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Amazon Appstream vs Amazon WorkSpaces comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Appstream
Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
4th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Amazon WorkSpaces
Ranking in Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon Appstream is 8.7%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon WorkSpaces is 15.0%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon WorkSpaces15.0%
Amazon Appstream8.7%
Other76.3%
Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

RH
Presales Solutions Architect at Wipro Limited
Offers good performance, efficiency, and network
There is also a way in the tool for retaining customers' favorites, but it is not available natively. When you log in to your desktop, on the desktop or laptop that you are working on, you have your favorites, you have your document repository, like your documents, your personal documents that you have on your computer. I saw that there was no native way of retaining those in a non-persistent desktop. The end-user has to perform dual authentication. One is for AWS authentication, and the other used to be for Active Directory, so it is a little problematic for the end users, as it is a double work for them. I don't know if the tool has lately dealt with the area of dual authentication or not.
Sachin Narvekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead, AWS at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Migration to cloud for secure and shared workspaces enhances productivity
There could be an end-to-end tool similar to AWS Transform that helps from assessment to migration. A single orchestrator tool could assist with discovery, implementation, and image building for Amazon WorkSpaces. O365 and other Microsoft products can become problematic at times, and there are some network health-related issues that appear occasionally regarding functionality inside Amazon WorkSpaces.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Some companies use applications like Word or Excel, and they can leverage cloud services to optimize their hardware consumption."
"The tool is good from a latency, efficiency, and network point of view."
"It has good speed and connects well with computers."
"The initial setup is simple."
"They maintain it and manage it very well."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"For anyone looking at the solution, I can say that it is a good solution and within well-defined price ranges, and a very scalable one."
"The most valuable features are easy provisioning, an active directory, and mobile access."
"Amazon WorkSpaces Pools is a new solution that allows a group of users to use shared workspaces."
"Security, streaming, faster performance, scalability, and the fact that it is very much cost-effective, are some of the solution's valuable features."
 

Cons

"You might experience some performance issues, such as delays in data retrieval."
"The end-user has to perform dual authentication...it is a little problematic for the end users, as it is a double work for them."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve on releasing the most number of patches immediately as quickly as possible. And they need to enable more USB options to connect a mobile phone to that particular workspace."
"An area that could be improved is it could work better on VPN. On VPN, it gets some issues, and frequent disconnections happen."
"If they had a cheaper option for graphics pro, I think that it would be beneficial and I would use it."
"Amazon WorkSpaces needs to improve its pricing."
"The product needs to improve its pricing. It should also improve corporate identity management and single sign-on."
"The solution lacks a shadow mode option, and it needs to have it."
"One area that can be improved is the ability to install third-party apps."
"Making it more self-service friendly would be the implement I'd be looking for. When we have to add new applications, we have to go through the IT to do that, and they need to do some configuration changes. I believe they have to reevaluate the computation and storage and the memory. So this is this is something that as an unrequired and should be changed. Also, the initial start time takes couple of minutes and it is easy for get distracted during the time. So if it can reduce the start time to a reasonable start of time to a reasonable time of five to ten seconds. That will be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I think that the price can be lower. We have cases where the customer needs to have lower costs. So since we don't have options, like, shadow mode, they need to decrease pricing or have other models for reduced pricing."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a two."
"The bundle works out to be approximately $20.00 per month."
"It is very expensive."
"There are several different options available, but it can range anywhere from $85 to $150 a month per machine."
"We need to spend some amount for the support. Without money, they won't respond."
"The tool's pricing depends on company turnover and the organization's relationship with Amazon. I rate it a six out of ten."
"The solution is not very cheap and it is not too pricey."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Recreational Facilities/Services Company
6%
Performing Arts
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Amazon Appstream?
There is also a way in the tool for retaining customers' favorites, but it is not available natively. When you log in to your desktop, on the desktop or laptop that you are working on, you have you...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Appstream?
I personally don't use the tool. I am not a consumer of it. I basically designed it. I work for an IT company and have designed and implemented Amazon Appstream and Workspace in many organizations....
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon WorkSpaces?
For Amazon WorkSpaces pricing, I think it is affordable; it is a final decision made through the management part. I am not satisfied with the billing part because sometimes it bills for huge usage ...
What needs improvement with Amazon WorkSpaces?
Desired improvements for Amazon WorkSpaces include faster and more flexible image updates, incremental image updates, patch-only updates, and a much faster push of software configuration changes to...
What is your primary use case for Amazon WorkSpaces?
Amazon WorkSpaces is used to provide a consistent environment for remote workers for testing purposes. Software testing is typically run on those desktops.
 

Also Known As

Amazon Appstream 2.0, Appstream, Appstream 2.0
WorkSpaces
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SolidWorks, EVARI, MathWorks, AVENA, Vanguard, Macquarie University
GrubHub, Endemol Shine Nederland, CMC Property Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Appstream vs. Amazon WorkSpaces and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.