Azure Virtual Desktop vs Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) comparison

Azure Virtual Desktop vs. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

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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

Azure Virtual Desktop

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...

Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

128

Ranking in other categories

Application Virtualization (1st), Remote Access (4th), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Azure Virtual Desktop is 10.8%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 15.1%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)	15.1%
Azure Virtual Desktop	10.8%
Other	74.1%

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Featured Reviews

Rajan Chandrasekaran

Senior Advisor at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Enhanced collaboration and security with seamless remote access has transformed work efficiency

We can integrate anything with Azure Virtual Desktop from an application perspective. The App-V has evolved into MSIX. To deliver an application to Azure Virtual Desktop, MSIX can be used by expanding it as a virtual hard disk and attaching it to the virtual machine. When this is done, users who need the application will have immediate access through Active Directory group assignment. One challenge with Virtual Desktop infrastructure is application delivery. From an infrastructure perspective, it's beneficial as we can have a fallback point - if one machine is down, we can have a disaster recovery site for redirection. The delivery of applications is a tedious process. Microsoft is working on building new products for efficient application installation. This feature might be included in upcoming releases. Currently, it's burdensome for IT administrators to create applications compatible with Virtual Desktop infrastructure, unlike traditional machines where direct installation is possible.

Read full review

Sorin Neacsu

Technical Lead on Virtual Desktop at Orange

Has delivered consistent desktop experiences across remote locations and has supported multimedia workloads efficiently

I have utilized the HDX protocol for compression and audio-video capabilities. When users need to conduct meetings with customers or colleagues, they can use Teams solutions and open a bridge where video and audio are encapsulated within the ICA protocol, which is protected by SSL and certificates for security. This provides secure communication at good quality through the HDX protocol. HDX protocol has improved application performance as it is specifically designed for multimedia applications. If processing audio or video files, such as in telecom where discussions are recorded and then prepared as video or audio, this does not consume excessive bandwidth during the operation compared to a normal remote desktop connection provided by Microsoft. Everything is compressed and provides sufficient bandwidth for multiple people to perform similar tasks without interruption or session disconnection. All multimedia-related activities, such as playing content on YouTube, deliver a better experience with this protocol overall. I use multi-factor authentication for opening sessions to the data center where users access their machines or software. Multi-factor authentication has helped secure applications because users typically have two-way authentication software on their phones. They use a password first and then authenticate themselves through their mobile application to grant access to resources. This approach is effective because if a hacker attacks a user, they need more than just the password and username. They must also possess the device that provides authentication. The device typically has facial recognition, a password, and provides better security overall.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This integration enhances productivity 100%, as it makes it much easier for us to give access to external third parties to work with us for collaboration."

"The best feature is scalability, as it can be used from anywhere."

"The ability to spin up virtual machines quickly and speedily in Azure has been really valuable."

"The biggest advantages are the price and flexibility."

"Absolutely, this solution is probably the leader in its field."

"Azure Virtual Desktop enables anyone connecting to Microsoft to use MFA (multi-factor authentication), totally secured to connect and has end-to-end encryption through tunnel encryption."

"I've always found Azure Virtual Desktop to work for me without issues."

"Azure Virtual Desktop is stable and provides a 100% stable experience."

More Azure Virtual Desktop pros

"It provides all of the features required for the protection of data. For example, we don't want to allow any copy/paste of data to an outside environment, and we are able to restrict the VDI to not allow any data transfer from the VDI to the local laptop's hard drives. That is one of the greatest advantages the solution provides."

"First of all, the manageability of the applications for publishing is valuable. Second, it is about being able to run the applications on all main platforms. Third, its licensing is valuable. You can either switch to the cloud and keep on-prem. You can work with this hybrid scenario."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to connect to our on-premise applications, through the Workspace app and the Workspace experience. The user experience when using the solution's technology remotely is good. Our users are able to work and it's seamless. The performance is also good."

"The most valuable feature is the gateway to a remote connection, to a physical or a virtual PC. Compared to a normal VPN client and connection, the connection via Citrix is more stable and does not consume as much network bandwidth."

"It is user-friendly and easy to use."

"The feature that I like is that it is fast."

"In terms of scalability, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops have a lot of technologies baked in there that allow an organization to scale up or down, as required. Further, leveraging Azure for scalability has added value to our organization. For example, pre-COVID-19, we had very few resources in Azure. We had some Virtual Desktops and no application servers. When COVID-19 came along, we knew people were going to be home. We knew that we had to ramp up very quickly. We fully leveraged MCS to be able to scale. Being able to take a single image and build 400,000 Virtual Desktops, all within minutes, was second to none in terms of any other technology out there that we could have used. The scalability to be able to do that in Azure, where we really don't have to worry about storage and compute power because Microsoft does that for us, was fantastic. It was almost like giving our environments steroids. It has been amazing in terms of that scalability. Now, as people start coming back to the office, we can just as quickly scale down so the compute and resource costs in Azure aren't so great anymore."

"XenDesktop has helped our users to work remotely with a better user experience."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pros

Cons

"Azure could improve its uptime and the scaling aspect, as it lacks intelligent scaling."

"Access from Entra ID should be implemented to provide only tenant access to users connecting to the Azure Virtual Desktop environment, eliminating the need for on-premises requirements."

"It takes too long to get a return call."

"The initial setup of Azure Virtual Desktop overall is complex. The complexities I've noticed are with application optimizations, and it can get complex by meeting customers' security requirements."

"Azure is vast, and perhaps an architect-level experience could provide more insights into potential improvements."

"One of the issues I had was the ability to add an internet proxy. I would like to see built-in proxy and internet filtering."

"The delivery of applications is a tedious process."

"There are challenges when upgrading the OS from Windows 10 to Windows 11, such as facing a black screen during testing. It is essential for Microsoft to ensure better testing and smoother transitions when decommissioning previous versions."

More Azure Virtual Desktop cons

"Templating the deployment process could use improvement. When you start, there are a large number of details that are quite client-specific, although they do share common themes. To get somebody up and running in a day is very difficult to do. They should streamline by use case."

"Where improvement could be driven is in terms of clarity as to the functionality of some of the solutions. If you go back to the older Citrix Xen products that we had, we understood those really well. As we've come into the new workstation premium suite, there is a lot of additional functionality that we perhaps have not yet fully exploited. It is not because we can't, but simply because we don't yet understand the depth of functionality that's offered."

"It is not easy to set up."

"We would like to be able to provide VDI, a full desktop, to each of our users."

"Licensing service installation and configuration was the biggest challenge for all Citrix solutions, but now they have fixed a lot of issues."

"When there are technical issues, sometimes we can't get on the cloud."

"Citrix Director, which is like the monitoring interface from Citrix could use a revamp in the way that it displays information."

"The product advances really fast. For some customers, we need better backwards compatibility."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It's my understanding that the solution license fee for each user is around $300 US. If we buy a personal laptop for each employee every five years, then the total cost is five times $300 US, or $1,500 USD. So we could buy 100 personal laptops instead of the Citrix solution."

"If one is a high price and ten is a low price, I rate the tool's price a three."

"We don't have a lot to compare it to, but we certainly think whatever we pay is worthwhile at this point in time. It's very reasonable."

"In the past, the prices of the product were great. With the acquisition of Citrix by your company, the prices have drastically increased. For my company, it has become a bit of a problem to sell products from Citrix."

"We're paying for a standard license and, in my view, the price is too high. I would be satisfied with it if it were reduced by about 20-30%. Right now, I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"The purchase price was around $300,000 USD and then the maintenance fees were 20%. There are no other additional fees."

"It is an expensive solution. I rate its pricing a nine out of ten."

"Where Citrix really needs to improve is in their support and in the way that they manage their licenses. Everything else comes second because if I'm not in a position where I can get proper support or manage my own licenses in an easy way, then it is pointless. Today, I am at a point where I may not be able to use Citrix anymore because they want to take away some of the licenses that I bought, pretending they are not valid anymore. That is frankly unacceptable. If they don't solve this, everything comes second because I cannot use my product."

More Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Outsourcing Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Virtual Desktop?

The usual amount customers pay for this tool varies. I have seen large deployments catering to 500 or 700 users. Enterprises do use it, and they pay quite a bit for this.

What needs improvement with Azure Virtual Desktop?

I see areas for improvement in Azure Virtual Desktop, specifically regarding cost, as it is a little bit expensive. However, when you account for replacing dedicated hardware and the maintenance it...

What is your primary use case for Azure Virtual Desktop?

We use RDP with Azure and have some virtual desktops. A major use case for Azure Virtual Desktop is that we give access to external consultants so they can access our information and interact with ...

What do you like most about Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

My focus has primarily been on publishing virtual applications.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I rate the product’s pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops?

I have found that Citrix DaaS is still a complex product, especially on the desktop side, which affects scalability. Although it works well on the apps side, the desktop aspect still has room for i...

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Product Reports

Azure Virtual Desktop

Download Azure Virtual Desktop product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)

Download Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) product report

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) report

Also Known As

No data available

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Microsoft

Citrix

Overview

Azure Virtual Desktop enables scalable remote work with integration to Microsoft 365, enhancing collaboration and productivity. It offers secure access to desktops from anywhere, supported by features such as automation tools and robust security measures.

Azure Virtual Desktop is a powerful cloud-based platform facilitating remote work, disaster recovery, and secure access to applications. It supports multiple users, allowing efficient management of host pools and provides flexibility for consultants and contractors. Challenges include unpredictable costs and the need for improved scalability, better application delivery, and seamless transition from Windows 10 to 11. While it boosts hybrid work capabilities, further enhancements in intelligent scaling and integration with proxies are needed. Organizations use it for development, ensuring data security and management simplicity, but seek dynamic auto-scaling and cost optimization.

What are the key features of Azure Virtual Desktop?

Scalability: Efficient resource adjustment based on demand
Microsoft 365 Integration: Enhances collaboration and productivity
Security: Includes MFA, end-to-end encryption, and Azure Active Directory integration
Hybrid Work Capabilities: Enables secure desktop access from any location
Automation Tools: Streamlines deployment and reduces manual efforts

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Azure Virtual Desktop?

Cost-Effectiveness: Flexible licensing and resource scaling adapt to demand
Enhanced Productivity: Integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 for improved collaboration
Comprehensive Security: Provides robust features like MFA and encryption
Remote Work Efficiency: Supports multiple users with secure, anytime access

Azure Virtual Desktop is widely implemented across industries like technology, consulting, and finance. Firms utilize it for secure remote work, offering access to applications and data while maintaining stringent security protocols. It is particularly beneficial in scenarios requiring disaster recovery and seamless multi-session capabilities for globally dispersed teams.

Microsoft

Enable secure, flexible work with the leader in virtual apps and desktops

Deliver desktop as a service (DaaS) from any cloud or datacenter

Get started with Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) in minutes to provide a familiar, high-performance digital workspace experience to your users. We’ll manage the infrastructure and security. You focus on your business.

Citrix

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Exelon, Aeronamic, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Alameda County Medical Center, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Aloysius Stichting, Amarchand Mangaldas, AmBev, Amnet Technology Solutions, Arval

Azure Virtual Desktop vs. Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)