Senior Systems Administrator at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Our students can now access our software remotely without VPN, though I'd like the option to use View Persona without paying more.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
In the past, students had to physically go to labs to access software, but now they can access them from any device anywhere, and don’t have to login via VPN because of the security server part of Horizon.
What needs improvement?
View Persona, it’s been pushed to the wayside because they acquired UEM, and I’d prefer to use it, but have no budget for it. View Persona has less features than UEM, and it doesn’t seem updated, which makes a difference for standard edition users.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable, but it depends on the use case. For us, we use it to allow students to access their desktops anywhere, at anytime. We just use the standard version, not the full enterprise one. We would like to go enterprise, but don’t the have budget for it. But, the standard version has been stable and addressed by support and updates. No issues that would cause us to turn away.
Buyer's Guide
Horizon 8
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about Horizon 8. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Recently had issue with the 3D application performance with the release of 6.1, and added VGPU support. All we had to do was add hardware (Nvidia K1 cards).
How are customer service and support?
It's responsive, but a few times we had issues with their tech knowledge and troubleshooting steps. We had to escalate the issue and then it was resolved.
How was the initial setup?
It was complex, and many facets on the networking side sit on top of vSphere, with multiple composer engines, and connection servers.
What other advice do I have?
It loses points becuase I can’t take advantage of enterprise stuff. You should do a POC to make sure it fits the use case, three to four month period, and make sure you involve your networking team.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Pre Sales Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
A powerful application platform for virtual isolation
Pros and Cons
- "The application delivery is it's most valuable feature."
- "The support team's technicalities and the pricing of the solution need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
It is a powerful application platform for virtual isolation.
What is most valuable?
The application delivery is it's most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
The support team's technicalities and the pricing of the solution need improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I rate it a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Horizon is a scalable solution and it depends on the hardware. Around 45 users use the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have an open ticket with VMware. I rate the support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Horizon's initial setup is easy. Sometimes I can do the integration myself and sometimes I need an integrator.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is more expensive in comparison to Citrix but when comparing the technicalities VMware Horizon, is worth the money.
What other advice do I have?
Between Citrix and Horizon, I would recommend Horizon for its management and availability.
I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Horizon 8
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about Horizon 8. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
851,823 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Consultant at IWM Network Solutions
Provides great functionality and has a good app virtualizing feature
Pros and Cons
- "The app virtualizing is a great feature."
- "The initial setup is a little complicated."
What is our primary use case?
Our customers are using this product on simple data and to access some applications. We are customers of VMware Horizon View.
What is most valuable?
The app virtualizing is a great feature. The system developers use it to deliver apps to targeted staff. It basically reduces the server infrastructure resource. The solution provides good functionality.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup is a little complicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been engaged with this solution for almost a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, we've hardly had any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and we're planning to scale up to 700 users. I think it will be easy. The infrastructure is hyperconverged so we don't expect any issues. We currently have a license for 300 users.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is supplied by the implementer. Problems can generally be solved by a phone call.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little bit complex at the start and that's related to the migration of the current users to the client. The setup was a little easier in the latest version. The migration to our 315 clients took a couple of weeks. We have one person dedicated to monitoring the system.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs are quite high, we pay for a bundle.
What other advice do I have?
Customers need to know their requirements clearly and this will likely create a significant saving when it comes to working out a licensing model.
I rate this solution 10 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solutions Manager at ICSI
Scalable, straightforward easy, and simple to use
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of VMware Horizon View technology is easier to use and is user-friendly with the customers."
- "VMware Horizon View has worked a lot to improve the solutions. There are some issues in the delivery of the applications, such as network problems. You can lose your connection at times."
What is our primary use case?
VMware Horizon View is used for virtualization.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of VMware Horizon View technology is easier to use and is user-friendly with the customers.
VMware has spent a lot of money to improve its solutions.
What needs improvement?
VMware Horizon View has worked a lot to improve the solutions. There are some issues in the delivery of the applications, such as network problems. You can lose your connection at times.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using VMware Horizon View for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VMware Horizon View could be more stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of VMware Horizon View is very good.
How are customer service and support?
I have never contacted support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of VMware Horizon View is easy.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is if they have a VMware base implementation, it would be very good to use VMware Horizon View. If you want to improve the solution with other technology or other solutions from VMware is a great decision to use.
I rate VMware Horizon View a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Senior Associate at NTT DATA
Helps to reduce server load but performance is slow
Pros and Cons
- "Horizon 7 is scalable - we can add more machines or servers easily."
- "Horizon 7's performance could be improved."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that when we access the machine, it automatically builds on the back-end and provides to the user. Then when the user logs off, the machine logs off automatically or is destroyed, which helps to reduce load on the server.
What needs improvement?
Horizon 7's performance could be improved. For instance, when I launch the VDI, it takes a very long time to boot.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Horizon 7 for about six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Horizon 7 is stable, though its performance isn't the best.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Horizon 7 is scalable - we can add more machines or servers easily.
How are customer service and support?
VMware's technical support is not the best - instead of providing troubleshooting, they give us documentation that we're supposed to use to find solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Horizon 7 is cheaper than some competitors, like Citrix, because it includes solutions for the server side, the VDI side, and the hypervisor side.
What other advice do I have?
Horizon 7 is best-suited to small environments. I would rate it seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Storage Specialist at Informatics Services Corporation
Good organization and integration, helps reduce maintenance costs
Pros and Cons
- "Managing all operating systems in a single environment helped a lot in organizing and integrating it."
- "The initial startup costs for this solution are relatively high."
What is our primary use case?
Use as a test center for medical students was the primary purpose of the launch. The number of users seen included was about two hundred. The model was kiosk-mode. Each time, after the end of the virtual machine exam, it was presented. It had to change on the user.
How has it helped my organization?
Organizing and integrating is perhaps the most important feature.
Reducing maintenance costs as well as reducing end-time service to end users can be another feature.
Infrastructure equipment and Zero Client. It also has great flexibility in infrastructure changes, both in software and in hardware. You can increase the resources needed by the user or software needed in a few seconds.
What is most valuable?
Managing all operating systems in a single environment helped a lot in organizing and integrating it. Also, there is no operating system on the user-side hardware.
There is no worry that it will crash and you will be able to recover it in seconds.
Using this solution in medium to large organizations can be justified. Since virtualization is widespread in many organizations today, launching this solution may not require much infrastructure change.
Offices that do not require much processing are a good place to use this solution.
What needs improvement?
Places such as universities are not suitable for this solution.
The initial startup costs for this solution are relatively high.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Because it's more focused on integration, it's much more flexible and easier to manage.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is Very Scalable
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support for this solution is very satisfying.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We tried solutions from Parallels, but it didn't seem right for the organization.
How was the initial setup?
Most organizations have gone to virtualization and VMware clustering. Most of the work is already done.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team handled the deployment.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI between two and three years.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The initial startup costs for this solution are relatively high.
Licensing and hardware outsourcing is expensive, but can be cost-effective in the three to five-year range.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
An easy initial setup with a good unified gateway and very good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "VMware is a hyper-converged infrastructure model. Therefore, for scaling it you just add more servers to it in the inputs. It's rather straightforward."
- "I would love to see so they can actually allow the use of Linux, from a hosting environment as well as from a VDI client environment."
What is most valuable?
Horizon actually has been working well in the current pandemic situation. Originally, we had clients deployed in our infrastructure. Now, once working from home or remote working has been imposed, we deployed a Unified Gateway. It's simply one more component of Horizon, and it allows us to give access over the public IP so that those people at home get the same environment itself as they work from their home without causing any user experience problems. There were no additional licenses required for that job either, which was nice.
What needs improvement?
I would love to see so they can actually allow the use of Linux, from a hosting environment as well as from a VDI client environment. If I can actually host Linux instances as VDIs with the same features as what I get on Windows and have all the key components, like the Composer, database, or the connection services, that would be ideal. Often, ransomware and attacks usually target Windows, therefore, if I'm on Linux, at least I'll have some level of comfort or a buffer against danger.
For how long have I used the solution?
VMware Horizon was deployed around one and a half years ago in my infrastructure.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We do not have any problems with the stability part of it. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's not buggy and it doesn't have any glitches. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VMware is a hyper-converged infrastructure model. Therefore, for scaling it you just add more servers to it in the inputs. It's rather straightforward.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've had a couple of calls with technical support. They're very good, from what I have experienced. We are quite satisfied with their level of knowledge and responsiveness.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is somewhat okay. They're not too complex. There are various components that have to be installed and configured, and therefore a little bit of expertise is required. It's not dead simple. You do need some background.
Ours was a smaller deployment and it's supposed to host around 800 different current virtual instances. Starting from the backend stack to going live, it took approximately two weeks overall.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is more economical than purchasing each license individually. If you purchase vSphere Enterprise plus vSAN, then vROps, and then Horizon, it's going to be a large cost. If you do this logic, it will be very cheaper, because they did not charge us separately for the vSphere or vSAN or vROps with this. You buy the number of seats irrespective to how much hardware you run on, they will not charge you more. That's the benefit.
What other advice do I have?
We aren't on the latest version of the solution. We're at minus one right now. The final upgrade has not been done due to the pandemic situation.
In our kind of environment, it's just more of a media use case, so we used it and it made sense. If you have variable workloads, not a uniform workload, then it might not go under the licensing for just VDIs, asVDIs specifically cover your operating system instances as well as uniform with the VDI clients. If it is a uniform VDI client, such as all Windows 10 systems for users to log in, like on host environment, or it's all a server farm, etc., for those kinds of environments, Horizon is a no brainer.
A company should go for it. I'd recommend it. It is a good solution to work with.
Overall, I would rate the solution eight out of ten. For the most part, we've been quite satisfied with the results.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager - Technical Services at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Handles graphic-intensive applications well, and it's easy to scale
Pros and Cons
- "VMware Horizon 7 has its proprietary Elastic streaming protocol, which is very good for delivering VDI."
- "I would like to see seamless integration with the cloud because right now, the dependency is on the cloud providers."
What is most valuable?
VMware Horizon 7 has its proprietary Elastic streaming protocol, which is very good for delivering VDI. It helps with graphic-intensive applications.
The experience is seamless for graphic-intensive applications using this particular protocol.
What needs improvement?
It's difficult to recall any areas that need improvement.
They are growing now, in particular with this VDI domain. VMware is now introducing new products and features, and they are onboarding new customers.
There are many competitors in the market. All of the Media in Apple products delivery is seamless.
They need to advertise the product well and focus on their core features.
They need to market accordingly and they will have a good future and a good experience for the end customers.
I would like to see seamless integration with the cloud because right now, the dependency is on the cloud providers. I would like to see them have their own cloud environment on any public cloud. Right now, it is split between the public cloud and the VMware cloud environment. If they could deliver a solution that integrated all of the components then it would be great. They would not have to manage two different consoles but rather, a single implementation and a single console.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with VMware Horizon 7 for more than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's easy to scale. Once you have it in your environment it's can be easily scaled.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
If the customer already has a VMware virtualized platform then it's a seamless deployment.
Even the ordering and packaging is simple because it can be combined with the server virtualizing platform. You just order a one-part code that includes everything in that solution, including the VDI platform.
It can take approximately one week to deploy if it is on-premises, and if on the cloud, depending not the workload, it can take a day or two.
What other advice do I have?
They have both options of deployment models. If it is on-premises, it's as per their proprietary prerequisite. With the cloud, they have AWS and Microsoft Azure.
I would recommend VMware Horizon 7 if the customer already has the VMware virtualized environment in place.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Horizon 8 Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2025
Popular Comparisons
VMware Workstation
Workspace ONE UEM
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services
VMware Fusion Pro
Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service)
Parallels Desktop
Rocket Exceed TurboX
Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)
Horizon Cloud Service
NComputing vSpace
Nerdio
Sangfor aDesk VDI
Oracle VDI
Dizzion
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Horizon 8 Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- VMware vs. Ncomputing
- Which is the best Solution for VMware VDI?
- VMware Horizon View vs Citrix XenApp: which is the better product and why?
- How does VMware Workspace One compare with VMware Horizon 7?
- When evaluating Virtual Desktop, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- VMware vs. Ncomputing
- VMware Horizon View vs Citrix XenApp: which is the better product and why?
- What trends and challenges do you predict about Virtualization software for 2022?
- Which Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution is the best and why?
- Why is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) important for companies?
best for education & universities with huge documentation & Simulation is VMware Player