Likelihood to Recommend We often need to create an ad-hoc session with a device that is not under our management. We find ourselves doing this more than ever in the COVID world. Many people are working from home on personal machines with their employer, our client's permission and we are facilitating more support for these personal machines. Connectwise Control [(formerly ScreenConnect)] gives us a robust resource to control the device, navigate anywhere we need, execute various commands, and engage in an on-screen chat with the client. The session is very simple to create and very user-friendly to initiate. We do not recommend it for Android, Apple, or Chromebook applications. There is little to no support for these platforms.
Read full review AnyMeeting Pro is an easy-to-use tool and it is very resourceful as it comes with most features you would need for video conferencing and basic interactions. AnyMeeting conferencing eases most video conferencing issues. Most users can perform a video conferencing session at any time for strategy meetings or large groups. One of the features we enjoyed was seeing so many coworker's faces during the pandemic. It kept us connected with everyone.
Read full review Pros The interface is easy to use and makes sense. It's easy to understand how to organize a large number of machines involving multiple clients. But, it's also applicable for smaller set of machines too. The connection speed is very quick. I've used solutions in the past that take a variable amount of time to connect, or they just take a long time every time. Control is quick every time. It doesn't get in the way of being able to support the machines on the other end. The connections are reliable. I haven't experienced random disconnects throughout hundreds of instances. It was a breath of fresh air coming from the previous solution we used. I consider Control a gold standard for what a great remote connection solution can be. Read full review Ease of use -- setting up a meeting is quick and simple, and so is presenting. PowerPoints can be pre-loaded into the system and displayed/controlled without screen-sharing. Questions and Answers are easily managed in a platform that allows you to view them in a single pane and dismiss them as you answer. Customization of registration forms -- gather the information you need from your registrants. Live Chat is always quick and helpful. The webinar system is browser-based, even for presenters, so you can present from anywhere without needing to download an application. Built-in time zone converter on our webinar registration pages is useful, as we invite companies worldwide to our webinars. Read full review Cons I'd like to see the ability to selectively log off the remote machine via a button on the toolbar. Currently it's a setting to always lock on disconnect, or never lock on disconnect, requiring the tech to manually lock the machine if called for at the end of a session. Its a small time save that would add up! The chat feature could be expanded to be a lot more useful. Allowing clients to start conversations, and have conversations ping an email address if no one is monitoring the dashboard would be extremely valuable. Some clarity on licensing when providing host-passes to guest technicians would be a boon, especially for one-off support sessions with vendors. Read full review It could be clearer, from an admin standpoint, which meeting options allow you to record, prior to setting up the meeting. I don't use it frequently enough to remember which type of meeting will allow me to record, and it takes an extra minute to figure this out when I schedule meetings ahead of time. Hallie Bulkin Owner & Founder | Pediatric Speech Language & Feeding Pathologist
Read full review Likelihood to Renew I would recommend this product for both internal remote control of end user workstations and remote access to other clients over the internet. It provides a secure and feature rich product that allows me to complete any necessary tasks without ever leaving the office. I will continue to renew as I'm eager to see what they do next. I would however wish the cloud service had a better API to work in conjunction with team collaboration or chat services to make it easier to connect with end users who use multiple workstations. (Slack or Stride provide this functionality)
Read full review Usability On the whole SC is a very powerful tool that is a vital part of the IT service arsenal. On-site visits are an "emergency" only type of scenario. Just "showing your face" is not winning any browny points for me. If my client sees my face, it's usually just to upgrade hardware or to deal other aspects of business. SC provides me and my client the bulk of the info I need to get projects done.
Read full review I give it a nine due to no fault really of the software. It mostly has to deal with buffering and bandwidth issues that could cause the program to not perform as promised. However, this is an area where most also fail. Our current software is horrible in comparison. Not being a decision-maker keeps us from enjoying AnyMeeting Pro on a more common basis. I would rather use this than Teams.
Read full review Reliability and Availability In my 5 years of using the product, I am only aware of one time when the service was down and is was due to a backbone outage upstream.
Read full review Performance It performs well. It also has full control over windows security and does not get hung up like
GoToMeeting when trying to install remote software at the prompt to install as admin / override. I have used TeamViewer, WebEx,
LogMeIn and
GoToMeeting . This is by far the best at spontaneous, remote control. It is also very easy to get a novice user connected to the session.
Read full review Support Rating There have been two times when something has went wrong and I needed immediate assistance in order to be able to use Screenconnect to be able to help clients and response has not been immediate. The response time has been within 24 hours. Both times if there had been easier to navigate self help I would have been able to help myself. With better self help and a speedier response it would definitely be a 10 as they always respond and help. Just a little more difficult or slow than it should be at times
Read full review Never had to deal with customer support myself. I was told by our tech team that they were pretty responsive and again most issues could not be resolved due to the bandwidth of those attending meetings. The higher the bandwidth the more amazing the performance and the overall meeting flow and results.
Read full review Online Training I find ScreenConnect to be very simple and effective overall, with the main problem being that a number of my clients can't download the app due to existing firewalls and so on. Otherwise it does its job well, and I'm happy with it.
Read full review Implementation Rating ConnectWise has done everything they could to help us in any situation. Great support team and their new updates are always providing features that we need. Its a simple solution that works the way we need it to. Their legacy pricing model is still much better than their subscription based model however it is still fair pricing
Read full review Alternatives Considered I have worked with Citrix, AnyDesk, LogMeIn,
VNC Connect , and many others. I ultimately installed ConnectWise as a self-hosted solution, based on the incredible list of features and capabilities, and the pricing at the time. I continue to use the product as it is still one of the best solutions out there and is certainly capable of growing and expanding to meet the needs of my business.
Read full review AnyMeeting's free version beats Zoom's free version because of the time limit Zoom imposes on free meetings. However, when going for a paid version, Zoom outperforms AnyMeeting's paid version. The video quality seems to be higher in Zoom. There is also more features available in Zoom as a whole, and I've never had someone not be able to join the Zoom meeting.
Read full review Scalability I have used multiple remote desktop support software in the past (Bomgar, Team Viewer, Logmein and Join.me) and this is far the easiest of the bunch to use. It is very easy to create a session and easy to maintain remote desktops from their access view (where you install the software and can get in at any time) I highly recommend this product from ConnectWise!
Read full review Return on Investment Instead of waiting 30+ seconds to initiate sessions, they initiate and display a desktop in two or three seconds. The amount of frustration this avoids is immeasurable. Once installed it doesn't need more handholding, i.e., having the remote enter a username/password. It is always just there. Read full review AnyMeeting made it easier and faster for me and my team to set up online meetings and conference calls, thus saving quite a bit of time. Due to some over runs of meetings, I have to have a back up service just in case. Read full review ScreenShots ConnectWise ScreenConnect Screenshots Intermedia AnyMeeting Pro Screenshots