Remote Desktop Services from Microsoft is virtual desktop and remote user session technology.
N/A
Oracle VirtualBox
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Oracle VirtualBox is an open source, cross-platform, virtualization software, enables developers to deliver code faster by running multiple operating systems on a single device.
$0
per month
Splashtop
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Splashtop is a software solution for both remote access and remote support. Boasting 30+ million customers worldwide and users among both large and small organizations across the globe, Splashtop presents their solution as secure, high-performing, and fit to specific use-cases. Splashtop is ISO certified, SOC 2 and GDPR compliant. Splashtop Remote Access provides remote desktop connections for business professionals and teams to work from anywhere, using any device.…
$99
per year per user
Pricing
Remote Desktop Services
Oracle VirtualBox
Splashtop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Splashtop Remote Access Solo
$6.00
per month per user, billed annually
Splashtop Remote Access Pro
$8.25
per month per user, billed annually
Splashtop Remote Access Performance
$13.00
per month per user, billed annually
Splashtop Remote Support Enterprise
Contact Sales
per month per concurrent technician, billed annually
Splashtop Remote Access Enterprise
Contact Sales
per month per user, billed annually
Splashtop On-Prem
Contact Sales
Splashtop Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM)
Contact Sales
per month per endpoint, billed annually
Splashtop Remote Support SOS
Starting at $22.00
per month per concurrent technician, billed annually
Because it is a built-in, free solution for a small set of managed computers. No extra licenses required. No budget. Setup and configuration is instanteneous.
This is well-suited if you need to log in to a remote machine on occasion to make updates or change configurations. It is also good for a production environment or for environments where people need to log in to use common applications, so you don't need to install the application on each individual client.
It is best suited when you want to have different operating systems on your laptop or desktop. You can easily switch between operating systems without the need to uninstall one. In another scenario, if you expect some application to damage your device, it would be best to run the application on the VM such that the damage can only be done to the virtual machine. It is less appropriate when time synchronization is very important. At times the VMs run their own times differently from the host time and this may cause some losses if what you doing is critical. Another important thing to take note of is the licensing of the application you want to run your VM. Some licenses do not allow the applications to be run on virtual servers so it is not appropriate to use the VM at this time.
Well suited for any MSP, MSSP, or IT Manager who needs access to a broad array of machines and values their time. Great for an individual who just needs access to their work computer from home. It might not be suited for environments where national security is involved.
When you connect with RDS, everything looks and feels (and is) exactly like you're sitting at that desktop. This is great for us and for users.
You can sign in with RDS and the desktop will be the same as when you left it (if you choose to set it up that way).
Although they take some setup, RemoteApps are a very handy way to let users access a program without requiring them to actually connect to a remote desktop on the server.
Seamless RMM Integration - Splashtop’s integration into Syncro is functionally invisible, but in a good way. I don't have to manage a separate contact list or worry about syncing credentials between my RMM and my remote tool. I click "Remote Desktop" in Syncro, and Splashtop launches instantly.
High Performance Graphics & Low Latency - The frame rate and refresh speed are consistently superior to competitors I’ve used in the past. Even when connecting to a client with a dual monitor setup or a slower upload speed, the lag is minimal. The picture quality is crisp enough that I can read fine print on error logs without squinting.
"SOS" Ad-Hoc Workflow - r clients who aren't on a managed contract (my "break/fix" customers), the SOS feature is a lifesaver. I don't have to walk a non-technical user through a complex installation. I just tell them to go to the site, give me the 9-digit code, and I'm in!
Remote Desktop Services currently does not support multiple monitors on the terminal server. Unlike other applications such as Teamviewer, there's no feature to toggle between multiple screens even if they were connected to the terminal server.
Remote Desktop Services should provide an option to scale up or down the screen size after a connection is established. Currently you can only adjust the screen size prior to a connection is established. So you'll have to take a best guess at what display screen resolution will fit best on your screen.
Remote Desktop Services should offer some kind of menu to send special key strokes like Ctrl+Alt+Del to the terminal server. Currently the substitute for that particular combination is Ctrl+Alt+End. But I have yet to discover a replacement for other combination keystrokes such as Alt+PrintScrn.
I have had issues in the past when it has come to resizing VM disk storage. The issue is entirely detailed here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9103 -- the problem was caused because of having existing snapshots (which error message output was not detailing). I haven't had to deal with the issue due to my dynamic disk sizes not being small from the start anymore (this is mostly an issue for my Windows VMs where the base disk may need significant size for the OS). It looks like, for a resize, that a merge of all snapshots has to occur first -- one user on that list details a workaround to maintain snapshots by cloning the VM. (Note: 5.2 was just released a few weeks ago, and looks like it should prevent the problem happening in the future by properly informing users that it isn't possible with snapshots).
Certain scenarios, like resizing disks, required dropping into a terminal as there were no options to previously do so via the GUI. According to some recent posts, I've seen that v5.2 has added disk management stuff like that to the GUI (or will be adding it). I'm comfortable with dropping into the terminal, but in a teaching scenario or when evaluating the learnability of the tools, it complicates things.
Compared to our prior solution, Splashtop does not "organize" devices nearly as well. They need some some sort of tagging solution so that you can, say, pull up a list of "all machines at this campus" or "All Macs at this site"
The Business App that runs locally feels clunky, and is presented in a weirdly-sized window
Splashtop has been one of the best investments our firm has made, and we have become proud partners. The ROI is off the charts for a law firm since more time can be billed now. This is aside from all the quality of life improvements Splashtop has rolled out in the past couple of years that makes IT administration notably easier in multiple ways on a daily basis.
The initial setup for Remote Desktop Services is complex, and licensing is costly. Each user connects to their virtual desktop hosted by a single server or group of servers, so a change or issue with servers quickly impacts every single user at the same time. Aside from that, users appreciate seeing their same personal desktop from any device or geographical location.
I love using the Graphical User Interface. The VirtualBox Manager is very easy to understand and use. You can quickly create, configure and manage all your virtual machines in one window. It makes operating virtual machines easy and simple. When using VBoxManage it gives the user comprehensive control over VirtualBox so that you can use automation and scripting at the command-line interface
It's hard to find any significant faults with Splashtop. It offers a very responsive remote access experience with clear and simple interface. There's very little learning curve as it's toolbar mimics other popular remote access solutions graphical user interface. It's gives you access to your remote computer quickly and stays out of your way
I recall one outage, and it wasn't very long. We use QuickAssist when someone's having a problem connecting with Splashtop on a Windows machine. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often. QuickAssist is for the QUICK Assist. Splashtop is far better for addressing more complex support needs.
I've raved and rambled about Splashtop's utterly shocking performance nearly endlessly. One of the key reasons our firm adopted Splashtop was because I could demonstrate the unbelievable performance to our Tech Committee. Before finding Splashtop, the thought of being able to start a remote connection to another PC and smoothly watch a full 1080p video through that remote connection was unthinkable. Yet, Splashtop achieved this. I was blown away, and our committee was impressed. In fact, in my testing environment prior to onboarding, I was have 2 PC's next to each other on different networks and internet sources with a Splashtop connection from one to the other with a 1080p YouTube video playing. I was astounded that the audio I was hearing on the "connect from" PC matched in perfect synch with the "connect to" PC. Unbelievable!! And keep this between us, but when I was working late one night at the office waiting for some server to finish a long upgrade, I was able to actually Splashtop to my home gaming PC and play a full-quality FPS with no lag through the connection. Shocked, astounded, flabbergasted! The adjectives could be endless!
As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.
The phone number is in the top right of each page of the website and app and when called, the person who picks up (before any automation delays the call) is ready to assist or immediately recognize the appropriate place for a transfer. If transferred to a different department, that department picks up immediately and each person is fully trained to help resolve a (typically user error) call.
It couldn't have been any easier to setup and I have had no issues with it since it was implemented. It's a great product and makes remotely connecting to another device so simple and quick. I can't recommend it enough
We selected Remote Desktop Services based upon price alone. Other solutions on the market are significantly more expensive, but if your company can foot the bill you should seriously consider products that have been on the market for longer. The lack of an ability to easily upgrade farm servers has been a challenge for us - although it is still faster than updating an application on 2000+ machines. The lack of a centralized management console in 2008 R2 is also challenging, but you get by with the tools available to you. If you don't have the money to spend on Citrix or VMWare Horizon, Remote Desktop Services is a decent replacement.
VirutalBox is very similar to using Vmware with the slight difference in appearance and what might be considered a less polished look. However, what it lacks in polish and looks it makes up for in functionality, easy of use and the wide range of operating systems and features it supports without the need of buying the full professional edition
I have not looked at TeamViewer in quite some time but I found Splashtop SOS for me to be at least a 1 to 1 feature switch. And right now connecting to mobile devices to see a customers screen is included with Splashtop SOS and it is a real value add. I hope it says that way. TeamViewer is just too expensive in comparison.
A colleague got a significantly better deal that did not allow him to use Groups. His savings/pricing was far more attractive than mine was. I tried to get that from sales, and they told me it was not an option. That was disappointing.
The only problem I have found is that the deployment is dependent and intrinsically linked to the Host OS. This is different from bare metal solutions which remove that dependency on a Host OS. The latter is more reliable and removes a layer of potential failure.
I bought service for 250 unattended machines. I anticipate the next level will be very expensive, so I may stop at 250. It works very well for our needs. Only recently have I needed to add a second team to add a group of computers, but it's all been great.
Minimal-to-no support needed from the DevOps team.
Provides a direct and an easy way to access multiple VMs inside the same machines which enables performing various testing and QA tasks without the need to switch hardware.
Automatic provisioning using tools (esp. Vagrant) which enables developing a base image once, and allows for exporting/importing anywhere across the developers team.
Very cost-effective (no fees or monthly subscriptions).
Remote support makes my business possible, period.
Switching from TeamViewer to Splashtop has made a huge difference to my operation: the cost is both lower and more predictable, and getting from "answering the phone from a client in trouble" to "satisfied client" is much faster and easier.
I apologize that I don't actually have hard numbers, but I can sincerely recommend Splashtop and Splashtop SOS. It will make your life and business better!
