HashiCorp Vagrant vs. Kasm Workspaces

I would recommend this tool to a colleague looking to create a repeatably deployable local dev environment based on their staging and production environments. I would recommend this mostly for individuals or teams requiring environments with server-side software such as php, et al. There are likely less processor-heavy and smaller tools for simpler projects.

Incentivized

Kasm Workspaces is a good fit for when you need to provide home-based workers access to corporate information or application, but you don't want to provide full network access through a VPN connection. It works well for when you want to ensure that data cannot be taken out of the network or you want to allow non-company devices to be used to access internal resources.

• Vagrant is decentralized so anyone can make a container package to get a project started. you aren't limited to wordpress, or even one style of wordpress install (you can make a sage.io wordpress environment).
• Vagrant easily lets you set ports and URLs for local development.
• I have yet to have a problem with Vagrant, as opposed to MAMP and DesktopServer, which both gave me SQL or other issues.

Incentivized

• Access from the web browser without having to install an agent or a VPN.
• Can be used on personal devices since the data is not stored on the device.
• No risk of data loss since the information never leaves the company network.

• Because Vagrant is a low-level tool with many ways to configure it, there is a steep learning curve. You don't just have to learn (or install) Vagrant, but also Virtualbox, Ansible and possibly some Vagrant plugins to keep boxes up to date.
• Support on Windows doesn't seem great. I'm a Mac guy, so it's been very difficult getting things to work as expected when a developer wants to work on Windows.
• Perhaps I didn't configure it correctly, but the default shared folders are not the best for performance. There are also frequently weird issues regarding file permissions.

Incentivized

• Remote workers had to be familiarized with the browser-in-browser for web applications.

Vagrant is fast, versatile and does exactly what we need it to do: spin up virtual servers for local development fast and without trouble.

Incentivized

A GUI would be nice for entry level users.

Incentivized

The Kasm support team is always responsive to our questions. They interact with us directly, even as a small customer. They also notify us of software updates and check in on our usage of the software.

I liked lando better because lando seemed extremely easy to setup compared to other VM's and it seemed faster though that project was simpler. Virtualbox I ran on windows and it has a gui and has often been slow. The vagrant boxes I used did well but had slightly more problems than lando.

Incentivized

Kasm is alot more cost effective than Citrix or VMWare. We wanted an on-premise solution to provide remote access to our internal network resources. The Citrix and VMware solutions require significantly more hardware to run, since Kasm runs on a Linux server as containers and each of the images run as a small container. The licenses were significantly less expensive for Kasm too.

• Vagrant is free - It requires a bit of extra technical knowledge in terms of setup, but since it costs nothing it's an excellent resource
• It can be time consuming to learn, but once you get a good handle on it you're in good shape.

Incentivized

• Increased productivity by enabling a remote workforce.
• Allows work from any location or any device.