TSplus & GO-Global: a Comparison
When organizations are looking for alternatives to industry giants like RDS and Citrix they often look at companies like GO-Global and TSplus for virtualization solutions. So what are their similarities and more importantly what are their differences? In this post, we will compare GO-Global and TSplus to answer this question.
Both GO-Global and TSplus enable remote access to Windows applications. But they diverge in many ways from there.
Target Markets
As they state on their website, TSplus enables remote access “for SMBs transitioning to remote working”. TSplus’ product line is optimized for small companies that want to deliver productivity applications to remote employees; they also offer a version of their core product that enables remote assistance and screensharing for employee support.
In contrast, GO-Global was designed and optimized for Windows ISVs of any size who want to Saasify their application from any cloud to customers located anywhere. GO-Global customers vary in size from ISVs with less than 100 customers to those with 10,000+ customers.
Architecture
From an architecture perspective, TSplus is essentially a front end for Microsoft® Remote Desktop Services (RDS). TSplus simplifies RDS complexity with a centralized console for management and administration. Since TSplus relies on RDS to deliver applications to remote employees, it also uses Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a network protocol that allows users to remotely connect to a server to access Windows applications.
TSplus’ utilization of RDP creates a security risk for organizations that use it. A recent report from British-based security software company Sophos found that in the first half of 2023, RDP was leveraged in 95% of the cybersecurity attacks experienced by Sophos customers, making it “one of the most widely abused tools” used to attack corporate computing systems (for more detail, see the blog post).
In contrast, GO-Global fully replaces Microsoft’s multi-session functionality, multi-session functionality, GUI-functionality, Remote Desktop Services (RDS), and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Instead of RDP, GO-Global uses RapidX Protocol (RXP), a proprietary, low bandwidth network protocol. Because RXP is closed source, it offers additional defense against attackers, compared to RDP’s open-source protocol.
Resource Utilization
TSplus architecture makes highly inefficient use of server resources compared to GO-Global prospect. A recent evaluation of server optimization compared the efficiency of TSplus and GO-Global when delivering the same Windows application to remote users. The test found that GO-Global significantly outperformed TSplus from an efficiency perspective as follows:
The result? From a resource utilization perspective GO-Global delivered the best performance.
Pricing
The most fundamental way TSplus differentiates itself from modern software is how it prices and packages its offerings.
First, TSplus sells perpetual licenses priced per server. The company doesn’t specify how many users a server license can support, although technical documentation indicates that a single server license can support a maximum of 50 users. Because TSplus makes inefficient use of server resources, accomodating 50 users may be challenging. Additionally, because TSplus licenses by named user, there’s no room for error from a licensing perspective. TSplus customers must err on the side of caution and overbuy TSplus licenses in order to ensure that every remote user has access to their work applications at all times.
TSplus’ pricing model can also prove very difficult for ISVs to wrap their heads around from a business perspective. Why? Server-based pricing doesn’t align with the user-based pricing used by many ISVs, making it very difficult to rationalize a SaaS pricing strategy.
In contrast, GO-Global’s concurrent user subscription licensing is extremely simple. ISVs determine their license count by referring to their customer usage stats and buying enough licenses to cover their highest usage number in the month. Most ISVs purchase an additional 10% of that number to accommodate unexpected usage and growth. Additionally, it’s easier for an ISV delivering an application as a service to calculate pricing using GO-Global’s model.
Lastly, Because TSplus relies on RDS to run, companies buying TSplus will also need to pay for Microsoft user access licenses for each named user.
Packaging
TSplus is packaged with the needs of a small company in mind. TSplus offers three product tiers, Desktop, Web Mobile, and Enterprise. Desktop is designed for very small companies, with basic remote access capabilities and remote printing—while security, 2FA, server monitoring features, and mobile device support are unavailable with this tier.
Web Mobile has all the Desktop capabilities, plus the ability to access applications via a web browser and server monitoring; security features including 2FA area vailable at an extra cost.
With Enterprise, customers get the Desktop and Mobile features plus enterprise-level capabilities like load balancing and the ability to designate a farm manager and farm hosts; security features plus 2FA are available at an extra cost. Companies that want to use TSplus to provide remote access to Windows apps and need enterprise-level capabilities will pay an additional 37% over the basic Desktop Edition to get the features they need.
In contrast, GO-Global has one pricing plan and one add-on. The add-on is GO-Global + SSO, which provides support for OpenID Connect, allowing organizations to use modern identity providers to enable single sign-on into GO-Global Windows hosts.
As is typical with perpetual licenses, the first year of support for TSplus is included in the license price. Customers must pay an annual support renewal fee after the first year, or buy support in 3-year units at a discount when purchased up-front. In contrast, GO-Global’s subscription pricing includes support—nothing extra to pay, no renewals to track.
Which Product is Better for Windows ISVs?
If you’re a small company that wants to provide employees with remote access to Windows apps from their PC and isn’t worried about security or the ability to monitor application servers, then TSplus will be adequate for your needs.
If you’re a Windows ISV that wants to efficiently and securely deliver your application from any cloud to customers located anywhere using any device, and provide them with a consistently great user experience, GO-Global is tailor made for you.
GO-Global—designed for Windows ISVs.
To request a GO-Global demo, click here; for a free 30-day GO-Global trial, click here.
