Apache Guacamole is a clientless remote desktop gateway. Once installed on a server, all that is needed to access remote desktops is a web browser. Apache Guacamole is free and open source software. It is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, and is maintained by a community of developers that use Guacamole to access their own development environments.
N/A
Apple Remote Desktop
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Apple Remote Desktop (ARD), from Apple, is a remote administration tool for managing Apple computers running OS X across a network.
$79.99
one-time fee
Pricing
Apache Guacamole
Apple Remote Desktop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apache Guacamole
Apple Remote Desktop
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
—
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apache Guacamole
Apple Remote Desktop
Features
Apache Guacamole
Apple Remote Desktop
Remote Administration
Comparison of Remote Administration features of Product A and Product B
Apache Guacamole
8.7
2 Ratings
9% above category average
Apple Remote Desktop
6.1
26 Ratings
26% below category average
Screen sharing
9.52 Ratings
9.026 Ratings
File transfer
9.12 Ratings
9.025 Ratings
Access to sleeping/powered-off computers
9.12 Ratings
7.020 Ratings
Over-the-Internet remote session
10.02 Ratings
9.020 Ratings
Initiate remote control from mobile
7.02 Ratings
4.07 Ratings
Remote management of servers & workstations
9.52 Ratings
6.022 Ratings
Centralized management dashboard
8.01 Ratings
1.217 Ratings
Session record
8.01 Ratings
4.010 Ratings
Monitoring and Alerts
7.01 Ratings
1.113 Ratings
Multi-platform remote control
9.52 Ratings
9.08 Ratings
Instant message
00 Ratings
9.021 Ratings
Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication
I would rate this higher if I was confident that Apple is continuing to develop this utility. It has only received minor updates for quite a long time, and is not featured much in any of Apple's online material. It really is a useful utility, but it is starting to show its age and is fraying a bit around the edges in some respects. It could be very useful when integrated with the various MDM solutions (in our case, Jamf Pro) especially when an engineer needs to force something immediately and can't wait for a check-in, and also can't depend on the end user being able to (for instance) do a sudo jamf policy or sudo jamf recon.
I would like to see more included Unix scrips that can be pushed to clients.
Inclusion of a way to remote control or screen share with Windows machines would be useful, as I manage a handful of Windows machines. While this would be possible using VNC on the Windows machines, including the ability to connect using Windows terminal connections would be awesome, for me.
It is a fairly unique tool in the level of integration it has with Apple Desktop products. It definitely needs some engineering attention, and it should be expanded to the iOS arena. It is not perfect, but it is very useful and fills an otherwise fairly empty niche in the support toolkit realm. The built-in screen sharing app in macOS handles the direct screen control or viewing function fairly well, but it does not have all of the other mass control features that Apple Remote Desktop supplies.
Once it is set up, it is quite straightforward to use. However, currently, it requires both a script to run to set up permissions and controls, AND a command from the MDM to authorize it to be active. The MDM management command is manual. This is not conducive to an automated workflow, and sometimes gets forgotten. Then, the endpoint is not contactable until someone realizes that the MDM command was not sent or was not successful.
I would feel much more comfortable having one of these alternative solutions as our Remote Desktop management tools. Each has their drawbacks and expenses associated with them, but we simply have too large of a deployment to not be considering alternatives. If it is the only solution you can afford, it is OK to start here. I could see where this would have a return on investment, but it is really only suitable for a very small and localized scale. If employees are at all mobile, the duct taping of products necessary (VPN, distribution points, script repositories) would be very cumbersome.
Apple Remote Desktop has a positive return on investment because for the expense to the school, the value it brings to teachers is important. The return on improved student performance is very difficult to measure financially, but there is a definite return.
The overall objective of education is to increase student learning, ARD does that phenomenally. Parents see the tool used and are impressed at what the capabilities of the tool can do and how it impacts how active their students are as well as how well they can learn.
One negative impact is that teachers rely too much on this tool rather than on actually teaching sometimes.
