Ditch Citrix? Exploring Kasm Workspaces on Proxmox for a Scalable VDI Setup

If you've ever dipped your toes into the world of virtual desktops, you know the big names. Citrix. VMware Horizon. Microsoft RDS. Enterprise giants with the power (and pricing) to match. But what if you could roll your own VDI setup — browser-based, scalable, and free — with just a few open-source tools and some weekend homelab time? That's where Kasm Workspaces paired with Proxmox VE comes in. And it's not just a cool hack for hobbyists. It's a surprisingly powerful, flexible stack that's punching way above its weight. Especially now, with Kasm's autoscaling support and Proxmox playing nice as a backend. Let's break down what's going on here, why people are ditching the old-school solutions, and what it's like to run a full-blown VDI environment without shelling out for bloated licenses. --- ### What Is Kasm Workspaces Anyway? At a glance, Kasm Workspaces looks like just another Docker-based remote desktop platform. But dig in, and you'll find something way more interesting. It's a browser-based platform that can stream Linux and Windows desktops, web apps, developer environments, and even single applications — all from containers or virtual machines. There's no thick client to install. No arcane setup process. You just open a browser and boom — there's your desktop. Or VS Code. Or a fully configured Kali Linux session. It's sleek, modern, and surprisingly responsive. And while Kasm offers a commercial Enterprise version, the Community Edition (yep, completely free) supports most features — including autoscaling, LDAP/SSO, persistent profiles, and container/VM flexibility. The main limitation? Five concurrent sessions. But for small teams, labs, or personal use, that's not a dealbreaker. --- ### Proxmox as the Backend: Why It Works Proxmox VE has long been the homelabber's darling. It's stable, fast, and open-source, with rock-solid virtualization and container support. It's also got an API, which makes it possible for external tools — like Kasm — to spin up and tear down VMs on the fly. When you connect Kasm to your Proxmox environment, it basically acts as a session orchestrator. Need three Ubuntu dev desktops? It spins them up. Done with your Windows sandbox? It tears it down. The magic here is the **autoscaler** — a feature that can provision both containers and VMs based on active demand. This means you don't have to pre-allocate a giant pool of always-on machines. If no one's logged in, resources sit idle. When users jump in, Proxmox wakes up the needed machines, and Kasm streams them directly into the browser. That's big. In a world where cloud bills spiral out of control and on-prem servers sit half-idle, this kind of on-demand resource management is the sweet spot. --- ### Real-World Setups: From Dev Labs to Secure Browsing People online are already putting this combo to use in a bunch of creative ways. One user shared that they use Kasm daily with **LDAP and SSO integration** — giving them secure, HTTPS-based remote access even on restrictive guest networks. Another mentioned pairing Kasm with **Cloudflare Tunnel and MFA**, creating a highly secure, remote-friendly setup with nothing more than a browser on the client side. There's also support for **persistent profiles**, meaning your customizations stick around between sessions. So whether you're opening a full desktop or just a single app (like a browser with preloaded tools), you don't lose your settings when the VM or container resets. One particularly clever use case? Secure environments. A user noted they run Kasm in a VM on a Proxmox node within their DMZ. From there, they can spin up sessions to access internal machines — kind of like a web-based, containerized bastion host. --- ### Can It Replace Citrix? That's the million-dollar question. For many users — especially small orgs or personal setups — the answer is leaning toward yes. Kasm supports publishing individual Windows apps (yep, just like Citrix does with `.exe` apps), and you can access them through the same browser-based UI. There's even a YouTube walkthrough showing Windows Server integration, covering things like RDP session delivery, domain joining, and roaming profile support. No, it won't have every single feature that Citrix offers — especially when it comes to massive enterprise-scale deployments, GPU passthrough, or fancy session shadowing. But if your needs are more "we want people to access a desktop/app from anywhere, securely, with minimal fuss," then Kasm delivers. And if you've ever had to untangle the licensing spaghetti that comes with Citrix or Microsoft RDS CALs, the appeal of an open-source, mostly free alternative becomes obvious. --- ### The Autoscaling Magic (And Its Limits) Autoscaling is a big part of what makes this setup compelling. In Kasm 1.18, the autoscaler got a significant upgrade — with support for bulk user/server import via CSV, enrollment tokens for Windows boxes, and label-based routing so you can decide where things spin up. You can define rules like: "Spin up 10 Ubuntu workspaces from 8am–5pm, then scale down after hours." Or "Assign all dev workloads to Node 2, and keep Node 1 for Windows sessions only." It's the kind of control you normally expect from enterprise orchestration tools. But there are limits. Right now, autoscaling configs in Kasm must target **specific nodes** in a Proxmox cluster. That means you can't tell it to just "scale wherever there's room." It's not true load balancing across the cluster — yet. There's hope that Proxmox's newer APIs (like the Datacenter Manager 1.0 just released) could change that. --- ### What You'll Need to Get Started Spinning this all up isn't rocket science, but it does take a little setup. Here's a quick-start checklist: * **Proxmox VE**: Your virtualization backend. Can be a single-node or multi-node cluster. * **Kasm Workspaces (Community Edition)**: Installed on a Linux VM, connected to Proxmox via API. * **Docker**: Required for Kasm containers. * **Storage & Network Planning**: If you want to assign VMs to VLANs, persistent volumes, etc. Optional but highly recommended: * **Cloudflare Tunnel or VPN**: For secure remote access. * **LDAP or SSO integration**: To avoid managing local users manually. * **Persistent Profiles**: So users don't start from scratch every time. Kasm's documentation is actually pretty solid — with full guides on autoscaling, persistent profiles, multi-server setups, and even fancy network setups (like IPvLAN or bridged NAT containers). You're not flying blind here. --- ### Should You Ditch Citrix? If you're an enterprise running thousands of users with regulatory requirements and 24/7 support contracts? Maybe not just yet. But if you're a startup, dev team, school lab, or savvy IT admin tired of bloated software and endless licensing talks — then yeah. Kasm + Proxmox is the VDI stack you didn't know you were looking for. It's lightweight, flexible, surprisingly secure, and ready to scale up or down as needed. And best of all, it doesn't feel like a janky workaround. It feels like the future — or at least, the kind of future that respects your time, your hardware, and your budget. --- Thinking of giving it a shot? You can start small. Spin up a single-node Proxmox box, drop in Kasm, and try running a few browser desktops or apps. Then imagine scaling it out to serve your whole team — no thick clients, no fuss, and no six-figure invoices. The age of DIY VDI is here. And honestly? It's about time.