We performed a comparison between Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) 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."The most valuable feature is that it gives me full accessibility to my servers."
"Microsoft is very reasonable in its approach to cost."
"I like the way it can assess our system."
"The most valuable feature is the remote application access."
"The tool shares computer resources perfectly."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is scalable."
"The installation of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services was easy."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are unification, central management, and accessibility."
"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."
"The connection is compressed so we don't need a lot of resources to run it."
"It provides flexible access to Windows applications from many types of devices."
"We use RAS to publish cloud desktops to our clients. The ability to easily publish resources to a subset of users is what we find most valuable."
"We use Cloudpaging to package and deploy the vast majority of our applications to our standard Windows 10 desktops. With the use of Parallels integration into Software2 AppsAnywhere hub, this means we can use the same packages to deliver Windows applications to almost any device - Windows, mac OS, iOS, Android, Linux, Xbox One, PS4 - just by ticking a box."
"Allows us to publish applications accessible by current-generation HTML5 browser or OS-specific client (Windows, Android, iOS), and it supports popular single sign-on and multi-factor authentication protocols."
"Thin client management (Windows 10 client) provides an easy way to lock down client connection to the remote infrastructure. Policies are very helpful for preconfiguring client behavior. Finally, client management is easy."
"Setup was straightforward. Our particular use case involved an Active Directory forest involving two data centers and three domains. User authentication against Active Directory was the easiest to set up and validate of any application installed in the last three years."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services could improve by having a better application for managing multiple sessions. There used to be one but they stopped supporting it."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"The stability must be improved."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is only available for the professional version of the Windows operating system. This restricts a lot of users. The feature should be available for all versions."
"We encounter challenges with portability, especially for users of iOS devices."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is its security and simple configuration."
"There is a limitation on the number of concurrent users."
"I would like to see the hard drives work without locking up and integrate the local drives in the next release."
"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."
"Since I've been here less than a year, I have had to upgrade the system three times. The first time was the major upgrade but they have upgraded twice since, and I think that's too many times in that time span."
"Improvement is needed in performance monitoring of the client's endpoint, and automatic re-connection of the client in the event of circuit disruptions (this works well generally but can present challenges)."
"It would be great if there were more sophisticated GPO templates/options."
"Opening a ticket should be available from the actual RAS console. It is cumbersome to go to a portal, hunt around for five minutes for a link to open a ticket, answer questions meant to direct you towards FAQs instead of live support, then fill out information (license #, version #, etc.) which could more easily be supplied by sending a ticket straight from the console with all of that information automatically specified."
"From a seller's point of view, there are a lot of things that they could do better in the sales cycle."
"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."
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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is ranked 1st in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 76 reviews while Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is ranked 12th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 24 reviews. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is rated 8.0, while Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) 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 Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) writes "Provides good scalability and a secure environment". Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is most compared with TeamViewer, VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace, VMware Workstation and VMware Horizon View, whereas Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is most compared with Citrix Workspace, Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), Parallels Desktop, NVIDIA GRID and VMware Workstation. See our Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) report.
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