Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Apple Remote Desktop
Score 7.2 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
LogMeIn Rescue
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
LogMeIn Rescue is a remote support solution for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices. LogMeIn Rescue is designed to help IT teams to offer fast technical support and ensure a secure remote support session for both the IT professional and the end user. From small teams of IT helpdesk technicians to enterprise-level organizations, LogMeIn Rescue…
$1,299
per year
Parallels Desktop for Mac
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Parallels® Desktop for Mac is used to run Windows on Intel or Apple silicon. Users can switch between Mac and Windows applications, while retaining the macOS appearance, or use the familiar Windows desktop aesthetic.
$99.99
per year
Pricing
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Parallels Desktop Standard Edition
$99.99
per year
Mac App Store
$99.99
per year
Parallels Desktop Pro Edition
$119.99
per year
Parallels Desktop Business Edition
$149.99
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Free Trial
NoYesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Considered Multiple Products
Apple Remote Desktop
Chose Apple Remote Desktop
Microsoft Remote desktop tends to perform better, especially over the internet and has multiple implementations, including open source.
AnyDesk is multi platform (both server and client) and more suitable for ad-hoc remote sessions.
Chose Apple Remote Desktop
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 …
LogMeIn Rescue
Chose LogMeIn Rescue
LogMeIn Rescue by GoTo stacks up very well against all these. The features, speed, security, ease of use are all comparable if not better than these other services. I would continue to use LogMeIn Rescue by GoTo for ease of use.
Chose LogMeIn Rescue
for restarts Logmein is better for speed teams is better, so if you want to get a fast session teams scores higher for deep dive sessions Logmein is great also like the interface for seeing logs on Logmein and stopping processes from running easily and quick. File transfer is …
Chose LogMeIn Rescue
When we evaluated Citrix Workspace a few years ago the app environment was not as easy to use as LogMeIn Rescue. Things may have changed but we have not gone back to re-evaluate. Some of our team members still use TeamViewer and the product is rated as highly as Rescue among …
Parallels Desktop for Mac
Chose Parallels Desktop for Mac
Parallels Desktop for Mac was chosen because of its robust features and great price. Even though VirtualBox is free it does not provide the same features. In Parallels you can download extra patches to accommodate printer and usb drivers.
Features
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Remote Administration
Comparison of Remote Administration features of Product A and Product B
Apple Remote Desktop
6.7
28 Ratings
16% below category average
LogMeIn Rescue
8.4
205 Ratings
6% above category average
Parallels Desktop for Mac
-
Ratings
Screen sharing8.028 Ratings9.1198 Ratings00 Ratings
File transfer8.027 Ratings8.6187 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant message7.323 Ratings8.4125 Ratings00 Ratings
Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication5.04 Ratings8.043 Ratings00 Ratings
Access to sleeping/powered-off computers8.621 Ratings8.563 Ratings00 Ratings
Over-the-Internet remote session7.322 Ratings8.8197 Ratings00 Ratings
Initiate remote control from mobile4.07 Ratings6.363 Ratings00 Ratings
Remote management of servers & workstations8.123 Ratings7.497 Ratings00 Ratings
Remote Active Directory® management7.08 Ratings7.950 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized management dashboard5.718 Ratings8.774 Ratings00 Ratings
Session record7.211 Ratings9.2142 Ratings00 Ratings
Annotations3.17 Ratings9.064 Ratings00 Ratings
Monitoring and Alerts5.714 Ratings9.599 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-platform remote control9.08 Ratings7.8146 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Virtualization
Comparison of Application Virtualization features of Product A and Product B
Apple Remote Desktop
-
Ratings
LogMeIn Rescue
-
Ratings
Parallels Desktop for Mac
9.4
4 Ratings
20% above category average
Application support00 Ratings00 Ratings9.24 Ratings
Ease of deployment00 Ratings00 Ratings9.54 Ratings
Security00 Ratings00 Ratings9.54 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Small Businesses
Getscreen.me
Getscreen.me
Score 9.6 out of 10
Getscreen.me
Getscreen.me
Score 9.6 out of 10
Parallels RAS
Parallels RAS
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.5 out of 10
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.5 out of 10
Nutanix AHV
Nutanix AHV
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.5 out of 10
Remote Desktop Manager
Remote Desktop Manager
Score 9.5 out of 10
Nutanix AHV
Nutanix AHV
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(26 ratings)
8.2
(219 ratings)
9.5
(33 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(4 ratings)
7.0
(23 ratings)
9.2
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(5 ratings)
8.5
(74 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(4 ratings)
9.1
(39 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Apple Remote DesktopLogMeIn RescueParallels Desktop for Mac
Likelihood to Recommend
Apple
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.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
Most of the time it is great. Sometimes with iPads it is not great or too expensive for orgs to pay for an option to allow iPads to be logged into along with computers and windows computer tablets. When needing to view something a client is talking about. It is great to use login to understand the issue and possibly fix any issues we need.
Read full review
Parallels
Parallels is great for an end user that is primarily a macOS user, but occasionally needs Windows access to a specific application or service that is Windows only, or Windows primarily. It obviates the need for multiple desktop units or remote VMs where spin up time is an issue. It is not quite perfect due to the ARM version of Windows requirement, but that particular case is common to all ARM use of Windows.
Read full review
Pros
Apple
  • Automator Actions: This is a very cool feature and cost saving as it reduces human effort by automating the workflow of tasks.
  • Curtain Mode: This lets you block your local user's view of the desktop while performing administrative tasks.
  • Spotlight Search: It can perform lightning fast searches on machines using the spotlight search feature of OS X and thus saves a lot of time.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
  • LogMeIn Rescue does a great job of allowing access to our clients computer screens.
  • LogMeIn Rescue does a great job of allowing me as an admin to monitor my technicians.
  • LogMeIn Rescue does a great job of allowing me as an admin to pull daily, weekly and monthly stat reports.
  • LogMeIn Rescue does a great job of allowing me as an admin to view my technician's chat logs.
Read full review
Parallels
  • The configurations & space allocations can be done on parallels.
  • It integrates very well with the Mac; copying/pasting and sharing files can be done between the two platforms - Windows/Mac.
  • It supports virtual machines, Touch-ID (which works on Mac and will work on Windows, too), and bridges the gap between two operating systems.
Read full review
Cons
Apple
  • 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.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
  • one of the prompt in windows users is not vissible, somethimes users missed it and you must start from scratch
  • more documentation for apple users
  • never could record a session, all the time was a permissions issue, don't know how to do it
Read full review
Parallels
  • Having to buy a new upgrade whenever Apple updates the OS with its yearly releases seems a bit excessive.
  • The integration features between Windows and Mac are enabled by default, which can clutter both sides; I would rather it was not default.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Apple
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.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
It may not be used often in our smaller organization but it really is the only option with a remote workforce. We do not want to learn a new product so it is much better to keep with what we know works well and our staff is used to utilizing
Read full review
Parallels
Users are familiar with the application which will keep us going for a little while. However since we are seeing a decline for a need for the software, I wouldn't be surprised to find that this answer changes dramatically in the near future. We would probably keep it to some extent, but we would probably reduce our licensing count.
Read full review
Usability
Apple
It can be more usable, and if you are not in the Apple ecosystem, most likely you haven't even heard of it. Does it need improvements? Absolutely. Will it get improved? Most likely not. I believe this app is just part of the system app, which is nice to have, but any user will most likely choose some other option from the available apps.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
I believe that LogMeIn Rescue is extremely suitable for users of all levels of technical prowess. The user interaction is minimal, and the agent is available to take over at every step of the way. From problem resolution to training, LogMeIn Rescue can take care of it all. LogMeIn Rescue makes the user support process easier and faster so the user can have the issues resolved in a timely manner.
Read full review
Parallels
It has a good integration, including the connection of peripherals. Taking files back and forth works well and I can attach my Home drive as a network drive in Windows. There is even integration with iCloud and other macOS services. There are also a few different display modes which are useful and fleixible (coherence, windowed, full-screen with multiple screens)
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Apple
No answers on this topic
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
Log me in has never failed me
Read full review
Parallels
No answers on this topic
Performance
Apple
No answers on this topic
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
no complaints
Read full review
Parallels
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Apple
When i have needed support it was for Hardware not the software itself
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
I'd say support for LogMeIn is ideal because I haven't ever been in a situation where additional support was necessary. The program runs so efficiently and simply that nothing was needed beyond initial training that was provided by my company. I am saying this as a user that strictly uses the technician console
Read full review
Parallels
The Parallels documentation and support websites are great. I have not had much use for them, but a cursory check shows richly documented features aimed at both the layperson and the power user or software developer. Their website is well-designed and information is easy to find, and their list of known issues as well as bugfixes on point releases is clear and transparent. They aren't trying to hide any of the limitations of their software, and seem to be regularly updating it to fix new bugs that arise with Mac OS X updates.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Apple
Very quick and easy install with no real issues
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
Make sure you have your LogMeIn Rescue account sign-in details handy when installing on multiple support systems.
Read full review
Parallels
The only advice I can provide is think about who is using the product and build the image based on the true needs of the user.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Apple
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.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
Truth be told, Rescue is the first and so far only solution from LogMeIn I started to use. However since it offers a wide range of tools specifically designed for remote support, it is highly effective for resolving technical issues. Additionally, Rescue provides various connection methods and customizable interfaces, allowing support teams like mine to tailor the experience to specific needs.
Read full review
Parallels
Main two features that made the balance decission go to the Parallels Desktop were the possibility to pause the Windows partition easily (allowing to consume less resources in Mac and save battery) and the other one is the user interface feature called "Coherence" with allows you to show the Windows application windows as if they were native to the macOS, allowing for a better user experience.
Read full review
Scalability
Apple
No answers on this topic
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
it's perfect
Read full review
Parallels
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Apple
  • 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.
Read full review
GoTo (formerly LogMeIn)
  • It helps us to increase our remote resolution from offshore personnel, so you can redeploy the activity of a local resource at your facility to specifically address more of the hardware or physical IT problems.
  • Increase FCR "First Call Resolution" if you have this within your SLA
  • Improve end user experience, Non IT personnel doesn't have to struggle explaining an issue, it makes it very easy once you get on the affected user computer.
Read full review
Parallels
  • Saves money on having to buy a Windows and MacBook, as the MacBook can run almost 99% of all Windows software and usually run it faster and share between your MacBook transparently.
  • Gives employers the most flexibility with regards to which OS to adopt across an enterprise
  • We are a media company and everyone uses Macs in our industry, Fortune 500 companies also use Windows and MS Project, Parallels gives you the most flexibility for almost all of these use cases
  • Improves efficiency as the MacBook Pro M3 systems are much faster than some of the fastest corporate issued Windows laptops. What takes me 3-10 seconds for a video export can take 5 minutes on a similar Windows laptop
Read full review
ScreenShots

LogMeIn Rescue Screenshots

Screenshot of Technician Group Configuration - Where users can create technician groups and subgroups with granular agent permissionsScreenshot of the console where repetitive tasks automated by running pre written scripts in the background, without disturbing end usersScreenshot of a smartphone camera being used to troubleshoot offline computers and hardwareScreenshot of remote control of Macs, PCs and Linux/AndroidScreenshot of reboot sessions and automationScreenshot of the central dashboard where common mobile device issues on iPhone and Android can be identified and addressed without the need to navigate the end user's device.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Screenshots

Screenshot of Parallels Desktop running Windows applications, on a Mac.Screenshot of the ability to switch between operating systems without rebooting.Screenshot of Coherence Mode, which minimizes distraction.Screenshot of file sharing between Mac and Windows.Screenshot of application development and testing in Windows, Linux, and virtual macOS (Pro & Business Edition).Screenshot of license management in Parallels Desktop (Business Edition).