10 Best Virtual Desktop Solutions to Boost Productivity

Virtual Desktop Solution (VDS) is a pre-configured virtual workstation accessible remotely through the internet via an endpoint device (such as a tablet, computer, smartphone, or laptop). It includes a pre-installed operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac OS) and applications like web browsers.

Virtual Desktops bring multiple benefits to the modern workplace, including cost savings, remote working ability, scalability, and improved security. These benefits are pronounced due to VDS’s lack of physical servers. This not only reduces the cost of maintenance, but also keeps each virtual desktop environment isolated for data protection, with a centralized server for storing data. Furthermore, you can scale your VDS by adding more instances for both vertical and horizontal growth.

The Geekflare team has researched and listed the best Virtual Desktop Solutions for your business, based on performance, price, scalability, user experience, and integrations.

• V2 Cloud – Best for Small to Medium Business
• Kamatera – Offers Windows and Ubuntu Desktop
• Shells – Best for Personal Cloud Computer
• Amazon WorkSpaces – Best for Enterprise
• Azure Virtual Desktop – Enterprise-Grade Virtual Desktops with Azure Integration
• Flaneer – Best for Agency and Creative Studio
• Coder – Best for Remote Coding and Collaboration
• Citrix Virtual Desktop – Suitable for Enterprise to Virtualize Desktop and Apps
• Omnissa Horizon 8 – Best for Multi-Cloud Strategies
• Ace Cloud Hosting – Citrix-powered Hosted Desktop
• Show moreShow less

V2 Cloud

V2 Cloud is a popular Windows desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) provider for small to medium-scale businesses. It offers 2 core services, as indicated below.

• Virtual Desktops (VDI for business) that run on Windows architecture.
• Application Hosting that offers pre-configured apps like AutoCAD, Quickbooks, Account Mate, and others.

The V2 Cloud remote desktops are accessible via browser, web, desktop, and Raspberry Pi apps. These virtual desktops are hosted on 20 Tier-III high-performance OVH data centers located across Santiago, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, and others.

V2 Cloud also supports daily virtual machine snapshots (for business plans only). However, other plans allow you to customize backups according to your needs, via the management console. In case of failure, the service offers an easy restore option directly from the dashboard.

V2 Cloud Features

• Offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, toll-free phone and email.
• Provides protection with real-time Malwarebytes Pro protection.
• Supports both single-user and multi-user desktops.
• Comes with active directory integration, including Azure AD and JumpCloud.
• Excellent disaster recovery with an easy snapshot restore option.

V2 Cloud Pricing

V2 Cloud offers 2 pricing plans:

• Team Desktops: For multi-user Windows virtual machines, starting at $40/month (1-year plan).
• Individual Desktops: For single-user Windows virtual machines, starting at $35/month (1-year plan).

Try V2 Cloud

Kamatera

Kamatera offers enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure with virtual desktop solutions supporting Windows and Linux operating systems. It is suited for individuals, traders, small businesses, and enterprises that want to take advantage of remote desktop servers.

The service provides fully customizable, self-configured, and self-provisioned cloud servers. You can choose any of its 24+ global data centers, including New York, London, Milan, and Sydney. Furthermore, you can choose between the type (Availability, General Purpose, Burstable, and Dedicated), RAM, SSD storage, vCPU, and Internet Traffic. As for OS, you can choose between Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Windows OS, and others.

They also support daily backups (paid option).

Kamatera Features

• Offers scalability on all its plans with the option to scale up and down anytime.
• Supports both Linux and Windows operating systems, along with custom operating systems.
• 24/7 technical customer support via email, phone, and live chat.
• Provides a top-notch secure remote desktop environment.
• Deploys sophisticated disaster recovery solutions for smooth operations.

Kamatera Pricing

Kamatera offers a 30-day free trial for all its plans. Its basic plan starts at $4/month and gives access to 1 vCPU, 20 GB SSD, 1024 MB RAM, and 5 TB internet traffic.

Try Kamatera

Shells

Shells is best suited for personal cloud computing as you can launch a virtual desktop in less than 5 minutes. It helps overcome your PC limitations by providing a flexible yet powerful virtual desktop with remote capabilities.

Once a virtual desktop is created, you can connect using your choice of device, be it a phone, Chromebook, laptop, or even TV. The remote usage is lag-free, thanks to its 6 data center locations in Tokyo, Germany, New York, Amsterdam, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Under the hood, Shells uses SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments). It is a new protocol that allows viewing and interacting with cloud desktops from different machine architectures (devices).

Shells Features

• Worry-free use with proper backups for all data on Shells.
• Enables low-spec devices to remotely connect to powerful virtual server desktops.
• Choose from 10 pre-installed Linux distros.
• Customizable plans with custom vCPU, SSD, and RAM.
• 24/7 customer support via call and email.

Shells Pricing

Shells offers 3 pricing plans, starting at just $8.95/month. Each plan provides 1 processor, 40 GB storage, and 2 GB memory. All Shells plans come with a risk-free 7-day money-back guarantee.

They also offer custom plans where you can choose vCPU, SSD, and RAM.

Try Shells

Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces is the best choice for enterprises as it offers secure, flexible, and cost-effective virtual desktops. The VDS can adapt to different types of workers, allowing them to work from anywhere they want. It is a fully managed VDI service that offers configurability and flexibility to organizations.

AWS offers 4 services related to WorkSpaces, including:

• Amazon WorkSpaces: Offers cloud-native virtual desktops.
• Amazon WorkSpaces Core: These services provide APIs and Virtual desktop infrastructure for third-party VDI software.
• Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client: For connecting to virtual desktops.
• Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser: A remote enterprise cloud-native browser.

Amazon WorkSpaces provides enterprises with fully managed infrastructure services and the tools to efficiently allocate virtual desktops worldwide. You can choose from its vast fleet of servers in North America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and South America.

For optimal performance, WorkSpaces uses PCoIP protocol for encryption and compression during data encryption.

Amazon WorkSpaces Features

• Highly scalable solution with the ability to scale up or down for CPU, GPU, and storage when needed.
• 24/7 customer support via phone, chat, and email.
• Access to the AWS ecosystem, including Application Manager and AWS Security Hub.
• Offers reliable and secure access with financially-backed SLA (99.9% uptime guarantee).
• Users can bring their own Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise license.

Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing

Amazon WorkSpaces offers both hourly and predictable flat monthly rates for WorkSpaces Personal. However, the WorkSpaces Pools are priced hourly. Also, users can bring their own Windows license or pay a monthly fee of $4.19/user/license.

A WorkSpace Personal with 1vCPU, 80 GB root volume, and 10 GB user volume costs $7.25/month + $0.19/hour. WorkSpace Pools (Windows) pricing starts at $4.19/month + $0.075/hour.

They also offer a free tier for WorkSpace Personal and WorksPaces Pools.

Try Amazon WorkSpaces

Azure Virtual Desktop

Azure Virtual Desktop is Microsoft’s service offering enterprise-grade virtual desktops with Azure ecosystem integration. It supports Windows 10 and Windows 11 desktops and apps like Microsoft 365.

Enterprises can control employees with complete control over management and configuration. Businesses can also keep costs lower with multi-session capabilities and pay-as-you-go models.

If you’re running a business, you can choose from Azure’s global data centers, including South Central US, France Central, and Qatar. Additionally, Azure Virtual Desktop supports backups and easy recovery in case of any disaster.

Azure Virtual Desktop Features

• Highly secure Windows 10 and 11-powered virtual machines.
• Supports flexible networking options, including RDP Shortpath and Azure Private Link.
• Provides multi-session capabilities, hosts multiple users on a single VM, and cuts costs.
• Offers advanced pool management capabilities, such as custom image templates.
• Supports Citrix DaaS for Azure.

Azure Virtual Desktop Pricing

Azure Virtual Desktop follows a pay-as-you-go model. It supports BYOL (Bring your own license) for Windows 10, 11, and Windows Server.

Try Azure Virtual Desktop

Flaneer

Flaneer is best suited for agencies and creative studios, offering cloud workstations capable of handling graphic-intensive jobs. It removes the need to own and manage infrastructure and reduces your IT costs significantly.

Internally, Flaneer makes storing and sharing large files easy with Cloud Files. Once you upload files to the Flaneer cloud, they are easily sharable by mounting them on any workstation. 

With Flaneer, creative users can spin up instances in just 5 minutes.

This makes Flaneer the ideal choice for the following use cases:

• 3D rendering with Blender and AutoDesk 3DS max
• Project Build with Unity game engine
• 3D simulation such as Solid Works and FlexSlim.
• Playtest your games from 1 to 5000 users.

Flaneer Features

• Provides easy team collaboration features, like easy invites to provisioned desktops or the ability to share file systems easily.
• Supports creative apps like Unreal Engine 5, Blender, and others.
• Stream games directly to your computer, running up to 4K 60 FPS quality.
• Store files directly in the Cloud with built-in integration to file servers.

Flaneer Pricing

Flaneer offers a pay-as-you-go model where you customize your plan as per your needs. The servers don’t run 24/7 to preserve energy (1 hour 45 minute timeout). However, if you need a 24/7 running server, they offer monthly pricing.

Flaneer offers a free trial with a 90% refund if canceled before 48 hours.

Try Flaneer

Coder

Coder is an open-source, self-hosted, and fully configurable cloud development environment, ideal for remote coding and collaboration. Developers can host an open-source cloud development environment (CDE) on-premise or choose their cloud platform.

Once a CDE is deployed, developers can start working by creating a workspace, selecting templates, and using their favorite IDE (such as Visual Studio Code).

For provisioning, Coder supports Terraform-defined workspaces with its own startup script. Also, developers don’t have to worry about underlying infrastructure and can focus on development.

Coder is built for enterprises with a robust infrastructure. It has data centers in Toronto, Hamina, Warsaw, London, and Dallas. The network connection is fast, reliable, secure, peer-to-peer, and backed by WireGuard.

Coder Features

• Supports all major developer tools, including IDEs.
• Shuts down automatically (after 2 hours of inactivity) to reduce cloud costs.
• Secure third-party and contractor developers.
• Offers Single Sign-On for secure sign-up using OpenID Connect.
• Comes with Automatic Git Auth that integrates with popular Git services, including GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, and Azure DevOps.

Coder Pricing

Coder offers freemium pricing. It provides a community, open-source, free-to-use solution that supports unlimited workspaces, members, and templates. The Premium plan is charged annually per user and per deployment, and comes with a premium trial. For exact pricing, contact their sales team.

Try Coder

Citrix Virtual Desktop

Citrix is a virtual desktop solution and DaaS provider, best suited for enterprise-level desktop and app virtualization. It delivers DaaS, virtual applications, and VDI options from any on-premises, cloud, or hybrid infrastructure. It also helps you manage your virtual resources effectively from anywhere and get enterprise-grade security for your business data.

Citrix VDI boosts end-user productivity, corporate security, and business sustainability. It offers hybrid multi-cloud workload support, managed cloud control plane, XenServer premium edition, secure access to web apps, analytics for performance and security, and more. 

Citrix helps the healthcare, education, government, retail, manufacturing, and financial services industries empower their hybrid workforce, deliver incredible user experiences, simplify device flexibility, and improve application performance.

However, not all Citrix features are available worldwide. Based on your location (United States, European Union, and Asia Pacific South), Citix features may vary.

Citrix offers an uptime guarantee of 99.9%. As for backup and restore, Citrix comes with an Automated Configuration tool.

Citrix Virtual Desktop Features

• Offers extensive security with features to protect unmanaged endpoints, granular controls, and much more.
• Provides hybrid multi-cloud support (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure), along with on-premise resources.
• Comes with simplified management with improved server stability, accelerated logins, and enhanced app response times.
• Uses HDX optimization technology for low bandwidth usage.
• Ensure high-performance and secure application delivery with NetScaler.

Citrix Virtual Desktop Pricing

Citrix offers licensing models for different types of setups. For a quote, contact their sales team.

Try Citrix VD

Omnissa Horizon 8

Omnissa Horizon 8 allows you to deploy virtual apps and desktops on-premises or in the hybrid or public cloud securely and efficiently with SaaS and automation services. This makes it an ideal solution for multi-cloud strategies.

The service delivers personalized, feature-rich virtual desktops using instant clone technology. It offers secure, workstation-class performance with optimized voice, video, and advanced graphics, while efficiently managing applications and desktops across DaaS, VDI, and published app environments.

With flexible deployment options from Horizon 8, you can empower your workforce, manage scaling capacity, ensure business continuity, and accomplish multiple cloud-based use cases.

For infrastructure, Omnissa Horizon 8 relies on Microsoft Azure servers. It can also be deployed on AWS servers through VMC (VMWare Horizon Cloud).

Omnissa Horizon 8 Features

• Supports hybrid, private, and multi-cloud infrastructure.
• Provides end-to-end security for secure remote access.
• Get actionable insights and monitor performance through a customizable dashboard.
• Comes with Omnissa Dynamic Environment Manager, which simplifies user profiles, policies, and environment settings management.
• Ensures optimal performance for running resource-intensive applications.

Omnissa Horizon 8 Pricing

Omnissa Horizon 8 comes with 2 licensing models: SaaS and Term (each with different features). To get a quote, contact their sales team.

Try Omnissa Horizon 8

Ace Cloud Hosting

Ace Cloud Hosting is a Citrix-powered hosting provider that offers VDI solutions with features like streamlined IT management, proper disaster recovery, a high-performance environment, and excellent accessibility.

Their disaster recovery includes multi-backup services and strategically placed data centers in disaster-free zones. Currently, they have cloud servers in 10+ locations, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Houston, France, Mumbai, Singapore, and others. 

Ace Cloud Hosting offers 99.99% guaranteed uptime.

Ace Cloud Hosting Features

• Offers multi-user collaboration with a secure environment to share files.
• Provides 24/7/365 support, enabling uninterrupted operations.
• Includes built-in security tools like 256-bit encryption, TLS 1.3 for data in transit, and firewalls.
• Fast cloud storage powered by new-generation solid-state drives (SSDs).
• Ensures complete peace of mind with built-in workload backups (100-day data backup), with options for replications and cloning.

Ace Cloud Hosting Pricing

Ace Cloud Hosting offers multiple plans for both Hosted VDIs and DaaS, with the lowest price starting at $669.06/user/year ($55.76/user/year) for the Startup plan (minimum 5 users).

Try Ace Cloud Hosting

What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure?

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a virtualization technology that enables easy deployment and management of virtual desktops. These virtual desktops run operating systems like Microsoft Windows and offer easy remote connectivity via endpoint devices such as laptops, phones, etc. 

VDI uses hypervisor technology to create and manage multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single server. These VMs are isolated from each other to ensure complete data security. Other benefits of VDI include cost savings and simplified IT management.

What are the Benefits of VDI Solutions?

VDI solutions provide 8 major benefits, as shown below.

• Centralized Data Storage: VDI uses a single physical server to create and manage virtual machines, keeping all data on a single centralized server and minimizing data breaches.
• Controlled Access: IT administrators can easily control VDI desktop environments and applications, with only authorized users able to access sensitive data through centralized management.
• Reduced Endpoint Vulnerability: VDI solutions help reduce endpoint vulnerability as data is stored on the cloud rather than locally.
• Remote Access and Flexibility: VDI provides remote access through various devices, including laptops, tablets, or smartphones, offering the much-needed flexibility for remote work and collaboration.
• Cost Savings: As businesses don’t have to own infrastructure or maintain servers, they save money. Moreover, most VDI providers offer a pay-as-you model, further improving cost savings.
• Scalability: VDI offers both horizontal and vertical scalability, with easy addition and removal of virtual desktops and resources. 
• Improved Disaster Recovery: VDI solutions deploy proper disaster recovery by choosing stable zones for data centers, daily/customized backups, automated failover systems, continuous monitoring, alters, and easy restore options (in case of failure).
• User Mobility: VDI allows users to connect to remote desktops from any location, with their own device and internet connection. This helps them to work remotely and provides mobility and work-life balance.

How to Choose the Right Virtual Desktop Solutions

To choose the right virtual desktop solution, you must consider the following 6 criteria.

• Evaluate Your Business Needs: Before choosing a VDI solution, it is important to evaluate business needs, including current pain points, goals, and budget. You must also consider the existing IT infrastructure, current team size, and future anticipated growth. Furthermore, you can choose between hybrid or full-cloud models based on your requirements.
• Performance: Businesses must ensure that their chosen VDIs offer the performance they’re looking for. For example, creative agencies would want a high-performance GPU-intensive virtual desktop.
• Security and Compliance: Organizations looking for VDIs must also look into security features to ensure complete data protection during remote sessions, such as end-to-end encryption. Furthermore, they must consider compliance support like PCI-DSS, HIPPA, GDPR, etc.
• Integration with Existing Infrastructure: Check if the VDI will integrate with your existing infrastructure and support existing applications, data storage, and devices. 
• Data Backup Policies: For optimal uptime, VDIs must offer proper data backup policies. This includes full disk image backup, deduplication, or file-level restore. VDIs with full disk image backup are highly recommended as they are easy to store (thanks to compression) and restore. However, organizations can also choose file-level restore for granular control.
• Cost: Before choosing a VDI, consider the overall cost and your budget. Check the per-user per month/year cost and the features you get with the relevant plan. These costs can be the VDI solution provider’s core costs, plus extra costs associated with backups and Windows licensing.

What Is the Difference Between VDI, VM, and DaaS?

VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solutions are on-premises (mainly) and internally managed data centers that deploy virtual desktop machines for remote and internal use. These are self-managed and require IT professionals to be maintained. Its use cases include remote work, Bring Your Device (BYOD), and more.

VM (Virtual Machine) is a software-based computer with its own operating system (OS), storage, and networking. A physical server is divided into multiple VMs and managed by hypervisors. VMs work similarly to dedicated servers at a fraction of the cost and have excellent security and portability. Its use cases include providing sandbox environments ideal for development, disaster recovery, legacy system support, etc.

DaaS (Desktop as a Service), on the other hand, is a cloud-based VDI managed by a third-party provider. It is a VDI solution where the provider handles DaaS integration, along with maintenance and deployment. With DaaS, businesses can scale and reap benefits like cost savings and high security. DaaS use cases include meeting compliance requirements, improved security, scalability, and resource optimization.