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Citrix XenServer pros and cons

Vendor: Citrix
4.0 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Citrix XenServer offers free licensing, especially beneficial for small businesses.
The platform supports GPU graphics and VM live migration.
It integrates easily with other solutions, enhancing deployment strength.
Citrix XenServer provides strong hardware utilization, with multiple VMs on a single server.
The product offers efficient hosting and patching, enhancing uptime without significant issues.

CONS

Citrix XenServer requires improvements in security features, specifically in security patches for the hypervisor.
Networking features in Citrix XenServer are limited and require enhancement for better stability and management.
Citrix XenServer is considered expensive with high licensing costs, prompting users to explore alternative solutions.
Technical support for Citrix XenServer needs improvement as it does not adequately address issues, especially for outdated versions.
Marketing for Citrix XenServer lacks effectiveness, affecting its recognition and usage compared to competitors like VMware or Microsoft.
 

Citrix XenServer Pros review quotes

it_user1020 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Data Center at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 27, 2012
XenServer Free Virtualization Platform is one of the most full-featured free systems available.
it_user1104 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Center Expert at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jul 6, 2012
In my opinion, Xenserver provides better features for free, making it the best for home, lab, and research purposes.
it_user1125 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Jul 12, 2012
Provides an excellent free virtualization suite compared to other servers and has top performance for Windows and Linux OS.
Learn what your peers think about Citrix XenServer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user1266 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a local government with 51-200 employees
Jul 23, 2012
This has saved my organization a ton of money.
MP
Senior Site Infrastructure Engineer at Kurungsiku
Aug 7, 2012
Good alternative of VMware ESXi, you can use free version to try the product first and perhaps move to the paid version if you need support or you need features that is not available in the free version.
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Mar 4, 2016
Xen is an open source virtualization server widely used in IT.
it_user3756 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Infrastructure at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jan 16, 2013
Much cheaper than other major Hypervisors (VMware, Hyper-V).
it_user3039 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Engineer at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 23, 2016
We were able to create a very inexpensive (nearly free) cluster of VM hosts.
DW
Senior Manager of Engineering at Mechanics Bank
Sep 21, 2020
Allowed us to maintain the desired level of high availability between our XenServer farms.
VR
Virtual Infrastructure Admin at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 30, 2015
Use of this solution has reduced our costs, and we have a collection of over three 42U server rack cabinets.
 

Citrix XenServer Cons review quotes

it_user1020 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Data Center at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 27, 2012
New versions removed the option to automatically start a virtual machine on power-up.
it_user1104 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Center Expert at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jul 6, 2012
Windows guests are well supported, but Linux guests have limited support.
it_user1125 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Jul 12, 2012
Bigger footprint than VMware, along with dependence on Linux in Dom.
Learn what your peers think about Citrix XenServer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user1266 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Manager at a local government with 51-200 employees
Jul 23, 2012
The free version is somewhat limited in features.
MP
Senior Site Infrastructure Engineer at Kurungsiku
Aug 7, 2012
XenCenter is not available on Mac OS X or Linux, so we can only manage XenServer(s) from Windows.
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Mar 4, 2016
It requires system with large number of CPUs and large number of memory to support guest operating systems.
it_user3756 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Infrastructure at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jan 16, 2013
Hard to maintain system because Xen's management tool (XenCenter) isn't very useful.
it_user3039 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Systems Engineer at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 23, 2016
Lots of errors, which may or may not have been important. It was tough to assess the health of the cluster.
DW
Senior Manager of Engineering at Mechanics Bank
Sep 21, 2020
Integrated workload balancing and virtual switch management that doesn't require another virtual appliance to control.
VR
Virtual Infrastructure Admin at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Apr 30, 2015
The web management provided by Citrix needs to be improved.