Parallels Desktop vs VMware Horizon View comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Parallels Logo
3,954 views|3,387 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
VMware Logo
5,947 views|4,482 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Parallels Desktop and VMware Horizon View 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.
To learn more, read our detailed Parallels Desktop vs. VMware Horizon View Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,667 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
"Parallels Desktop integrates seamlessly with macOS. It works better than VMware on Apple operating systems.""I like how, with Parallels, you can either boot into Mac or Windows to get better control over the resources of the laptops since you're sharing the resources in dual mode."

More Parallels Desktop Pros →

"The embedded features of the solution are valuable.""Instant Clone instantly creates another VM with a Delta disk, which is just the VMware backend. This helps with scalability and management.""VMware Horizon View is easily scalable. Its onboarding is easy and comes with flash provisioning features.""Great sorting feature to create UI on demand.""The initial setup is very simple.""The solution has good performance and functionality. However, if the network connection was poor we noticed a decrease in performance.""We have found the link loans for desktops most valuable.""The support from VMware is very good and they have amazing experts."

More VMware Horizon View Pros →

Cons
"The biggest challenge is compatibility between VMware and Parallels because the two systems are incompatible. It can be challenging if you are switching between Windows and Mac. I recommend sticking with one product because there isn't good compatibility between the different products.""There may have been some issues with device drivers on my Mac. Similarly, there are some issues with transferring data from Parallels to the Mac."

More Parallels Desktop Cons →

"The installation is complex and could be easier. The full installation with testing took a couple of weeks to complete.""The issue now with VMware is that we don't know the future of the solution. Because if you follow the news, it was acquired by another company, and they are changing the old product line.""VMware Horizon View needs to improve orchestration and integrate additional images. I would also like to see its statistics.""The initial setup was complex, and you need system experience to walk through it.""The initial setup was not difficult but there is room for improvement.""The storage expansion in the product is a bit difficult to manage, especially when I have to modify a storage requirement of a particular area since it comes across as a complex job.""We would like to see better performance with the product.""There is room for improvement in security features."

More VMware Horizon View Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
Information Not Available
  • "Licensing and hardware outsourcing is expensive, but can be cost-effective in the three to five-year range."
  • "This solution is expensive."
  • "This solution is expensive. A lot of companies in Mexico find that the price is too high."
  • "There is a monthly subscription for the use of this solution and it is expensive."
  • "Customers pay a licensing fee."
  • "The pricing can be relatively competitive, but sometimes you have to go back to VMware and ask for additional discounts. You can make it competitive If you're prepared to put in the work. The list prices and standard discounts may not be competitive, but if you push hard enough, you can get the price to where you need it to be."
  • "The solution can be costly for customers who do not run mission-critical applications or who have less than 50 users."
  • "I cannot provide a detailed comment on the pricing; however, I can say that it is quite expensive."
  • More VMware Horizon View Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions are best for your needs.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I like how, with Parallels, you can either boot into Mac or Windows to get better control over the resources of the laptops since you're sharing the resources in dual mode.
    Top Answer:If you want the standard version, it is more expensive but more advanced. You get what you pay for. These products cost money, and the company has to make a profit.
    Top Answer:There may have been some issues with device drivers on my Mac. Similarly, there are some issues with transferring data from Parallels to the Mac.
    Top Answer:The pricing could be improved. The tool is not cheap, but it is not too expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten. We get what we pay for.
    Top Answer:The solution must be faster and smoother.
    Ranking
    Views
    3,954
    Comparisons
    3,387
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    406
    Rating
    7.5
    Views
    5,947
    Comparisons
    4,482
    Reviews
    29
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Horizon View
    Learn More
    Parallels
    Video Not Available
    Overview
    Parallels Desktop Business Edition brings Windows and Windows applications to employees on Mac and enables integration of Mac computers into any work environment from education to financial services, technology, consulting, or medical. Optimized for Windows 10 and 7, macOS High Sierra, and Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. It can help employees to run business-critical applications without compromise: Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, Quicken and QuickBooks for Windows, Access, Project, Autodesk Revit and Inventor, CorelDRAW, ArcGIS, Visio, QuickBooks, Internet Explorer and Adobe Photoshop. Parallels Desktop restricts External Device Access that enforces policies on the use of USB devices, smart cards, and any other external devices plugged into a Mac, for use in Windows. It creates an Expiring Virtual Machines, time-bound and encrypted, that will automatically expire and lock at a defined time to ensure additional security when corporate data is shared externally. Also, Parallels Desktop Business Edition can be deployed through standard software deployment tools. Mass deployment is supported with Jamf Pro, Apple Remote Desktop, IBM Endpoint Manager, Parallels Mac Management for Microsoft SCCM, and other solutions.

    VMware Horizon View is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that helps organizations to provide virtual machines and applications to end-users that can be run on a variety of devices. With Horizon View, organizations are able to provide remote access to desktops, improve their security and compliance, and significantly reduce the costs and complexities of physical hardware management.

    Horizon View has an intuitive central management area for all virtual devices, which enables image creation and management, management of users, and access control. Horizon View users have the flexibility that allows them to access their virtual desktops and applications from any type of device and from any location.

    The solution has enhanced security abilities, including built-in encryption and secure communication between the devices and the virtual machines. These security measures help ensure the safety of sensitive data, even if the data is accessed from a non-secure device.

    Benefits of VMware Horizon View

    VMware Horizon View provides its users with several key benefits, including:


    • Enhanced security: VMware Horizon View’s virtual desktops are run from a secure data center, which reduces the risk of data loss or attacks.


    • High performance: Experience high levels of performance and stability, even with low-bandwidth connections.


    • Flexibility: Horizon View virtual machines can run on a wide range of devices, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Users are able to access their virtual desktops from any location.


    • Centralized management: Create and manage all of your virtual desktops from a single location.


    • Scalability: Scale your virtual machines up and down depending on your usage.


    • Reduced costs: Eliminate the usage of physical desktops and reduce hardware, maintenance, and energy costs.


    • Simple deployments: Horizon View automates the deployment and configuration of virtual desktops, making it faster and easier to roll out virtual desktops to users.


    VMware Horizon View features

    Some of Horizon View’s top features include:



    • Load balancing: Improve performance and stability by balancing workloads across multiple servers.


    • User management and access control: Create and manage user profiles, including their saved data and settings across virtual desktops. Control user access to virtual desktops based on multiple factors.


    • Multimedia optimization: Improve the performance of your applications that use audio and video by optimizing multimedia playback for virtual desktops.


    • Virtual application and machine sharing: Create and share pools of virtual desktops and applications between users, making them easy to maintain and manage.


    • Customizations: Enables IT to customize the user environment, including the desktop background, shortcuts, and start menu, to meet the needs of different users or departments.


    Reviews from Real Users

    VMware Horizon View stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its flexibility, powerful performance, and virtualizing capabilities.

    David G., a systems engineer at a tech services company, writes, “This product is great for desktop management. It enables you to update one golden image, save it and basically deploy it... It makes management a lot easier. There's also the huge savings. We've (used) it with the pandemic because everybody had to work from home. Even if there weren't enough laptops to go around, almost everybody has a home computer. It was just a matter of installing Horizon on your home computer and connecting to the office using two-factor authentication. They made it really simple.”

    Sample Customers
    Lytro, University of Washington, Slalom, Veeva Systems, Oklahoma Christian University
    Amway, Hertz International, Metro Health, North Carolina State University, Ottawa International Airport, Revlon, and Whirlpool.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Educational Organization10%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    University8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government13%
    University10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise64%
    Buyer's Guide
    Parallels Desktop vs. VMware Horizon View
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Parallels Desktop vs. VMware Horizon View and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Parallels Desktop is ranked 10th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 2 reviews while VMware Horizon View is ranked 4th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 67 reviews. Parallels Desktop is rated 7.6, while VMware Horizon View is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Parallels Desktop writes "A great platform to develop interoperable code on". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VMware Horizon View writes "User-friendly, reasonably priced, and simple to install". Parallels Desktop is most compared with VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, NComputing vSpace, NVIDIA GRID and Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), whereas VMware Horizon View is most compared with VMware Horizon, Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), Citrix Workspace, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops. See our Parallels Desktop vs. VMware Horizon View report.

    See our list of best Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) vendors.

    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.