Best Remote Desktop Software in 2026: Access and Support Tools Compared

Best for: IT teams that want to keep remote sessions on their own servers and avoid per-technician SaaS fees.

• Official pricing shows annual payment only with no auto-renewal and a reminder 14 days before expiry.
• Basic adds OIDC single sign-on, LDAP and a custom client generator for branded deployments.
• Self-hosting puts patching, availability and network exposure of the server on your team.

Our take: RustDesk is an open source remote desktop client that you can point at your own rendezvous and relay servers, which keeps session traffic inside infrastructure you control. The free server is enough for many small teams, and Server Pro adds a web console, two-factor authentication, user and device management, single sign-on and a custom client generator, starting at $11.88 per month billed annually for one user and 20 devices. Pricing is unusually transparent, including per-user and per-device add-on rates. The tradeoff is operational: you host the server, keep it patched, and handle outages. That suits organizations with data residency rules or a strong preference for open source. In a trial, test performance across your slowest links, check the clients on every platform you support, and confirm your team can maintain the server. It costs far less than ScreenConnect or BeyondTrust but lacks their managed cloud option.

Best for: Small and mid-sized businesses that want low published per-user prices for remote access and attended support.

• Official pricing lists Remote Access Pro at $99 per user billed annually, with volume discounts available.
• Enterprise plans add single sign-on, advanced access controls and an on-premises option.
• Plan names and SOS rates vary by product line, so check which product covers your exact use case.

Our take: Splashtop splits its range into Remote Access, for people connecting to their own or shared work computers, and Remote Support, for technicians helping end users. That split keeps prices low for each use case: Remote Access Solo is $72 per year, Pro is $99 per user per year and Performance is $149 per user per year, while SOS remote support starts at $259 per concurrent technician per year. It is a frequent choice for schools, creative teams that need high-frame-rate sessions, and SMB IT departments that find enterprise remote support tools too expensive. The no-credit-card trials make it easy to test. In a pilot, check that the plan you pick includes the features you need, such as file transfer, remote print or multi-monitor support, and decide whether you need both an access and a support license. It undercuts AnyDesk and ScreenConnect on list price for basic access.

Best for: Help desks and IT teams that want published per-connection pricing and the option of on-premises hosting.

• Only the session initiator needs a license, so end users being helped connect free.
• The quote-based top plan adds single sign-on, custom namespace and cloud or on-premises hosting.
• Annual billing only, and the discount shown on the pricing page applies to the first year only.

Our take: AnyDesk is known for responsive sessions over modest connections and broad platform support, which makes it popular with help desks supporting a mix of Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile users. Pricing is published and built around concurrent connections: Solo covers one user and one connection, Standard starts with one connection and scales to 20, and Advanced starts with two connections and scales to 50, with managed device caps for unattended access at each level. The top plan adds single sign-on and the choice of on-premises hosting, which matters for regulated buyers. Note the first-year discount; budget for list prices at renewal. In your trial, test unattended access on locked-down endpoints, review the address book and permission controls, and confirm how many concurrent sessions your busiest hour needs. AnyDesk sits between Splashtop and ScreenConnect on price for small help desks.

Best for: MSPs and internal support teams that need many unattended agents and flexible per-technician licensing.

• Official buy page publishes both annual and month-to-month per-technician rates.
• The Access plan, from $372 per year for 25 agents, includes unlimited technicians and connections.
• Pricing figures differ slightly between ScreenConnect pricing pages, so confirm the final rate at checkout.

Our take: ScreenConnect, part of ConnectWise, is widely used by MSPs because it combines attended support sessions, unattended access to large fleets and deep customization in one tool. Remote Support plans are licensed per concurrent technician, with Standard and Premium allowing unlimited unattended agents and multiple simultaneous sessions per technician. The separate Access plan reverses the model, pricing by agent count with unlimited technicians, which suits internal IT teams supporting a fixed fleet. Premium adds video auditing, a diagnostics toolkit and reporting. As of 17 October 2026 the vendor pricing page lists Standard at $47 and Premium at $57 per concurrent technician per month on annual billing (earlier listings showed $43 to $45 for Standard), so confirm the figure in your quote. In evaluation, review security settings such as multi-factor authentication, session recording and role permissions, and test integration with your PSA or RMM tools. It is more MSP-focused than Splashtop and less compliance-heavy than BeyondTrust.

Best for: Organizations that support many device types, including mobile and IoT, and want add-ons such as device management.

• Add-ons for asset management, endpoint protection, device monitoring and mobile device management extend it toward IT operations.
• Non-profit and education organizations get a 30% discount according to TeamViewer.
• We could not verify current list prices on official pages, and the auto-renewal notice period requires calendar discipline.

Our take: TeamViewer is one of the most recognized names in remote access, with broad support for desktops, mobile devices and connected equipment. Its business licenses are annual subscriptions built around licensed users and managed devices, and the enterprise TeamViewer Tensor license adds single sign-on, mass deployment and audit logging under a custom quote. Add-ons for asset management, endpoint protection, device monitoring, augmented reality assistance and mobile device management can turn it into a wider IT operations platform. On our check date the official pricing pages loaded prices dynamically, so we could not verify list figures; get a written quote from the License Assistant or sales. Pay close attention to renewal terms, since subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 28 days before expiry. In a trial, compare session quality and admin controls with AnyDesk and Splashtop, which publish lower entry prices for simple access needs.

Best for: Enterprises in regulated sectors that need strict access controls, credential vaulting and full session audit trails.

• Vaulted credentials can be discovered, rotated and injected into sessions so technicians never see passwords.
• Session recordings, audit logs, 50 plus granular permissions and native two-factor authentication support compliance programs.
• No published pricing, and the depth of controls takes time to configure properly.

Our take: BeyondTrust Remote Support is designed for service desks where security and compliance carry as much weight as speed. It covers attended and unattended support across Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, iOS, Android and specialty devices, and adds a credential vault that injects passwords into sessions so technicians do not handle them directly. Session recordings, detailed logs and more than 50 permission settings help organizations show auditors who accessed what and when. Integrations with ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, SIEM tools and an open API fit large ITSM environments. The vendor states it is the only remote support product with FIPS 140-2 Level 1 validation, which matters for some public sector buyers. Pricing is quote-only. In a trial, test the end-user consent flow, the technician console in a browser, and how credential injection works with your privileged accounts. Smaller teams usually find ScreenConnect or Splashtop sufficient.