Parallels RAS Reviews & Insights

Score7 out of 10

263 Reviews and Ratings

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Parallels RAS

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Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Flexibility in User Management: Users have appreciated the system's ease of adding and removing users for project assignments, making transitions between projects smooth and efficient. The flexibility allows for seamless adjustments to team compositions and roles as needed.

Security Effectiveness: Customers have commended the system for its effectiveness in protecting organizational information, providing a secure environment for data. This robust security measure instills confidence in users regarding the safety of sensitive company data.

Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Reviewers highlighted the straightforward infrastructure scaling process as user-friendly, improving overall operational efficiency. The simplified scaling procedures contribute to a more streamlined and productive workflow within organizations.

Reviews

154 Reviews

Great Product for Remote Work

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) for the team to be able to connect from their work laptops to our network remotely, no matter where they are in the world. It allows them to connect to our fileserver at all times and means that we can share documentation easily between multiple computers and operating systems. We have around 300 users setup to use the service.

Pros

It does a great job of allowing us to easily connect remotely to our servers from anywhere in the world
It's very easy to use and understand
It saves our login details so we don't have to input them each time

Cons

It would be great if it was easier to be able to access folders within the Parallels environment without logging into Parallels
Occasionally drops connections
More Windows support articles would be great

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe it is well suited for anyone wanting to connect to machines remotely for example if specific servers are required for certain tasks. In our case it's really helpful for our Finance team who run a specific Finance server with finance related software. It allows them to use the power and licenses on the server without needing to be at the site. This has been really helpful in improving our productivity and flexibility.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

A Solid Remote Desktop Services Alternative for User and Admin Quality of Life

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 28, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Parallels Remote Application Server to allow organizational access to traditional and legacy Win32 style applications. This would include legacy ERP software, older Microsoft Access front ends, and more. Generally, as Remote Desktop Services environment, with significant quality of life enhancements over Microsoft's basic implementation, such as web-based administration and easier delegation of administrative tasks.

Pros

High Visibility of Users, Sessions and Performance
Client is Easy to Install and Configure
Good HA Options, or Active Standy-by HA Option
Functionally Equivalent Web Interface for Management

Cons

Support beyond email is hard to get - typically it's sending log after log when a remote session would have solved it much faster
Need to perform a full Version Update every 18 months
iOS app does not support kerberos

Likelihood to Recommend

Lots of administrative quality of life improvements over Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. If you still need to run Win32 apps, or have an old RDS deployment, Parallels is probably for you.

My favorite quality of life improvement is the highly functional Web Admin Console. Additionally, there are good monitoring and history if you configure those servers. You also get a active/standby HA option that requires no deployment of HA appliances or HA backend databases.

Dennis Peabody

Senior Network and Systems Engineer in Information Technology at PAC Worldwide (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Parallels delivers on our remote access needs

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 24, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Remote access to legacy server based applications is a real challenge that we were able to securely address using Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS). The performance was great and our user base appreciates the ease of use. For the investment, Parallels has completely met our needs and we would enthusiastically recommend Parallels for any organization who needs to securely provide remote access to applications. We have also used Parallels Remote Applications Server (Parrallels RAS) to run Windows based apps on Apple laptops.

Pros

allows remote access to legacy applications
allows access to applications built for one operating system from a different operating system
Increases performance for applications which struggle to perform properly over network hops

Cons

Parallels Remote Application Servers (Parallels RAS) does what we need in the way we need it so we see no need for improvement.

Likelihood to Recommend

Parallels excels at [providing remote access to legacy applications. We have not used it in any other way so I cannot comment as to areas it is not well suited for,

andrew knechel

Director of Technology in Information Technology at Franklin Township Board of Education (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) - Solid and Easy to Use Application Delivery

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 12, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) replaced Citrix in our organization as our primary application delivery and RDS service. We use the platform to provide line of business apps and desktops to our users both remote an in office. Using the product we are able to dynamically deploy applications to our users based on their user role. It has simplified endpoint imaging, and patching by centralizing our application management.

Pros

Ease of Setup
Good application performance
Easy to support
Flexible operating system support

Cons

Passkeys Support for Published apps is not supported

Likelihood to Recommend

Parallels RAS is a great Citrix replacement for any medium sized business. It is far easier to deploy, support and upgrade. The user experience is almost identical, and we had no trouble with the migration.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Honest IT Review.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 9, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Parallels to help facilitate remote connections to URLs and applications only hosted on our intranet.

Pros

Sandboxed Browsing.
Remote PC Connections.
SAML Integration.

Cons

O365 becomes problematic due to tokens and can only be fixed by directly signing into the server. Passthrough MFA functions would be excellent.
Ability to open Office files that are shared in hosted files shared with locally installed PC applications.
The ability for PC client configuration updates once connected to the remote store would be nice.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's great for hosting internal URLs and internal applications that don't require multiple calls to other servers. However, it's horrible for file shares, and the passthrough functions aren't quite there.

Lee Buie

Sr. Systems Engineer in Information Technology at Capitol Broadcasting Company (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 5, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Hello There. We use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) as primary remote access path for all remote workers. We have arround 200 internal stations accesed from external by few hundreds users.
The main problem we always have is to Patch the server, and keep it up with the latest updates. Last time the server was upgraded, we had to manually reconfigure from zere the new server, because it was no way to upgrade Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS), or to export/import the settings.
Support is very professional, but no success. Right now we have to do patches, but of the previous experience, we are afraid to touch it.
Thanks, [...].

Pros

Remote Application Server
Remote Printing
Remote access to user stations.

Cons

Provide the patches.
Make sure after pathch that all previous features are working.

Likelihood to Recommend

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) is good for all remote access to applications and user station, printing.
We have issue on using the Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) client when the Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) is behind CloudFlare proxy services.

Verified User

Technician in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 3, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use this for our Macs to use a couple programs that are windows based. This allows our reporters to use just one computer since they need a Mac to use Final Cut Pro and Compressor, which are available only for Mac users.

Pros

Our vendor program works well with this.
Its easy to manage.

Cons

Sometimes its hard to disconnect users that are having problems.
Sometimes the font is small on the programs when using Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS).

Likelihood to Recommend

Its well suited for a program that only runs in Windows OS. That said, sometimes the specific program doesn't want to work well with Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS). However, that could be because of the program, not Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS).

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

20 years of experience

Great Remote Access solution.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 3, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Parallels RAS to allow our staff to access school resources from home safely and securely. We replaced our outdated Microsoft Remote Desktop solution with Parallels RAS, which has allowed us to offer remote desktop services to our teachers in the safest way possible, no matter what hardware they are using. Using the built-in MFA functionality, we are able to further secure the solution, affording us a higher level of confidence that our infrastructure is safe.

Pros

Publishing resources.
Multi Factor Authentication.
Ease of navigation for users.
App stability.

Cons

nothing really.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Chris Little

IT Manager in Information Technology at West Derby School (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) pros and cons

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 2, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Reducing the number of licenses required for various applications.

Teams that span multiple continents dont use the same license simultaneously and Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) reduces such costs drasticlly.

Pros

Manage multiple product licenses
Roll out additional servers very easily (for capacity)
End user interface friendliness

Cons

Connection interface could be simpler or a way to hide/skip it (Some non-IT staff don't need to see or known any of the connection details)
A way to kill old sessions/open apps, with active directory specifically there's issues with some sub-windows sometime staying open and creating multiple active sessions. (Logging out/disconnecting does not always resolve the issue)

Likelihood to Recommend

Suited for:
- Reducing required licenses for various apps
- For controlling access to certain apps
- Easier set-up of new accounts within the organization by creating profiles of apps for various business units
- Reducing the need for powerfull hardware given to every employee as application is virtualized on the server itself

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) @ [...]

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) to optimize our AWS resources. Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) allows us to use a frontend that is much more user-friendly than the native one provided by AWS itself. Furthermore, Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) allows us to optimize the usage time for our users without having to implement these policies in AWS.

Pros

Native client application
Browser usibility
AWS as provider

Cons

Right Management on VDI level
Possibility to use multiple AWS Provider in same farm
Possibility to use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) in offline mode in non-productive environment

Likelihood to Recommend

Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) can be installed and configured quickly. The documentation is very well described, and the ability to connect to many infrastructures such as Azure, AWS, VMware, and Hyper-V offers great flexibility in choosing one's own favorites. Furthermore, there are good videos and know-how articles available on the internet. So far, we are very satisfied.

Verified User

Employee in Research & Development (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience