testing new builds for our users as well as for server updates. 

It's been a struggle at times to keep drive shares and video drivers working across updates. So a bit of stability in those areas would be nice.

2 years

I've been hit with a few bugs and documented issues.Specifically with video not behaving for VM windows on multiple monitors. And shared printing from the host machine is very temperamental.

It always seems a bit steep to me on renewals, but it pairs very well with our existing vSphere architecture so it offers a few more benefits and ease of use.

I use Hyper-V for the same purposes but VMware Workstation performs well and scales down to our developers needs easily.

Network virtualisation allows the recreation of an entire network including multiple subnets, this is required to correctly recreate live deployment scenarios. It can interact with vSphere/Esxi to allow VMs to be moved directly into vSphere, or copied out and stood-up in Workstation; full support to import/export from OVF templates is also supported. This functionality has proved extremely beneficial in pre-staging supporting servers for DR recovery tests as well as testing system upgrades.

It has given us the flexibility to recreate live server scenarios including the supporting networks and AD domain controllers; these are then used to test upgrades or migrations with no impact on the live servers or network. These actions can then be repeated on the live servers, or the upgraded test VM can simply replace the original server (depending on the service requirements and server role). This can be completed by transferring the test VM directly from Workstation to the ESXI host or vSphere environment. If the transfer is the preferred method, the original VM remains available as a failback.

The addition of a built-in virtual router would be a good addition. Currently, I run my own virtual router in order to provide conectivity between virtual subnets.

I've been using it for several years; VMware Workstation since v6 (released in 2008). Initially, it was just for building test servers for training purposes, and versions 7, 8 and now 9 for creating test implementations of live server deployment scenarios, to assist in resolving live issues or to test change controls.

There were no issues.

In v6, it was a 32bit environment with a maximum memory of 4Gb RAM. Therefore, this required a high level of swap out of RAM to disk in order to provide sufficient memory space to run VMs, this occasionally caused system crashes. Since v8 this has not been an issue.

None, Workstation scales to 32Gb of RAM.

No VMware support is provided with Workstation.

No VMware technical support is available with VMware Workstation.

The initial set-up is straight forward, however, you need to ensure that virtualisation is switched on in the BIOS.

Workstation is a one off licence payment.

Make sure you have at least four cores available on an Intel i5 (i7 with eight cores recommended) a minimum of 8Gb RAM (32Gb recommended) and lots of internal storage (SSD preferable). Having a virtual SCSI SAN is also recommended if you wish to evaluate vSphere or Hyper-V deployments including shared storage for VM failover.