We performed a comparison between Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and VMware Workstation based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: The main difference between the two solutions is that users of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services feel it should integrate with other operating systems and say they would like a notification feature, while VMware Workstation users say the solution’s interface needs improvement. In this comparison, VMware Workstation comes out slightly on top because it is low-cost and users report an ROI.
"Things can be made easier if someone is not with us or at a long distance since we can connect easily with those people. So, it's easy for us to use such features."
"It's part of the Microsoft Operating system and is free."
"I've had good experiences with Microsoft customer support."
"Since the tool has a graphical user interface, it's easier for us to access the server."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"In terms of the valuable features, I like the profile, the new version is really good."
"The solution is really fast."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
"The product's initial setup phase was simple."
"VMware Workstation has tons of third-party support, the largest partner ecosystem. VMware works with a ton of different vendors. They have plugins for almost everything. Other hypervisors lack the flexibility that VMware Workstation offers."
"It's stable."
"It will not harm any of the computer settings to run a specific program. For example, if a program needs a specific security policy, we don't have to use the shared configuration. We have an individual copy of Windows installed on the virtual machine, so anybody can access that. It helps us a lot."
"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 most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease to create a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop."
"Great at solving connection problems."
"I appreciate the ease of backup and snapshot creation. The ability to revert to previous versions without losing data is very useful for our team."
"Microsoft should be more compatible with other operating system."
"We are searching for a product with better remote access and remote sessions."
"The price is too high."
"The only problems that you're going to have with the remote desktop are going to be firewall ports, security, and NLA, which is a net network level access control, or TLS transfer layer security or some other SSL-type of security."
"We'd like, in the future, if it would work with Linux or Unix-based operating systems or even Mac."
"Sometimes difficult to set up without the requirement for login credentials each time."
"The solution should have better security."
"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 price should be reduced."
"Its price could be better."
"VMware Workstation could improve the export and import of virtual machines."
"The product is outdated."
"The solution freezes sometimes."
"The support can be improved."
"The solution can be expensive."
"It would be better if software updates occur automatically."
More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is ranked 1st in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 76 reviews while VMware Workstation is ranked 2nd in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 42 reviews. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is rated 8.0, while VMware Workstation is rated 8.8. 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 Workstation writes "An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players". Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is most compared with TeamViewer, VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace, Parallels Access and Apache Guacamole, whereas VMware Workstation is most compared with Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, VMware Fusion, KVM and Parallels Desktop. See our Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VMware Workstation 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.