DaaS (Desktop as a Service) comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
1st 2nd 3rd
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
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Analysis expand by Ajay Walia Karan Chawla
 		by Ajay Walia
Select All
General expand
0%
0%
0%
  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + Open Architecture
  • + Widely accepted protocol
  • + Flexible Use Cases
  • + Extensive Partner Eco-system
  • + Offers extensive use cases along with multiple options
  • + Easier enterprise integration options
  • + Protocol has good multimedia & peripheral support
  • + Premium onboarding services offered along with Migration toolset
  • + End User Computing made Simple
  • + Designed for Multi-Cloud, Multi-tenancy, Simplicity –
  • + Very rich user experience with HTML5/browser access
  • + Strong integration with various public cloud platform, identity providers, native cloud storage integration
Cons
  • - Lacks REST API support
  • - Orchestration is comparatively limited
  • - Still catching up on Cloud native features adoption
  • - Limited integration with public clouds & hypervisors due to close knit architecture
  • - Orchestration relies on 3rd party SDKs
  • - Limited Unified Communications w/ USB webcam support
  • - No Multi-user / Multi-session capabilities
  • - General/Cons – ADD ‘No Generic USB redirection
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
WhatMatrix - Ajay Walia
WhatMatrix - Karan Chawla
  Vendor  
  •  
Vendor Overview
Frame was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Endpoint Computing and it is the only multi-cloud Windows workspace service running at a global scale, with 4380 employees reaching 11.5 K users in over than 200 countries.
  •  
Vendor Overview
Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) aims to power a world where people, organizations and things are securely connected and accessible to make the extraordinary possible. We help customers reimagine the future of work by providing the most comprehensive secure digital workspace that unifies the apps, data and services people need to be productive, and simplifies IT’s ability to adopt and manage complex cloud environments. With 2017 annual revenue of $2.82 billion, Citrix solutions are in use by more than 400,000 organizations including 99 percent of the Fortune 100 and 98 percent of the Fortune 500.
VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. Founded in 1998, VMware provides business mobility, cloud and virtualization software and services, and was the first to successfully virtualize the x86 architecture commercially.
21700 employees as of 2017, Revenue of USD 8 Billion as of 2016 with more than 5L customers globally.
Frame was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in Endpoint Computing and it is the only multi-cloud Windows workspace service running at a global scale, 15,880 total customers – NPS score of 90 on 6-year average – 6100 Nutanix employees
  Product  
  •  
Product Overview
Citrix Cloud is a platform that hosts and administers Citrix services. It connects to your resources through the Citrix Cloud Connector on any cloud or infrastructure you choose (on-premises, public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud). It allows you to create, manage, and deploy workspaces with apps and data to your end-users from a single console.
VMware Horizon Cloud is a cloud-hosted virtual desktop and application solution that delivers to any platform anywhere from one control pane. It gives remote and mobile employees all-around access to enterprise resources such as databases, files, and documents.
Manage users, publish and scale applications from a single online dashboard, and distribute tools to everyone, instantly.

Rich features allow even the most sophisticated workflows to move to the cloud: run globally in Azure and AWS locations; connect to your on-prem datacentre using a built-in hardware VPN; schedule backups and much more. Best of all you can set up a full PoC in minutes instead of months.
  History  
  •  
Cloud Native
Redesigned for Cloud
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
  Reach  
  •  
Market Presence
Global across Verticals
NEW
Global across Verticals
Global across regions
Cloud Architecture expand
0%
0%
0%
  Deployment Options  
  •  
Cloud
Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops Essentials on Azure
Horizon Cloud on Azure
Horizon on VMware Cloud on AWS
Horizon Cloud Hosted
Available
  •  
Hybrid
Citrix Cloud
Horizon Cloud
Available
  Cloud Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Azure Government
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS GovCloud
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Azure public IaaS
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS public IaaS
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
GCP public IaaS
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Any other public IaaS
Oracle cloud, IBM Bluemix(Softlayer)
IBM Softlayer (VMware Horizon Cloud Hosted)
No
  On-Premise Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Integration with Microsoft Hyper-v
Yes
No
No
  •  
Integration with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly Xenserver)
Yes
No
No
  •  
Integration with VMware vSphere
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Integration with Nutanix AHV
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integration with any other HCI/Hypervisor
Yes
no
No
  Geographic Availability  
  •  
Control Plane locations
Americas, European Union, Asia Pacific & Japan
Yes
US
Enterprise Integration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Network Integration  
  •  
VPN connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Trunked Connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Virtual Network Peering
Yes
Yes
Yes
  SaaS application Integration  
  •  
Pre-integrated SaaS catalog
Yes
Salesforce, SNOW, Workday and other popular
Applications with SAML 2.0 and OAUTH authentication mechanisms can be used for SSO
Not available
  Enterprise Services Co-hosting  
  •  
Utility Server hosting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Enterprise File Services integration  
  •  
Windows File Services integration
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage - Box
No
No
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – DropBox
No
No
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – gDrive
No
No
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – OneDrive
No
No
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – Citrix Content Collaboration Service
Yes
No
No
  Enterprise File Services  
  •  
Native integration with any other Cloud Storage
None
No
Yes
  Enterprise Policy Management Framework Integration  
  •  
GPO/GPP support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  ITSM Integration  
  •  
Integration with ITSM tool
Yes
Yes
Yes
Service Features expand
0%
0%
0%
  Capacity Management  
  •  
Auto scaling
No
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Auto shutdown
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Auto decommission
No
No
Yes
  •  
REST API to setup capacity management
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Capacity management setup from GUI
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
GUI to setup instances based on schedule(s)
No
Yes
Yes
  Business Continuity  
  •  
Upgrades and Updates
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Disaster Recovery
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Data Backup/Restore
Needs configuration
No
Yes
  Bundled Offerings  
  •  
Compute Tiers flexibility
Flexible
Yes
Flexible
  Instance Types  
  •  
Instance type supported in Azure
Any
Support for majorly used instance types
Any
  •  
Instance type supported in AWS
Any
no
Any & default options recommended
  •  
Bare metal Instances supported?
Yes
No
No
Guest OS Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Windows Client OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows 10
1607 and newer
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 8 /8.1
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Microsoft Windows 7
Yes
Yes
No
  Windows Server OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012R2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 2019
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Linux OS  
  •  
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Yes
No
No
  •  
Linux Ubuntu
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
SUSE Linux Enterprise
Yes
Partially Available
No
  •  
Linux CentOS
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
End-point Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Fat OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Windows 7/8/10 (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Mac OSX (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native Client for Linux (version)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Mobile OS platforms  
  •  
Native Client for Android (version)
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Native Client for iOS (version)
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Native Client for ChromeOS (version)
Yes
Yes
No
  Thin OS platforms  
  •  
Zero Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Thin Client Support (Dell/HP/IGEL)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Raspberry Pi Support (version)
Yes
Yes
No
  Browser platforms  
  •  
Internet Explorer
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Edge
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Mozilla Firefox
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Google Chrome
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Safari
Yes
Yes
Yes
Service Protocol expand
0%
0%
0%
  Native Protocol  
  •  
Basic Remoting Protocol name
ICA
PCoIP
Frame Remoting Protocol
  •  
HD Protocol name
HDX
Blast Extreme
Frame Remoting Protocol
  Browser Protocol  
  •  
Browser Protocol name
ICA
Blast Extreme
Frame Remoting Protocol
  TCP/UDP support  
  •  
TCP support on Native clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
TCP support on HTML5 Browser clients
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
UDP support on Native clients
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
UDP support on HTML5 Browser clients
No
No
No
  Encoding  
  •  
Support H.264
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support H.265
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Use NVENC
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Advanced features  
  •  
QoS within Protocol
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Build to lossless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
3D support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support grayscale only
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Watermarking included into protocol
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Protocol automatically adapts based on network conditions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Connection Resiliency
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Browser Experience  
  •  
GPU support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Resolution
Yes
Yes
4K
  Multimedia Redirection support  
  •  
HTML5 video support
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Windows Media Redirection
Yes
Yes
No
  Multimedia support  
  •  
Server-side rendering multimedia delivery
Yes
Yes
No
  Bandwidth/resource management  
  •  
Ability to prioritize Printing, client drives, USB, Audio, Video Traffic/ Bandwidth
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Supports multistream UDP/TCP
Yes
Yes
No
Authentication expand
0%
0%
0%
  3rd Party IDP support  
  •  
Native support for AzureAD
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Ping Identity
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for OKTA
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Google Auth
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for VMware Identity Manager
Partially Available
Yes
No
  •  
Support oAuth based Identity Providers
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support SAML based Identity Providers
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Commercial Identity support  
  •  
Non Commercial Identity support
No
No
No
  Directory Services support  
  •  
Native support for Directory Services
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Cloud Directory  
  •  
Offers Cloud directory services
No
Yes
Yes
  Contextual Access Policies  
  •  
Restrict access/Functionality based on time/location/device
Yes
Yes
No
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Granular control
Yes
Yes
Yes
Image Lifecycle Management expand
0%
0%
0%
  Image Preparation  
  •  
Ability to customize base/golden Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to Import Enterprise Image
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Update Management  
  •  
Application/Desktop remoting agent update
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Compliance updates
Customer Managed
Partially Available
Customer Managed
  •  
Shadow pool
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Backup/Restore/Rollback options
Yes
Yes
Yes
User Interface expand
0%
0%
0%
  Unified Console  
  •  
Unified Workplace for App, Desktops, SaaS, Mobile
Yes
Yes
No
  Categorization  
  •  
Application grouping
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Alerts & Notifications  
  •  
Maintenance Alerts
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Notifications about upgrades
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Website Experience  
  •  
Survey invitations
No
no
Yes
  •  
Customize web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Custom logout Redirect
Yes
Yes
Yes
Service Offerings expand
0%
0%
0%
  Options  
  •  
Stateful
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Stateless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Use Cases  
  •  
Remote Windows Desktop Experience
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Remote Windows Application Experience
Yes
Yes
Partially Available
  •  
Remote Windows Server based VDI Experience
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Linux Desktop Experience
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Secure Browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications via Web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications as embedded app in Web Interface
Partially Available
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integrate services/webapps in web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Publish Content
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Support Outlook 2016 cached mode
Yes
partially Available
Yes
  •  
Support Windows Search
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
Data & End-user experience expand
0%
0%
0%
  User Profile  
  •  
Built-in User Profile Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Selective Profile management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to clear “user profile data”
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Profile restore options
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
User Profile sync with FAT Client scenario
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Integration with third-party profile solutions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
User profile can be containerized
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Option to store Archive of profiles
No
Yes
Yes
  Redirection  
  •  
Open local file-types using Remote apps
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Generic USB Redirection
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Supported type of Ports
Yes
Yes
No
  Real-Time Audio-Video (RTAV)  
  •  
Webcam support
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Speaker & Microphone support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Unified Communication Hairpinning effect
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Microsoft SFB & Teams
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Display  
  •  
Multi-monitor support
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Dual-monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
4K monitor support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Uncommon Input Devices  
  •  
3D Space mouse
Yes
Yes
Can utilize Relative mouse feature
  •  
Pen/stylus
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Touch Support  
  •  
Touch Screen support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Touch optimization
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Gesture Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Data Access  
  •  
Clipboard Access
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from native client
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Ability to upload/download files from browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Show ‘tips’ at session start
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Client time zone Redirection
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration into Chromebook system Tray
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Feedback  
  •  
End user is able to provide feedback
No
No
Yes
  Performance Indicators  
  •  
Connection check page build-in web interface (check supported client, different datacentres, network bandwidth, latency)
No
No
No
  •  
Display network conditions (bandwidth)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (latency)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (distance)
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Display session time
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Check system availability
No
No
Yes
  •  
Display advanced session stats
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Self-Service capabilities  
  •  
Application Provisioning
Yes
partially Available
Yes
  •  
Upgrade/Downgrade Compute power
No
No
Yes
  •  
Allow users to reboot their Instances
Yes
Yes
Only Power-off possible
  •  
Users able to reset their desktop
Partially Available
Yes
Only Power-off possible
  •  
User able to Install Applications
Yes
Yes
Yes
Administration expand
0%
0%
0%
  Ease of Config  
  •  
Deployment Complexity
Fairly easy & Quick
Fairly easy & Quick
Fairly easy & Quick
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Delegation of control
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Access to multiple tenants via ‘SuperAdmin’
No
partially Available
Yes
  Visibility  
  •  
Analytics across multiple tenants
No
no
Yes
  •  
Update Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Copy master image across multiple tenants
No
no
Yes
  •  
Copy tenant policy configuration across multiple tenants
No
Partially Available
Yes
  Publishing  
  •  
Automatic detection of new installed applications to easy onboard these apps
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Auditing  
  •  
Auditing and security logging of admin actions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Troubleshooting Tools  
  •  
Diagnostic tools
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Remote Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Log Availability  
  •  
Syslog integration
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Historical data is available via GUI
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
History of logs
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Reporting  
  •  
Pre-defined and Customizable Reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Real-time Alerting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Web based Reporting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Scripting  
  •  
Scripting support and command-line interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
SDKs
Yes
Partially available
Yes
  Automation  
  •  
User Provisioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Security & Compliance expand
0%
0%
0%
  Data Protection  
  •  
Encryption Standards
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Compliance Standard  
  •  
SOC2
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
FEDRAMP / FEDRAMP Ready
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
GDPR
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
PCI
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
HIPAA
Yes
Yes
Yes
Monitoring & Analytics expand
0%
0%
0%
  Application/Desktop Instance Monitoring  
  •  
Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Performance
No
yes
Yes
  Service  
  •  
Metrices available for QOS
Partially Available
Yes
Yes
  User Experience Monitoring  
  •  
Session Performance
Yes
Yes
  •  
Application level monitoring
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Productive time
No
No
Yes
  Usage Analytics  
  •  
License Usage (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Sessions (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Peak usage & Peak time analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Cost Control Recommendations
No
No
Partially Available
  •  
Region based analysis
Yes
Partially Available
Yes
  •  
Usage analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Risk Analytics  
  •  
Abnormal behaviour detection
Yes
Yes
Yes
Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Service Level  
  •  
SLA
0.995
0.999
0.999
  •  
Service credits
Not Applicable to Control Plane but can be done via Cloud provider chargeback mechanism for Workers.
Yes
Yes
  Support  
  •  
Availability hours & Level
24/7/365
24/7/365
24/7/365
  •  
Languages supported
5 Languages. Click for more details
English
  •  
Support capabilities offered
https://www.citrix.co.in/support/citrix-customer-success-services/
https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-cloud-virtual-desktops.html . Partners tab.
Also offers Bronze/Silver On-boarding services.
PSO services.
Premium support
  •  
Migration toolset
Yes
Yes
No
  Documentation  
  •  
Support forum
https://discussions.citrix.com/
https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/overview
support forum = my.nutanix.com
  •  
Developer Network
https://developer.cloud.com/
https://code.vmware.com/
https://developer.fra.me
  •  
Knowledge Base
https://support.citrix.com/
communities.vmware.com
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
  •  
Reference Architecture, Support documentation, Best Practice Guidance
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/architecture.html
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops-service.pdf

https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/03/26/citrix-workloads-on-different-clouds-ctp-best-practices-for-a-successful-deployment/
https://techzone.vmware.com/
https://techzone.vmware.com/sites/default/files/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-infrastructure-deployment-considerations.pdf
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
License & Billing expand
0%
0%
0%
  Full Solution Licensing [Control Plane (PaaS) + Workers (VMs)]  
  •  
Concurrent user subscription
SKU for Trade-up customers only
Yes
Yes
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
Yes
5 users minimum for Enterprise
  Control Plane (PaaS) only  
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
Yes
100 users minimum for Enterprise
  BYOL  
  •  
BYO-Azure subscription
Minimum 25 users with minimum 1 year term-based subscription
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-AWS subscription
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – Azure CSP subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – AWS CSP subscription
No
yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-RDS CAL
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-EA (for vDesktops)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – RDS SAL CSP
Yes
no
Yes
  Metering models  
  •  
Full Stack Metered usage subscription model
No, doesnt meter usage of IaaS components
No
Yes
  •  
Control plane Metered usage subscription model
No, doesnt meter usage of IaaS components
No
Yes
  Metering  
  •  
Metering parameter
Per user/month
yes
Per hour
  •  
Services measurement
License usage only
Usage of Compute, License, Network use & utility servers
Partially Available
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Crediting system
No
No
Yes
  Pricing  
  •  
Control plane + Worker Pricing
TCO - https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/09/25/xenapp-essentials-delivering-apps-from-the-cloud-whats-the-total-cost-of-ownership/
Subscriptions : https://www.citrix.com/products/citrix-workspace/
Citrix Virtual App and Desktop service - https://www.citrix.co.in/global-partners/microsoft/windows-10-azure.html)
https://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/pricing-calculator/horizoncloud#/horizon_cloud_pricing
https://tco.vmware.com/horizon/
https://www.nutanix.com/products/frame/pricing

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • Citrix
  • Vmware
  • Nutanix
  •  
  • 1 st
  • 2 nd
  • 3 rd
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