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Horizon 8 vs Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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

Horizon 8
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
116
Ranking in other categories
User Virtualization (1st)
Red Hat Enterprise Virtuali...
Ranking in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
14th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
2.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) category, the mindshare of Horizon 8 is 6.8%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Horizon 86.8%
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops1.4%
Other91.8%
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
 

Featured Reviews

MB
Owner at CoBSS
Experience with remote access facilitates seamless user management, though improvements in integration and analytics are desired
From the analytical aspects, we used Horizon 8 Advanced Analytics and most companies switched to another product to gain insights because the insight is not as helpful as other products that are built for it. What was missing in Horizon 8 to make it a better tool was in analytics, specifically getting the right information and the drill-down process to find out where the problem is. If a user has an issue, it is crucial to determine what the issue is that the user is having and since when they have the issue. For example, if a user reports back that they had an issue yesterday evening, getting that information and ensuring that you have it was hard to find, especially to pinpoint if the issue lies with the network or the Horizon 8 platform. We utilized the multi-factor authentication, conditional access in Horizon 8, but we are not satisfied with that. It lacks some integration options that make it easy to run with Microsoft Entra, for example, and authenticate using your regular authenticator besides just getting a pop-up that says, 'I'm the one that's trying to log on.' Nowadays, there are many more complex authentication methods, but even a basic confirmation with a number to verify that you are the person connecting is not supported. I would like to see improvements in Horizon 8, specifically integration with NVIDIA for graphical performance upgrades because it creates many issues such as crashing and black screen systems, causing users to lose access to their current desktop and work. This is a real issue at the moment for many customers worldwide.
RobertThompson 1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Free version available but hard to understand
Personally, I don't think it has any commendable features. The biggest thing about it is that, compared to what you can do with VMware and Horizon, it just seems like there's an awful lot of extra work involved with the Red Hat virtualization. It doesn't just work out of the box. You have to read through about six different documents, and everybody's experience is different. So it's kind of annoying. That would be the main thing. If you're not a Linux geek, it's very hard to understand. And it's probably because I came out of the Windows world. I learned this as part of my cross-training, but I just found the way that it happens with VMware and all that stuff to be easier to use.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Otherwise, I would say it is quite a handy solution most of the time."
"The ease of deployment is one of the most valuable features. If I want to install something, I can have a test phase to see what sort of impact it will have and whether it will affect production. So I can install it on my lab, make sure it is okay, and if it is, I can deploy it directly to the users or to the staff."
"VMware's technical support is good."
"The product helped us deploy complex applications."
"Based on my background with Citrix, I have found that Horizon is often a more straightforward solution in many cases."
"The most valuable feature is that VMware User Environment Manager works with virtualization and works with physical systems as well."
"With Horizon, the difference is more on the simplicity of the user experience and the speed and delivery of the application."
"The most valuable feature in this solution which really helped for my use case was the stand out three dimensional acceleration. It was really important for enhancing the performance for certain clients based on their scenarios."
"The most valuable features are automated deployment and transparent movement for virtual machines over all our locations."
"The most valuable features are automated deployment and transparent movement for virtual machines over all our locations."
"The improvement to our organization is managing all our KVM-based virtual machines in a management environment."
"There's lots of good support out there in the community."
 

Cons

"Reporting could be improved. We have 200-300 users and it's difficult to know who has logged in and when."
"The technical support offered by VMware is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The initial setup was not difficult but there is room for improvement."
"There is room for improvement in the integration with other parts of the suite. For example, you currently need separate windows to manage app volumes and the dynamic environment manager (DEM)."
"I would like to see more useful monitoring within users and a more useful help desk."
"User profiles are something that needs to be improved."
"Almost all VMware products are designed for the enterprise and it sometimes takes some wise wrangling to make it financially viable."
"In the next release, the performance, the speed, and the price need to be improved."
"The biggest thing about it is that, compared to what you can do with VMware and Horizon, it just seems like there's an awful lot of extra work involved with Red Hat virtualization."
"The best improvement for oVirt 4.2 is to enable backup features for major backup products of virtual machines."
"The best improvement for oVirt 4.2 is to enable backup features for major backup products of virtual machines."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing for Horizon is relatively high, earning a rating of one out of ten."
"The VMware Horizon 7 license is for three months. We are in the testing stage, we are still evaluating the product. We are sure now that we need to buy a license for the production environment."
"Horizon 7 is cheaper than some competitors, like Citrix, because it includes solutions for the server side, the VDI side, and the hypervisor side."
"Licensing and hardware outsourcing is expensive, but can be cost-effective in the three to five-year range."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Pricing can be an obstacle for smaller businesses. Pricing is fixed, and there are no additional costs."
"It is hard to know for sure. It is definitely in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. It is quite expensive, but you do save money on desktop power, desktop upgrades, etc. You're able to extend the useful life of your previous desktops. Previously, we used to change desktops regularly, and now we just change them when they break."
"We pay for the solution annually at a cost of approximately 10,000 HKD."
"I cannot provide a detailed comment on the pricing; however, I can say that it is quite expensive."
"I use the free developer stuff right now."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise44
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does VMware Workspace One compare with VMware Horizon 7?
VMware Workspace One has a powerful set of helpful features. The solution offers very good documentation, the initial setup is easy, and the product is very stable and reliable. I think the fact th...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Horizon 7?
We paid a lot of money for software that is not really fully operational out of the box. We had to have patches from VMware to get it into production. Hence, we lost a lot of time implementing the ...
What needs improvement with VMware Horizon 7?
The solution should provide easy configuration.
What needs improvement with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops?
Personally, I don't think it has any commendable features. The biggest thing about it is that, compared to what you can do with VMware and Horizon, it just seems like there's an awful lot of extra ...
What is your primary use case for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops?
I've used it more as a user than as an administrator setting it up. Just mainly getting access to legacy systems and programming that's not Windows 11 compatible.
 

Also Known As

VMware Horizon, VMware Horizon View, Mware Dynamic Environment Manager
Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LCMC Health
Casio, Telef‹nica, British Airways
Find out what your peers are saying about Horizon 8 vs. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.