We performed a comparison between Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) and VMware Player based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."We can publish apps and desktops on Terminal Servers and seamlessly share printers. We also combine Parallels with Deepnet Security to get two-factor authentication."
"Ease of use in publishing apps and installing the agent. The Interface is fairly intuitive after some tinkering. Although I inherited the app only two-thirds deployed, I was able to complete the deployment and service it over the last year without referring to any documentation."
"We can provision the servers without the need for another third-party solution."
"The management capability from the RAS portal provides greater control than using pure MS inbuilt into RDS capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is the ease with which you can publish applications to different groups of users, by integrating with Windows Active Directory."
"It permits us to control the applications that our users are able to get to, in a seamless manner. We're able to distribute applications to users' desktops, just like those applications are on each user's computer, but they're not."
"Valuable features include the ability to set up security groups for accessing certain apps, and the ability to add apps easily and centrally without touching the servers they’re hosted on."
"It is a stable solution."
"VMware Player helps you to virtualize and install Ubuntu or any other operating system, even on a Windows laptop."
"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."
"VMware Player's best feature is the ability to run different OS's simultaneously."
"The solution's technical support team is excellent."
"Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is an expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved."
"Currently in the RD Session Hosts – Sessions section, I can see what server a user is logged into but not what app he is using. Being able to do so would be immensely helpful when a non-technical user is complaining of issues, but I can’t tell which app he is using, and he is actually logged into multiple servers since they serve multiple apps."
"A web-based management interface for administration and reporting would be nice, instead of needing to log into a remote server."
"It would be great if there were more sophisticated GPO templates/options."
"We use several gateways because access to our secret zone requires two-factor user authentication. It is a lot of hassle differentiating among users with or without two-factor. Of course, we could use two farms, but that would mean more management too."
"The product does not utilize SQL for reporting purposes. Also, it does not support some hypervisors similar to Citrix. These particular areas need improvement."
"Sometimes you need to understand how to use load balancing and the gateway in order to scale, which means the team may need some additional technical knowledge."
"We would like the ability to provide a popup message, such as a maintenance notification. That same notification on the Parallels client would be awesome."
"The tool has limited scalability."
"Its networking features need improvement."
"When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player."
"VMware Player should provide a cloud version with no limitations to hardware resources."
"VMware Player isn't downgradable, so if you have a later set of VMs, you need to upgrade it or figure out a workaround."
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Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is ranked 12th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 24 reviews while VMware Player is ranked 8th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 10 reviews. Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is rated 8.8, while VMware Player is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) writes "Provides good scalability and a secure environment". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware Player writes "A highly stable solution that has the ability to snapshot with or without memory". Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is most compared with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), Citrix Workspace, VMware Workstation and NVIDIA GRID, whereas VMware Player is most compared with VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace and Parallels Desktop. See our Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) vs. VMware Player report.
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