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Citrix XenServer vs VMware Workstation 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Citrix XenServer
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Server Virtualization Software (11th)
VMware Workstation
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Virtualization solutions, they serve different purposes. Citrix XenServer is designed for Server Virtualization Software and holds a mindshare of 4.8%, up 4.5% compared to last year.
VMware Workstation, on the other hand, focuses on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), holds 15.1% mindshare, down 15.4% since last year.
Server Virtualization Software
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Köhler - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Shambhu Narayan  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage solution that has really good customer support compared to other market players
VMware Workstation makes it easy to manage all the resources that we are handling. VMware Workstation has reduced our infrastructure cost. If someone wants machines, I can create them easily using the solution. VMware Workstation is easier to manage than other workstations like Oracle Workstation. VMware Workstation is an easy-to-manage solution, and its support is really good compared to other market players. Overall, I rate VMware Workstation an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is quite flexible and rugged. It is also easy to understand and user-friendly. It is not as complicated as some of the other solutions. It has its technicalities, but it is easy to understand. You can easily pick up in a short period of time and understand how to manage the infrastructure."
"The most valuable features are being able to host many virtual machines and being able to patch machines."
"Installing Hypervisor is really simple. It's the simplest setup I've ever done before. We used a team to deploy it, and it doesn't take much time, like two or three hours tops."
"This solution allows the end users to clone, start, stop, or remotely control their VMs."
"The solution is easy to deploy. It's very easy to understand problems and read logs."
"The onboarding process is pretty straightforward."
"I find Citrix XenServer valuable for its affordable server virtualization capabilities."
"The solution's security is its most valuable aspect."
"VMware Workstation works correctly and has more features compared to Oracle VirtualBox."
"The most valuable feature of the VMware Workstation is the ease to create a development environment. When you have different ongoing developments, you often need to create a lot of different development environments. With this workstation solution, you can have a development environment for all the things you develop."
"It's really easy to build testing environments with VMware Player."
"I haven't faced any inconveniences working with this solution. It is very easy to use."
"Technical support is very good."
"VMware Workstation’s most valuable features are backup and data transfer from one server to another."
"VMware Workstation is easy to manage and understand."
"The performance is good."
 

Cons

"The solution needs better backup facilities that are available for virtual machines to create servers on."
"I think the technical support could be better."
"Live migration is something that can be improved."
"The interface has to be updated."
"I would like the possibility of updating the hypervisor by applying security patches."
"Integration with other vendors and other applications could be improved."
"There appear to be very few engineers at Citrix who understand the problems, and we experience considerable delays in support."
"Assigning the order of virtual server startup is not very easy and this can be improved."
"VMware Workstation could improve the export and import of virtual machines."
"The problem we are facing with stability is that the network adapter causes crashes of the VM when we're using it for developing purposes."
"The price of VMware Workstation could improve."
"The price of VMware Workstation is an area of concern where improvements are needed."
"The product could provide the features available in Microsoft Hyper-V."
"The product’s virtual machine data backup feature needs upgrading."
"There could be more integration with different tools."
"The support can be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are three editions available and I believe they are perpetual licenses."
"Citrix Hypervisor can be fairly expensive."
"Citrix is a good low-cost alternative to VMware, so if budgeting is an issue then I would recommend it."
"To subscribe to the paid version with support, it is approximately $6,000 per year."
"Citrix Hypervisor is a licensed product, and customers who buy the Citrix XenDesktop get Citrix Hypervisor for free. If they don't buy the license for Citrix XenDesktop, they'll need to pay for Citrix Hypervisor and its price is high. Pricing is even higher than VMware. The licensing policy for Citrix Hypervisor is good. It's straightforward. The only issue is the price because it's an expensive product."
"We migrated from VMware to XenCenter to cut costs."
"This solution is open source, it's free."
"We used it only for some desktop licenses, so the pricing is great. We used the free licenses for server virtualization."
"With all its support and ease of use, VMware Player's pricing is fair."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"VMware Workstation has a high price than competitors in the market."
"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."
"The cost differs depending on the customer's requirement."
"VMware Workstation's costs are lifetime."
"The product has a moderate price."
"The tool is not the cheapest."
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Comparison Review

VL
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
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Hypervisor?
The core function enables multiple virtual machines to run on a single physical server. This maximizes hardware utilization and efficiency.
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?
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 ...
Which VMware solution would you go with - Workstation or vSphere?
VM Workstation’s setup is so easy, you can use it almost instantly, it works well with Windows and Linux. We like VM Workstation primarily to test environments to determine how well a solution will...
What do you like most about VMware Workstation?
The product is stable, very easy to deploy, easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to set up.
What needs improvement with VMware Workstation?
The product's integration capabilities are an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required.
 

Also Known As

Hypervisor
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

U.S. Army Shared Services Center, SoftLayer, Educational Services of America, Independent Bank, and SK Telecom.
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