VMware Horizon is the leading on-premises VDI and virtual application platform. Under Broadcom, Horizon has undergone significant commercial restructuring — moving away from perpetual named user licences toward subscription-based concurrent user models, pushing Horizon Cloud (SaaS), and raising pricing for organisations that want to stay on-premises. This guide explains the new Horizon licensing model and how to manage costs.
VMware Horizon has been the market-leading enterprise VDI and published applications platform for over a decade, with strong adoption in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and government sectors. Before the Broadcom acquisition, Horizon licensing was straightforward: organisations purchased perpetual licences on a per-concurrent-user (CCU) or per-named-user (NU) basis, paying an upfront perpetual licence fee plus an annual Support and Subscription (SnS) fee. The CCU model suited shift-based, shared-desktop environments; the NU model worked for dedicated user scenarios. Three editions — Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise — provided increasing feature depth.
Under Broadcom's ownership (post-2023), Horizon is no longer sold as a perpetual product for new purchases. Broadcom is transitioning all Horizon customers to a subscription-based model called the Horizon Universal License (HUL), priced monthly or annually per user (CCU or NU). This shift mirrors the broader software industry trend toward subscription revenue, but for organisations with large Horizon deployments, the economic impact is significant: amortised over three years, the new HUL pricing often exceeds the old perpetual+SnS total cost of ownership.
Broadcom is simultaneously pushing customers toward Horizon Cloud on Azure — a fully managed, SaaS-delivered version of Horizon. By raising on-premises Horizon pricing (via HUL) and offering Horizon Cloud as a lower-cost path, Broadcom is restructuring the market dynamics. Organisations that view VDI as a cost-centre (rather than a strategic asset) are increasingly tempted by the consumption-based, no-capex model of Horizon Cloud.
The Horizon Universal License (HUL) is a subscription product that covers both on-premises Horizon and Horizon Cloud deployments. Customers select an edition (Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise) and choose a licensing basis (concurrent user or named user), then pay a monthly or annual subscription fee per user. The subscription includes software, support (for the first 12 months), and access to Horizon Cloud if the customer chooses to migrate or deploy hybrid.
HUL pricing is typically offered as a tiered annual or monthly subscription, with discounts for longer commitment terms (1, 2, or 3 years). Pricing ranges from approximately $8–$18 per user per month depending on edition, licensing basis, and contract term. This represents a significant increase on the perpetual+SnS model: a three-year HUL subscription costs roughly 1.8–2.2x the old perpetual licence cost amortised over three years.
The key commercial terms to negotiate with Omnissa (the new Horizon vendor owned by Broadcom) include: commitment period (1 or 3 years — longer terms unlock larger discounts), user count flexibility (true-up rights, flex-down rights for seasonal reductions), support level (standard vs premium), and bundling with other Horizon add-ons (Advanced Load Balancer, JMP, etc.).
| Horizon Edition | Key Capabilities | Pricing Basis | On-Premises? | Horizon Cloud? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | VDI desktops, published apps, basic policies | CCU or NU | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced | Standard + App Volumes, Dynamic Environment Manager | CCU or NU | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise | Advanced + Cloud Pod Architecture, JMP, Horizon Assist | CCU or NU | Yes | Yes |
Horizon editions have remained relatively stable under Broadcom, though the ability to purchase lower-cost editions is being restricted through commercial pressure toward higher-tier subscriptions. The three editions are:
Horizon Standard provides core VDI functionality: desktop virtualisation, published application delivery, basic policies, and management console. Standard is suitable for organisations deploying simple, uniform desktop environments without advanced user profile management or app provisioning needs. Pricing is the lowest tier.
Horizon Advanced adds App Volumes (an application layering platform that accelerates app deployment and reduces image sprawl) and Dynamic Environment Manager (DEM, which personalises user environments by managing profiles, settings, and registry data across sessions). Advanced is relevant for organisations with diverse user requirements, high app complexity, or frequent desktop image cycles. The Advanced subscription typically costs 30–50% more than Standard.
Horizon Enterprise includes Cloud Pod Architecture (CPA, allowing federated Horizon pod management across multiple locations), JMP (JumpCloud management protocol, integrating non-Windows device management), and Horizon Assist (AI-powered troubleshooting). Enterprise targets large, geographically dispersed deployments with complex IT operations requirements. Enterprise typically costs 60–90% more than Standard.
Many organisations purchase Horizon Enterprise because it appears to offer a "full feature set," but do not use CPA, JMP, or Horizon Assist. Auditing actual feature usage and downgrading to Advanced where possible can reduce annual HUL costs by 20–30%. However, Broadcom's commercial team often resists edition downgrades at renewal, requiring negotiation.
Horizon is licenced on either a concurrent user (CCU) or named user (NU) basis. The choice affects both pricing and the cost of ownership.
Concurrent User (CCU) licensing counts the maximum number of simultaneous sessions across your Horizon environment. If you have 1,000 CCU licenses, you can support 1,000 simultaneous sessions. This model suits shift-based environments (call centres, hospitals) where the same physical desktop is used by multiple users at different times, or organisations with cloud-based Horizon fleets where dynamic resource allocation allows over-subscription of compute vs users.
Named User (NU) licensing counts the number of unique users who access Horizon. If you have 500 NU licenses, 500 users can access Horizon, regardless of how many sessions they create simultaneously. NU is appropriate for office workers with dedicated desktops or light VDI usage patterns.
The economics differ: CCU pricing per unit is often 20–30% lower than NU, reflecting the assumption that not all CCU licences are in use simultaneously. However, if your environment has high user concurrency (most users logged in during business hours), CCU can become expensive. Conversely, NU is simpler to forecast and manage, but costlier per session for high-concurrency scenarios. When evaluating HUL contracts, stress-test your concurrent user ratios against your user population to confirm you're choosing the right licensing basis.
Broadcom is aggressively promoting Horizon Cloud on Azure as the preferred deployment model. Horizon Cloud is a SaaS platform managed by Broadcom, hosted on Microsoft Azure, where customers provision Horizon pods and desktops without managing on-premises infrastructure. The economic pitch to customers is compelling: no capex, consumption-based pricing, automatic patching and updates, and Broadcom-managed scalability.
However, Horizon Cloud pricing is not simply an HUL subscription. Customers pay for HUL (per user), plus Azure infrastructure costs (compute, storage, networking, egress). The total cost of Horizon Cloud (HUL + Azure) often exceeds on-premises HUL pricing for organisations with large, long-running VDI fleets. Additionally, Horizon Cloud entails data egress costs, Azure networking costs, and potential Azure Reserved Instance commitments — adding complexity to cost forecasting.
For organisations evaluating Horizon Cloud as an alternative to on-premises upgrades, cost models should include: (1) baseline Azure compute costs for your user population and workload profile, (2) storage and data egress assumptions, (3) multi-region failover costs if planned, and (4) comparison to on-premises capex amortised over five years. In many cases, the on-premises HUL model is cheaper; Horizon Cloud is preferable for organisations prioritising operational simplicity over cost minimisation.
A common misconception: Horizon is bundled into VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). It is not. VCF includes vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and Aria management tools — but not Horizon. Horizon remains a separate, standalone product that must be purchased independently, either via HUL subscription or on-premises perpetual licenses (if you have not yet renewed).
This is an important distinction because many organisations assume that moving to VCF grants them Horizon capabilities, or that Horizon is "included" in their VCF bundle. In reality, upgrading your vSphere infrastructure to VCF does not affect your Horizon licensing — you must address Horizon renewals and pricing separately through Omnissa (or Broadcom's licensing team, depending on contract structure).
Under Broadcom's new pricing model, competitive alternatives to Horizon have become more attractive. Key alternatives include:
Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is a Windows desktop and application virtualisation service hosted on Azure. For organisations already licensed for Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5, AVD is included at no additional user cost — making the financial case for Horizon significantly weaker. AVD scaling costs (compute, storage) are lower than Horizon Cloud on Azure for large deployments. The trade-off: AVD lacks some advanced features (App Volumes, JMP, CPA) and suits organisations willing to accept Microsoft's ecosystem constraints.
Citrix DaaS (Desktop-as-a-Service) and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (CVAD) are Broadcom's own competing platforms. Citrix DaaS is a cloud-delivered version of CVAD. Citrix has strong positioning in high-security, high-performance scenarios (financial trading, CAD workstations) where Horizon is also deployed. Citrix pricing is comparable to Horizon HUL, but Citrix is more flexible on per-user negotiation and can bundle tightly with Microsoft 365 or Okta identity platforms.
Amazon WorkSpaces is AWS's managed VDI offering. Pricing is consumption-based (hourly rates + storage), with AWS Savings Plans available for commitment discounts. WorkSpaces is less feature-rich than Horizon but suits organisations already committed to AWS and seeking to avoid on-premises VDI infrastructure.
Broadcom divested Horizon (and the entire End-User Computing portfolio) to a new company called Omnissa in 2024. Horizon customers now have a contractual relationship with Omnissa, not Broadcom, for licensing, support, and renewals. This separation changes the negotiation landscape: Omnissa is under new ownership and may have different pricing flexibility than Broadcom. When negotiating Horizon HUL contracts, confirm whether you are negotiating directly with Omnissa or through a Broadcom licensing partner.
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