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Citrix XenServer vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.8
Citrix XenServer offers significant savings and flexibility, justifying its cost through excellent virtualization, resource utilization, and performance benefits.
Sentiment score
6.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure users achieve ROI within 2-3 years, citing cost, energy savings, and operational efficiencies with stable infrastructures.
My clients generally maintain their Citrix infrastructure without shifting, suggesting stability and reliable operation as Citrix XenServer is fully established.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.2
Citrix XenServer support is knowledgeable yet inconsistent, with varying response times and expertise affecting user satisfaction and experiences.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure support is praised for quick, knowledgeable service, resolving issues swiftly with multilingual capabilities and proactive monitoring.
With valid licenses, we can access hotfixes, service packs, knowledge base, self-help tools, diagnostics, downloads, live chat, and phone support.
Citrix Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They do not provide adequate support for midsize businesses.
Virtualization Architect & Managing Owner at AnyThin', Jerzy Fronczak
There appear to be very few engineers at Citrix who understand the problems.
Co-Founder at Virajo
When we send an email, an engineer is assigned within 15 to 20 minutes, and we get on a call to resolve the issue.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The second one was a licensing issue because when I switched from the SMB package to another package, I had to change the way of licensing, and that was horrendous.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Citrix XenServer is praised for scalability and ease of use, despite some disk management limitations and update frequency concerns.
Sentiment score
7.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers exceptional scalability, allowing seamless expansion, dynamic growth, and effortless workload management for enterprises.
Familiarity with Linux can enhance its performance and usability.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
Citrix XenServer is definitely scalable enough.
ICT Diensthoofd - Head of ICT at Azwest
The scalability of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) deserves an eight out of ten rating, as there is no solution that is 100% efficient and there is always room for improvement.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Citrix XenServer offers reliable performance and high stability, with effective updates and documentation beneficial for various business sizes.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers stable, reliable performance with minimal downtime, efficient workload handling, and high user satisfaction.
It runs very stably.
ICT Diensthoofd - Head of ICT at Azwest
I haven't had any significant issues with Citrix XenServer installations over the last 10-15 years.
Owner at AvalisNT AG
Compared to VM, we find it most stable.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Regarding stability, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) a seven out of ten.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
 

Room For Improvement

Citrix XenServer requires better backup, Linux support, network management, third-party integration, and user interface modernization to enhance usability.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure needs improvements in setup cost, storage, integration, compatibility, networking, oversight, and pricing transparency for competitiveness.
Although the product is technically competitive, it is not widely known or used due to poor marketing.
Virtualization Architect & Managing Owner at AnyThin', Jerzy Fronczak
Citrix needs to improve the hypervisor, specifically in security and performance.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
We can implement high availability and live migration with pools, along with security and backup to enable role-based access control for safer management.
Citrix Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We hope Nutanix can integrate inside our current license module.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
They should add AI features in the future.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
 

Setup Cost

Citrix XenServer is a cost-effective virtualization solution with free basic features, but commercial support and scaling increase costs.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers cost-effectiveness with comprehensive solutions, despite initial costs, appealing to enterprises for long-term ROI.
It is cheaper compared to its competitors.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
Organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple.
Co-Founder at Virajo
The pricing and licensing policy of Citrix XenServer is not transparent and quite confusing.
Virtualization Architect & Managing Owner at AnyThin', Jerzy Fronczak
The pricing is renewed every year, at almost $100,000 per year.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
It costs more compared to VMware due to different licensing areas.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
At first, it is cheaper than cloud services, so the cost is a major benefit.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
 

Valuable Features

Citrix XenServer offers cost-effective virtualization with high availability, ease of deployment, robust security, and scalability for small to medium businesses.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure excels in ease of use, scalability, data protection, and seamless management, enhancing performance and reducing costs.
The benefits from using Citrix include increased productivity, as users don't have to search for what they need to open.
ICT Diensthoofd - Head of ICT at Azwest
The most valuable feature is transferring and sharing applications that allow users to move files between devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers without needing USB cables, internet connections, or data usage.
Citrix Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It provides secure access to applications and resources, which is crucial for us and our clients.
Virtualization Architect & Managing Owner at AnyThin', Jerzy Fronczak
When technology development or devops teams request server provisioning, the setup time has been reduced from hours to less than 20 minutes.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The performance was really better for applications and access times to the data.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
The replication method between Nutanix clusters is a valuable feature.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix XenServer
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (10th)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
200
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (5th), HCI (2nd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Citrix XenServer and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Citrix XenServer is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 4.0%, down 4.9% compared to last year.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), on the other hand, focuses on HCI, holds 9.1% mindshare, up 8.9% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Citrix XenServer4.0%
Hyper-V19.8%
VMware vSphere19.1%
Other57.099999999999994%
Server Virtualization Software
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)9.1%
VxRail10.4%
VMware vSAN8.5%
Other72.0%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Köhler - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at AvalisNT AG
Consulting benefits from robust consulting while also recognizing the need for improved disk management
When it comes to optimization, that's one of the weaker points of Citrix XenServer, especially regarding disk management, which is somewhat clumsy. Backup-related issues and disk management should be improved. Especially concerning backup, as discussions with Veeam engineers about Citrix XenServer backup strategy indicate there might not be a solution from Veeam soon. License optimization is not such a significant problem, but licenses are quite complicated. Vendors constantly invent new license models, making it difficult to order the correct licenses needed. There is not a big difference between Citrix and VMware products because Citrix can implement Windows and Linux anyway.
JD
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
Hyper-converged storage has improved performance and now supports high redundancy for our VMs
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) was transparent because we were on a regular infrastructure before. We went on NCI and were able to improve performance, but it did not really change how things worked. The performance was really better for applications and access times to the data. I regularly looked at the analytics to see what was going on in my servers and what it was saying to optimize performance. It was pretty interesting because it could analyze and give insights on how to get things working better. In the latest versions, the Prism interface has been replaced by Prism Central. This requires another machine to be deployed to manage the servers.
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Comparison Review

VL
CIO at Robusta Technology & Training
Jan 13, 2015
vSphere vs. RHEV vs. Hyper-V vs. XenServer
We have used the following functions: 1. Hypervisor: to ensure that the virtual server provide web and email services to the company, thus providing a stable operation a with single sign-on integration of an AD server and vCenter. 2. Network and Storage: centralized data server…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business93
Midsize Enterprise76
Large Enterprise88
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Hypervisor?
Licensing with Citrix XenServer is very cost-effective. Organizations save substantial money because competing solutions, such as VMware, cost double or triple. If you are using Citrix load only, t...
What needs improvement with Citrix Hypervisor?
There could be improvements in Citrix XenServer, but I cannot think of any at the moment. Overall, we are very happy with it.
What is your primary use case for Citrix Hypervisor?
Our main use case for Citrix XenServer is to monitor and ensure everything is functioning properly with Citrix and that all users can access the system. It is primarily used for monitoring since Ci...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
What makes Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) worth using?
NCI is a product with many tools and services but the one that, in my opinion, makes it better than similar products and worth using, is the full-stack lifecycle management. This capacity allows u...
Have you received reliable help from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's support when you contacted them?
NCI is one of the best out there. For any software, no matter how good it is, technical support makes it or breaks it for me. You may have an amazing product but if there is not anyone to help you ...
 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Microsoft, Proxmox and others in Server Virtualization Software. Updated: May 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.