We performed a comparison between Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and VMware Horizon based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both solutions are easy to deploy and have good features. However, users of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are happier with the price and more satisfied with the technical support.
"We have scaled the solution and find this easy to do."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"The installation is straightforward."
"I like that it works. In most cases, it's predictable. You know what you get."
"I've had good experiences with Microsoft customer support."
"Everything is really good and it works well."
"The most valuable feature is the remote application access."
"I give the stability a nine out of ten."
"Its most valuable feature is the rapid and versatile access from clients operating on various Windows, Linux, and MacOS systems."
"The ease of deployment is one of the most valuable features. If I want to install something, I can have a test phase to see what sort of impact it will have and whether it will affect production. So I can install it on my lab, make sure it is okay, and if it is, I can deploy it directly to the users or to the staff."
"I like VMware Horizon's ability and performance."
"It offers great flexibility, allowing us to access it as a complete virtual machine or even just as individual applications."
"Horizon 7 is scalable - we can add more machines or servers easily."
"It is stable and easily scalable."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is easy to set it up, and the user experience it provides is just like a normal desktop."
"The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon 7 is that it can be accessed anywhere in my internal network. It has a lot of flexibility."
"I would like to see the hard drives work without locking up and integrate the local drives in the next release."
"The solution isn't as good as the Citrix option."
"The user interface needs improvement."
"I would like to see a web-based interface, instead of client installation to refresh the UI through HTML."
"The solution is unsuitable for direct external internet connections. You must set up a VPN and password handling to use it."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is its security and simple configuration."
"The performance depends on connectivity."
"The stability could be improved."
"I would love to see so they can actually allow the use of Linux, from a hosting environment as well as from a VDI client environment."
"The remote connection, bandwidth usage, and error connection can be improved. Working with the load balancer sites should also be improved. For example, with Horizon, we can use two clients with a one megabit connection, but with Citrix, we can use four or five clients with the same bandwidth through ICA protocol. VMware must improve remote connection, connection stability, and load balancing."
"The setup of VMware Horizon 7 is easy. However, we have a lot of experience with VMware Horizon 7."
"In the next release, I would like to have more support when optimizing the master templates for PDI. There are tools that are available to be used but they are not supported at the moment and are more, "use at your own risk.""
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"I would like to see simple load-balancing for smaller environments that lack large solutions like F5, or NSX; it should be redundant or unavailable but in a simple way. Perhaps limited to only two components; if more are required, a paid load balancing solution can be used. Load balancing for simple environments, or simple redundancy, is sorely lacking."
"The remote application features have some room for improvement."
"It would be beneficial if VMware invested in developing a robust reporting engine, providing insights into user activities, locations, and more."
More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is ranked 1st in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 75 reviews while VMware Horizon is ranked 3rd in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 34 reviews. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is rated 8.0, while VMware Horizon is rated 8.4. 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 Horizon writes "Compelling solution for virtual desktop infrastructure with advanced technology, straightforward licensing, easy setup, and seamless integration". Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is most compared with TeamViewer, VMware Workstation, Citrix Workspace, Parallels Access and Apache Guacamole, whereas VMware Horizon is most compared with VMware Workspace ONE, VMware Horizon View, VMware Player, VMware Horizon Cloud and VMware Workstation. See our Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VMware Horizon 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.