CITRIX VS VMWARE

Citrix DaaS vs VMware Horizon: Side-by-side comparison

Choose the desktop as a service (DaaS) solution that delivers a better user experience and gives you more flexibility than VMware Horizon.

If you're looking for a new app and desktop delivery solution, you may be comparing Citrix with VMware Horizon. If so, there are some important factors to consider.

What happens when you need to accommodate hundreds of new users? Stay ahead of suspicious activity across thousands of accounts? Leverage public cloud platforms like Google, Azure, and AWS? Citrix outperforms VMware in each of these areas and many more. 

Now that hybrid and remote work are here to stay, you need a partner that can grow and scale with you. That’s where Citrix excels.

Why choose Citrix DaaS over VMware Horizon?

See how Citrix gives you more flexibility, a superior user experience, and better application security than VMware Horizon

As the industry-leading alternative to VMware Horizon, Citrix gives you far more value for your money. Here are seven ways Citrix outperforms VMware in mission-critical areas.

Top 3 reasons VMware Horizon customers are migrating to Citrix

If you’re questioning whether now might be the time to migrate your hybrid work solution to Citrix, we’ll explore three reasons why Citrix is a leader in end user computing (EUC) solutions, and how we’re leaning into that now more than ever.

Read the infographic

MORE FLEXIBILITY
A platform that grows with you

Break free from proprietary costs imposed by VMware. The Citrix hybrid multi-cloud architecture is compatible with every major cloud provider as well as on-prem hypervisors, so you can manage your cloud and on-premises investments side by side. Scale up and down on demand, change applications, and choose the  model that works best for you—no need to change your entire infrastructure from the ground up.

VMware Horizon

VMware lets you deliver workloads from the cloud—as long as you’re OK with getting locked in. You’ll have just one option for a hypervisor, and one option for native public cloud support.

Citrix DaaS 

If you want the freedom to choose from a full assortment of public clouds and on-premises hypervisors, giving you flexible business continuity or disaster recovery options, Citrix is the clear winner. Deliver workloads from the public cloud of your choice, whether it’s Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, plus any hypervisor including Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, Citrix Hypervisor, or VMware vSphere. And with our wide range of Citrix Ready partners, you can easily integrate with hundreds of proven solutions that have been tested for compatibility.

VMware Horizon

Sure, VMware can build a hybrid environment. But only if your on-premises workloads are all on Horizon, and only if you don’t need native cloud support beyond Microsoft Azure.

Citrix DaaS 

Citrix gives you the freedom to choose from a full range of options, and you’ll have native integrations for all leading hyperscalers. So you can manage on-premises and cloud workloads side-by-side and take advantage of the best features from each cloud provider with a multi-cloud approach, with full support for expansion, migration, or burst scenarios.

SUPERIOR EXPERIENCE
Give users exactly what they need

Deliver high definition experiences to hybrid and global workforces for maximum productivity. Unlike VMware Horizon, Citrix HDX technology lets you deliver the same high-definition experience no matter where your users work or what apps and devices they use. From specialized HDX technology to individual user experience scores, you’ll have the right tools to support users in an increasingly remote world

VMware Horizon

On PeerSpot and other review sites, VMware customers frequently complain of poor remoting features and weak connections to external resources like printers and USB drives.*

Citrix DaaS 

Citrix HDX supports the industry's broadest array of devices and operating systems, with cutting-edge remoting technologies to ensure smooth audio, video, and graphics over any connection. The result is an exceptional experience on any device and network, even when bandwidth is low.

VMware Horizon

If you want to manage user profiles or add personalization, be prepared to pay extra. VMware offers tools to monitor and enhance the user experience—but only if you opt for a top-tier subscription.

Citrix DaaS 

Workspace Environment Management is a powerful set of tools that is included across all editions of Citrix. Use it to accelerate logins, improve server scalability, enhance app response times, prevent CPU spikes, and more. Leveraging WEM, user experience scores go up, while IT spending goes down.

VMware Horizon

On review sites, many VMware Horizon customers complain of frequent restarts, lost connections, freezes, crashes, and outages.*

Citrix DaaS 

Citrix is architected from the ground up to provide resilience for your mission-critical workloads, making it the platform of choice for healthcare, finance, and government entities. From air gapped on-premises deployments to fully cloud enabled DaaS, Citrix lets remote users stay connected to virtual apps and desktops even if some components are unavailable, and ensures on-site employees can access local resources even when outbound connectivity is down.

BETTER SECURITY
Get more application protection - for Windows, Web, and SaaS Apps

Go beyond VMware Horizon basics to keep your data safe. Citrix adds layers of comprehensive security, from adaptive controls to intelligent analytics, to protect your applications without compromising the user experience.

VMware Horizon

VMware Horizon lets you see some high-level usage statistics. But there's no way to follow users across devices or act quickly to stop threats.

Citrix DaaS 

Citrix Analytics and monitoring lets you find user threats, internal or external based on intelligent analytics. It works by assigning a real-time risk score to each user and constantly monitoring behavior across devices, and by triggering session recording or automatically logging off users when suspicious activity is detected.

VMware Horizon

VMware Horizon lets you set some basic security policies, but none hold a candle to the dynamic security features included with Citrix DaaS.

Citrix DaaS 

Citrix DaaS leads the way with a comprehensive set of security policies that protect valuable corporate IP. Going a step farther, we equip IT with advanced recording capabilities, like live viewing and multi-session options, that make it easy to spot anomalies and prevent attacks. And by using adaptive authentication, you can leverage detailed user information to adjust access based on factors like location, device posture, and risk score.

* Based on independent reviews on PeerSpot, G2, and TrustRadius at time of publishing

The easy way to support secure hybrid work

Compared to VMware Horizon, Citrix DaaS makes it remarkably easy to get set up for long-term success. Simply choose the capabilities you need today. As your business grows, Citrix DaaS will scale with you.

16
M

16 million cloud users — and counting

Citrix offered a virtual desktop solution that could replace what we were doing with VMware Horizon. VMware technology could not deliver what we needed.

Lisa Pratt 
IT Enterprise Architect Team Lead 
The University of Vermont Medical Center

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