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VMware Horizon

VMware Horizon

Overview

What is VMware Horizon?

A VDI solution used for the secure delivery of virtual desktops and apps from on-premises to the cloud. It is used to deploy, manage, monitor and scale desktops and apps across private, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure using a cloud-based console…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Users of VMware Horizon View have praised the software for its ability to provide secure remote access without the need for VPN or remote …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Horizon Apps Standard

$4.67

Cloud
per month per user

Horizon Standard Plus

$5.79

Cloud
per month per user

Horizon Apps Universal

$6.00

Cloud
per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.vmware.com/products/horizon…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

VMware Horizon 7: Demo - Feature Walk-through

YouTube

Chrome Demo - VMware Horizon

YouTube

VMware Horizon 6 and AirWatch

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VMware Horizon 6 with View

YouTube

VMware Horizon 6 Hosted Applications Demo

YouTube

VMware Horizon 6 Tutorial | VMware Horizon 6 Training

YouTube
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Product Details

What is VMware Horizon?

A VDI solution used for the secure delivery of virtual desktops and apps from on-premises to the cloud. It is used to deploy, manage, monitor and scale desktops and apps across private, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure using a cloud-based console and SaaS management services.

The solution also provides secure remote access to corporate resources from any device and leverage intrinsic security built into the VMware infrastructure to protect from the device to the data center to the cloud.

The vendor's value proposition is that the solution drives cost savings and business value by enabling more flexible and reliable access to resources.

VMware Horizon Competitors

VMware Horizon Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

A VDI solution used for the secure delivery of virtual desktops and apps from on-premises to the cloud. It is used to deploy, manage, monitor and scale desktops and apps across private, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure using a cloud-based console and SaaS management services.

LISTEQ Cloud Desktop are common alternatives for VMware Horizon.

Reviewers rate Performance highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of VMware Horizon are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(156)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Users of VMware Horizon View have praised the software for its ability to provide secure remote access without the need for VPN or remote desktop. This feature has allowed them to conveniently access internal web applications and legacy Windows XP applications from anywhere with an internet connection. IT staff utilize the software to connect to virtual desktops, while employees make use of thin clients to access email, file shares, and specific applications on the go. The software has been particularly valuable for organizations with multiple locations and remote workers, as it offers a cost-effective, hardware-independent solution with features like monitoring, resource utilization, and multi-factor authentication. Additionally, VMware Horizon View is widely used across various industries, including healthcare IT, where it improves end user productivity and user experience for clinical task users. However, some users have occasionally experienced connection issues and difficulties with setup. Despite these challenges, users find the software highly useful for accessing virtual desktops efficiently.

Administrative departments and clients also rely on VMware Horizon View to address hardware failures and crashes by providing access to virtual desktops. This flexible solution is used in various scenarios such as training environments, enabling external contractors' access, and providing workstations for IT staff. Moreover, towns benefit from VMware Horizon View by gaining access to shared applications for assessments, while healthcare professionals securely access internal network resources remotely. The software's reach extends even to Highway Patrol cars, ensuring complete access to internal network resources in areas with intermittent cellular data coverage.

VMware Horizon View has proven invaluable in saving time by virtualizing software and simplifying IT tasks like updates and upgrades. It has facilitated the efficient rollout of Windows 10 and provided a work-from-home solution. Additionally, VMware Horizon Mobile Manager aids with device restrictions, tracking, application deployment, email integration, and digital material delivery.

The flexibility and security offered by VMware Horizon View are highly appreciated by users as they can work from anywhere worldwide with an internet connection. The product serves as a standard platform for daily tasks requiring elevated permissions for IT administrators and developers. It finds value in providing a pool of secured desktops within backup networks, separate from standard production environments. Reviewers have commended the product for eliminating the need to ship laptops across the globe by providing VDI desktops.

VMware Horizon View has been described as a win-win situation for businesses, offering convenient solutions for remote work and data access. It also finds application in statistical analysis software like IBM SPSS. By organizing users into different groups called Pools, it efficiently manages PCs, ensuring desktops are always running or shut down when not in use. Loyola University Maryland relies on VMware Horizon as their enterprise application and VDI delivery system, providing easy access for all employees, faculty, and students across departments. Multiple departments in organizations leverage VMware Horizon View to tailor their IT experience, manage systems with less IT involvement, and ensure quick content delivery. This product has enabled a shift in the way employees work, allowing for centralized data, consolidation of offices, and remote work in different states and locales.

VMware Horizon is especially valuable for managing virtual machines and pools of virtual machines for remote classes and work, providing control over information, managing policies, and resolving problems remotely. In educational institutions, it offers dynamic management of computer and storage resources while reducing costs and complexity. Companies across industries such as operations, sales, and product teams use VMware Horizon View as a primary or remote desktop solution to provide a consistent desktop experience across locations and offices.

Overall, users find that VMware Horizon makes VDI easy with its fast and reliable connection options like VMWare Blast or PCoIP. It caters to the needs of remote agents and offsite workers by offering thin clients to connect remotely over VPN and providing a Windows application environment for Macintosh users. The product has been recommended by experts for clients in their data centers to provide standardized virtual desktops for critical groups within the company. By connecting users to Windows environments on the customer side, VMware Horizon offers a VPN-like experience for remote access.

With its wide range of use cases in various industries, VMware Horizon View continues to be a go-to solution for organizations seeking secure remote access, efficient management of desktops and resources, as well as flexible work arrangements.

Excellent Performance: Users have consistently praised VMware Horizon for its excellent performance. Many reviewers have stated that the software runs smoothly and efficiently, allowing them to access virtual desktops and applications with ease. Some users have mentioned that they experienced no lag or delay when working remotely, which has greatly enhanced their productivity.

Reliable and Efficient Virtualization Solution: Reviewers appreciate that VMware Horizon is a reliable and efficient virtualization solution. Numerous users have highlighted the stability of the software and its ability to provide stable and scalable virtual support. They find it to be a robust product that allows them to create new desktops easily and seamlessly integrate into the vSphere platform.

Easy Implementation and Use: The ease of implementation and use of VMware Horizon is another commonly mentioned positive aspect. Users appreciate the straightforward deployment process, finding it great for deploying new software quickly. They also find the user interface intuitive, making it easy for them to manage their catalogue of pools and devices.

Resource Consumption: Some users have reported that the software consumes more resources than expected, potentially leading to performance issues. This concern has been raised by multiple reviewers who have experienced slowdowns or lag while using the software.

Confusing User Interface: The user interface of the software has received criticism from several users. They describe it as confusing and not well integrated with the operating system. Users have mentioned difficulties in navigating through menus and finding specific features.

Expensive Licensing: Implementing VDI, including hardware and licensing, is seen as a constraint for small and medium-sized businesses. Users have expressed concerns about the high cost of licensing, which adds to the overall expense of adopting VDI solutions. Some users feel that more affordable options should be available for organizations with limited budgets.

User recommendations for using VMware Horizon include the following:

  • Talk with end-users to plan out application loading and day-to-day needs.
  • VMware Horizon is recommended for customer service in telecommunications due to its options for call listening and security.
  • VMware Horizon works well, gives good results, and is free.
  • Use VMware Horizon for testing purposes and to avoid losing information.
  • Ensure a stable internet connection for optimal performance and stability.
  • VMware Horizon is recommended for any company that needs to implement software and test different systems.
  • VMware Horizon provides solutions and the freedom to do anything with the virtual system.
  • VMware Horizon worked well for automating testing services.
  • VMware Horizon offers different features for configuring operating systems without adding dangerous software.
  • VMware Horizon is a good solution for central security management.
  • Understand use cases before deploying VMware Horizon and dedicate people to manage the environment.
  • VMware Horizon is a very accessible software with few glitches.
  • Set up server settings automatically to provide guidance to the vendor.
  • VMware Horizon is a lightweight solution for connecting to a virtual desktop infrastructure.
  • Using VMware Horizon improves productivity in the working environment.
  • Take advantage of the RSA generated token for extra security.
  • Design a solid backend infrastructure with enough storage for a smoother user experience.
  • Purchase enough resources for quick scalability.
  • Get solid state drives and provide extra training for help desk staff.
  • VMware Horizon is recommended for programs that require processing power or access to different operating systems.
  • Try VMware Horizon on other platforms to address bugs or issues.
  • VMware Horizon is a perfect solution for delivering virtual desktops and integrating with existing VMware vSphere environment.
  • Consider alternatives like oVirt, Spice, or Citrix XenServer if VMware Horizon is not suitable.
  • Look at all the options on the internet and choose the platform that best fits the interests, especially for medium and big size companies.
  • VMware Horizon is recommended for virtual desktop users experiencing performance issues.
  • Understand the current environment and define use cases during the testing phase.
  • Use the right infrastructure to scale the VDI solution and choose a VDI solution that meets the appropriate needs.

These recommendations emphasize the importance of user involvement in planning, the suitability of VMware Horizon for customer service and testing, stability considerations, and scalability planning.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 35)
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August 24, 2023

VMware Horizon Review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I deployed this solution for one of our company's client organization. That organization was speared over multiple location and worker were allowed to do work from home. it was not feasible for that organization to deliver hardware to every location and maintain the other aspects of hardware maintenance. In such situations, VMware Horizon Cloud was their choice. It is a cloud based VDI that enables the management of operating system in cloud. It is cost-effective solution in terms of hardware, flexible solution without the need for hardware dependency, In case of any incident, an easy and efficient way to restore or recover data. moreover, features like monitoring, resource utilization, multi-factor authentication makes this solution more feasible in terms of Security and performance.
M. Randy Harris, Jr. | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VMware Horizon is a tool used within the VMware virtualization product line which allows me to manage virtual machines and pools of virtual machines. These virtual machines are provided to students and staff to allow for remote classes and work, respectively. This was particularly critical during the lock-down phase of the pandemic when the entire college was shut down.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's great to be able to set it up enough to support the stores I work for. My Big problem with it is that any form of connection issues on my primary PC - despite it reconnecting - the VM crashes and even after restarting the VM I sometimes need to reboot the primary computer just to get the desktop to display properly. Also getting it set up so I can see everything I want is extremely troublesome. Granted that part is related to it being locked on the desktop as a non-admin, I can do my best with the settings - but the settings aren't much.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The main reason for using a Horizon solution vs computer equipment was security. When starting to manage a hybrid (home office) scheme, it was important to have control over the information as well as to manage policies to increase productivity, the resolution of problems remotely was another major challenge to face for us. For this reason, we decided to test the Horizon solution that offers security, mobility, and technical support options in a single package, the part of smartphones was not included due to the cost issue.
Josh Justic | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
We use VMware [Horizon (formerly VMware View)] for our VDI environment to provide standardized desktops, using linked clones. We also host View desktops for our clients. This solves the problem of deployment and management of multiple OS instances. We update just one golden image to deploy a patch or new application version.
Tim Enders | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Loyola University Maryland uses VMWare Horizon as our Enterprise application and VDI delivery system. Horizon is used across the University by all employees and faculty in all departments, as well as by our entire student body. Horizon provides VDI desktops to select employees, as well as serving as the sole point of access to our ERP system, various HIPAA compliant clinical systems, and delivery of applications for use by all employees and for instruction.
Gabriel Krahn | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Horizon to connect to our Windows environment on the customer side, which was set up by us. This way we don't need to mess around with Citrix or other authentication methods, it's just a VPN + Horizon. It works like a charm. Our customer is located on another continent, so VMWare Horizon was the best option for us until the end of the project.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using this in combination with a Single Sign-On solution to present our EMR to our users, and we are also using it to provide a work from home solution for several of our users, which allows the company to save money by allowing them to re-purpose the area where the departments that were sent home to work used to sit.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VMware is being used by our organization to assist with the rollout of Windows 10. Instead of reimaging and moving all the user data to a new full system we use thin clients that connects to an orchestrator that goes to each View pool of computers. It makes a lot easier and trims down man hours for this migration.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize it to bring remote user desktop applications closer to the source data in the data center, as well as a standard platform for IT administrators and developers' daily tasks that require elevated permissions. We also just recently started using a pool of secured desktops in our backup networks, which are segmented off from the standard production environments.
Stefan Semo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a not-for-profit educational institution, we needed a way to reduce costs while controlling productivity and maintaining standards across our schools and offices. Deploying independent operating systems on standalone hardware provides better performance due to lack of layering, but in the end, the costs and efforts to deploy, manage and update/maintain are many orders of magnitude more problematic. Horizon allows us to dynamically manage computer and storage resources, as well as networking, to achieve a cohesive deployment platform, reduce costs and complexity. With a small IT systems team and helpdesk, most issues are resolved quickly and equality without the need to dispatch engineers or rebuild computers.
Ben Moore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
All of our employees utilize VMware Horizon for access to our company resources. We deploy thin-client laptops so that in the event of any equipment loss, no data is compromised and systems are easily replaced to get users back up and running. VMware Horizon also provides the same experience regardless of whether the user is located in one of our offices or accessing resources remotely.
September 28, 2019

A real business gamechanger

Dan Reynolds | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Desktop virtualization has changed the way we work and even the way we think about working. VMware Horizon has been the tool we've used to accomplish that. First and foremost, it allowed us to centralize our data across offices. Then as we grew and our business climate changed, we consolidated offices, started using "co-work" spaces in other towns and now we even have employees in other states and locales. Most of the employees are only in the office a couple of days a week now.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have utilized this solution to address many diverse user needs. We use this to give our towns access to an application that is shared for assessments. It provides a secure connection to an internal network where we house and backup the data and maintain the application. Each desktop gets refreshed from a defined image after the user logs off to maintain uniformity and reduce the number of licenses needed in a dedicated desktop environment. Another use is for Healthcare professionals that do home visits. We can allow them complete access to all internal network resources remotely in a secure connection. No HIPPA or other compliance related data resides on the local laptop as the session is running on an internal server session. This eliminates the concern of data loss/theft in the event that the laptop is accessed by unauthorized users or it is stolen. We use this solution in our Highway Patrol cars to allow them complete access to all internal network resources remotely in a secure connection. In this mobile environment, there are areas where cellular data coverage drops or is missing. If the cellular signal drops the connection, the officer is able to reconnect when the signal is restored and resume operations right where they left off. I use a dedicated desktop for after-hours remote access 24/7/365. It gives me full access to all applications and data. There is no need to install applications on my laptop or desktop that I am remotely connecting. There is no need for large amounts of data to traverse over a VPN connection. All data and applications run in a server session inside a secure network over a thin connection that does not require large amount of bandwidth. Usage cases are as limited as your imagination.

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used at the moment to virtualize software and deliver to end users personal machines in a way that could not be done before. In the past users would need specific computers, maybe stronger hardware depending on software solution, and users would constantly need to switch their between personal and work machines in order to complete anything. This could be frustrating; what Horizon does is give access to everything you need in simpler way. On the other hand it simplifies work from the IT prospective, where in the past we had to update/upgrade each machine; here we upgrade the base and push to all users in few steps. It is great time saver.
Ho'omana Nathan Horton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In the lab, we use VMWare to access various software provided by the university but which we can't or don't want to install on the machines in the lab. Most commonly, we use VMware Horizon to access statistical analysis software, especially IBM SPSS. We use VMware Horizon to access software from on campus and off-campus (in conjunction with a VPN).
June 06, 2018

Virtual Success!!!!

Eric Krueger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using VMWare Horizon View for approximately 200+ users in multiple departments. This has allowed us to control relevant content for the different departments and tailor their IT experience. It also allows us to manage the systems with less IT involvement/support and allows us to focus on other areas. Content delivery has been a snap since we moved to Horizon View and when system issues arise it is easy to get them back on track quickly.
Isaac Beyda | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VMware Horizon View is being used by the administrative department because they have virtual desktops. In addition to that, many of our clients use it because they have virtual desktops as well. It addresses all problems relating to having hardware failures, crashes, etc.
Brad Daugherty | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
VMware Horizon View is being used by every employee in our operations department. We have also deployed it for parts of sales and product teams. It is used as a primary desktop for many users and as a remote desktop for other users. The product provides us with the ability to provide users that want the same desktop experience and applications when they move across all of our datacenter locations and offices.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Horizon Mobile Manager is being used primarily for device restrictions, device tracking and analytics, application deployment, Network management, email integration and digital material delivery. One of the use cases is a feature like application management. We have a mobile app team that creates an in-house application. The application management makes it easy to deploy these apps on all the employee's device instead of IT doing it individually on each device
Kurt Ferguson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization is extremely VDI-heavy. We have nearly 400 employees. Most users (80%+) rely solely on VDI for access, with 50 or fewer users relying on local access on desktops or laptops. VMWare Horizon makes VDI very easy. The Horizon agent works much better than web access overall, and provides a very fast, reliable VDI connection. The versatility of being able to connect via VMWare Blast or PCoIP is also a great feature if users have trouble with one protocol at home or remotely.
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