VMware Horizon Cloud vs VMware Player comparison

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2,640 views|2,217 comparisons
88% willing to recommend
VMware Logo
3,801 views|3,556 comparisons
83% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between VMware Horizon Cloud 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.
To learn more, read our detailed VMware Horizon Cloud vs. VMware Player Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,847 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
"VMware Horizon Cloud is easy to use and the full development cloud is very good. The main features of VMware are included. It's a cloud-based virtual desktop infrastructure software that allows you to permit the virtual desktops and applications to any device from the single unified management control. These are managed from the dedicated remote session desktop.""The interface is much easier to use compared to Microsoft and other VDI vendors that are well known on the market. I like VMware so much more than the others. With Horizon Cloud, you don't need to spend a lot of money upfront to buy the infrastructure. You can use it the on the cloud, so it lowers the barriers to entry. It's easier to test it and get started. Some clients stay in the cloud, but others prefer to go on-premise. It depends on the nature of the client.""The product’s on-premise version has the ability to create an image of any updates or changes in the system.""Its advanced management features are the most valuable, especially power management. One of the really important things was to be able to have power management in a consumption world. This means that unlike a Microsoft environment, you could actually turn off virtual desktops or have them start up and shut down. If you're consuming resources in the public cloud, you want to be able to do that because when you're not using those, such as at the weekend, you want to be able to turn them off. So, the advanced options for managing the BDIs are very important.""The tool remains pretty stable.""I honestly liked the application itself because it was just like using a desktop. You could copy and paste, inside and outside, and you could use multiple monitors. You could access it anytime, anywhere, no matter whether you were in the office or out of the office. I could leave the office, go somewhere, go back in, and everything would be there. I could just leave it up and running. I absolutely love this feature in VMware Horizon Cloud.""The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon Cloud is the ability to manage a great number of desktops at once and the remote access for users that are working from outside of the office or from different offices in the country.""The most valuable feature of VMware Horizon Cloud is all of its capabilities together."

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"VMware Player helps you to virtualize and install Ubuntu or any other operating system, even on a Windows laptop.""The solution's technical support team is excellent.""VMware Player's best feature is the ability to run different OS's simultaneously.""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."

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Cons
"Logging into VMware Horizon Cloud could be made easier. Additionally, the VMs could be better in their performance.""It can be very expensive to scale up because each part of scaling up requires you to have new components of the infrastructure.""The application remoting features have some room for improvement.""There should be more emphasis on the Workspace One access part of the solution. This is essentially identity management provided with Horizon. There needs to be some kind of integration because you are able to have all of these desktops on any device, but you have to have this other component to make it easier from a single sign-on perspective. That's why there should be an emphasis on Workspace One access. It actually comes free with the product, but people don't really know how powerful it can be.""It is very expensive. Its price needs to be improved. They can do a better job with external resources such as a USB or a hard drive. When I tried to connect using these external resources, it failed a lot of times. I had to do a shared connection with a local laptop and then connect from a network standpoint, rather than through VMware Horizon point. They definitely have weaknesses with external connections. A lot of companies probably don't let people use external connections because it defeats the purpose of having a cloud solution and keeping the data in a secure area. You can copy to an external device, and you can lose the data. A lot of companies may not focus on this feature, but if you are providing it, you should make it work.""The product has a lot of bugs.""In the design phase, sometimes the tools for designing Horizon solutions have issues when they're calculating the number of nodes and platforms needed to support the VDI systems."

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"The tool has limited scalability.""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.""Its networking features need improvement.""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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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is too expensive as compared to other solutions because of which we don't use it that much. We tend to go more for Hyper-V or Azure just because VMware licensing is quite up there. We sway people away from VMware Horizon Cloud. We have some clients who already have it. They stay on it for a little while, and then most of them end up moving off when we provide them a better solution that isn't as license heavy cost-wise."
  • "For what you get, it is very compelling. You've got to look at the total cost of ownership of this type of piece of software in terms of being able to utilize it as a cloud service. I don't have to run everything on-premises. When you look at the total cost of just being able to use it and then being able to point it to any public or private cloud, it is very compelling. You have one less thing to manage."
  • "There is a license required for the use of this solution and there are different tier levels available."
  • "VMware Horizon Cloud is a low-cost solution. The model that they have is consumption-based. However, some features are expensive."
  • "VMware Horizon Cloud is an expensive solution. This solution is approximately 30 percent more than Microsoft Azure Cloud. There can be extra costs."
  • "I rate VMware Horizon Cloud pricing a ten out of ten."
  • "Initially, the product is cheap, but it starts to get expensive when users try to scale out."
  • More VMware Horizon Cloud Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It has the best licensing modules."
  • "The solution's pricing is almost the same as what Google Cloud, AWS, or Microsoft would charge you."
  • "With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
  • More VMware Player Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Initially, the product is cheap, but it starts to get expensive when users try to scale out. Though I find Citrix to be an expensive product compared to VMware Horizon Cloud because of all the feature… more »
    Top Answer:VMware Horizon Cloud's VDI stacks are being sold off. Considering VMware Horizon Cloud's VDI stacks complexity, even before its sell out, I feel Citrix can do a couple of pieces of infrastructure to… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable feature of VMware Player is the ability to snapshot with or without memory.
    Top Answer:When you go to work on a server, it opens up the whole window, and that causes an error inside VMware Player. You'll see it on your web front, and you'll be unable to change the resolution. You can't… more »
    Top Answer:We use VMware Player mostly to connect the server hosting the client. I use the solution more like a manager.
    Ranking
    Views
    2,640
    Comparisons
    2,217
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    339
    Rating
    8.4
    Views
    3,801
    Comparisons
    3,556
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    281
    Rating
    8.8
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    The VMware Horizon Cloud Service delivers feature-rich virtual desktops and applications using a purpose-built cloud platform that is scalable across multiple deployment options, including fully managed infrastructure from VMware, public cloud infrastructure from Microsoft Azure, or on-premises hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). The service supports a cloud-scale architecture that makes it easy to deliver virtualized Windows desktops and applications to any device, anytime. And, with a flexible subscription model and turnkey solutions, organizations can easily get up and running and scale quickly.

    VMware Player, or VMware Player Plus, is described by VMware as the easiest way to run a virtual machine on Windows or Linux PCs in a commercial environment. If you want to deliver a managed desktop to your employees, customers, students, contractors, or partners, then this virtual desktop solution is the way to go.

    VMware Player provides the most advanced virtualization platform available, which is capable of supporting even extremely demanding applications. Even though the platform is so advanced, the user interface is simple and easy-to-use.

    There is seamless integration with Windows XP and Windows XP applications even if the machine itself is a Windows 7 PC, a Windows 8 PC, or even Linux-based. It also gives your IT person the capability of restricting the virtual machines by requiring runtime passwords, adding an expiration date, blocking USB devices, or encrypting the machines. By using VMware vCenter Converter, VMware Player can even convert old machines into virtual machines without you needing to re-configure or re-install any applications.

    Sample Customers
    Marriott, Sprint
    Akademiska Hus
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government9%
    University9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise64%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise17%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise61%
    Buyer's Guide
    VMware Horizon Cloud vs. VMware Player
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about VMware Horizon Cloud vs. VMware Player and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    VMware Horizon Cloud is ranked 9th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 9 reviews while VMware Player is ranked 8th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 10 reviews. VMware Horizon Cloud is rated 8.4, while VMware Player is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of VMware Horizon Cloud writes "Easy to use, stable, and scalable". 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". VMware Horizon Cloud is most compared with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace, Oracle VDI and Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service), whereas VMware Player is most compared with VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation, VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace and Parallels Desktop. See our VMware Horizon Cloud vs. VMware Player 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.