5 Best Remote Desktop Software in 2022

Remote desktop software is a viable solution for businesses and individuals to access computers or devices that are outside their premises.

In today’s agile business and remote working environments, remote desktop software solutions can be useful in various use cases, for example:

• Enabling remote employees or traveling employees to remotely access their work desktop
• Allowing help desks/customer support teams to access client’s devices for troubleshooting purposes
• Screen sharing and file sharing between team members for collaboration purposes

And so on.

Yet, with so many remote desktop software products available in the market, which one is the right one for you or your business?

In this buyer’s guide, we have compiled a list of the top 5 remote desktop solutions available today; their pros, their key features, and our review on whether they are the right fit for yourself as an individual or your business.

Without further ado, let us begin.

Top 5 Remote Desktop Solutions

1- V2 Cloud

Product Overview:

V2 Cloud is a full-service virtual desktop solution that also offers secure remote access. Although V2 Cloud is technically a cloud computing service, using V2 Cloud’s remote desktop function won’t involve the traditional complexity of most cloud providers, giving you the best of both worlds: the security and privacy of remote desktop and the versatility of virtual desktop.

Being a full-service solution, V2 Cloud doesn’t only offer secure remote computer access but also advanced functions facilitating secure data access by hosting them in a 24/7 monitored environment, as well as centralized data management.

Despite its robust set of features, V2 Cloud offers a flat-rate pricing model without contracts and hidden fees.

Pricing:

7-day free trial available. V2 Cloud offers multiple plans for businesses and individuals (full breakdown here) based on the number of users, computing resources, applications, and features needed.

Starting from $35/month for individuals and $40/month for businesses.

Key Features:

• Excellent 24/7 technical support
• Zero trust network access. Access to remote resources is based on defined access control policies.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure security and data integrity
• Intuitive and streamlined user collaboration tools
• Daily backup with snapshots
• Role-based access controls. Only those with specific roles can access resources remotely
• Single sign-on. Users only need to input their credentials once per remote access session, including when switching between applications.
• Advanced VPN, facilitating users with an encrypted tunnel between end-users and remote business resources to secure traffic.

Key Benefits:

• Easy to set up and use even without any coding/programming experience
• Excellent 24/7 technical support
• Very fast, stable, and secure

Our Review:

V2 Cloud offers a fast and reliable remote desktop experience that is also cost-effective and easy to use.

In V2 Cloud, you can easily access resources, applications, and data via the web browser of V2 Cloud’s desktop app.

The key highlight of V2 Cloud’s VDI solution is that it’s very easy to set up in just a matter of minutes, with no programming skills required. Despite its ease of use, it is also very secure, and your data will be 100% protected by storing them in a 24/7 monitored environment.

2- Zoho Assist

Product Overview:

Zoho Assist is a dedicated remote desktop software that can facilitate your business with remote desktop connection support, screen sharing, and remote access to computers without needing any physical touch.

Zoho Assist supports Windows, Linus, and macOS, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices, Chromebooks, and Raspberry Py machines, among others. As you can see, this provides versatility and allows Zoho Assist to support a wide range of users using various devices.

Pricing:

Free(forever) remote support plan available with limited features.

Zoho Assist offers two different types of plans:

• Remote Support: Offering on-demand instant remote support to facilitate attended sessions for your remote users. Remote Support plans start from $10/month, with the most expensive plan being $24/month.
• Unattended Access: Facilitating unattended remote access, allowing your organization to access and manage computers located anywhere, even when the remote user isn’t present at the other end. Two Unattended Access plans are available, the cheapest being $10/month for 25 unattended computers and a $15/month Professional plan with extra features.

Key Features:

• Personalized support via live chat, even during a remote session
• Advanced security features including SSL and 256-bit AES encryption, multi-factor authentication, and action log viewer
• Intuitive monitoring and management tools allow easy management of unattended resources like computer grouping
• Great customization options, including great email templates and custom reports
• Bulk deployment features, allowing you to configure a large number of devices for unattended access

Key Benefits:

• A clean and sleek user interface, intuitive and easy to use even for those not familiar enough with remote desktop solutions.
• Relatively affordable cost compared to its competition.
• All Zoho Assist remote sessions are available for recording for security and monitoring purposes
• Free cloud storage
• Multi-language support

Our Review:

Zoho Assist is a very user-friendly remote desktop solution that is easy to use even for first-timers. Despite its simple and intuitive interface, Zoho Assist offers a pretty rich set of features with great multi-language support (German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and more languages), the capability to record all sessions, free cloud storage, and more.

Not to mention, all those features are available for a very affordable price, starting at only $10/month. Zoho Assist does support a wide variety of devices and OSs: Windows, Linux, Chromebook OS, macOS, and more. However, there are some features that are only available on a specific OS, and vice versa (i.e., cloud/remote printing is only available on Windows.)

Nevertheless, while Zoho Assist doesn’t really offer state-of-the-art technologies or groundbreaking features, it is one of the most affordable options available with pretty decent capabilities, making it one of our picks for the best remote desktop software in 2022.

3- Team Viewer

Product Overview:

TeamViewer is one of the most popular remote desktop software solutions available today, and not without its reasons.

It’s a versatile and secure all-in-one solution, suitable for businesses of all sizes and also for personal use. It’s also a very secure solution with state-of-the-art security features like multi-factor authentication, end-to-end 256-bit encryption (AES), and others.

Team Viewer supports almost every desktop and mobile OS, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Pricing:

TeamViewer has three main subscription plans: Business ($34.90/month) for a single user, Premium ($102,90/month) for 15 licensed users, and Corporate ($206.90/month) for 30 licensed users. The more expensive plan also unlocks more features.

Key Features:

• Versatile customization capabilities, custom branding for support applications
• Powerful cross-platform support, including remote device/equipment control capabilities
• Flexible screen sharing (iOS), file sharing, and remote printing (Windows and macOS)
• Permanent access to unattended devices
• Very reliable image quality, file transfer speed, and overall usability
• End-to-end 256-bit AES encryption, two-factor authentication, and other industry-grade security features.

Key Benefits:

• Simple and easy to install with an intuitive interface
• Fast and reliable 24/7 support
• Widest support for device and platform for both desktop and mobile devices
• Excellent security features, GDPR compliant
• Very reliable and stable technical performance

Our Review:

TeamViewer is definitely one of the best remote desktop software solutions available in the market, with the widest device and platform coverage (to date, it supports 127 platforms and devices) and a robust set of features. However, it is not the most affordable solution, with the cheapest plan costing $34.90/month.

If you do have the budget, however, TeamViewer is definitely worth every penny with some of the best features available compared to its competitors.

4- Chrome Remote Desktop

Product Overview:

Chrome Remote Desktop is Google’s remote desktop software solution based on the popular Chrome browser.

The key highlight of Chrome Remote Desktop is that it is totally free, and combined with Google’s powerful infrastructure, you’ll get a powerful, fast, and reliable remote desktop solution without spending anything.

Available for any operating system that supports the Chrome browser: Windows, iOS, Chrome OS, iOS, Android, and others. Being a free solution, it offers all the basic features offered by other solutions in this list, including reliable file transfer. However, it doesn’t have a built-in chat function and doesn’t support multiple displays at the moment.

Pricing:

100% free

Key Features:

• Free remote desktop solution with Google’s native infrastructure
• Fast and easy to use with an intuitive interface
• Cross-platform availability, available on all platforms and devices that support Chrome
• Intuitive cross-platform screen sharing and file sharing functions to collaborate in real-time
• Google’s state-of-the-art security infrastructure with the latest open web technologies (i.e., WebRTC)

Key Benefits:

• Totally free with pretty decent capabilities
• Google’s infrastructure means a fast, reliable, and secure environment
• Simple interface, easy to use on any devices; PCs, laptops, Android phones, and iOS devices from anywhere and anytime

Our Review:

The main highlight of Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop is that it is totally free.

Although it doesn’t offer many advanced features and functionalities offered by other paid solutions in this list, Chrome Remote Desktop is very fast and reliable (with Google’s infrastructure). It offers a pretty decent basic feature set and versatile cross-platform capability.

Chrome Remote Desktop is available on all devices and platforms that support the Chrome browser, and there are no limitations on the number of sessions and session length.

Some downsides, as mentioned, are that Chrome Remote Desktop doesn’t have multi-display support at the moment, and there’s no built-in chat functionality.

5- Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection

Product Overview:

A remote desktop software solution from Microsoft, and is technically free if the computers/devices you’d like to remotely access and control have the Pro or Enterprise versions of Windows installed. Otherwise, you might need to pay for additional Windows licenses.

Although Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection is mainly designed to remotely access Windows computers, you can use devices running other OSs and platforms to perform the remote access (macOS, Android, iOS, and others.)

Being a free solution, Remote Desktop Connection is actually pretty versatile with a rich set of features. However, setting up the Remote Desktop Connection would require a bit of technical experience.

Key Features:

• Free with Windows Pro or Windows Enterprise versions (not with Windows Home)
• Native solution for Windows computers, excellent performance
• Wide cross-platform support (for devices remotely accessing the Windows computer) for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, among others
• Fast and reliable peer-to-peer connection
• Reliable file transfer functionality (Windows to Windows only)

Key Benefits:

• Native Windows support
• Free with Windows Pro or Windows Enterprise licenses
• Available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS clients
• Fast, reliable, and secure with Microsoft infrastructure

Our Review:

If you are only going to remotely access computers that happen to have Windows Pro licenses or above installed, then the Remote Desktop Connection is arguably the best remote desktop software solution for you.

It’s free, and it offers many native and reliable features designed for remotely accessing Windows devices, and it has pretty robust security features. It’s also very fast and reliable with Microsoft’s infrastructure.

Being a free solution, you can’t expect 24/7 customer support from Microsoft, but if you are using Windows and are on a limited budget, Remote Desktop Connection is a decent pick.

Wrapping Up

Above, we’ve shared and reviewed five remote desktop software solutions that, based on our research, are the best available in the market.

Each of these solutions has its own unique features and benefits, so it’s quite difficult, if not impossible, to pick a one-size-fits-all solution for every business and individual. Instead, it’s important to first assess your needs (and budget) and choose the right solution according to your unique needs.

We hope the information we’ve shared above can help you in choosing an ideal remote desktop solution for your business and make the most of your investment.

Written By: Mike Khorev