Desert is a fragile ecosystem with special function. The restoration of desert ecosystem is positioned on its functions of wind defending, biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, and soil fertility. Based on the data of vegetation structures, soil properties, and wind factors, the difference of ecosystem services was assessed between two restoration models, the natural and planted vegetation restoration areas in the desert of Qitai County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, NW China. The results showed that, there were 58.8 more days without wind per year in the planted than in the natural vegetation restoration area. Average wind velocity and kinetic wind energy were lowered by 0.88 m/s and 65.2%, respectively, in the planted than in the natural vegetation restoration area. Compared with the natural recovered area, the planted area was better in reducing winds from the north and the northwest, but weaker in reducing wind from the southwest. Compared with the planted restoration model, the natural recovery model was better in conserving plant biodiversity, the species richness and Shannon-Wiener index of plant communities in the natural recovery area were much higher than those in the planted restoration area, but the tendency of Pielou index was on the contrary. The plant community in the natural recovery area was more stablein that its soil salt and pH were higher than those in the planted restoration area. These results might be meaningful for selecting effective restoration model at desert front.