TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Contact about Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)

Please fill out the form below to get in touch.

Parallels

Connect with Parallels

What are you interested in?

Already have an account?

You hereby consent to have TrustRadius share the information supplied on this form with Parallels so that Parallels and TrustRadius may contact you in regard to the information requested.

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Entra ID

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Entra ID (formerly Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution supporting restricted access to applications with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) built-in, single sign-on (SSO), B2B collaboration controls, self-service password, and integration with Microsoft productivity and cloud storage (Office 365, OneDrive, etc) as well as 3rd party services.

    $6

    per user/per month

    Parallels RAS

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AParallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS, formerly 2X RAS), is application virtualization technology, billed as a solution to extend the life of legacy OS (like Windows XP) with its virtual desktop for any device. Maltese company 2X Software developed the technology, but was acquired by Parallels (in Seattle, WA) in February, 2015 to extend their cross-platform support solutions.

    $120

    per year per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Editions & Modules
    Premium P1
    $6.00
    per user/per month
    Premium P2
    $9.00
    per user/per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Parallels
    Chose Parallels RAS
    The least prerequisites for RAS server compare to other solutions. Server configuration is totally based on user load. Licensing model is impressive. The most important factor for us was the support. Parallels Remote Application Server support is more than expected and all …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    227 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    148 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    206 Answers
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    143 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    225 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    155 Answers
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    129 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    183 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    145 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Identity Management
    Comparison of Identity Management features of Microsoft Entra ID and Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
    Feature
    Microsoft Entra ID
    8.6
    123 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
    -
    Ratings
    ID-Management Access Control9.1122 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Management Single-Sign On (SSO)9.5119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Factor Authentication9.2121 Ratings00 Ratings
    Password Management8.2113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Account Provisioning and De-provisioning8.5114 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Management Workflow Automation8.290 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Risk Management7.797 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Small Businesses
    JumpCloud
    Score9.3 out of 10
    VMware Fusion
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    OneLogin by One Identity
    Score9.4 out of 10
    VMware Fusion
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    VMware Workstation Player
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (241 ratings)
    9.7
    (154 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.8
    (16 ratings)
    8.5
    (24 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (57 ratings)
    8.4
    (32 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    4.5
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.1
    (21 ratings)
    7.0
    (131 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (4 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    7.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Entra IDParallels RAS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Overall, the Microsoft Entra ID platform is best utilized by people looking to have one platform that manages all interactions between other platforms. The Microsoft Entra ID platform allows for a seemless SSO integration, and can also integrate with Intune for MDM. Additionally, and probably the most easy to understand integration, is the integration with Active Directory, and controls associated with that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Scenarios where time is a factor in having a solution in place and up and running safely and securely. Where there are older devices that ordinarily wouldn't be up to the task of running modern apps and services. Where users need to work away from the network, and security is a concern.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Application integration is really good for single sign-on and managing identity overall. The correlation with Active Directory on-prem is really good, so we can manage it in a single place. It's easy to manage the users and integrate other Microsoft products. It is the base of everything else.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    • The printing driver is quite excellent, both in the Parallels Client and on the HTML5 client.
    • Setup is incredibly easy; the default setup is very functional, and adding features is a breeze.
    • Speed is very acceptable in general for end-users, the clients adapt quite well to the amount of bandwidth available, and features are available to adjust further.
    • Automation through PowerShell is great.
    • Support is usually quite fast and efficient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • I would like more risk policy suggestions. I guess that situation where we had outsourced employees in a country where somehow their location was changing too often, that we would have room to go, “Hey, this needs to be a lower risk.” Or maybe having easier options to let people log in when they're deemed high risk. It’s tricky because I feel like it’s really easy to do that wrong, but it’s the main area that I think could be improved. I guess also a little bit tighter administrative integration with other Microsoft products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    • Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) continually improves the product but has broken some features recently. For example the web management portal lost the ability to manage user sessions after a major update. That issue was fixed in a later release
    • Multi-monitor support beyond 4 monitors (It does handle up to 4 -1080 monitors well)
    • More options around connection security and MFA. current options are sufficient but limited
    • We've noticed some performance issues with Windows Server 2019 and 2022. I'd like to see more robust support for remote applications running from those platforms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    MSFT Entra ID has been essential for managing our geographically dispersed team. We're confident that it will scale with us as grow, and we'll be able to take advantage of additional security and ID management features as they become necessary. Being able to centrally manage our user access from anywhere with a small support team is such a relief.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    We have been using Parallels since it was called 2X - it is a major part of how we do business. It is fairly simple to use and maintain - staff like it, we like it. It is a product that makes a promise - and it keeps it. As Parallels evolves, and clean bandwidth becomes more readily available everywhere - it just makes sense to continue to use Parallels in our environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    From a user perspective, 10. From an admin perspective, 7 or 8. From the user perspective, it's very easy to use, but from the admin perspective, there's a lot of things that are not easily clear, testable, or verifiable without just trying a whole bunch of scenarios.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Parallels RAS was easy to setup, with great admin guides and resources. We especially liked the included Visio templates which made diagramming much easier. The reference deployment diagrams also simplified our deployment process. Our end users love Parallels RAS. Apps launch faster than Citrix, and the Parallels RAS client is far more reliable than Workspace.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    There has been a handful of outages but they have been either minimal or rarely severe
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    If there are any issues with Parallels - they are usually more about the server operating systems than Parallels itself. It would be rare for us to have any reason to take Parallels offline - we schedule a reboot on the servers at 3am to keep the O/S itself fresh, but again - it is not a Parallels issue. If individual users have any issues we ask them to completely log out of parallels - which ends their session - and then back in - and that typically resolves the issue right away.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Microsoft
    I could probably rate this a 10 but I'm always conservative on giving out perfect scored bt performance has not been a problem for us using Entra ID.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    I am giving Parallels 9/10 on this one because the only application that sometimes seems slow or has issues - is Microsoft Outlook. It is sometimes the result of a pop-up that may not show up in the published application (vs full desktop). Other than that - pages load very quickly - and it does not seem to slow down other applications that are running at the same time. Most of our users run Outlook, softphone and Teams locally - and published applications for everything else. When they do that - it is very solid.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    I have not needed to engage support for anything at this time. I have been able to find the answers either online or in a knowledgebase. I tried to skip the question but it would not let me, so I rated a 9 based on other interactions with Microsoft support I have had
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Good support in place if required, very helpful when it comes to upgrades or any issues faced. The support team is knowledgeable, friendly, and quick to respond to issues The company also provides a range of online resources, including a
    knowledge base, documentation, and forums, which can be helpful before raising a ticket
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Microsoft
    Most training was internally produced
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Documentation is fair but sometimes a little difficult to follow
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    Make sure you use a good partner. Our implementation was a bit longer and more problematic than we expected. Our partner got it done, but, in my opinion, some of their inexperience and staffing issues were evident.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Overall, it was pretty simple compared to most other projects. Again, we had a strong familarity with the product so there was not much of a learning curve. Our 'biggest' issue is the end-user understanding of a 'local' application and a published application. For example - Online meetings need to run locally for camera/video to work smoothly so opening a link to a meeting from a published application continues to be an occasional issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We've done stuff with Okta for Identity and Duo. Those would probably be the two big ones that I would say that people would recognize and stuff. There's some other smaller players we've talked to, but those are the two big ones that we play with. We're still using it. So, because it was integrated into everything we've already done, it just made it almost indispensable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) provides the finest end user experience while being cost-effective and reducing administrative and support man hours.
    Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) is platform agnostic; it works with various kinds of devices (computers, phones, tablets) and several operating systems (Windows, Linux, Apple, etc.), allowing users to access it on gadgets of their choice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Microsoft
    The features are getting addresses per requirements and their value for Money. The proposed ROI and actual ROI build confidence.
    Read full review
    Parallels
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    Scalability is pretty trival for Entra ID. It's not difficult to manage a few or many accounts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    We added our Integrated Services Staff to parallels, with filtered, published applications - in a single afternoon. We added licensing and installed the desktop client software on multiple platforms both in the office and at remote sites all on the same day - and got remote users that had never used the product up and running - very quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Professional Services' technical knowledge is appreciable as consultants design the solution as per customer requirements. Mapping of features per user specifications and assisting Customer IT engineers to implement so they can manage and administer the services.
    Read full review
    Parallels
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We are doing a lot of sign-ins and working on it, and it worked quite well. We do have Microsoft support, so yes, we can handle all of the small issues we are sometimes having. But if you want to define it, I would say yes, we like it. Overall positive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    • Our customers have had dramatic cost decreases due to no longer needing IT departments to work with our software.
    • We've been able to charge more for our hosting services due to our customers saving money in the long run. Parallels Remote Application Server has more than paid for itself, and the increased income has gone right back into the business.
    • Both our customers and our company have benefited from this transition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Parallels RAS Screenshots

    Screenshot of the console interface, showing Parallels RAS' support for on-premises, private and public cloud providers, including Azure and AWS.Screenshot of the Parallels Web Client, which is accessible from any HTML5 browser or choose one of the many local clients.Screenshot of Parallels RAS' integration with MSIX app attach for modern, dynamic app delivery.Screenshot of Parallels RAS' support for multiple MFAs for security and flexibility.Screenshot of the integrated Let's Encrypt security certificates, to issue and manage certificates in Parallels RAS.Screenshot of expression-based filtering which makes it easier to set policies in the Parallels RAS.