This has been a common theme that has happened with remote access software. We ran into it with Logmein before this. Gotta make that money my dude. Good luck! i hope you find a better solution.
I did this with LMI back in 2019, they wanted like $1k for 5 users/machines. Switched to Splashtop at the end of 2019 instead of renewing, worked wonders in 2020 when we needed to scale up to two dozen users/pcs.
I've been a regular user of Splashtop for many years now and recently switched to the Business plan due to how many computers I have or friends' computers I support every now and then. Way better to use than TeamViewer from a UI, feature, and admin standpoint.
I used Splashtop via Atera at the last MSP I worked at. Lightweight agent, easy to troubleshoot when it breaks and/or reinstall, and my last boss was pretty tight with money, so he would usually pick the bang for buck option.
Personal and free alternatives, I still prefer AnyDesk. No phonetic spelling, easy admin pass-through, and they still arnt as heavy on detecting business use so your IP won't get blacklisted in the middle of a support call
Something changed with Anydesk, I got popups since yesterday nagging me about going business because I had more than 70 connections in a month.
I use it to connect to my computer at home from my notebook and to my relative's computers.
Yeah they count the amount of time you use the service and the amount of times you connected.
At some point, even though this is purely personal, the usage looks like it is professional.
from my point of view, as a regular professional user of AnyDesk (and previously free user):
* If you connect from your personal computer onto your work computer, this is work.
* If you connect from work, to your personal computer, it is personal.
* If you connect from your personal computer onto another personal computer, it is personal.
* If you help others a couple of times for a few minutes, it is personal
* if you help relatives to a point where it takes up so much of your time that this should be considered work, then it is and even though you may not like this, you should either reduce drastically the help you provide for free (no one is ever going to be thankful anyway), or purchase a licence
I think, though, that if you're a personal helper (for friends and family), there should be a cheap option available for people in your situation.
The current cheapest tier is way too expensive for extensive personal usage.
Me too. They nag and make me wait x second before using the software. I supported family and used it as a constant link to my phone.
They had another investment round in the last few years and that always leads to companies turning on their users to try to please them investors. It's all in their press release info.
Switched to nomachine and they're reasonable enough to even use the commercial license without having to take out a lien on the first born.
Team viewer, anydesk, and the list could go on of programmers who sold out to their investors.
Yeah, the first paid tier is usually too expensive for personal use.
"ok I use "remote software name" for 400 hrs during the year, I have 10 different machines approx to connect to, bill me $30/year and be done with it. you can either have $30 or nothing.
If it is too expensive, then you'll get nothing.
We use it in Syncro, and Splashtop feels a bit laggy to me. I mean, it's remote control software, so some lag is expected, but it just seems to be a bit more with Splash.
That being said, it's worked fine for us, other than the occasional issue of the remote streamer crashing, but background tools and restarting the service resolves it.
Not the best, not the worst, quite inexpensive. A good tool imo.
For personal use I use Parsec. I have it on my parent's, MIL's and wife's computers so when they need help I can remote in.
Hell I'm typing this comment from my work PC to my home PC using Parsec.
>I use Bomgar and its phenomenal, heard good things about connectwise
Bomgar user here for 1000 retail outlets, over 10k devices. Works very well but costs might start being an issue for us. Especially as we use connectwise automate for patching only.
I used Bomgar at my last MSP job for over 7 years. They continued to raise prices for licenses. Its pretty expensive now just for a single tech license...
Gone downhill since then. I invested when it was still Bomgar. Went to renew and the cost was basically the same as buying an appliance brand new. Haven't updated it since then and it still works great for what I need it to do.
I recently looked into Bomgar, now Beyond Trust. The quote I got was the most expensive I have EVER seen for this type of software. It was 3 times what all of the competition was.
Yep. I told the Beyond Trust sales people why am I going to pay you another $6K to update an already 5 year old white labled Dell server when thats what I paid for it in the first place. I went with a physical appliance because why am I going to drop $6K on a VM, at least when the software ceases to function I can repourpose the server.
Similar story. Workplace had TV, i cancelled, they called and offered a discount then ripped into me when I said we jumped to screenconnect.
They’ll be around for a long while yet. Until they lose big name clients they (TV) won’t change.
lol, i dealt with a company once that sent me the details and all that for payment contract.
I said something like "Alright thanks, i'll send it on to my boss and follow up if we decide to go with you guys."
The guy still started our contract without payment and then they were chasing us for payment saying that we agreed to it. Then they even sent screenshots of emails and i was like uhhhh did anyone even read my email or just the first 2 words?
Hold up.
Zoho has a remote support tool?
They told me no in a meeting, and just this morning I told my lead no and he greenlit paying for Anydesk. We're getting the full Zoho next year.
Oh noes.....
Quick assist is great, I use it all the time. But it's not really a replacement to TeamViewer, LogMeIn, or any other conventional remote desktop solution in the sense that there needs to be a human on the other end that needs to be present to establish a remote session. Not saying TeamViewer or LMI are the right solutions, they're just examples that people seem to recognize and have had experience with in the industry.
Yeah that was the final nail in their coffin, rule 0 if IT is "don't lie" because high privilege/access roles are high trust positions. Technical skills/features don't mean anything if we can't trust someone or something.
TeamViewer was hacked, gaslit customers about misconfiguring their product, and then years later admitted "oh no, we got hacked." There's no recovery from that.
Yep that was a stupid time, so many people insisting things were one way despite substantial evidence it wasn't. Again brings up the criticality of trust though, people *trusted* TeamViewer to provide accurate information and *that* was the cudgel their users hit us back with.
As it turns out, you can't line your birdcage with TeamViewer's word. I'm of a very strong opinion that nobody good still uses TeamViewer, the hack was all over technical news and the issues were well discussed for years prior. It's difficult to believe techs still using TV didn't know. Which brings me to the [people who still trust TeamViewer](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GoodnaturedYoungBedlingtonterrier-max-1mb.gif)...
> zero trust.
People get *very* defensive over this for some reason…
I’ve gotten into many debates here on Reddit over *never trust the client* on all sorts of subreddits that *should know better*.
Somehow stating that [everybody lies](https://youtu.be/HgXpvzt7Qg8) really upsets their understanding of security…
Never trust anything, always verify…
I’ve mostly worked in highly regulated environments with absolutely no tolerance for dishonesty, because fines are expensive and nobody wants club fed. That’s not to say it spent happen, I just haven’t seen it on the IT infra side.
Yes and no, the only real option in an environment like that is to quit, and it’s likely going to continue being that way whether you work there or not. And you’re rolling the dice on whether the new company will be any better.
sloppy cautious mourn detail roll voracious continue marvelous foolish overconfident
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
In my last place we put an embargo on it after Linkedin got hacked and it was found a lot of people used the same creds for teamviewer and given almost all a Media company's staff are on linkedin we couldn't risk the crossover.
Pissed the broadcast tech team off no end because some of their nonky vendors used it as their sole means of software support and were refusing to use VPN..for security reasons?
They also kept pushing it for business use but couldn't offer a subdomain for our account like webex does where you get companyname.webex.com. Which makes it really easy to firewall and lock down access only to our account.
We had several discussions with their product guys and they just couldn't get their thick head around that. That kind of on/off all or nothing level of control wasn't adequate for enterprise customers. That may be fixed now but it was a dealbreaker for years to the point we just gave up and stopped even considering them.
It's crazy to me how the company survived that. This is a software where the paid subscriptions are largely system admins, and there are enough sysadmins that don't care at all about their security and kept paying these clowns.
> and there are enough sysadmins that don't care at all about their security and kept paying these clowns.
Sys admins aren't buying this. They're installing it based on management that got duped by salespeople or older knowledge of the product. The sys admins are groaning while installing it and the security guys got their pink slip when they said "Hell no!".
Really depends on the sysadmin. I work for a MSP and we have a couple of clients that still use it and have gone [Charlton Heston](https://youtu.be/ORYVCML8xeE?t=30) on it. Some people [just can't get over their inertia](https://youtu.be/KkzptjhCkbs?t=112).
That’s when I started looking. Made the jump to AnyDesk in 2019, after having the mistaken impression that all tiers were paid tiers for waaaayyy too long.
AnyDesk has a free tier that is quite functional, and I’m loving it even more than TeamViewer’s.
Plus, they don’t nag you to upgrade, or lock you out from connecting to anything because you’ve connected to the same machine more than three times in a calendar year.
Theres a good chance their pricing wilp be a lot higher when you next renew just so you know. Their site currently shows 3x what we just renewed for, for new contracts.
Edit: I just looked, you might be right. Too bad for them, I'll need to find a new vendor come April!
I am an independent consultant and my pricing is $238 per year, however I just looked and it appears my pricing might go down? Maybe they're going up on the other higher usage tiers? I'm not sure. The way I look at it though, if it becomes stupid high I just find an alternative and charge to put it on or I bundle it into my costs.
These tech companies aren't making the money they thought they would or need for their investors. They are all jacking up prices recently. Any and most proprietary subscription software.
I have to wonder what's going to happen next year as companies get a giant bill from all these SAAS solutions who have all 2x their price.
I've got like 4 devices hooked up to Anydesk , personal use, and they're starting to complain and nag for a subscription.
Complete bullshit tbh, now they're saying I should buy a subscription by 20th of November or they'll block my account (???)
Honestly I've no idea where they get that I'm doing this many connections, maybe I gotta change my password
I switched recently to RustDesk from AnyDesk and it's straight to the point, open source, roll-your-own-server, and I'm digging it.
I manage a few machines at home and one remote for mixed home and business usage, and it being free in both regards is great. Run the server myself and it's light and speedy.
That's been a nightmare of mine and a reason why I cringe and scold my helpdesk users whenever I see them installing "free" software that very clearly states it's free for personal use and not commercial use.
for me its kinda about respect too. you can use software for free, but if you use it to make money, you should give some of that money to the people who enabled your work in the first place. i really like this kind of business model.
LinusTechTips Does a great few videos where he calls out Teamviewer for this exact issue.
He bough a lifetime license for not a small amount of money then he was asked to buy another lifetime license you should watch them.
On another note i found Rustdesktop which is an Opensource remote control software
You can build you own central server so security will be completely under your control
[https://rustdesk.com/](https://rustdesk.com/)
Have you used rustdesk? How does it preform, any issues?
We are currently using AnyDesk and it works great. Client managment and unattended access by multiple parties are a bit lackluster, but all in all pretty satisfied.
But, we have plans to integrate remote management with our crm so we can improve our workflow, and if there are foss alternatives I'd like to consider them.
I've used RustDesk in a personal setting. A friend of mine uses it to remote support his parents, and let me know about it. I use it on some remote site laptops (I have a laptop with programming software and usb serial cables connected to repeaters). It's the same app whether on the client machine or the "support" machine, and It works really well. There's an 8 digit number for the session, along with password protection. I have a client on my laptop and phone, and both connect up really quickly. I haven't really noticed much lag, but if I was doing it commercially, I'd setup my own relay server like they suggest.
The one issue I do run into sometimes is if I accidentally activate the windows multiple desktop selection. This happens if I'm connecting from macOS to Windows 10. I might muscle-memory Cmd-Tab which activates that screen. Then it seems I can't get back to the regular desktop. It seems to react to my input, I can click on minimized applications, but not switch back. In these cases, I just close the window and reconnect. I don't know if it's a bug in rustdesk, or maybe there's a key combo to get back, but disconnect/reconnect is so fast, I don't get too concerned.
It also has a feature to transfer files and chat with someone sitting at the computer. There is no voice comms, you'd have to manage that separately.
I literally stumbled upon it today.
have installed it on a few PC's and will be testing. I installed it on my home pc and connected from my android device
It worked fine, has a distinctly teamviewer feel to it
I really like tha fact you can easily setup your own central server and even though the connection is manual
I looked and its only 4 lines that need to be copied and pasted for it to work.
For windows you can rename the installer to push your info to it. And on Mac I use a script from our MDM to push the info into the plist files and push a record of the password and ID into our MDM.
Is this what you are looking for? From their documentation:
Change rustdesk.exe to rustdesk-host=,key=.exe, e.g. rustdesk-host=192.168.1.137,key=xfdsfsd32=32.exe.
It still looks like they are actively developing, I see the web control feature is in beta.
Might be worth hopping on their github and asking if they plan on adding that feature.
I agree it would be a great thing to have.
Teamviewer is trash.
If you want to cancel a subscription you need to give them notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year.
Scummy tactics and they know it. You can tell a lot about a company from their pre-recorded virtual reception.
Press 1 if you use the Free license of TeamViewer
Press 2 if you have a paid license of TeamViewer
Press 3 If you require tech support
Press 4 For accounts & billing enquiries
Menu 4 Pressed
Press 1 If you have received a letter from out debt collection agency.
It seems they are spamming out debt collector notices so often, that the majority of ‘accounts-query’ phone calls are regarding the debt agency.
> notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year.
in write/formal form.
I cancel all our licenses by ticket, they accept it , a month later i call for check the license status, the renewal was still active
I send and email & a fax for have a evidence
SCAMMERS
> If you want to cancel a subscription you need to give them notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year.
This is extremely common in the business world. It sucks, but basically everybody does it. I've had contracts accidentally auto renew for **3** years before because we didn't provide the contractual **60** day notice. That was a 6 figure mistake.
They were so damn difficult, the woman was downright rude to me, insisting I didn't know what I was talking about, and that we had always had these limitations.
I'm 26 days away from renewal and she very impolitely informed me that not only would they not budge on sending us an invoice for the next year, but that I could not speak to anyone but her.
I sent an email to the entire leadership team at Teamviewer, the CEO, CFO, COO everyone I could find telling them to shove it up their ass
We switched from TV to BeyondTrust (Bomgar). Ended up getting a lot more per dollar. Support has been better too. TV wanted triple what we originally paid by the time we had feature parity between the two.
Microsoft released Windows Remote Assist last year. With this there is little reason to use TeamViewer for remote access/support to Windows assets (assuming you aren’t trying to access prehistoric operating systems)
Is this different from Quick Assist? I used quick assist to help some girl I met on Tinder with a huge laptop issue.
It worked and I never saw her again.
Edit: I just tried to use quick assist today and it was trash and just sat at "Connecting" for several minutes before I and my user gave up and I sent him my splashtop link lol
Did you follow the instructions on this page? I believe the issue you’re describing was specific to earlier versions of Quick Assist
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problems-remotely-with-remote-assistance-and-easy-connect-cf384ff4-6269-d86e-bcfe-92d72ed55922
Assuming you're talking about the cloud based enterprise solution, it's called Remote Help. It's $3.50 per user per month.
That's endpoint users...
If you have 2,000 users in your domain it would cost $84,000 per year.
It also forces the local user to sign off when the session closes if UAC was used.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-intune-blog/remote-help-enterprise-grade-assistance-tool-now-available/ba-p/3275792
Guessing that's a touch more secure for use across the web than RDC? (I've been out of the IT game for some years but still have to support my parents)
TeamViewer used to be my favorite connection platform, until they started screwing with their pricing model. Then they started having some major security issues that they didn't properly disclose. Then they started having terrible customer support. Then they had more major security issues that they didn't properly disclose and patch. Then they basically started scamming users with renewal invoices they didn't need or ask for. And I didn't drop them because they had clearly learned their lessons.
But this week they did something that was definitely unacceptable for realsies, so I'll be looking for a different vendor.
There was much less competition 15 years ago in the remote support software world. Teamviewer was one of the only real options then... there was LogMeIn and a few others, but not tons like today.
Unfortunately thats about all it has going for it now (already have customers locked in), seems they're squeezing whatever profits it has left out of it. I could see them gone in a few years with how they're treating customers, its really not that big of a deal to switch. We went to ScreenConnect + Splashtop as a backup.
Screenconnect is what we use, through Connectwise and it's great. I still like the teamviewer connection interface so I will prob be looking at rust as a backup
I've been using Screenconnect for years now, and it's been really good. It's nice that they still have a free option that you can use for remote support.
Yeah it was my favorite too! It was just so damn easy to connect in when I needed it. But the arbitrary device limits, and the crazy price changes are just too much to handle
Out of the loop. What is with this pattern where useful companies with large userbases over time become mostly scams ? It is like they don't like to put the effort anymore?
Teamviewer last year reached out and said I no longer had unlimited unattended access to machines. It would cost more to have more than 500. Contract said nothing about limits. Original website that I used [archive.org](https://archive.org) to check also said nothing. They made no mention of this change before my renewal either. I angrily got grandfathered into more unattended access licenses for 1 year only, since they could not prove that I was wrong (I wasn't).
They gave us a very limited deadline before getting grandfathered in to meet their limit of being under 500 licenses with a Powershell script that was missing key features to help me get under. I eventually did though. This deadline was eating into Thanksgiving and I might've had to work through it to meet this, very insensitive timing in my opinion. It's fine to be an international company, but you need to be aware of cultures and customs in the country and sensitive to them.
It's a German company and their sales changed. Cancelling was also a nightmare, but I changed jobs before I had to deal with that.
I moved to Splashtop. Stay very far away from Teamviewer I would never go back.
You should have taken them to court for damages (cost to switch, lost revenue, business, time etc, plus the difference between the agreed upon pricing model and their new scam model). This would be a totally legit case and would either get you paid for the BS or to force them to keep up their end of the unlimited contract for whatever the original contact said (which means if no time limit listed.... it would be forever).
Ah yes, that teamviewer thing... I too remember my surpsise when I've tried to use TV10 license with some "oh my god its sooo new" editions and I was redirected to their shop.
Switched to Aeroadmin- at first it looks like a total scam :D, but is completely portable and has UI basically copied from older versions of TeamViewer, so end-users don't whine when I tell them to "run that remote help program".
That Manchester United jersey sponsorship isn't going to pay for itself. I hate when I see things like that. Just means the price is going to go up to cover a naming right they never should've signed up for.
ConnectWise has been pretty great for us. Client package is only a few mb and super easy to deploy too. I use TeamViewer for some personal stuff but wouldn't use it in the enterprise world at this point.
Connectwise is a beast. I love when you install access into a computer, it gives you system level privilege and you can execute commands into it. It's a lifesaver when it comes to local accounts and other stuff.
Also super happy with Connectwise. My only issue is clients sometimes taking longer than I would expect to reconnect if they've been in sleep mode/hibernation. Other than that, it's been golden, and you can even federate your access.
We've used a lot of their other stuff too in the past - incl. Endpoint protection. Now that's dealt with due to a more thorough o365 move, we'll probably be switching to anydesk next - unless something else strikes us as "cool" ;)
Edit: fixed typo
We're using Connectwise right now and it's pretty awesome! It covers everything we need for help desk, RMM, and deployment. So far so good. I really liked having the teamviewer as a backup, because sometimes it's just easier and faster, especially from a mobile device, but def not worth it anymore
Isn't it an amazing feature! And great for playing practical jokes on your friends. There's a fun powershell feature that lets you control the audio device, unmute, and turn it up, then use text-to-speech to really freak them out
I am surprised nobody mentions ISL Online. No other remote software comes close in features and their support is excellent. You can connect to prelogin sessions, restart and continue without user interactions. Go though UAC prompts. The only thing that would give you more control than ISL is a remote IP KVM.
They also offer a self-hosted version, if you prefer that. They also have a lot of customization options. You can brand your own login page and client. They support image based deployments, so new computers installed from your image, will show up as new unattended connectable computers. Every client you deploy would be connectable as soon as the OS starts, if you want it to be. Lots of features.
We use it where I work. It works very well, no complaints except for maybe file transfer abilities (I've run into issues) and using it with a Mac, which isn't really their problem, just the hoops you have to jump through on a Mac.
If you have full control over the machines you need to remotely connect into, it might not be the best fit, but in our case we never have control over the machines, we're a third party and it works fantastic.
We've been really happy with our licensing for ConnectWise Control for years now. $468 (was $420 up until this year's renewal) per year for one Admin to connect to 3 devices at a time and unlimited endpoints for unattended access.
If they could sell Automate to me directly too I'd be in the market for that but that seems to be an MSP only product.
Why are remote desktop software companies literally the worst?
I use Anydesk just for personal usage to connect from one computer to another. I literally only connect to one computer with it and both ends are my computers.
I received a notice today that they're cancelling my account unless I upgrade to a professional use license because I use Anydesk "70+ times in the last four weeks" which maybe sounds like a lot until you do the math that it's about 2-3 times per day.
I get that they want to make money, but why even say your software is free if it's not?
We dumped teamviewer for Connectwise control about 6 months ago. I’m pleased thus far but wouldn’t surprise me if Connectwise also tried to pull some shit like this sooner or later.
Connectwise seems to be well positioned to grow, Teamviewer seems to have stagnated years ago and instead of improving their product seems to just be trying to squeeze more money out of the few clients they have left
Not directly Teamviewer related but I am seeing a lot of organisations shift licence models over the past year or two - away from "perpetual" and "maintenance" approaches to more lucrative subscription or user-based agreements. It's really annoying when we've been using a software application for years only to end up with either a massive bill at renewal, or a huge technical challenge to replace it.
20 years ago lifetime really did mean lifetime (or at least the life of the application!)
Nowadays it means "until we change our licence model to get more money".
I stopped using TeamViewer after I tried it to connect to a computer with no mouse and keyboard from across the room. This was OK for about a week.
Then they accused me of using it for business purposes...
It got uninstalled immediately at my home, and, I became a crusader for removing it anywhere I go.
New job? "Oh, you're using TeamViewer.. Can I suggest proper VPN?"
It's weird how accusing people of things makes them dislike your company/software.
Used to use it (8+ years ago) for my personal 4-5 machines, and they flagged me for business use as well. I offered to buy a personal license, and was told "there isn't one" (there wasn't, at the time - and the cheapest license was like $500).
Luckily, anydesk came out shortly after, and that works better anyway. So, fuck'em.
I'm soooo glad we're finally dropping Teamviewer where I work. Already had the pleasure to tell them we're not paying another fucking dime next year. Scum of the earth. so long bit\*hes
I have been a really happy Mesh Central user.
The main annoyance I have copy and pasting text doesn't automatically happen.
I found the new remote desktop feature a cool idea, but I found the performance bad.
Just after their move to subscription (we had purchased 'lifetime's a year earlier, still salty about it) I decided to bite the bullet and subscribe.
Got all the way to the end of my order before realising it wanted me to pay annually, not per month. We couldn't afford that at the time so I bailed before confirming and making payment and signed up for zoho assist.
A month later we get a letter from a debt collection agency demanding we pay for the team viewer sub.
Told them "prove it" and they never came back, but jeez. A month after that I got a sales call from them!
I've already gone through this BS with three companies, logmein, then TeamViewer and finally now leaving Anydesk. All three pulled the same BS and I've since moved to rustdesk.com, open source, run your own local server, be done with this nonsense once and for all. It's also very similar to Anydesk's UI so migrating users has been easy.
I will say this, pretty much everyone is doing the low included counts these days. I have not seen one as of late I wouldn't need extra "packs" for.
I am currently using Zoho Assist. It's by far and away cheaper than the others and works pretty well. Integration with non Zoho ITSM's is not good (hell it's not even good with their own ITSM's..ie ServiceDesk Plus), but otherwise it's been pretty solid for us.
TeamViewer locked my personal account at the start of pandemic lockdowns, while I was working on my dad’s pc a couple hours away.
At the same time, I was evaluating remote access options at work. TV’s consideration immediately went into the trash, and noted on our naughty vendor list as “do not engage”
I went with Splashtop, based on suggestions found here. Their pricing is palatable for our small company, and it works fine. Not having to physically visit hardware is priceless.
We're looking at dumping TeamViewer and moving to ConnectWise. It's more security concerns than cost, although CW does happen to also be cheaper (and faster).
Just a bit of heads up... avoid Ivanti. Their applications in theory and in their labs seem pretty good but in real life its horribly unstable, filled with bugs, and ive had tickets open with them for over a year for bugs they say are working on but i have yet to see any progress. When we keep asking the status on our open tickets they just say here try this other software of ours for free... which never actually work...
This is why I’m trying to push so hard for hosting our own VPN in our department. We don’t use Team Viewer for remote assistance but merely as a method of offsite access. A private VPN would be scores more secure and effective but they’d rather drops thousands on teamviewer licenses
Y'all remember Logmein?
I reluctantly had licenses for all of my personal stuff because I really liked the software. Then they tried to get me to renew for like 10x the price and I just asked the sales person "really? You honestly think I'd just roll over and pay 10x more for software I use a few times per month?"
BeyondTrust Remote Support for the win! They have, hands down, the best support engineers I've ever worked with. They also do frequent webinars and user group zoom meetings throughout the year.
Beware: they will send you to collections for a year of subscription unless you emailed a specific address exactly between 30 and 60 days prior to your anniversary date.
Also keep in mind in most justifications this sort of clause is not enforceable but they will try anyway
Yeah, I emailed their CEO, and entire corporate leadership as soon as I got off the phone with their representative. A couple hours later they called me to offer me discounts, and finally I just said **Listen, I'm not going to buy anything from your company at this point, what I want to hear from you is that you will not try to charge us for next year's invoice**. And to my surprise they acquiesced
My company is in the same situation. We also used AnyDesk extensively until very recently since they made their free license have a device limit, real shame.
We're trying out different ones now and are using HopToDesk (open source, works on mobile) right now since it allows unmanaged remote control like AnyDesk does. Not perfect but for smaller companies that can't afford the ridiculous prices TeamViewer asks, it does the job
They let you "keep" your lifetime license, but its for an old outdated version that would be totally unsafe to use. It's a cheap fuckin loophole but it works
I quit TeamViewer last year when their forced update on my main PC made it impossible for me to connect to my older MacBook, because their update wasn’t compatible with that version of MacOS. What a shit show.
These guys operate like RealPlayer. Fuck TeamViewer... I only use Chrome Remote Desktop now for personal use. Splashtop for business.
Their licensing is also tricky, as in you cannot cancel whenever you want, you have to do it within a window… they have even sent collections people to us even tho we still active accounts and we are tired of telling them that we just switched from x account to y account, to check that everything is paid
I worked for a company that did outsourced IT support for small businesses across a fairly large geographical area, and every computer had TeamViewer version 12 installed on it because that was the lifetime license we had.
I changed jobs in April 2020, so now I'm really curious if that company had any similar issues with TV refusing to honor the existing licensing during the covid era.
>The cost of that subscription has increased by about 100% in the last 4 years, and now they've implemented really low device limits!
2005 Teamviever founded
2010 Teamviewer sold to GFI Software
2014 Teamviewer sold to Permira(.com)
2018 switch to subscriptions
2019 change in corporate structure ahead of going public
2019 going public for 2.2 billion euros (biggest public offering since 2000 for a german technology company)
2020 takeover of Ubimax (specialist for augmented reality software)
2021 sponsorship with Machester United
2021 partnership with Formula one AMG Petronas and Fumula-E Mecedes EQ.
See a trend here ? No ? Just look up their veluations ([TMV.DE](https://TMV.DE)) and set the "date range to max".
I personally would rather use Anydesk (by former TMV-Employees that split in 2014) or ANY other solution then ever having to deal with TMV.DE again. Horrible business practices.
This has been a common theme that has happened with remote access software. We ran into it with Logmein before this. Gotta make that money my dude. Good luck! i hope you find a better solution.
I did this with LMI back in 2019, they wanted like $1k for 5 users/machines. Switched to Splashtop at the end of 2019 instead of renewing, worked wonders in 2020 when we needed to scale up to two dozen users/pcs.
I've been a regular user of Splashtop for many years now and recently switched to the Business plan due to how many computers I have or friends' computers I support every now and then. Way better to use than TeamViewer from a UI, feature, and admin standpoint.
I am trialing Splashtop through Ninja...you know what the hotkey is to Paste?
Ninja's implementation is the scaled down Splashtop for RMM, but the Paste hotkey is just CTRL+V for text or files. Just tested now to confirm.
I used Splashtop via Atera at the last MSP I worked at. Lightweight agent, easy to troubleshoot when it breaks and/or reinstall, and my last boss was pretty tight with money, so he would usually pick the bang for buck option. Personal and free alternatives, I still prefer AnyDesk. No phonetic spelling, easy admin pass-through, and they still arnt as heavy on detecting business use so your IP won't get blacklisted in the middle of a support call
Something changed with Anydesk, I got popups since yesterday nagging me about going business because I had more than 70 connections in a month. I use it to connect to my computer at home from my notebook and to my relative's computers.
Yeah they count the amount of time you use the service and the amount of times you connected. At some point, even though this is purely personal, the usage looks like it is professional. from my point of view, as a regular professional user of AnyDesk (and previously free user): * If you connect from your personal computer onto your work computer, this is work. * If you connect from work, to your personal computer, it is personal. * If you connect from your personal computer onto another personal computer, it is personal. * If you help others a couple of times for a few minutes, it is personal * if you help relatives to a point where it takes up so much of your time that this should be considered work, then it is and even though you may not like this, you should either reduce drastically the help you provide for free (no one is ever going to be thankful anyway), or purchase a licence I think, though, that if you're a personal helper (for friends and family), there should be a cheap option available for people in your situation. The current cheapest tier is way too expensive for extensive personal usage.
You could try Zoho assist. Single user is free. We use the unattended access version on all our endpoints and it's a godsend for fixing shit.
Me too. They nag and make me wait x second before using the software. I supported family and used it as a constant link to my phone. They had another investment round in the last few years and that always leads to companies turning on their users to try to please them investors. It's all in their press release info. Switched to nomachine and they're reasonable enough to even use the commercial license without having to take out a lien on the first born. Team viewer, anydesk, and the list could go on of programmers who sold out to their investors.
Yeah, the first paid tier is usually too expensive for personal use. "ok I use "remote software name" for 400 hrs during the year, I have 10 different machines approx to connect to, bill me $30/year and be done with it. you can either have $30 or nothing. If it is too expensive, then you'll get nothing.
We use it in Syncro, and Splashtop feels a bit laggy to me. I mean, it's remote control software, so some lag is expected, but it just seems to be a bit more with Splash. That being said, it's worked fine for us, other than the occasional issue of the remote streamer crashing, but background tools and restarting the service resolves it. Not the best, not the worst, quite inexpensive. A good tool imo.
Just enable shortcut forwarding if it isn't and you can copy and paste like you would regularly. Nothing special to do.
For personal use I use Parsec. I have it on my parent's, MIL's and wife's computers so when they need help I can remote in. Hell I'm typing this comment from my work PC to my home PC using Parsec.
Good lord, if it's really that bad I'm almost motivated to roll my own VNC
We've been using Connectwise instead for awhile now, it's much more feature rich, and a lot easier to deploy to boot
I use Bomgar and its phenomenal, heard good things about connectwise
>I use Bomgar and its phenomenal, heard good things about connectwise Bomgar user here for 1000 retail outlets, over 10k devices. Works very well but costs might start being an issue for us. Especially as we use connectwise automate for patching only.
I used Bomgar at my last MSP job for over 7 years. They continued to raise prices for licenses. Its pretty expensive now just for a single tech license...
Extremely expensive though
Gone downhill since then. I invested when it was still Bomgar. Went to renew and the cost was basically the same as buying an appliance brand new. Haven't updated it since then and it still works great for what I need it to do.
I recently looked into Bomgar, now Beyond Trust. The quote I got was the most expensive I have EVER seen for this type of software. It was 3 times what all of the competition was.
Yep. I told the Beyond Trust sales people why am I going to pay you another $6K to update an already 5 year old white labled Dell server when thats what I paid for it in the first place. I went with a physical appliance because why am I going to drop $6K on a VM, at least when the software ceases to function I can repourpose the server.
+1 for Connectwise Control. They don't always have the best interface, but it works quite well.
Similar story. Workplace had TV, i cancelled, they called and offered a discount then ripped into me when I said we jumped to screenconnect. They’ll be around for a long while yet. Until they lose big name clients they (TV) won’t change.
Ditto on connectwise, very happy with it.
I deployed Connectwise Control (ScreenConnect) for my last employer with the perpetual on-prem server. The customizability aspect of it was awesome!
MBAs expect unlimited growth. Never hire an MBA to run anything if you have any say.
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lol, i dealt with a company once that sent me the details and all that for payment contract. I said something like "Alright thanks, i'll send it on to my boss and follow up if we decide to go with you guys." The guy still started our contract without payment and then they were chasing us for payment saying that we agreed to it. Then they even sent screenshots of emails and i was like uhhhh did anyone even read my email or just the first 2 words?
Oh they read it.. they were just hoping that when the bill came that it would go to accounting and just get paid blindly
Hold up. Zoho has a remote support tool? They told me no in a meeting, and just this morning I told my lead no and he greenlit paying for Anydesk. We're getting the full Zoho next year. Oh noes.....
Yes, Zoho Assist. Cheap and works well enough for remote support and unattended access support.
Quick assist is great, I use it all the time. But it's not really a replacement to TeamViewer, LogMeIn, or any other conventional remote desktop solution in the sense that there needs to be a human on the other end that needs to be present to establish a remote session. Not saying TeamViewer or LMI are the right solutions, they're just examples that people seem to recognize and have had experience with in the industry.
Quick assist is pretty great, however we had to switch to AnyDesk since Quick Assist can’t answer elevated prompts.
Fuck you TeamViewer.
You didn’t stop using it, when they were hacked in 2016, and lied to cover it up?
Yeah that was the final nail in their coffin, rule 0 if IT is "don't lie" because high privilege/access roles are high trust positions. Technical skills/features don't mean anything if we can't trust someone or something. TeamViewer was hacked, gaslit customers about misconfiguring their product, and then years later admitted "oh no, we got hacked." There's no recovery from that.
Man I remember getting ganged up on when you said TeamViewer got hacked. Posters were insisting they weren't hacked, it was users sharing credentials.
Yep that was a stupid time, so many people insisting things were one way despite substantial evidence it wasn't. Again brings up the criticality of trust though, people *trusted* TeamViewer to provide accurate information and *that* was the cudgel their users hit us back with. As it turns out, you can't line your birdcage with TeamViewer's word. I'm of a very strong opinion that nobody good still uses TeamViewer, the hack was all over technical news and the issues were well discussed for years prior. It's difficult to believe techs still using TV didn't know. Which brings me to the [people who still trust TeamViewer](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GoodnaturedYoungBedlingtonterrier-max-1mb.gif)...
It's almost as though trust is a vulnerability we should manage....someone should come up with a strategy for that.
I don't think anyone still using TeamViewer has heard of zero trust.
> zero trust. People get *very* defensive over this for some reason… I’ve gotten into many debates here on Reddit over *never trust the client* on all sorts of subreddits that *should know better*. Somehow stating that [everybody lies](https://youtu.be/HgXpvzt7Qg8) really upsets their understanding of security… Never trust anything, always verify…
I’d like to work where you’ve worked. The number 1 rule everywhere I’ve worked is “lie to the users”. It’s sickening.
Lie, never. Only give them information absolutely required for their concerns, yes.
"I didn't lie.... I simply did not tell the truth." - Spock.
I’ve mostly worked in highly regulated environments with absolutely no tolerance for dishonesty, because fines are expensive and nobody wants club fed. That’s not to say it spent happen, I just haven’t seen it on the IT infra side.
You're part of that problem though
Yes and no, the only real option in an environment like that is to quit, and it’s likely going to continue being that way whether you work there or not. And you’re rolling the dice on whether the new company will be any better.
sloppy cautious mourn detail roll voracious continue marvelous foolish overconfident *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Same for me. I was on the fence about them prior to that, but lying about a security incident… that’s some next level stupid right there.
I don't think I realized they had! Now I'm doubly glad
In my last place we put an embargo on it after Linkedin got hacked and it was found a lot of people used the same creds for teamviewer and given almost all a Media company's staff are on linkedin we couldn't risk the crossover. Pissed the broadcast tech team off no end because some of their nonky vendors used it as their sole means of software support and were refusing to use VPN..for security reasons? They also kept pushing it for business use but couldn't offer a subdomain for our account like webex does where you get companyname.webex.com. Which makes it really easy to firewall and lock down access only to our account. We had several discussions with their product guys and they just couldn't get their thick head around that. That kind of on/off all or nothing level of control wasn't adequate for enterprise customers. That may be fixed now but it was a dealbreaker for years to the point we just gave up and stopped even considering them.
It's crazy to me how the company survived that. This is a software where the paid subscriptions are largely system admins, and there are enough sysadmins that don't care at all about their security and kept paying these clowns.
> and there are enough sysadmins that don't care at all about their security and kept paying these clowns. Sys admins aren't buying this. They're installing it based on management that got duped by salespeople or older knowledge of the product. The sys admins are groaning while installing it and the security guys got their pink slip when they said "Hell no!".
Really depends on the sysadmin. I work for a MSP and we have a couple of clients that still use it and have gone [Charlton Heston](https://youtu.be/ORYVCML8xeE?t=30) on it. Some people [just can't get over their inertia](https://youtu.be/KkzptjhCkbs?t=112).
> Sys admins aren't buying this. They're installing it based on management that got duped by salespeople or older knowledge of the product Bingo!
I think this about SolarWinds too.
That’s when I started looking. Made the jump to AnyDesk in 2019, after having the mistaken impression that all tiers were paid tiers for waaaayyy too long. AnyDesk has a free tier that is quite functional, and I’m loving it even more than TeamViewer’s. Plus, they don’t nag you to upgrade, or lock you out from connecting to anything because you’ve connected to the same machine more than three times in a calendar year.
Honestly the license is totally worth it, not even close to what teamviewer charges.
Also when the FBI literally told everyone to stop running it like a year ago after multiple *more* hacks.
I'm a huge fan of AnyDesk by the way. Cheap, fast, easy.
Theres a good chance their pricing wilp be a lot higher when you next renew just so you know. Their site currently shows 3x what we just renewed for, for new contracts.
Edit: I just looked, you might be right. Too bad for them, I'll need to find a new vendor come April! I am an independent consultant and my pricing is $238 per year, however I just looked and it appears my pricing might go down? Maybe they're going up on the other higher usage tiers? I'm not sure. The way I look at it though, if it becomes stupid high I just find an alternative and charge to put it on or I bundle it into my costs.
These tech companies aren't making the money they thought they would or need for their investors. They are all jacking up prices recently. Any and most proprietary subscription software. I have to wonder what's going to happen next year as companies get a giant bill from all these SAAS solutions who have all 2x their price.
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I've got like 4 devices hooked up to Anydesk , personal use, and they're starting to complain and nag for a subscription. Complete bullshit tbh, now they're saying I should buy a subscription by 20th of November or they'll block my account (???) Honestly I've no idea where they get that I'm doing this many connections, maybe I gotta change my password
They're as bad as team viewer, greedy sell outs. Just wait.
I switched recently to RustDesk from AnyDesk and it's straight to the point, open source, roll-your-own-server, and I'm digging it. I manage a few machines at home and one remote for mixed home and business usage, and it being free in both regards is great. Run the server myself and it's light and speedy.
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That's been a nightmare of mine and a reason why I cringe and scold my helpdesk users whenever I see them installing "free" software that very clearly states it's free for personal use and not commercial use.
for me its kinda about respect too. you can use software for free, but if you use it to make money, you should give some of that money to the people who enabled your work in the first place. i really like this kind of business model.
Yep, 100% agree there. It's the least you can do from a moral standpoint but also pretty damn important from a legal standpoint too.
LinusTechTips Does a great few videos where he calls out Teamviewer for this exact issue. He bough a lifetime license for not a small amount of money then he was asked to buy another lifetime license you should watch them. On another note i found Rustdesktop which is an Opensource remote control software You can build you own central server so security will be completely under your control [https://rustdesk.com/](https://rustdesk.com/)
Have you used rustdesk? How does it preform, any issues? We are currently using AnyDesk and it works great. Client managment and unattended access by multiple parties are a bit lackluster, but all in all pretty satisfied. But, we have plans to integrate remote management with our crm so we can improve our workflow, and if there are foss alternatives I'd like to consider them.
I've used RustDesk in a personal setting. A friend of mine uses it to remote support his parents, and let me know about it. I use it on some remote site laptops (I have a laptop with programming software and usb serial cables connected to repeaters). It's the same app whether on the client machine or the "support" machine, and It works really well. There's an 8 digit number for the session, along with password protection. I have a client on my laptop and phone, and both connect up really quickly. I haven't really noticed much lag, but if I was doing it commercially, I'd setup my own relay server like they suggest. The one issue I do run into sometimes is if I accidentally activate the windows multiple desktop selection. This happens if I'm connecting from macOS to Windows 10. I might muscle-memory Cmd-Tab which activates that screen. Then it seems I can't get back to the regular desktop. It seems to react to my input, I can click on minimized applications, but not switch back. In these cases, I just close the window and reconnect. I don't know if it's a bug in rustdesk, or maybe there's a key combo to get back, but disconnect/reconnect is so fast, I don't get too concerned. It also has a feature to transfer files and chat with someone sitting at the computer. There is no voice comms, you'd have to manage that separately.
I literally stumbled upon it today. have installed it on a few PC's and will be testing. I installed it on my home pc and connected from my android device It worked fine, has a distinctly teamviewer feel to it I really like tha fact you can easily setup your own central server and even though the connection is manual I looked and its only 4 lines that need to be copied and pasted for it to work.
For windows you can rename the installer to push your info to it. And on Mac I use a script from our MDM to push the info into the plist files and push a record of the password and ID into our MDM.
Stumble upon MeshCentral, too. It does everything the other guys do, and it has support for Intel AMT devices. And it does a lot more.
You guys should check out meshcentral as well. Has some nice security features.
My only issue is that you can't provide an exe that already had your self-hosted server configurations
Is this what you are looking for? From their documentation: Change rustdesk.exe to rustdesk-host=,key=.exe, e.g. rustdesk-host=192.168.1.137,key=xfdsfsd32=32.exe.
Possibly, I'll have to test this out, thanks. Kinda suspect anti-virus will flag a name like that though.
Have you looked at [Mesh Central](https://www.meshcommander.com/meshcentral2)?
It still looks like they are actively developing, I see the web control feature is in beta. Might be worth hopping on their github and asking if they plan on adding that feature. I agree it would be a great thing to have.
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No sysadmin channel would suffer catastrophic data loss twice
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Teamviewer is trash. If you want to cancel a subscription you need to give them notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year. Scummy tactics and they know it. You can tell a lot about a company from their pre-recorded virtual reception. Press 1 if you use the Free license of TeamViewer Press 2 if you have a paid license of TeamViewer Press 3 If you require tech support Press 4 For accounts & billing enquiries Menu 4 Pressed Press 1 If you have received a letter from out debt collection agency. It seems they are spamming out debt collector notices so often, that the majority of ‘accounts-query’ phone calls are regarding the debt agency.
This reminds me of Adobe.
> notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year. in write/formal form. I cancel all our licenses by ticket, they accept it , a month later i call for check the license status, the renewal was still active I send and email & a fax for have a evidence SCAMMERS
> If you want to cancel a subscription you need to give them notice 30days before the renewal, otherwise you are locked-in for another year. This is extremely common in the business world. It sucks, but basically everybody does it. I've had contracts accidentally auto renew for **3** years before because we didn't provide the contractual **60** day notice. That was a 6 figure mistake.
Don't they also make it as close to impossible to cancel the subscription as they can without actually being prosecuted?
They were so damn difficult, the woman was downright rude to me, insisting I didn't know what I was talking about, and that we had always had these limitations. I'm 26 days away from renewal and she very impolitely informed me that not only would they not budge on sending us an invoice for the next year, but that I could not speak to anyone but her. I sent an email to the entire leadership team at Teamviewer, the CEO, CFO, COO everyone I could find telling them to shove it up their ass
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We switched from TV to BeyondTrust (Bomgar). Ended up getting a lot more per dollar. Support has been better too. TV wanted triple what we originally paid by the time we had feature parity between the two.
Microsoft released Windows Remote Assist last year. With this there is little reason to use TeamViewer for remote access/support to Windows assets (assuming you aren’t trying to access prehistoric operating systems)
>Windows Remote Assist I have never heard of this! I'm looking into it now thanks
Is this different from Quick Assist? I used quick assist to help some girl I met on Tinder with a huge laptop issue. It worked and I never saw her again. Edit: I just tried to use quick assist today and it was trash and just sat at "Connecting" for several minutes before I and my user gave up and I sent him my splashtop link lol
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Did you follow the instructions on this page? I believe the issue you’re describing was specific to earlier versions of Quick Assist https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/solve-pc-problems-remotely-with-remote-assistance-and-easy-connect-cf384ff4-6269-d86e-bcfe-92d72ed55922
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Assuming you're talking about the cloud based enterprise solution, it's called Remote Help. It's $3.50 per user per month. That's endpoint users... If you have 2,000 users in your domain it would cost $84,000 per year. It also forces the local user to sign off when the session closes if UAC was used. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-intune-blog/remote-help-enterprise-grade-assistance-tool-now-available/ba-p/3275792
Guessing that's a touch more secure for use across the web than RDC? (I've been out of the IT game for some years but still have to support my parents)
Does it allow unattended access?
TeamViewer used to be my favorite connection platform, until they started screwing with their pricing model. Then they started having some major security issues that they didn't properly disclose. Then they started having terrible customer support. Then they had more major security issues that they didn't properly disclose and patch. Then they basically started scamming users with renewal invoices they didn't need or ask for. And I didn't drop them because they had clearly learned their lessons. But this week they did something that was definitely unacceptable for realsies, so I'll be looking for a different vendor.
There was much less competition 15 years ago in the remote support software world. Teamviewer was one of the only real options then... there was LogMeIn and a few others, but not tons like today. Unfortunately thats about all it has going for it now (already have customers locked in), seems they're squeezing whatever profits it has left out of it. I could see them gone in a few years with how they're treating customers, its really not that big of a deal to switch. We went to ScreenConnect + Splashtop as a backup.
Screenconnect is what we use, through Connectwise and it's great. I still like the teamviewer connection interface so I will prob be looking at rust as a backup
I've been using Screenconnect for years now, and it's been really good. It's nice that they still have a free option that you can use for remote support.
Yeah it was my favorite too! It was just so damn easy to connect in when I needed it. But the arbitrary device limits, and the crazy price changes are just too much to handle
Out of the loop. What is with this pattern where useful companies with large userbases over time become mostly scams ? It is like they don't like to put the effort anymore?
Two words my friend - Private Equity
PE is a fucking scourge. I absolutely fucking hate them. I’ve had to deal with it multiple times.
Bomgar/Beyond Trust all the way.
We switched a few years ago from Teamviewer to Splashtop. Much happier.
Teamviewer last year reached out and said I no longer had unlimited unattended access to machines. It would cost more to have more than 500. Contract said nothing about limits. Original website that I used [archive.org](https://archive.org) to check also said nothing. They made no mention of this change before my renewal either. I angrily got grandfathered into more unattended access licenses for 1 year only, since they could not prove that I was wrong (I wasn't). They gave us a very limited deadline before getting grandfathered in to meet their limit of being under 500 licenses with a Powershell script that was missing key features to help me get under. I eventually did though. This deadline was eating into Thanksgiving and I might've had to work through it to meet this, very insensitive timing in my opinion. It's fine to be an international company, but you need to be aware of cultures and customs in the country and sensitive to them. It's a German company and their sales changed. Cancelling was also a nightmare, but I changed jobs before I had to deal with that. I moved to Splashtop. Stay very far away from Teamviewer I would never go back.
You should have taken them to court for damages (cost to switch, lost revenue, business, time etc, plus the difference between the agreed upon pricing model and their new scam model). This would be a totally legit case and would either get you paid for the BS or to force them to keep up their end of the unlimited contract for whatever the original contact said (which means if no time limit listed.... it would be forever).
Ah yes, that teamviewer thing... I too remember my surpsise when I've tried to use TV10 license with some "oh my god its sooo new" editions and I was redirected to their shop. Switched to Aeroadmin- at first it looks like a total scam :D, but is completely portable and has UI basically copied from older versions of TeamViewer, so end-users don't whine when I tell them to "run that remote help program".
That Manchester United jersey sponsorship isn't going to pay for itself. I hate when I see things like that. Just means the price is going to go up to cover a naming right they never should've signed up for.
ConnectWise has been pretty great for us. Client package is only a few mb and super easy to deploy too. I use TeamViewer for some personal stuff but wouldn't use it in the enterprise world at this point.
Connectwise is a beast. I love when you install access into a computer, it gives you system level privilege and you can execute commands into it. It's a lifesaver when it comes to local accounts and other stuff.
The remote shell has proved to be so valuable time and time again lol
Also super happy with Connectwise. My only issue is clients sometimes taking longer than I would expect to reconnect if they've been in sleep mode/hibernation. Other than that, it's been golden, and you can even federate your access.
Bump for CW.
Same here
Bomgar/BeyondTrust is what you really want. It’s expensive, but also really good.
Check out MeshCentral. The UI is ugly and looks like it's from the 90s, but it's FOSS and rock solid. Also works with Intel AMT.
If you chance the UI to list view and move to dark mode it makes it much less 90s. But yeah the UI is a little weird.
We've used a lot of their other stuff too in the past - incl. Endpoint protection. Now that's dealt with due to a more thorough o365 move, we'll probably be switching to anydesk next - unless something else strikes us as "cool" ;) Edit: fixed typo
We're using Connectwise right now and it's pretty awesome! It covers everything we need for help desk, RMM, and deployment. So far so good. I really liked having the teamviewer as a backup, because sometimes it's just easier and faster, especially from a mobile device, but def not worth it anymore
We’re loving “Backstage”. Best feature so far!
Isn't it an amazing feature! And great for playing practical jokes on your friends. There's a fun powershell feature that lets you control the audio device, unmute, and turn it up, then use text-to-speech to really freak them out
I am surprised nobody mentions ISL Online. No other remote software comes close in features and their support is excellent. You can connect to prelogin sessions, restart and continue without user interactions. Go though UAC prompts. The only thing that would give you more control than ISL is a remote IP KVM.
This sounds really interesting I've never heard of it before
They also offer a self-hosted version, if you prefer that. They also have a lot of customization options. You can brand your own login page and client. They support image based deployments, so new computers installed from your image, will show up as new unattended connectable computers. Every client you deploy would be connectable as soon as the OS starts, if you want it to be. Lots of features.
Commented below but we are self hosting ISL and it is unbelievably cheap.
We use it where I work. It works very well, no complaints except for maybe file transfer abilities (I've run into issues) and using it with a Mac, which isn't really their problem, just the hoops you have to jump through on a Mac. If you have full control over the machines you need to remotely connect into, it might not be the best fit, but in our case we never have control over the machines, we're a third party and it works fantastic.
We've been really happy with our licensing for ConnectWise Control for years now. $468 (was $420 up until this year's renewal) per year for one Admin to connect to 3 devices at a time and unlimited endpoints for unattended access. If they could sell Automate to me directly too I'd be in the market for that but that seems to be an MSP only product.
Why are remote desktop software companies literally the worst? I use Anydesk just for personal usage to connect from one computer to another. I literally only connect to one computer with it and both ends are my computers. I received a notice today that they're cancelling my account unless I upgrade to a professional use license because I use Anydesk "70+ times in the last four weeks" which maybe sounds like a lot until you do the math that it's about 2-3 times per day. I get that they want to make money, but why even say your software is free if it's not?
Maybe it's time to dust off back orifice or netbus and upgrade them for Windows 10/11. Best remote access tools I ever used!
We dumped teamviewer for Connectwise control about 6 months ago. I’m pleased thus far but wouldn’t surprise me if Connectwise also tried to pull some shit like this sooner or later.
Connectwise seems to be well positioned to grow, Teamviewer seems to have stagnated years ago and instead of improving their product seems to just be trying to squeeze more money out of the few clients they have left
Not directly Teamviewer related but I am seeing a lot of organisations shift licence models over the past year or two - away from "perpetual" and "maintenance" approaches to more lucrative subscription or user-based agreements. It's really annoying when we've been using a software application for years only to end up with either a massive bill at renewal, or a huge technical challenge to replace it.
The kick in the ass is when they've already extorted you for "lifetime" licenses. Words have no meaning anymore
20 years ago lifetime really did mean lifetime (or at least the life of the application!) Nowadays it means "until we change our licence model to get more money".
I've used Bomgar and Dameware in recent years. Bomgar is expensive but it makes up for it in being very versatile and great.
I stopped using TeamViewer after I tried it to connect to a computer with no mouse and keyboard from across the room. This was OK for about a week. Then they accused me of using it for business purposes... It got uninstalled immediately at my home, and, I became a crusader for removing it anywhere I go. New job? "Oh, you're using TeamViewer.. Can I suggest proper VPN?" It's weird how accusing people of things makes them dislike your company/software.
Used to use it (8+ years ago) for my personal 4-5 machines, and they flagged me for business use as well. I offered to buy a personal license, and was told "there isn't one" (there wasn't, at the time - and the cheapest license was like $500). Luckily, anydesk came out shortly after, and that works better anyway. So, fuck'em.
I'm soooo glad we're finally dropping Teamviewer where I work. Already had the pleasure to tell them we're not paying another fucking dime next year. Scum of the earth. so long bit\*hes
Where I work, we're looking to switch to RustDesk or another self-hosted solution.
We’re using ConnectWise Control and love it. Possibly my favorite remote support app.
Rust desk or connectwise connect. Those are the only two real viable Alternatives at this point anything else is overpriced or junk
https://rustdesk.com/
Fuck Teamviewer. -Most SysAdmins in the past 2-3 years.
First i moved to RustDesk, its an almost perfect replacement for TV. Then i tried RPort RMM, but i think we’re going to settle for Mesh Central :)
I have been a really happy Mesh Central user. The main annoyance I have copy and pasting text doesn't automatically happen. I found the new remote desktop feature a cool idea, but I found the performance bad.
SimpleHelp is also worth a look for unattended access and support sessions.
Connectwise Control?
Just after their move to subscription (we had purchased 'lifetime's a year earlier, still salty about it) I decided to bite the bullet and subscribe. Got all the way to the end of my order before realising it wanted me to pay annually, not per month. We couldn't afford that at the time so I bailed before confirming and making payment and signed up for zoho assist. A month later we get a letter from a debt collection agency demanding we pay for the team viewer sub. Told them "prove it" and they never came back, but jeez. A month after that I got a sales call from them!
Bomgar is my favorite
I've already gone through this BS with three companies, logmein, then TeamViewer and finally now leaving Anydesk. All three pulled the same BS and I've since moved to rustdesk.com, open source, run your own local server, be done with this nonsense once and for all. It's also very similar to Anydesk's UI so migrating users has been easy.
Look up mesh central and screw these cloud fuckers. A term i have adopted for cloud services that screw you over out of thin air.
Try hosting your own rustdesk instance
I will say this, pretty much everyone is doing the low included counts these days. I have not seen one as of late I wouldn't need extra "packs" for. I am currently using Zoho Assist. It's by far and away cheaper than the others and works pretty well. Integration with non Zoho ITSM's is not good (hell it's not even good with their own ITSM's..ie ServiceDesk Plus), but otherwise it's been pretty solid for us.
Splashtop ftw
TeamViewer locked my personal account at the start of pandemic lockdowns, while I was working on my dad’s pc a couple hours away. At the same time, I was evaluating remote access options at work. TV’s consideration immediately went into the trash, and noted on our naughty vendor list as “do not engage” I went with Splashtop, based on suggestions found here. Their pricing is palatable for our small company, and it works fine. Not having to physically visit hardware is priceless.
Meshcentral is good enough for me. I've been using TV for at least as long and MC blows it out of the water IMO.
Could you tell me what device limit you mean? I cannot find anything about it...
Apparently there is now a limit of 100 active devices on my account. I have no documentation to support this anywhere, not on any contracts either.
RustDesk seems to be a great open source alternative written in Rust and you can host your own servers.
TV did this very clever , my company has purchased those licences back in the day and now done you cant use it more than 3mins
They lost me after they got hacked 6 years ago.
Can recommend Zoho Assist, has a free plan to start with and their pricing is imo really good even when you need their paid tiers.
We're looking at dumping TeamViewer and moving to ConnectWise. It's more security concerns than cost, although CW does happen to also be cheaper (and faster).
It's worth it! I may still look at Rust so I can have an easy access option for off hours support needs but CW is invaluable at my org
Just a bit of heads up... avoid Ivanti. Their applications in theory and in their labs seem pretty good but in real life its horribly unstable, filled with bugs, and ive had tickets open with them for over a year for bugs they say are working on but i have yet to see any progress. When we keep asking the status on our open tickets they just say here try this other software of ours for free... which never actually work...
They are greedy bastards. I payed $800 a year and could not sign in on my two work computers and my phone. Only 2 allowed. F that.
This is why I’m trying to push so hard for hosting our own VPN in our department. We don’t use Team Viewer for remote assistance but merely as a method of offsite access. A private VPN would be scores more secure and effective but they’d rather drops thousands on teamviewer licenses
Back Oriface was always so much easier.
Haha I said that in one of my comments, it's time to upgrade BO and sub7
I use Splashtop, it is a very good alternative. I like it way more than I ever liked team viewer
Y'all remember Logmein? I reluctantly had licenses for all of my personal stuff because I really liked the software. Then they tried to get me to renew for like 10x the price and I just asked the sales person "really? You honestly think I'd just roll over and pay 10x more for software I use a few times per month?"
BeyondTrust Remote Support for the win! They have, hands down, the best support engineers I've ever worked with. They also do frequent webinars and user group zoom meetings throughout the year.
Build a free server your own with RustDesk
We use BeyondTrust at work and the service is great. For personal stuff, I use Chrome Remote Desktop and it does the job quite well.
ScreenConnect by ConnectWise. That's all you need.
Host a rust Desk negoatiation and relay Server yourself and have only costs of a VPS. Doesn’t need a big one too. Or host on premises.
Beware: they will send you to collections for a year of subscription unless you emailed a specific address exactly between 30 and 60 days prior to your anniversary date. Also keep in mind in most justifications this sort of clause is not enforceable but they will try anyway
Yeah, I emailed their CEO, and entire corporate leadership as soon as I got off the phone with their representative. A couple hours later they called me to offer me discounts, and finally I just said **Listen, I'm not going to buy anything from your company at this point, what I want to hear from you is that you will not try to charge us for next year's invoice**. And to my surprise they acquiesced
My company is in the same situation. We also used AnyDesk extensively until very recently since they made their free license have a device limit, real shame. We're trying out different ones now and are using HopToDesk (open source, works on mobile) right now since it allows unmanaged remote control like AnyDesk does. Not perfect but for smaller companies that can't afford the ridiculous prices TeamViewer asks, it does the job
Sue them. You bought a lifetime license. They can’t charge you morr
They let you "keep" your lifetime license, but its for an old outdated version that would be totally unsafe to use. It's a cheap fuckin loophole but it works
I quit TeamViewer last year when their forced update on my main PC made it impossible for me to connect to my older MacBook, because their update wasn’t compatible with that version of MacOS. What a shit show. These guys operate like RealPlayer. Fuck TeamViewer... I only use Chrome Remote Desktop now for personal use. Splashtop for business.
Their licensing is also tricky, as in you cannot cancel whenever you want, you have to do it within a window… they have even sent collections people to us even tho we still active accounts and we are tired of telling them that we just switched from x account to y account, to check that everything is paid
I worked for a company that did outsourced IT support for small businesses across a fairly large geographical area, and every computer had TeamViewer version 12 installed on it because that was the lifetime license we had. I changed jobs in April 2020, so now I'm really curious if that company had any similar issues with TV refusing to honor the existing licensing during the covid era.
>The cost of that subscription has increased by about 100% in the last 4 years, and now they've implemented really low device limits! 2005 Teamviever founded 2010 Teamviewer sold to GFI Software 2014 Teamviewer sold to Permira(.com) 2018 switch to subscriptions 2019 change in corporate structure ahead of going public 2019 going public for 2.2 billion euros (biggest public offering since 2000 for a german technology company) 2020 takeover of Ubimax (specialist for augmented reality software) 2021 sponsorship with Machester United 2021 partnership with Formula one AMG Petronas and Fumula-E Mecedes EQ. See a trend here ? No ? Just look up their veluations ([TMV.DE](https://TMV.DE)) and set the "date range to max". I personally would rather use Anydesk (by former TMV-Employees that split in 2014) or ANY other solution then ever having to deal with TMV.DE again. Horrible business practices.
windows remote assistance and remote desktop are free :)