DaaS (Desktop as a Service) comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
2nd 5th 3rd
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
Not Enabled Not Enabled Not Enabled
Analysis expand Karan Chawla
 		by Ajay Walia by Ajay Walia
Select All
General expand
0%
0%
0%
  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + 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
  • + 1) Windows 10 Multi session 2) three free years of extended security updates for Windows 7 3) Bundled Licenses, Integration with existing tools like AAD,Office,FSLogix and Azure
  • + 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
  • - Limited integration with public clouds & hypervisors due to close knit architecture
  • - Orchestration relies on 3rd party SDKs
  • - 1) 1st iteration of product Yet to prove in Enterprise grade real world implementations 2) Whole management and provisioning interface has basic functionality many tasks are only possible via Powershell 3) License does not include Azure resource consumption cost
  • - 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
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.
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services
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
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.
Windows Virtual Desktop is a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on the cloud.
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
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
Born in Cloud
  Reach  
  •  
Market Presence
Global across Verticals
Global across regions
Global across regions
Cloud Architecture expand
0%
0%
0%
  Deployment Options  
  •  
Cloud
Horizon Cloud on Azure
Horizon on VMware Cloud on AWS
Horizon Cloud Hosted
WVD Service Hosted on Azure
Available
  •  
Hybrid
Horizon Cloud
All Cloud no On Prem availibility
Available
  Cloud Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Azure Government
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
AWS GovCloud
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Azure public IaaS
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
AWS public IaaS
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
GCP public IaaS
No
No
Yes
  •  
Any other public IaaS
IBM Softlayer (VMware Horizon Cloud Hosted)
No
No
  On-Premise Worker hosting platforms  
  •  
Integration with Microsoft Hyper-v
No
No
No
  •  
Integration with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly Xenserver)
No
No
No
  •  
Integration with VMware vSphere
Yes
No
No
  •  
Integration with Nutanix AHV
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Integration with any other HCI/Hypervisor
no
No
No
  Geographic Availability  
  •  
Control Plane locations
Yes
Global across regions
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
Salesforce, SNOW, Workday and other popular
Applications with SAML 2.0 and OAUTH authentication mechanisms can be used for SSO
No
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
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native integration with Cloud Storage – Citrix Content Collaboration Service
No
No
No
  Enterprise File Services  
  •  
Native integration with any other Cloud Storage
No
No
Yes
  Enterprise Policy Management Framework Integration  
  •  
GPO/GPP support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  ITSM Integration  
  •  
Integration with ITSM tool
Yes
No
Yes
Service Features expand
0%
0%
0%
  Capacity Management  
  •  
Auto scaling
Partially Available
Yes
Yes
  •  
Auto shutdown
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Auto decommission
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
REST API to setup capacity management
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Capacity management setup from GUI
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
GUI to setup instances based on schedule(s)
Yes
No
Yes
  Business Continuity  
  •  
Upgrades and Updates
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Disaster Recovery
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Data Backup/Restore
No
No
Yes
  Bundled Offerings  
  •  
Compute Tiers flexibility
Yes
Yes
Flexible
  Instance Types  
  •  
Instance type supported in Azure
Support for majorly used instance types
Yes
Any
  •  
Instance type supported in AWS
no
No
Any & default options recommended
  •  
Bare metal Instances supported?
No
No
No
Guest OS Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Windows Client OS  
  •  
Microsoft Windows 10
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Microsoft Windows 8 /8.1
Yes
No
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
No
No
No
  •  
Linux Ubuntu
Partially Available
No
Yes
  •  
SUSE Linux Enterprise
Partially Available
No
No
  •  
Linux CentOS
Partially Available
No
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
No
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
PCoIP
RDP 8.0
Frame Remoting Protocol
  •  
HD Protocol name
Blast Extreme
RemoteFX
Frame Remoting Protocol
  Browser Protocol  
  •  
Browser Protocol name
Blast Extreme
HTML5
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
No
No
  •  
UDP support on HTML5 Browser clients
No
No
No
  Encoding  
  •  
Support H.264
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support H.265
Yes
No
No
  •  
Use NVENC
Yes
No
Yes
  Advanced features  
  •  
QoS within Protocol
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Build to lossless
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
3D support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support grayscale only
No
Yes
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
About 3840 × 2160 px (4K)
4K
  Multimedia Redirection support  
  •  
HTML5 video support
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Windows Media Redirection
Yes
With Remote FX
No
  Multimedia support  
  •  
Server-side rendering multimedia delivery
Yes
With Remote FX
No
  Bandwidth/resource management  
  •  
Ability to prioritize Printing, client drives, USB, Audio, Video Traffic/ Bandwidth
Yes
With Remote FX
Yes
  •  
Supports multistream UDP/TCP
Yes
No
No
Authentication expand
0%
0%
0%
  3rd Party IDP support  
  •  
Native support for AzureAD
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Native support for Ping Identity
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native support for OKTA
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native support for Google Auth
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Native support for VMware Identity Manager
Yes
No
No
  •  
Support oAuth based Identity Providers
Yes
No
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
Yes
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
Partially Available
Partially Available
Customer Managed
  •  
Shadow pool
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Backup/Restore/Rollback options
Yes
No
Yes
User Interface expand
0%
0%
0%
  Unified Console  
  •  
Unified Workplace for App, Desktops, SaaS, Mobile
Yes
Yes
No
  Categorization  
  •  
Application grouping
Yes
No
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
No
Yes
  •  
Custom logout Redirect
Yes
By Script you could send an e-mail
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
No
Yes
  •  
Remote Linux Desktop Experience
Partially Available
No
Yes
  •  
Secure Browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications via Web interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Launch applications as embedded app in Web Interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Integrate services/webapps in web interface
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Publish Content
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Support Outlook 2016 cached mode
partially Available
Yes
Yes
  •  
Support Windows Search
Partially Available
Yes
Yes
Data & End-user experience expand
0%
0%
0%
  User Profile  
  •  
Built-in User Profile Management
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Selective Profile management
Yes
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
  •  
Ability to clear “user profile data”
Yes
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
  •  
Profile restore options
Yes
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
  •  
User Profile sync with FAT Client scenario
Yes
Yes with FSLogix
No
  •  
Integration with third-party profile solutions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
User profile can be containerized
Yes
Yes with FSLogix
Yes
  •  
Option to store Archive of profiles
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Redirection  
  •  
Open local file-types using Remote apps
Yes
No
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
Partially Available
Yes
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
No
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
No
Yes
  •  
Client time zone Redirection
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Native integration into Chromebook system Tray
Yes
No
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
No
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (latency)
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Display network conditions (distance)
Partially Available
No
Yes
  •  
Display session time
No
No
Yes
  •  
Check system availability
No
No
Yes
  •  
Display advanced session stats
Yes
No
Yes
  Self-Service capabilities  
  •  
Application Provisioning
partially Available
No
Yes
  •  
Upgrade/Downgrade Compute power
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Allow users to reboot their Instances
Yes
No
Only Power-off possible
  •  
Users able to reset their desktop
Yes
No
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
Not Complex
Fairly easy & Quick
  Role Based Access  
  •  
Delegation of control
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Access to multiple tenants via ‘SuperAdmin’
partially Available
Yes
Yes
  Visibility  
  •  
Analytics across multiple tenants
no
Yes
Yes
  •  
Update Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Copy master image across multiple tenants
no
Yes
Yes
  •  
Copy tenant policy configuration across multiple tenants
Partially Available
No
Yes
  Publishing  
  •  
Automatic detection of new installed applications to easy onboard these apps
Yes
No
Yes
  Auditing  
  •  
Auditing and security logging of admin actions
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Troubleshooting Tools  
  •  
Diagnostic tools
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Remote Support
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Log Availability  
  •  
Syslog integration
Yes
Yes via Log Analytics
No
  •  
Historical data is available via GUI
Yes
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
  •  
History of logs
Yes
Yes via Log Analytics
Yes
  Reporting  
  •  
Pre-defined and Customizable Reports
Yes
Custom Only via Log Analytics
Yes
  •  
Real-time Alerting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Web based Reporting
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Scripting  
  •  
Scripting support and command-line interface
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
SDKs
Partially available
No
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
yes
Yes
Yes
  Service  
  •  
Metrices available for QOS
Yes
No
Yes
  User Experience Monitoring  
  •  
Session Performance
Yes
Custom via Log Analytics
  •  
Application level monitoring
Yes
No
No
  •  
Productive time
No
No
Yes
  Usage Analytics  
  •  
License Usage (hourly/daily/monthly/yearly)
Yes
Custom via Powershell
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
Partially Available
Yes
Yes
  •  
Usage analysis
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Risk Analytics  
  •  
Abnormal behaviour detection
Yes
No
Yes
Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Service Level  
  •  
SLA
0.999
99.5
0.999
  •  
Service credits
Yes
No
Yes
  Support  
  •  
Availability hours & Level
24/7/365
24x7
24/7/365
  •  
Languages supported
Multi Lingual
English
  •  
Support capabilities offered
https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon-cloud-virtual-desktops.html . Partners tab.
Also offers Bronze/Silver On-boarding services.
PSO services.
Yes
Premium support
  •  
Migration toolset
Yes
No
No
  Documentation  
  •  
Support forum
https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/overview
Yes
support forum = my.nutanix.com
  •  
Developer Network
https://code.vmware.com/
No
https://developer.fra.me
  •  
Knowledge Base
communities.vmware.com
Yes
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
  •  
Reference Architecture, Support documentation, Best Practice Guidance
https://techzone.vmware.com/
https://techzone.vmware.com/sites/default/files/vmware-horizon-cloud-hosted-infrastructure-deployment-considerations.pdf
Yes
https://docs.frame.nutanix.com
License & Billing expand
0%
0%
0%
  Full Solution Licensing [Control Plane (PaaS) + Workers (VMs)]  
  •  
Concurrent user subscription
Yes
No
Yes
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
Yes
No minimum needed
5 users minimum for Enterprise
  Control Plane (PaaS) only  
  •  
Named user subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Any minimum commitment
Yes
No minimum needed
100 users minimum for Enterprise
  BYOL  
  •  
BYO-Azure subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
BYO-AWS subscription
No
No
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – Azure CSP subscription
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – AWS CSP subscription
yes
No
Yes
  •  
BYO-RDS CAL
Yes
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
Yes
  •  
BYO-EA (for vDesktops)
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Use vendor – RDS SAL CSP
no
Only for Windows 2008R2/2012R2/2016/2019
Yes
  Metering models  
  •  
Full Stack Metered usage subscription model
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Control plane Metered usage subscription model
No
Yes
Yes
  Metering  
  •  
Metering parameter
yes
All
Per hour
  •  
Services measurement
Usage of Compute, License, Network use & utility servers
Yes
Partially Available
  Miscellaneous  
  •  
Crediting system
No
No
Yes
  Pricing  
  •  
Control plane + Worker Pricing
https://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/pricing-calculator/horizoncloud#/horizon_cloud_pricing
https://tco.vmware.com/horizon/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/pricing/calculator/?service=virtual-desktop#virtual-desktop4f3e3aec-e445-40c4-aa0c-9076bffe4742
https://www.nutanix.com/products/frame/pricing

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • Vmware
  • Microsoft
  • Nutanix
  •  
  • 2 nd
  • 5 th
  • 3 rd
X
Login to access your personal profile

Forgot your Password?
X
Signup with linkedin
X

Registered, but not activated? click here (resend activation link)

Login to access your personal profile

Receive new comparison alerts

Show me as community member

I agree to your Terms of services

GDPR