What users are saying about
68 Ratings
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Based on 68 reviews and ratings
Parallels RAS
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Top Rated
148 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 9.4 out of 100
Based on 148 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
Application Virtualization
8.4
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
84%

Parallels RAS
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) ranks higher in 5/5 features
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) ranks higher in 5/5 features
Application support
9.0
90%
17 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Device support
8.0
80%
17 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Ease of deployment
9.0
90%
16 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Application packaging
7.0
70%
12 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Security
9.0
90%
17 Ratings

N/A
0 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) is rated higher in 1 area: Usability
- Parallels Remote Application Server is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Implementation Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
85%
17 Ratings

9.4
Parallels RAS
94%
97 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

7.1
Parallels RAS
71%
8 Ratings
Usability
8.0
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
80%
1 Rating

7.7
Parallels RAS
77%
2 Ratings
Availability
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

8.4
Parallels RAS
84%
2 Ratings
Performance
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

7.5
Parallels RAS
75%
2 Ratings
Support Rating
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

8.9
Parallels RAS
89%
145 Ratings
Online Training
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

7.5
Parallels RAS
75%
2 Ratings
Implementation Rating
7.0
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
70%
2 Ratings

7.2
Parallels RAS
72%
4 Ratings
Product Scalability
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
N/A
0 Ratings

8.2
Parallels RAS
82%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
Citrix Virtual Apps is well suited for environments that require remote access with 25 or more users. It is not appropriate for small sites with 10 or fewer users due to the cost of ownership. Citrix Virtual Apps pricing plus Windows RDS licensing as well is required. Smaller organizations may not find the cost-benefit due to overall costs and/or the cost of managing the environment.
Systems Architect
FTI ConsultingInformation Technology & Services, 1001-5000 employees
Parallels RAS
Standing up a Parallels environment is so incredibly simple compared to other remote desktop solutions I have used over the years. The fact that the gateway is so easy to configure and deploy is a great selling point. Also, love the fact that the licensing model is per concurrent user which makes it very competitive with the other players in the space. In a few years when the rest of my Citrix licensing expires, I will likely migrate the rest of our environment to Parallels and not look back!
Systems Analyst
PeppersourceFood Production, 201-500 employees
Pros
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
- Excellent for remote satellite users with low bandwidth and high latency connection.
- Keeps data and applications secure in the data center as users are only getting "screenshots" of the application and mouse/keyboard inputs.
- Platform agnostic allowing users to access from Apple OSX, iOS, Android devices, Windows, and Linux.
- Allows increase user density when applications are installed on centralized servers as opposed to on user desktops and laptops.
Senior Citrix Engineer
LyondellBasellChemicals, 10,001+ employees
Parallels RAS
- Parallels Remote Application Server provides access and published applications to specified users or groups via Active Directory user or group privileges
- Parallels Remote Application Server provides on the fly remote access via HTML5-Gateway
- Parallels Remote Application Server provides remote printing service to local printers

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Religious Institutions Company, 51-200 employeesCons
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
- Although I recommend Xenapp in all serious VDI/remote application situations, it is expensive and will add a lot of money to any projects budget. Some places will have a hard time justifying using it vs. the built in (free) Microsoft product and this makes the cost an area they could improve on.
- Previous versions of Xenapp were more admin friendly than the current iteration. One example would be the ability to assign values to each server in your farm such that if you had a server that you wanted less users on it was an easy task. Xenapp now divides the users evenly with little way of doing granular load balancing.
- Another crucial missing feature of Xenapp is the ability to move users from one server to another without making them log back in. For example, if you have a server that you know is having an issue it would be helpful if we could move users off onto a healthy server without making them logoff/kicking them off.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Construction Company, 51-200 employeesParallels RAS
- Active directory dependent. Would like to have other options for authentication outside of AD. Can use SSO with Google, etc but still needs to verify the user against AD for permissions.
- There are a log of group policy options that can be used, some directly Parallels related, others Windows OS/Terminal Services specific. Would be nice to have a collection or guide of best used GPO options for performance, security, etc.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 501-1000 employeesPricing Details
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Parallels RAS
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 7.1
Based on 8 answers
The product is very useful and fairly easy to maintain. We enjoy the multiple additonal platforms we can now run our Windows only Client Server applications on, such as Macs, iPads, phones, etc. We also find that speed is improved for using this applications over a WAN, while it still FEELS like running the application locally.
IT Manager
Anderson Power ProductsElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Usability
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) 8.0
Based on 1 answer
Functions well in a Department of Defense environment, particularly when paired with a physical NetScaler that is FIPS compliant

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 11-50 employeesParallels RAS
Parallels RAS 7.7
Based on 2 answers
Installation is straight forward, with no complications. Same for licensing.

Verified User
C-Level Executive in Information Technology
Insurance Company, 501-1000 employeesReliability and Availability
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 8.4
Based on 2 answers
If you have the bandwidth to set it up that way, you can definitely have availibility near 100%
IT Manager
Anderson Power ProductsElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Performance
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 7.5
Based on 2 answers
It does not seem to add much overhead to the applications that it is serving
IT Manager
Anderson Power ProductsElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Support Rating
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 8.9
Based on 145 answers
We've only had to contact the support team a handful of times but when we have had to contact support we usually receive a response within a few hours. In one incident we found a bug in the HTML5 code and within a month we were given a patch to resolve the issue.

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Insurance Company, 51-200 employeesOnline Training
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 7.5
Based on 2 answers
Documentation is fair but sometimes a little difficult to follow
IT Manager
Anderson Power ProductsElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Implementation Rating
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) 7.0
Based on 2 answers
Issues with overlapping settings caused troubleshooting to be a problem during the early stages of deployment.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 11-50 employeesParallels RAS
Parallels RAS 7.2
Based on 4 answers
Expect word of mouth to result in additional applications being requested very soon after go-live.
Information Technology Director
Continuum of CareNon-profit Organization Management, 501-1000 employees
Alternatives Considered
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
We tried Microsoft's RemoteApp before settling on Citirx's XenApp. RemoteApp is not scalable for large implementations, management can not be guaranteed, and multiple server management is not available. RemoteApp is best suited for smaller environments that do not require complex publishing. Citrix XenApp provides customers with improved maintenance and manageability, improved end-user experience for application delivery, and increased performance for users.
Business Analyst
ElsevierInformation Services, 5001-10,000 employees
Parallels RAS
We still have one small Citrix unit in production. But Parallels Remote Application Server is far simpler to configure and get working out the box with exactly what you need, whether it be publishing entire desktops or publishing standalone applications. One of the nice things was that we could publish an app from anywhere. Even if it is on one PC, we can make it available to all the relevant people. Citrix began to feel a bit clunky in comparison.
Senior Help Desk Technician
Ditco Business ServicesInformation Technology & Services, 51-200 employees
Scalability
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS 8.2
Based on 1 answer
Can handle single instance or multiple instances and redundancies.
IT Manager
Anderson Power ProductsElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Return on Investment
Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp)
- Adding additional seats to the license usually comes with a lot of up-sell before the sales rep will actually sell you the license you need.
- The requirement of Microsoft RDS to run Citrix XenApp doubles the cost required to run and adds an additional server. RDS could be used alone to do the same thing Citrix does.
- The cost of upgrading (and dependencyon on) RDS licenses prevents us from upgrading the citrix environment.
- Once setup, it is fairly stable and requires very little admin intervention.
- Our External Auditors quickly approved Citrix as a security tool.

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Banking Company, 201-500 employeesParallels RAS
- As a replacement for Citrix, the ROI is massive as its simpler but just as good at 90% of things
- Time saved on the RDP management compared to the standard windows options is great
- Does require a couple of servers to run and can be done on a DC which is a shame
Director Of Technical Services
IDT Support Solutions LtdComputer & Network Security, 1-10 employees