Apache Guacamole vs. Cisco Webex Support (discontinued) vs. RealVNC Connect

Apache Guacamole is well suited for providing remote access and controlling administrative servers/devices in small to medium-scale deployments. Guacamole client is an HTML5 web application, to use it you only need any modern web browser. In my opinion, the developers' choice to use Tomcat/Java made the application somewhat heavyweight with too many dependencies. If we manage to resolve the stability issues we would likely use it for employees' access to their workstations company-wide.

Incentivized

WebEx Support Center does what it is designed to do very well. If you need robust, efficient, and comprehensive remote support software, look no further. There are certainly other products that are simpler, and other products that are a bit "prettier" from a UI standpoint, but in terms of overall functionality, WebEx Support Center is hard to beat. If you're a company on a very tight budget, there are certainly cheaper options available, however.

Incentivized

It is very easy to use if the remote device is already set up to receive connections, so if you are setting up devices before deploying them, it is a great tool to have. It is well-suited to use when shadowing users or using it as a teaching tool. There are other products that are better if you are trying to help someone on a one-use basis.

Incentivized

• Remote connect to Linux OS
• Remote connect to Windows OS

Incentivized

• Webex has helped us increase and streamline support to our customers.
• It allows us to enable forums or collaborative spaces to explain to clients and coworkers solution to certain problems

Incentivized

• Allow remote connection to pc and servers that are located within our WAN. The connection is stable with fast response (no lag)
• Allow remote connection to pc and servers that are located outside. The connection is stable with fast response (no lag)
• It allows chat function with the user, and pasting capability from local desktop and mapped a drive to the remote system.

Incentivized

• We have experienced some stability problems (mostly Tomcat related).
• The interface could be a little more user-friendly.
• Certain keyboard shortcuts used by Guacamole GUI are impossible to use in the Firefox browser in out-of-the-box configuration.

Incentivized

• [In my experience], when there are issues, they sometimes ask for us to run tracelogs on the impacted participant's computer. Sometimes those participants use machines that are not managed by us and they are unwilling to get those logs. Ideally, [I feel] Webex can gather all the information from their side versus the participant side.
• While I do appreciate the constant follow up, sometimes it is overwhelming. I know they are trying to clear their queues, but it seems like they email once a day if they have not heard back from you [in my experience].
• Their support hours should coincide with my local hours of operation. Most of the support people I have worked with are located internationally and their hours of response are the opposite of my working hours.

Incentivized

• Some of the confusion of VNC upon installation is you need to be connected to the internet for it to function. This is not the case, but is unclear upon installation.
• The licensing model is not ideal for locations that do not use the internet and function off of the grid.

Incentivized

Webex is well known by many other companies. It is easy to use and versatile. This familiarity builds a standard to conferencing and users are more comfortable using it. If you want to be safe with a choice of the many conferencing tools out there, Webex will be your best bet

VNC is a solid product for the price. It simply works and its reliable across different platforms. Some products state they work well in the Mac environment but don't deliver. This one does what it says. Connections are reliable, but of course, this depends on internet connections. The product works well over wireless connections as well. It delivers on what a remote tool should deliver on. My technicians are happy with the product and customers appreciate the ease of use when letting us connect to their systems. Some also appreciate the remote support while they are multi-task.

Incentivized

it's easy

Incentivized

Honestly, there are people available. But none of them will help you with your issues. They just keep assigning new service engineers who are often clueless.

It's a niche product and in that niche they try to cater to as many use cases as they can. Other as a TCO aspect i don't see many use cases where you can't use this product as the one tool for all remote session use cases in your company

Incentivized

The support team is highly incompetent. The only thing that they are able to do flawlessly is register an issue and open the case. But this case related to the issue is never resolved. They will forward the case or assign a new service engineer. But the case will never be resolved. At least not soon. They take weeks to resolve issues.

VNC Connect is a reliable product that has been around for a long time. It is reasonably priced and works well in the Mac & PC environment. When you have a small team that supports many users we need tools that we can rely upon and that will get the job done on the first try. Many customers appreciate the quick assistance and can multi-task while our team works on their computer issues remotely. From a customer service point of view, this tool gives us transparency and efficient effectiveness.

Incentivized

The training is very informative, quick and to the point. All of the details one would need are present so the user doesn't have to go searching for additional information just to use the application. The layout of the training was also neat and concise, some of the other training sessions for other companies I've done in the past were confusing and not well thought out, this one is much more superior

It's easy and free of use, therefore perfect for quick implementations when needed.

Incentivized

No problem at all, love the product.

Incentivized

We have successfully used noVNC for remote access.

Incentivized

Logmein GoToAssist

• Logmein-GoToAssist is the product we used previously and still to some degree use with WebEx Support Center. It was not always reliable and suffered with network congestion but worked quite well for us, we as a team feel that WebEx Support Center is a more reliable and a better overall product. This to me is due to the simplicity of the UI and ease of use as well as the quality of the network performance.

Kaseya with VNC Connect

• We use within Kaseya for our internally servers and local office users due to cost and efficiency, but it is more intended as console-level access and has a bit more features then WebEx Support Center, however is not good for remote support for our users who travel as it is slow.

Incentivized

VNC Connect stacks up very well to other competitors. With this simple program, you can remotely connect and access other computers with the same VNC Connect agent installed. The only reason we're moving away from using this is that our current Ninja RMM Tools computer monitoring agent includes the TeamViewer tool for us to use.

Incentivized

• Ready to use within minutes

Incentivized

• Initially the ROI was very good. We tried to leave and use another platform (cost issues) and didn't have as much success so we came back to Cisco Webex Support.
• It allowed us to provide support to employees and clients as we needed to be able to provide it.

• I have just used the software for about 1 month and so far so god. I am saving time whenever I can access my client's computers from my desk as opposed to having to leave my office to go to their offices. Saves me time and the client money.

Incentivized