Best Remote Access Software and Solutions 2017
Remote access software gives you access to other PCs or endpoints, making customer support or performing IT tasks from an off-site location so much easier. Windows and MacOS admin tools provide fundamental access abilities, but most IT teams will quickly outgrow what they offer and need to look for an advanced remote support solution. We reviewed current performance test results for 10 remote access products and narrowed the list down to three top picks.
TeamViewer has been the go-to access product for years, but there are other options. In fact, Citrix's GoTo product family will be merging with LogMeIn in 2017, so it will be interesting to see what their new product offerings will be and how well they will compete against TeamViewer. Stay tuned for our evaluations after the merger.
How We Selected These Remote Access Products
We considered well-known products that provide advanced remote desktop connection features for IT teams or those who need to provide customer or technical support.
Features often provided by these products that you may not see in free or OS versions include:
Multi-connection and multi-platform support
Session tracking, recording and notes
Two-way file sharing
Zero install and unattended access
Mass deployments and policy support
Wake ups, restarts and CTRL+ALT+DEL connected computers
Alerts, reporting and monitoring
Chat, white board, audio, and video and VoIP
Meetings and presentations
One-time or guest-access connection options
Compatibility with security solutions
MORE: Best Remote Management iPhone Apps
Performance Testing Information
We partnered with our sister site, Top Ten Reviews (TTR), to evaluate the performance of popular remote access solutions. While there are many variables that influence connection and file-transfer speeds, solutions still required testing, which TTR did in their lab.
To minimize common variables, TTR reviewers tested these services in a controlled environment and ran tests multiple times to determine performance averages. Since one or two seconds doesn't make that much difference in the long term, we tested and then rated products as slower or faster compared against the tested average to give you an idea of what you can expect from these products in terms of performance. Ten products in total were tested and compared.
One issue we uncovered during testing is that some tasks performed on a tablet—navigation, chat and file sharing—were subpar compared to PCs and Macs. If you plan to use tablets often, you'll benefit from taking advantage of the free test versions these applications offer to see if it performs to your satisfaction.
