Citrix SD-WAN vs VMware SD-WAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Citrix SD-WAN and VMware SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Citrix SD-WAN vs. VMware SD-WAN Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"They have a zero downtime failover mechanism, where, when there's a link failure or a link weakness, or bad link conditions, they provide the ability to fail back seamlessly.""The most valuable feature is its reliability.""The most valuable feature is security, as it gives me the port bindings that cannot be accomplished using other solutions.""It allows us to use additional VPNs, offering more options compared to other VPN solutions.""Downtime for branch offices is now almost zero. We have 100% real-time visibility into all of our lines. MPLS links have been replaced with lower-cost links, saving a larger percentage of line costs. Overall, I see SD-WAN as a must. And the Citrix SD-WAN product has delivered on expectations and exceeded them. (With later firmware updates we now have good firewall capabilities in the product too).""The SD-WAN solution as it is already is quite feature-rich and the upgrade process is very simple.""The stability is the main feature of Citrix SD-WAN. You can also upgrade the data packages or have less transmission.""The zero-touch deployment is most valuable for us."

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"The product is consistent and is one of the best despite the competition.""It can be used for load balancing and load sharing. It's easy to use and customizable.""I love the solution because of its many features like cluster and cloud VPN.""There are 400 functionalities of the system.""The initial configuration and deployment are quite easy.""SD-WAN is cloud-based and you can manage multiple sites within one single pane of glass.""The most valuable feature of this solution is manageability.""I like VMware SD-WAN's automation and zero-touch provisioning. Its main advantage is simplicity. Anyone can use this gateway."

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Cons
"Overall, network security and next-generation firewall features are areas that they can improve on.""Citrix should continue to offer a perpetual licensing model because it is very important to us.""I would like to either see the price reduced or have it packaged with other products to give better value for the money.""The price could be improved, it's an expensive solution.""Citrix SD-WAN's knowledge base has a few missing things, so you may need to seek help from support.""Enhancements are needed to improve the stability.""The communication around the life cycle would have been really helpful. The main issue we have had is related to the life cycle because some of the things that we are using were discontinued. They were discontinued within a year after we had purchased it, which is a bit painful. If we had known that, we would've made some other decisions.""The price is the only thing that could be improved. Citrix is not a cheap solution."

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"Reporting is an area that can be improved, as there are some features that are lacking with the reporting aspect.""They need to start focusing on the security functionality. They should find a way to embed the next-generation firewall functionality within the architecture. They should move more into applying SASE tenants to what they're doing.""In the future, we would like to have more capacity using this solution as there are limitations on the VCE. For example, only 50 tunnels can be supported currently but we would like to have 200 tunnels using the VeloCloud VCE device.""There is still room for improvement in support and security, especially in enhancing the SASE aspect of the platform.""The cost of VeloCloud could be lowered.""Security is a challenge. I would like to see VMware add things like IPS, IDS, and web filtering. These features are the future of security, and most competing firewalls have them.""If you don't have an Internet connection, you can’t control it.""I would like to see more features added to increase visibility."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It's a little bit on the high side compared to the other products."
  • "As NetScaler is now, I find it quite pricey."
  • "The price of the subscription should be cheaper."
  • "It is a bit expensive. A cheaper product would be good, but everybody likes things to be cheaper. We bought the devices up front, and then we pay for the annual support."
  • "The license was a one-time purchase. It's expensive."
  • "It depends on the scale. In our case, it would have been better if we had known about the life cycling steps, but otherwise, it is worth the money."
  • "I believe that Citrix SD-WAN is a good investment, but I do not have the information to be more specific."
  • "I'm not quite sure of the price ranges. Roughly, the hidden devices can scale up to $20K for one appliance. However, the branch CPs are USD $1,000 to $2,500."
  • More Citrix SD-WAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "VeloCloud performs as well as the Cisco SD-WAN but it is cheaper in price."
  • "The price of this solution is higher than that of other SD-WAN vendors."
  • "The price of this solution should be lower."
  • "The pricing is very comparable to Fortinet."
  • "The price is reasonable for this solution, but the only challenge for us is that the Rand currency fluctuates to the dollar and provides some complexities. The price might go up just because the Rand has actually lost value."
  • "The cost of VMware SD-WAN is high, but I think you can still get better pricing if your volume is high."
  • "The price of the solution could be reduced."
  • "My understanding is that the pricing is in the same range as other solutions."
  • More VMware SD-WAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It lowered our Internet costs and gave me the flexibility to choose providers based on each location's connectivity.
    Top Answer:It is on the expensive side. I would give it an eight out of ten in terms of costliness. In my region, the approximate cost for the Citrix SD-WAN license is around $150 per user per year. However, the… more »
    Top Answer:The only improvement for Citrix SD-WAN would be to lower its cost.
    Top Answer:One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. It is a very stable, reliable, and consistent solution. We like that we can manage the entire… more »
    Top Answer:One of the standout features is its ability to dynamically manage enterprise networks based on applications.
    Top Answer:VMware SD-WAN provides competitive pricing. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
    Ranking
    Views
    1,157
    Comparisons
    844
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    547
    Rating
    7.8
    Views
    6,179
    Comparisons
    4,607
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    506
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Citrix CloudBridge, WOC, NetScaler SD-WAN
    VeloCloud
    Learn More
    Overview

    Citrix SD-WAN is a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN), WAN optimization, and WAN edge solution. Citrix SD-WAN is recognized for providing a robust, trustworthy user experience so that an organization's distributed workforce can deliver the best possible outcomes at all times. Organizations can easily deploy solid security protocols wherever needed and also have the option to choose from a diverse choice of security options with unified security service and seamless integration with today’s top next-gen firewalls.

    Citrix SD-WAN provides a single cloud-based user dashboard that enables organizations to easily manage their WAN, prioritize and audit applications, and configure security protocols. Citrix SD-WAN enables users to easily manage hybrid multi-cloud processes by improving applications and automating connectivity. Citrix SD-WAN gives organizations tremendous flexibility for deployment from public clouds, data centers, home offices, and branches.

    Citrix SD-WAN is the basis of the Citrix consolidated process to SASE (secure access service edge) combined with cloud-delivered security and zero-trust network access to provide organizations with safe, trustworthy, secure access to each and every application anywhere, using any device.

    The Citrix SD-WAN solution is made up of three basic components:

    • Two software editions.
    • Cloud-hosted (or on-premises) orchestrator for clear visibility and unified protocol management.
    • Appliances: data center, home, branch, physical or virtual.

    Citrix SD-WAN Orchestrator

    The Citrix SD-WAN Orchestrator can be on premises or cloud-hosted and is a multi-tenant management service offered to Citrix partners and do-it-yourself enterprise organizations. The dashboard delivers a comprehensive view of your organization’s SD-WAN network concerning the functionality and usage of every site. The intuitive dashboard delivers a summary of uptime of the overlay and underlay paths, usage trends, and network-wide alerts.

    Available application-centric policies: quality of service (QoS), firewall policies, and application-based traffic steering can all be easily configurable globally or per site.

    Reviews from Real Users

    “With SD-WAN, they have all the features and benefits they need to send live streaming information to the database and to headquarters without requiring a server at each site. Our other clients have various sites with just one type of communication, say a radio or a mobile network. SD-WAN helps them to combine and get a better bandwidth to balance all their applications and services.” - Business Consultant at a tech services company

    “We needed to create some kind of network that was distributed through data and media or big files. It was a retail company, so there were branches, and the branches needed to connect to HQ. We provided HQ and each branch with Citrix SD-WAN. We tried to use it, and it worked well. The transmission was good, and they were losing less data.” - Ruslan M., SMB Sales Director, Regional Business Development Department at Softline

    VMware Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a secure access service edge (SASE) platform that combines many types of software-based network technologies in an attempt to enable users to virtualize their wide area networks and reduce their reliance on hardware. In essence, this solution makes it possible for users to reliably access their applications from anywhere in the world by leveraging cloud technologies. Users can simply, efficiently, and completely control their network devices and traffic. It ensures that organizations are always able to use the best possible connection to their data centers. VMware SD-WAN steers traffic so that it is always using the most reliable connections and at the same time takes steps to remediate any problems that it detects in other network links. This guarantees that organizations can access high-priority applications at all times. 

    VMware SD-WAN Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying VMware SD-WAN include:

    • Reduced cost of network management. Organizations that choose to employ VMware SD-WAN can manage their network at a cost that is 2.5 times less expensive than what it costs to use traditional WAN architectures. Its ability to both augment existing hardware and replace said hardware if the user chooses to do so is part of what enables users to reduce their overhead costs. 
    • Ease of deployment. VMware SD-WAN makes it possible for organizations to deploy it without having to rely on the assistance of technical experts. When the device - whether virtual or otherwise - is connected to the internet, it integrates with a central orchestrator that pushes the correct integrations to the device in question. This automates the installation process and makes it so that anybody can initiate and follow the deployment through to the end of the process. 
    • Easily segment networks to improve environmental performance. Users can divide their networks into multiple segments that share a single IP address. These networks can be incorporated into an organization’s IT infrastructure and enable it to run more reliably. One way it does this is by providing multiple potential channels for data to use to travel in the event that one of the data pathways is suffering from some kind of issue. 

    VMware SD-WAN Features

    • Centralized monitoring. VMware SD-WAN is monitored at all times by a centralized orchestrator. From one place, an organization can watch every part of its network. Instead of having to search for the data they need, it can all be found in one location.
    • Integration capabilities. VMware SD-WAN offers users the capability to integrate their network with the environment of their choosing. This enables them to connect their network to the IT environment that best meets their needs. It makes it easy for them to work with multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
    • Real-time data analytics. VMware SD-WAN can analyze network data in real time. This makes it easy for users to monitor their network’s performance. It also allows them to take steps to quickly remediate any issues that arise before they can become worse.

    Reviews from Real Users

    VMware SD-WAN is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its ability to automate the process of creating and maintaining a virtual local area network and its intuitive user dashboard.

    Sami I., principal cloud architect at Loihe, writes, “One of the solution's most valuable features is the VMware core automation stack at an SDDC. It includes NSX, the VMware virtualization layer for the networks (the LAN virtualization), which works extremely well with the VMware SD-WAN solution and is the primary advantage over all the others. None of the other vendors could integrate with the virtual LAN, making it quite complicated and virtualized to be fully automated.”

    Chih S., senior technical consultant at a tech services company,  says, “The product has a very good user dashboard that is simple to navigate.” 

    Sample Customers
    AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Cornerstone Home Lending Inc., Dallara, ecVision, Essar, Eurofred, Groupe Promutuel, HMSHost Corporation, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Ltd, Royal Caribbean International
    Redmond, Coca Cola, Roka Bioscience, MetTel, Deutsche Telekom, Rockford Construction,  The Bay Club, tru Independence, Triton Management Services, DevCon, AXPM
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Insurance Company19%
    Wholesaler/Distributor19%
    Retailer6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Retailer9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Construction Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider44%
    Manufacturing Company20%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise28%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Citrix SD-WAN vs. VMware SD-WAN
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix SD-WAN vs. VMware SD-WAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Citrix SD-WAN is ranked 9th in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 21 reviews while VMware SD-WAN is ranked 3rd in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions with 50 reviews. Citrix SD-WAN is rated 8.2, while VMware SD-WAN is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Citrix SD-WAN writes " A scalable solution for MCN controller but lacks technical supports, upgrades". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware SD-WAN writes "To fully utilize cloud vendors' hardware networking, Microsoft and VMware support everything". Citrix SD-WAN is most compared with Cisco SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiGate, Steelhead, Meraki SD-WAN and Cato SASE Cloud Platform, whereas VMware SD-WAN is most compared with Cisco SD-WAN, Fortinet FortiGate, Meraki SD-WAN, Cato SASE Cloud Platform and Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform. See our Citrix SD-WAN vs. VMware SD-WAN report.

    See our list of best Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions vendors and best WAN Edge vendors.

    We monitor all Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions 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.