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Citrix XenServer vs RHEV comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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 XenServer
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
RHEV
Ranking in Server Virtualization Software
13th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Server Virtualization Software category, the mindshare of Citrix XenServer is 4.1%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RHEV is 2.4%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Server Virtualization Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Citrix XenServer4.1%
RHEV2.4%
Other93.5%
Server Virtualization Software
 

Featured Reviews

Geert Vandevelde - PeerSpot reviewer
ICT Diensthoofd - Head of ICT at Azwest
Consolidating user access boosts productivity by simplifying navigation
The most helpful features of Citrix XenServer are that you can consolidate everything onto one web page. For our use case, this is probably the easiest solution because there are many different software applications running in our environment. The benefits from using Citrix include increased productivity, as users don't have to search for what they need to open. They can see everything in one place instead of having numerous links in Chrome or on their home page. They simply go to our Citrix page and see everything they need. We can also specify access permissions per user, so they only get the software they require. If users have lists or reports they need to create, we can add the icons on Citrix, and they can open them directly. Everything is in the same place, so they don't have to search for anything anymore. This is the biggest productivity increase.
Mike Neuliep - PeerSpot reviewer
Linux Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Has supported virtualization projects in side jobs but has required workarounds due to lack of maintenance
In my opinion, the best features of RHEV are that it is a real hypervisor and it is free, so it performs better than VMware. I have used the live migration feature in the past with RHEV. There is a free clone of it that is based on the open source. Live migration is a nifty feature if your app is not highly available and you need to do maintenance on a machine. You can migrate the VM off of it, do your maintenance, and move it back when you are done. RHEV has a high availability architecture with a built-in monitoring feature where you could see machines other than the one you are operating on. I tend to implement high availability not so much in RHEV, but by using standard application high availability strategies. Red Hat has another product specifically for high availability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I find Citrix XenServer valuable for small to medium-sized businesses."
"The product is a great option for enterprise-level organizations."
"What I like the most is the support of the GPU Graphics and the VM Live migration."
"This solution allows the end users to clone, start, stop, or remotely control their VMs."
"Citrix Hypervisor is quick to deploy and easy to manage."
"When you look at the cost overall and features, Citrix Hypervisor has a very attractive offering."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Citrix XenServer is suitable when working with VDI solutions. It provides essential capabilities and stability, which are crucial."
"RHEV’s cost is much less compared to VMware."
"Technical support for RHEV is very fast and good."
"The solution is stable, there are no bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it's reliable with good performance."
"The support for this solution is very good."
"When you purchase RHEV, you are essentially buying a subscription license. This license can be integrated with various client types, including these integrations with the subscription."
"Whenever there's an issue or problem, I contact customer support and they take it seriously."
"The solution has a good licensing module."
"The biggest aspect for me is the disk usage, the virtual manager, and the deployment of machines."
 

Cons

"The interface has to be updated."
"I find that the features in Citrix Hypervisor are not as rich as with VMware."
"There's a learning curve, especially for those coming from a Microsoft background. Setting it up and managing it can introduce some complexity."
"You need a licensed account to look up technical support."
"I rate the customer service and technical support poorly. They do not provide adequate support for midsize businesses."
"The USB support for the virtual server needs improvement."
"The graphics user interface is pretty bad."
"I am not very sure about how flexible Citrix Hypervisor is with different types of infrastructures. I only know it is flexible with Nutanix, but I am not sure if it is also flexible with others. They can make its integration with other platforms or OEMs easy. They should also make it easy for users to manage their infrastructure. Citrix should make compatibility information related to a hypervisor easily available in a datasheet. Citrix isn't really recognized in this part of the world, and they need to expand their solution and make it more available. There are a lot of customers and companies that are looking for a solution like Citrix, and it should be available in this part of the world. They need to educate people more. Technically, it is good and flexible and has good ability, but it is not as much known as VMware or Microsoft. Their support should also be improved. Currently, if you don't have an updated version, they will not give you the attention."
"This solution could be more secure."
"We'd like it if it would be possible on Red Hat Virtualization to possibly connect two or three VMs to the same disk."
"When we do a direct comparison, then obviously VMware does better in terms of having Fault Tolerance and doing active disaster recovery and these kind of things. This is something that can be improved within Red Hat."
"We would like the dashboard feature of this solution to be improved, as it is not very detailed at present."
"The solution should be made more user-friendly."
"Customers are not aware of this solution, they can improve by providing more awareness and solution availability."
"RHEV can improve by keeping pace with new features and new enhancements. They should not be halted or delayed innovation because over the past quarter the enhancements have not been as fast as they have been previously."
"The Administration of the Oracle database and the SAP ERP needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of this product is not high."
"The most valuable feature is the cost; it is a free product."
"To subscribe to the paid version with support, it is approximately $6,000 per year."
"There are three editions available and I believe they are perpetual licenses."
"Citrix Hypervisor is expensive."
"Citrix is a good low-cost alternative to VMware, so if budgeting is an issue then I would recommend it."
"The licensing is straight forward based on usage and features."
"This solution is open source, it's free."
"We buy a license for commercial use, and we also use the free editions."
"The solution does not require licencing but a subscription is necessary, which is very affordable."
"We have to pay extra for vulnerability and fault tolerance."
"Price-wise, RHEV is okay, in my opinion."
"The price of RHEV is high. It is an open-source solution, the price should be less. The price should not be on par with a solution, such as VMware. It's not more or equal to VMware, it's less, but the difference should be more substantial."
"RHEV offers pricing based on a per-physical-machine licensing model."
"It's a budget product as far as I'm concerned. It's way cheaper than any of its competitors. The only thing cheaper than Red Hat is that the people who take the Red Hat code clone it and then self-support it."
"This is an open-source solution."
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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
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
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 Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RHEV?
It's the open source. There's not much cost. It's very minimal comparably. Compared to what I am paying for VMware, it's negligible.
What needs improvement with RHEV?
RHEV is not improving because it has been discontinued. It has been discontinued for years. I would love to get back into RHEV, but the job market is difficult and no one is hiring. RHEV is designe...
What is your primary use case for RHEV?
I have done some consulting where I used RHEV, taking on side jobs to run virtual machines in the financial industry for a startup. The last time I used RHEV was in my home lab, but that has been d...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
Qualcomm and Bonham's Auction House.
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix XenServer vs. RHEV and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.