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Citrix XenServer pros and cons

Vendor: Citrix

4.1 out of 5

50 reviews
80% willing to recommend

4,044 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Citrix XenServer offers centralized maintenance, management panels, and live migration that enhance VM operations. It excels with excellent support, GPU graphics capabilities, and broad cloud compatibility, making it financially viable when paired with Citrix XenDesktop. However, it requires improvements in security, performance, network management, and faster technical support. While licensing costs are high, prompting exploration of open-source solutions, Citrix XenServer remains a solid choice for virtualization needs with its existing strengths.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Citrix XenServer offers excellent central maintenance and management capabilities, making it easy for users to clone and control VMs.

It provides value as a free virtualization option, making it cost-effective for small businesses.

The support and community around Citrix XenServer are highly regarded for being helpful and reliable.

Features such as GPU support and the ability to migrate VMs live enhance its functionality.

Its integration capabilities help manage infrastructure more effectively without additional hardware costs.

CONS

Citrix XenServer needs improvement with security features and could benefit from better security patch management.

The built-in networking features of Citrix XenServer are limited and its network management is unstable.

Citrix XenServer's licensing costs are high, causing users to consider alternative options.

Users find Citrix XenServer's technical support lacking and suggest it should be faster and more responsive.

The absence of robust backup solutions and integration with third-party options in Citrix XenServer is a significant drawback.

Citrix XenServer Pros review quotes

MS

Michael Schwadorf

System Administrator at KREBS+KIEFER

Jul 14, 2023

Citrix Hypervisor is simple to use.

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AM

Anthony Musaluke

Chief Operating Officer at CENTRE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH IN ZAMBIA

Apr 20, 2021

The ability to move a virtual machine while it is running is a big advantage.

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Enterprise Architect at Wipro Limited

Apr 29, 2024

The core function enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. This maximizes hardware utilization and efficiency.

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Citrix XenServer

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Learn what your peers think about Citrix XenServer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Owner at A-H-S Computer

Sep 14, 2023

Citrix is easy to use and is stable.

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ME

Enterprise Server and Storage Administrator at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Apr 20, 2021

It is quite flexible and rugged. It is also easy to understand and user-friendly. It is not as complicated as some of the other solutions. It has its technicalities, but it is easy to understand. You can easily pick up in a short period of time and understand how to manage the infrastructure.

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MR

Information Technology Specialist at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Oct 5, 2021

Citrix Hypervisor integrates easily and I can manage the infrastructure better. If I need to take a machine down to expand the hard drive, I do not have to physically be here. I do not need to order new equipment or new hard drives. I can shut it down, increase the drive space and bring it back up.

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WV

Works at a marketing services firm with 201-500 employees

Oct 15, 2019

The feature I find most valuable, is its performance

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IT Infrastructure Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees

Dec 13, 2022

The initial setup is easy.

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DS

Manager IT at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 28, 2020

The solution is extremely user friendly.

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Network Engineeer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 13, 2019

This is a dependable solution for virtualization with a good community for product support.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 38)

Citrix XenServer Cons review quotes

MS

Michael Schwadorf

System Administrator at KREBS+KIEFER

Jul 14, 2023

The graphics user interface is pretty bad.

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AM

Anthony Musaluke

Chief Operating Officer at CENTRE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH IN ZAMBIA

Apr 20, 2021

It needs to have a more robust backup solution.

Read full review

Enterprise Architect at Wipro Limited

Apr 29, 2024

There's a learning curve, especially for those coming from a Microsoft background. Setting it up and managing it can introduce some complexity.

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Citrix XenServer

Free Report: Citrix XenServer Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Citrix XenServer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.

851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Owner at A-H-S Computer

Sep 14, 2023

Citrix is not investing in the virtual surroundings.

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ME

Enterprise Server and Storage Administrator at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Apr 20, 2021

I am not very sure about how flexible Citrix Hypervisor is with different types of infrastructures. I only know it is flexible with Nutanix, but I am not sure if it is also flexible with others. They can make its integration with other platforms or OEMs easy. They should also make it easy for users to manage their infrastructure. Citrix should make compatibility information related to a hypervisor easily available in a datasheet. Citrix isn't really recognized in this part of the world, and they need to expand their solution and make it more available. There are a lot of customers and companies that are looking for a solution like Citrix, and it should be available in this part of the world. They need to educate people more. Technically, it is good and flexible and has good ability, but it is not as much known as VMware or Microsoft. Their support should also be improved. Currently, if you don't have an updated version, they will not give you the attention.

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MR

Information Technology Specialist at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Oct 5, 2021

I find that the features in Citrix Hypervisor are not as rich as with VMware. It would be a benefit if they had some of the other features VMware has, such as the ability to expand a drive on the fly. You do not have to take down the machine to do it but in Citrix you do.

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WV

Works at a marketing services firm with 201-500 employees

Oct 15, 2019

I think the technical support could be better.

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IT Infrastructure Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees

Dec 13, 2022

The interface has to be updated.

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DS

Manager IT at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 28, 2020

The licensing costs are too high on the solution. They should work to make the costs more reasonable.

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Network Engineeer at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 13, 2019

Assigning the order of virtual server startup is not very easy and this can be improved.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 37)

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Product Categories

Product Categories

Server Virtualization Software

Popular Comparisons

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Proxmox VE vs Citrix XenServer

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KVM vs Citrix XenServer

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