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Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Microsoft App-V comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citri...
Ranking in Application Virtualization
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (5th), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (3rd), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) (1st)
Microsoft App-V
Ranking in Application Virtualization
2nd
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Virtualization category, the mindshare of Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) is 27.0%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft App-V is 22.4%, down from 24.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Virtualization
 

Featured Reviews

Mohd Abdul Aziz Shah Sulaiman - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers secure and unified access to apps, desktops, and content for enhanced productivity
Citrix Workforce is good, but it needs improvement in diagnosing network issues. When errors occur, it is difficult to determine if they're due to network issues, Workspace issues, or environment issues. The error messages are too vague, just stating "connection error" without specifying if it's an IP address issue, connectivity problem, or something else related to the network. This lack of detail makes troubleshooting difficult. We often have to reinstall everything in Workspace, without knowing the root cause. Even after engaging with Citrix and sending logs, the feedback is often unsatisfactory, not meeting my expectations. This trial-and-error approach isn't effective problem-solving. While these issues aren't everyday occurrences, when they do happen, they can be catastrophic for our operations team.
DP
Enables organizations to deploy applications incredibly fast and reduces delivery time
We can deploy applications incredibly fast. The implementation time is really fast. I like the way the Sequencer works. The publication and management console are really helpful. We switch from the classic MSI through SCCM deployment to App-V with an in-house publication server. The delivery time has decreased by 40% to 45%.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Because of the solution's ubiquity, it is easier to find answers to problems than with competitive products."
"The most beneficial feature is seamless remote access, particularly for applications rather than full endpoints. Security features include full data encryption and integrated SSL VPN through NetScaler for secure access."
"Citrix is one of the companies that is delivering virtual apps and desktops in a big way. They are mature enough to understand the level of stability required and deliver it."
"You can connect to any printer, and from anywhere you can print documents using a compressed channel. It is easy and the bandwidth is very low."
"The most valuable feature is the seamless application edition with the low-level network bandwidth because we have between 10 and 15 sites in France with a low level of communication needs. We need to deploy our main application, the ERP system, and we needed an efficient solution to provide a solution to the remote sites, with very small links between the data center and the remote site."
"Centralization and security are the most valuable features of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops."
"The price and user interface are great."
"Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is a stable solution."
"It is very easy to use from an administration point of view."
"We can deploy applications incredibly fast."
"It is easy to scale. You can quickly deploy additional instances. Rollbacks are easy because there is an automatic backup every hour. Deploying the application is straightforward and efficient."
"The most interesting and powerful feature for us is the fact that we can upgrade any kind of app instantly."
 

Cons

"The sales team does not focus on client needs but instead focuses on selling higher-priced items."
"Some customers find the price to be a significant factor. They have a hard time understanding the extra cost of the services"
"There is room for improvement because it has a lot of dependency on Active Directory and other things. If they could come up with something similar and native, a complete solution portfolio would help."
"Their customer support can be improved a lot as it lacks a lot of knowledgeable help."
"Our experience of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops is good, but the environment can become complex and difficult to manage at times."
"There are many latency and slowness issues, which are things looked after by Citrix."
"This solution is resource-intensive, it takes a lot of Bandwidth and a lot of the resources of the server."
"It would be great if they included VPN features and improved connectivity."
"The reporting features could be improved."
"If it were possible to integrate App-V with a cybersecurity solution then we could implement a documentation registry, which would be useful."
"The downside is that Microsoft bought this product and they are going to discontinue it in 2026. This is worrisome for us."
"The process was streamlined but didn't make our work simple. We encountered an issue with the person responsible for designing the website."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citrix licensing is expensive."
"Their licensing model used to be on a per-year basis, where you would negotiate the cost per user for a year. For instance, if you had 25,000 users, you could negotiate the cost accordingly. However, they are transitioning to a subscription-based model where the cost is incurred monthly."
"The product, XenServer, is free to use, and XenApp has a one month free license."
"Citrix solutions cost a lot in comparison with competitors, like Azure Virtual Desktop or VMware Horizon. Those solutions cost around 50 to 60 percent less, per month per user, than Citrix."
"Citrix is a mid-range cost solution compared to some others out there."
"They offer licensing per user. From time to time, they give discounts. Because it's a hybrid model, you can deploy some portion of it on cloud and some portion your on-prem."
"I think it is a little high priced."
"We spent nearly 1,50,000 Euros for 250 licenses."
"The pricing of this product is competitive."
"Clients do not pay licensing fees."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Virtualization solutions are best for your needs.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft App-V?
It is way more expensive than other platforms. It is almost twice the price of other platforms. I rate the product’s pricing an eight or nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with Microsoft App-V?
The process was streamlined but didn't make our work simple. We encountered an issue with the person responsible for designing the website. They installed a plugin that disrupted the services and m...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft App-V?
We use the solution for the Docker container.
 

Also Known As

XenDesktop, XenApp (Citrix Virtual Apps), Citrix Workspace
App-V, MS App-V
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Exelon, Aeronamic, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Alameda County Medical Center, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Aloysius Stichting, Amarchand Mangaldas, AmBev, Amnet Technology Solutions, Arval
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), GDDKiA, P&V, Etisalat Lanka, Hellenic Petroleum
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs. Microsoft App-V and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.