The best Omnissa Horizon alternative is one you might already be using

Reduce costs and risk by consolidating your end-user computing estates

You might be operating Omnissa Horizon (formerly VMware End-User Computing) today, but at the same time evaluating an alternative. Maybe you’re concerned about a back-on-again Broadcom tax. Or the need to stand up separate management consoles. Or the need to deploy additional infrastructure components to bridge on-premises and cloud environments.

Consider Citrix® as an alternative: By moving all your Omnissa Horizon workloads to Citrix, you’ll realize significant cost savings through vendor consolidation. Not to mention the operational and infrastructure cost savings and reduced risk achieved from streamlined operations and consistent security policies.

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Why Citrix is the superior alternative to Omnissa Horizon

Lower TCO 

Single platform license includes consulting services and support*, plus such capabilities as an enterprise browser, an ADC with WAF, a hypervisor, endpoint management, and more.

Greater deployment flexibility

Compatible with every major public cloud and the most common on-premises hypervisors, including VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, and Citrix’s own XenServer. 

Better end-user experience

High-definition, customizable end-user experience enables productivity for a distributed workforce, even over unreliable network conditions.

Citrix offers the most deployment options for your use cases

Citrix continues to evolve and invest in innovation. Our commitment to building what our customers tell us they need right now — while also building what they will need in the future — is about meeting you where you are. Citrix offers the widest choice of deployment options and capabilities to meet the needs of the most demanding use cases such as:

  • Reducing infrastructure costs by moving some workers to a secure enterprise browser  

  • Reducing the friction and costs associated with onboarding new employees during M&A  

  • Maintaining compliance in a heavily regulated industry 

  • Repurposing old hardware to prepare for a Windows 10 to 11 migration

ANALYST REPORT

2025 Gartner® Critical Capabilities for Desktop as a Service

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Why Citrix provides more value than Omnissa Horizon

Simply put: Citrix offers more value in our platform licenses than Omnissa. That’s because you get a full end-to-end platform solution and many more key capabilities with Citrix that Omnissa doesn’t offer, including:

Citrix supports hybrid deployments environments with support for all major public clouds and hypervisors

Deployment flexibility across hybrid

Citrix single management console

Simplified management through a single console

Citrix high-definition protocol

Advanced protocol for high-definition, customizable end-user experiences even over unreliable network conditions

Citrix secure enterprise browser

Enterprise browser with ZTNA for secure web and SaaS application access

Citrix thin-client endpoint OS and management

Thin-client endpoint OS and management

Citrix application delivery controller

Application delivery controller with built-in web application firewall and API protection

Citrix real-time continuous monitoring and policy enforcement

Real-time continuous monitoring and policy enforcement

Citrix secure browser-based cloud development environments

Secure browser-based cloud development environments

Citrix consulting services and support

Consulting services and support included for no additional cost*

Omnissa Horizon alternative Citrix provides significant savings

Organizations that consolidated on Citrix achieved $450K savings on 3-year license costs alone

How Citrix can help de-risk your migration off Omnissa Horizon

While it’s duplicative and expensive to operationally manage two end-user computing platforms, it can also be difficult and expensive to consolidate on a single platform.  

The good news is that we can help you make the business case for migrating off Omnissa Horizon. And we’ll invest upfront in your success by assisting with the migration and giving you a break on your licensing cost.* That way you can de-risk the migration without disrupting the business — and keep the migration cost low or even neutral.

Common concerns

  • Application compatibility

  • Change management

  • Lack of migration expertise

  • Migration cost too expensive

  • Re-training

How Citrix helps

  • Consulting services included in license

  • Support included in license

  • Partner investment

  • License cost breaks

Frequently asked questions

Why should I go all-in with Citrix and risk losing my negotiating leverage when my renewal comes up?

We understand this concern, and that’s why we designed our subscriptions to consolidate VDI, DaaS, security, and analytics into a single, predictable per-user/per-year cost. This eliminates the “death by a thousand cuts” from multiple add-on licenses and provides budget clarity for the next 3-5 years. We can model the TCO for your specific scenario to show you how Citrix provides more value and a lower TCO than Omnissa Horizon.

Which cloud providers and hypervisors does Citrix support?

Unlike Omnissa, Citrix is infrastructure agnostic: We are compatible with every major public cloud provider as well as the most common on-premises hypervisors, including VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, and our own Citrix XenServer with decades of maturity.

Is the Citrix hypervisor included in my license?

Yes, the Citrix XenServer hypervisor is included in both the Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud License and the Citrix Platform License — there is no additional cost to use it. And unlike the VMware ESXi hypervisor that comes bundled as an option with Omnissa, Citrix XenServer won’t be subject to a sudden back-on-again Broadcom tax.

Is application load balancing included in my Citrix license?

Yes, high-performance application load balancing, a web application firewall (WAF), and API protection are all provided by Citrix NetScaler, which is included in both the Universal Hybrid Multi-Cloud License and the Citrix Platform License at no additional cost.

For hybrid deployments, am I required to use multiple management consoles with Citrix?

No, Citrix provides a single, unified platform and single console to manage and secure your workloads no matter where they are deployed. Because Omnissa is intrinsically tied to the VMware vSphere ecosystem, it requires you to stand up separate management consoles and deploy additional infrastructure components to bridge on-premises and cloud environments.

Citrix can help you de-risk the migration off Omnissa Horizon

The good news is that Citrix can help you make the business case for migrating off Omnissa. And we’ll show our good faith by assisting with the migration and giving you a break on your license cost.* 

Contact your Citrix representative to get started with a TCO assessment and migration plan

*Terms apply: Please contact your Citrix representative for more information.   

Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Desktop as a Service, By Sunil Kumar, Todd Larivee, Stuart Downes, 18 August 2025.  GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.