Compare · TeamViewer
A TeamViewer alternative that runs on your own server.
TeamViewer is a good product and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. But it is closed software, licensed per person per year, and by default your sessions are brokered through its company's servers. If any one of those three is the thing bothering you, this is the swap.
The reasons people move
Three complaints, over and over.
These are the ones that actually come up when people tell us why they went looking. None of them is about picture quality.
Being taken for a commercial user
The free version is for personal use, and their system decides on its own whether it thinks you are a business. When it decides wrongly, sessions get cut short and you are arguing your case instead of fixing a computer. There is no free tier here to be thrown out of, and nothing watching how you use it.
A bill that renews on their terms
Licences are per person, per year, on a subscription that renews unless you give notice in time. Plenty of people first look for an alternative on the day the renewal lands. Ours is also annual, but it is one flat rate per technician and there is nothing above it to be upsold to.
Clients who ask where the data goes
Answering "through a third party's cloud in another country" is increasingly not good enough for a client's security questionnaire. Running the server yourself changes that answer to "our server, in the UK, and here is the source code".
Side by side
What is genuinely different.
Only the things that differ. Both do screen sharing, remote control, file transfer and unattended access perfectly well.
| MyRemoteDesk | TeamViewer | |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | Open, AGPL-3.0 — anyone can read it | Closed |
| Where sessions are brokered | Your server, or ours if you prefer | The vendor's cloud |
| Running it on your own hardware | Included, and free if you self-host | Enterprise offering only |
| What you are charged for | Each technician | Each technician, by tier |
| Computers you may support | Unlimited | Capped by plan |
| Being flagged as a commercial user | Cannot happen — there is no free tier to police | A common complaint |
| Putting your own name on the client | Yes, at any size of business | Higher tiers |
| Auditing the encryption yourself | Read the code | Take the vendor's word |
The honest bit
Where TeamViewer is still the better buy.
If any of the following matters to you, buy theirs. It will be cheaper in the end than picking the wrong tool and living with it.
- You want somebody to ring at three in the morning. They have a support organisation. We are a small UK business and you get email, answered by a person who knows the product, in working hours.
- You need the surrounding suite. Asset tracking, ticketing, device management, monitoring dashboards — they sell all of it and it joins up. This does one job.
- Nobody with you wants to look after a server. Self-hosting means updates and backups are yours. If that is unwelcome, either pay us to host it or stay where you are.
- You support very awkward networks. A big commercial network has relays in many countries. Yours has the one you pay for.
Your saved list of computers does not come across, and every client needs the new program installing. Budget a few weeks of doing it as you go, rather than one big evening. Nobody enjoys the fortnight in the middle.
Moving over
How people actually do it.
Run both for a month
Install ours alongside. Use it on your own machines and on two or three easy-going clients first. If it does not suit you, you have lost nothing.
Move clients as you touch them
Next time you are on a machine anyway, install the new client and add it to your list. Within a normal support cycle most of the estate has moved itself.
Let the old licence lapse
Do not cancel mid-term and lose the money. Give notice before the renewal date, keep it running to the end, and stop paying when it expires.
Questions
Straight answers.
Can I keep using TeamViewer at the same time?
Yes. They are separate programs and they do not interfere with each other. Most people run both for a few weeks, move clients over as they touch them, and let the TeamViewer licence lapse at renewal rather than cancelling mid-term.
Will my clients have to install something new?
Yes, one small program, the same as they did for TeamViewer. There is no account to create and nothing to sign up for. They open it, read you a nine-digit number, and you are on their screen.
Is it as fast as TeamViewer?
For a direct connection on a normal broadband line, you are unlikely to notice a difference. Where TeamViewer's large network of relays helps is on awkward networks that block direct connections, because it has more places to fall back to. With one relay of your own, a fallback session goes through that one server.
What happens to my saved computer list?
It does not transfer - the two products cannot read each other's address books. You add machines to the new list as you next work on them. Tedious for a week, then done.
Does it work when nobody is sitting at the far end?
Yes. Install it as a background service on the machine and set a permanent password, and you can connect to it whenever it is switched on. That is included, not a paid extra.
Keep reading
Related
Try it before you decide anything.
The client is free and the source is public. Download it, connect two of your own machines, and see whether it does what you need. Nothing to sign up for.