The two cloud versions of Windows cause the most confusion. To make things even more confusing, there are two versions of each. Learn more about comparing Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop. Windows 365 is available in Business and Enterprise versions, and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is available for personal and pooled deployments. Both are based on the Azure Virtual Desktop control plane, but the similarities quickly break down.

Operating systems available for Windows 365 and AVD
Windows 365 can be deployed with Windows 10 or Windows 11 (at boot). Azure Virtual Desktop, on the other hand, supports Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2012 R2.
Microsoft Desktop as a Service (DaaS) subscription model.
All virtual desktop solutions require an Azure subscription, but your Windows 365 subscription lives entirely within Microsoft's Azure subscription and is fully managed by Microsoft at a fixed price. Azure Virtual Desktop, on the other hand, is fully managed by the customer and offers flexible usage-based pricing.
Compute
Azure Compute for Windows 365 is 100% managed by Microsoft, has a fixed cost, and has no direct administrative access to the underlying virtual machines (VMs). With AVDs, compute usage is controlled by the customer with consumption-based costs and additional flexibility when configuring VMs. If you want a monster video rendering engine with multiple 3090 GPUs and TB RAM, AVD is for you.

Apps4Rent is a cloud-first Microsoft partner with competencies such as Windows and devices, as well as cloud platforms. If you're looking to empower your workforce with Desktop as a Service, leverage Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop to reduce risk, support costs, and downtime while increasing productivity and mobility.