Personally as a Pentester, I have always loved the idea of being able to remotely access and control machines from far away. It is just something which I as a child always adored ‘people doing it in movies’, where just by sitting in a control room itself you could control a far away ship in the middle of space.
And although, with the help of “Remote Desktop Connection” application you can’t do exactly that, but still you could very easily control and manage a far away PC or server, remotely from any other place you desire.
All you need for that is a PC which you want to control, a PC with which you want to control and a good connection established between the two with an app such as the “Remote Desktop Connection” app installed in both the systems.
This lovely piece of application created by Microsoft itself, enables you to get any work done on a remote PC elsewhere in some other part of the planet, just while you sit at home and relax your way to completing a task over some other machine. It is just that simple.
Now, coming back to the main topic at hand and the reason why I actually wrote this post was to look at some of the best alternatives out there for Remote Desktop Connection which does exactly the same amount of work and in some cases even better than what you would get to see in Microsoft’s RDC.
Also, the fact that at present RDCMan has been discontinued gives us further more reasons to explore out the other fine alternatives.
And hence, all that you need to know about the “Top 5 Best Remote Desktop Connection Alternatives” for the year 2020 has been listed out below for you to try and explore out to find out which remote access app best suits you.
Top 5 Best Remote Desktop Connection Alternatives
1. mRemoteNG
Coming with some of the best supported protocols out there such as RDP, VNC, ICA, SSH, Telnet, rlogin and Raw Socket Connections, the mRemoteNG application is possibly by far one of the best alternatives to RDCMan out there when it comes to being able to remotely access and manage PCs, servers and machines from anywhere.
MRemoteNG which also stands for Multi remote next generation, I would say is truly a remote of the next generation that allows you to keep records of all your remotely accessed machines in a systematic way as well as lets you manage among each one of them easily without much of a hassle.
Moreover, the other reason why this is one of my favorite alternative is that it is completely Open Source and falls under the GNU General Public License act that allows developers and programmers to be able to develop the application even further, with the possibility to keep on adding new features and tools as they like.
This way not only do you see new awesome features added on within every little span of time but also at the same time have access to the most updated features required to deal problems in real time.
And even though there is a possibility of the app to keep ever changing, some of the more fundamental features or interface module which you can expect to stay pretty much the same is ability to be able to organize as well as manage the list of connections you have set up, ability to group and nest folders the way you like it and last but nor the least easily and securely be able to store away credentials so that no system gets compromised.
The overall user interface too is quite simple and easy to use. Hence even if you are new to the whole concept of remote accessing, you should be able to do just fine right from the very start.
2. Royal ts
Although the app sounds pretty premium because of the ‘Royal’ part in it. Let me assure you that this app is one of the most affordable and reasonably priced remote access software out there.
Available for download and installation in most popular OS platforms such as Windows, iOS, MacOS as well as Android OS, the Royalts app is surely one app that will make you feel royal without having to burn your pocket in any way.
The software usually comes in two versions, one being the Lite version where you do not have to pay a single penny and the other being the Single user, where although you will need to pay up $44.19, it still is quite cheap for all the features it has to offer.
The app overall employs some of the most robust protocols such as VNC, SSH, Telnet and FTP to name just a few along with the ability to connect to other apps such as Team Viewer to manage sessions out there itself.
Additionally, managing tasks as well as credentials too is very easy and hassle free, given the fact that it comes with quite a simple yet modern looking UI to work on.
3. Dameware Mini Remote Control
Although the price is a bit high for this one, still the amount of features and services it has to offer in return guess pretty much makes up for it.
Not only does the application comes with a very high end interface to work with, but at the same time brings to you some exclusive features such as two-factor authentication procedure and set permissions to other users based on roles just to name a few.
And along with these features, other typical functions and features such as remotely access and manage credentials as well as systems is obviously there.
The application is available for download and installation is most popular platforms such as Windows, Linux, macOS as well as servers too all from a single console.
4. Terminals
Coming with supports for a number of protocols such as VNC, SSH, Telnet and Citrix just to name a few, the terminals remote desktop manager app is most certainly one such app out there which has got it all when it comes to managing and working on remote systems with the utmost ease and efficiency.
And although, the interface of this application may not seem very attractive at the very first instance, the amount of work which can be done with and over this simple yet efficiently designed remote desktop app is just very amusing in itself.
The app moreover, comes with some other amazing features like a multi-tab inteface, a customizable toolbar along with tools like port scanner and ping to turn working remotely a whole lot easier.
And last but surely not the least, if you are a developer, then given the fact that Terminals is an open source project, you will surely enjoy contributing your part in making the app even more intuitive and fun to use.
5. Devolutions: Remote Desktop Manager
Available for use in both Free as well as Enterprise Editions, Devolution’s Remote Desktop Manager app according to me is one of the most user friendly and easy to use Remote Desktop manager out there.
And not only does it allow you to remotely connect to and manage other systems remotely but also enables you to carry out even further audits and reports for various users, a thing which is specially needed when working in a company.
Moreover, you can also manage passwords for various accounts as well as keep track of everyone’s work right on a single platform.
The app I would say is an ideal option for both single user as well as people involved in IT solutions where teams need to work at sync as well as share workplace at an instant for maximum productivity and efficiency.
And thus, in my opinion if you are looking for something a bit more powerful but at the same time being really easy to use so that everyone can work on it, then surely and most certainly Devolutions: Remote Desktop Manager is the perfect app for you.
Some Bonus Windows Remote Desktop Connection
These are some of the best alternatives to “Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection” and that is why we explained them in detailed. But there are some more good alternatives suggestions.
So below we are listing some more similar Remote Desktop applications
- Cybelesoft Remote Desktop
- Asg Remote Desktop
- RCMan
- Donkz Remote Desktop Plus
- RD Tabs 3.0
- DuoRDP
- Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager
- Remmina (It is compatible with most of the OS, also supports Raspberry Pi)
