Remote desktop access is an amazing feature that allows you, as its name implies, to connect to a remote operating system via a network connection so that you can control it from your current location.
It’s a great feature because it has a lot of applications. Such as helping your mom in fixing her broken system, educating someone on how to do something, or simply doing the tasks you want on various machines or servers you own.
Table of Contents:
Overview of Remote Desktop Software
First, you should know that in order for two machines to communicate together, they need what’s known as a “protocol”.
A remote desktop protocol is a way of transferring instructions from one computer to the other so that you can graphically control the other system.
There are many famous remote desktop protocols, such as RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) which is a proprietary protocol designed by Microsoft and implemented in its Windows operating system, and the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) protocol which is a free and open source protocol to do the same task.
You can additionally connect to the remote host via SSH, NX protocols and much more.
Two machines can communicate together either directly, which is known as a “client-to-client” architecture, or they both communicate to a central server and the server manages their communication, which is known as a “client-to-server” architecture.
Both of these workflows have pros and cons.
For example, if you would like to manage a large number of remote machines, then you can not manually establish connections for all of them one by one because that would take too much time.
Instead, the best solution in such a situation is to create a central remote access server that can communicate with these machines, and then connect you with the ones you want whenever you need.
Now, away from protocols, you will need a program to access the remote desktop. In general, people are using the proprietary TeamViewer program to do that. But there are many other open source alternatives to TeamViewer that you can use.
Why Use Open Source Remote Access Software?
Open source remote access software offer a number of benefits compared to using proprietary remote connection solutions like TeamViewer and others. These include:
- Privacy because the software does not collect hidden data about you and your usage, nor does it try to sell you ads of any type.
- Costs saving because while it is true that not necessarily all open-source software are free of charge, most of the time, they are. On the contrary, most proprietary solutions in this category are premium and may require a subscription depending on the number of remote machines you want to control.
- Eliminate limitations like the ones imposed by proprietary programs on how many machines you can control and for what durations you can connect to them.
- Customizability because since the source code for the remote access software is available, then anyone can develop plugins or extensions that can fit a certain purpose.
- And much more.
Open source software are simply those whose source code is released under one of the known open source licenses.
You can check for the license of the software from its source code page.
Top Open Source Remote Desktop Software
In this article, we will present our most recommended open source remote desktop software.
We made sure to select only the top working, still-maintained and useful software that belong in this list for our readers. You can review our criteria for listicle articles on FOSS Post to understand the basis for our selections. Remember that we only cover open-source software on FOSS Post that follow the OSI definition and an OSI-approved license. The ranking is random and does not reflect our rating for the software.
1. TigerVNC
TigerVNC focuses on being a high-performance open source remote desktop application, mainly for displaying 3D and video applications throughout the protocol.
The program comes with a client-server architecture support, where you have to install the server on the host machine and keep it running so that a client can connect.
The latest version was released very recently at the time of writing this article, and it includes updated packages for Ubuntu 24.04, OpenGL and Vulkan hardware accelerated drivers, and much further useful changes.
TigerVNC’s development started back in 1999 by At&T, where it was proprietary software. Later on, after many years, it was forked between various parties many times and finally stabilized as an open source application.
It is released under the GPL license.
TigerVNC is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. You’ll also generally find it in the official repositories of your Linux distribution. If not, you can download it from here or browse the source code.
2. RustDesk
RustDesk was created by a team of developers who wanted to provide a secure and reliable remote desktop solution that is easy to use and accessible to everyone. It was developed using the Rust programming language (hence the name), which means it has more focus on the security aspect than other solutions on this list.
The software features a clean and modern user interface written in the Flutter framework. It employs the client-server architecture, so you need to either use a preconfigured server belonging to the team or deploy your own.
Additionally, it has the following options when connecting to remote desktops:
- Using adaptive bitrate.
- Using hardware or software rendering.
- Selecting which audio device to use for input/output.
- Working with software codecs VP8, VP9, and AV1, as well as hardware codecs H264 and H265.
- Peer-to-peer (or client-to-client) support with End-to-end encryption.
- Clipboard sharing including images.
- Additional security with passwords for remote sessions.
It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, making it accessible to users no matter what operating system the user is using.
It is also available for Android devices from the F-Droid store, which means that you can use it on your smartphone to control any remote desktop machine.
You can host your own server instance of RustDesk if you want, or pay for their premium SaaS service if you want to use their ready servers.
3. FreeRDP
FreeRDP is one of the most famous open source solutions when it comes to remote desktop.
Its development started back in 2009 as a fork of the rdesktop program, and is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
FreeDRP was forked from Rdesktop because, according to its developers, the original developers of Rdesktop didn’t want to use Microsoft’s open specifications that came out that year for the RDP protocol.
Instead, they preferred keeping their reverse engineering work. And it sounds like some heated debates started to happen about the acceptance of specific patches, which led to the creation of FreeRDP in 2009.
FreeRDP allows you to connect to any Windows host using the RDP protocol. It also supports redirecting audio, printers, serials, clipboard and drives from the host machine to the remote machine.
You can also choose a custom width or height for your working area, wallpaper, theme, composition mode (on or off), fonts and many more.
You can also have select specific apps from the remote machine to run and work inside the host machine as if they were native apps (e.g. a Windows 10 app running remotely on Ubuntu 24.04), just like this picture:
FreeRDP is available on Windows, Linux and macOS.
FreeRDP will work using the server-client concept, and you will need to use your localhost at 192.168.1.1 to make it work.
You can download FreeRDP or access its source code on GitHub.
4. Remmina
One of the best open source remote desktop applications out there. Remmina is a modern desktop application that supports RDP, VNC and SSH protocols all in a single app.
You can also open many hosts and switch between them at the same time. Remmina also comes with a nice system tray icon that allows you to manage your connections quickly.
The program’s interface supports multi-tabs, meaning that you can run multiple remote connections and switch between them at the same time. It also supports auto-scaling, taking screenshots, keyboard shortcuts, VNC/RDP features such as encryption, device sharing, redirection and other things.
The app is available to install easily on all major Linux distributions, comes in both the Flatpak and Snap formats, and works on Raspberry Pi. However, the app isn’t available neither for Windows nor for macOS.
It’s released under the GPL license.
You can grab it from its official website or search for it in your distribution’s repositories.
5. Apache Guacamole
Apache Guacamole is a unique software in our list, simply because, unlike the others, it runs as a web-based application to manage its connected remote hosts.
That’s why the developers of the software call it a “clientless remote desktop”: It doesn’t need any client to be installed on the user’s machine, and it can run directly from the web browser itself.
All you have to do is install the server component on your host so that you can access any remote desktop client from the web browser.
Also unlike the other solutions in this list, Apache Guacamole provides a complete API in many programming languages for accessing and extending its core codebase. A huge list of documents is available for free on the official website.
They also provide commercial 3rd party support for enterprises wishing to use the software.
You can watch the following official video for a quick demo:
To download Apache Guacamole, visit its official downloads page.
6. X2Go
X2Go is a remote desktop solution primarily designed for accessing graphical desktops on Linux computers over both low and high-bandwidth connections.
It utilizes NoMachine’s NX protocol to perform the remote connections, allowing multiple users to connect simultaneously while maintaining individual desktop environments. However, it can not connect to NoMachine’s clients because it uses a modified/upgraded version that is more suitable for Linux hosts.
The software allows sharing devices and sessions between local and remote users, and features a clean and easy-to-use user interface. It also has a nice system tray icon from which you can manage your remote connections.
X2Go supports various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and several Linux distributions through its client application. SSH is also supported as an additional connection protocol.
The software has components licensed under different open-source licenses, including GPL, AGPL, MIT and BSD.
Download X2Go or learn more information about it from its official website.
7. mRemoteNG
mRemoteNG is an open-source, multi-protocol remote connections manager designed to provide a streamlined interface for managing various types of remote sessions.
Developed primarily in C#, it leverages the .NET framework and requires Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable as well as the .NET 6.0 Desktop Runtime for optimal performance. The software targets Windows hosts and thus it only works on the Windows family of operating systems (8, 10, 11 and Server).
The software supports multiple protocols including RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), VNC (Virtual Network Computing), SSH (Secure Shell), Telnet, HTTP/HTTPS, rlogin, Raw Socket Connections, and Powershell remoting—making it versatile for different user needs.
One distinctive feature of mRemoteNG is its tabbed interface that allows users to manage numerous connections simultaneously within a single window environment efficiently.
The program is licensed under the GPL license.
You can download mRemoteNG for Windows or learn more about it from its page on GitHub.
FAQs about Open Source Remote Desktop Software
RDP Protocol vs VNC Protocol?
One can not simply say that one protocol is better than the other.
RDP was developed mainly by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. The protocol, because of this, can “recognize” which UI elements the user is currently interacting with, making it “smarter” and more clever than VNC. The latter transmits pixels of the view of the remote desktop to you, and does not recognize its content.
You can say that RDP is smarter in this regard, while VNC is dumb. However, VNC is a free and open source protocol that can be utilized by anyone, unlike RDP.
Is NoMachine an open source remote desktop software?
No, NoMachine is not an open source remote desktop software, because it is not licensed under one of the open source software licenses.
Other people recommending NoMachine for you as an open source remote desktop are lying to you about this.
It is simply not open source, and you have no idea what could be inside it while running it on your machines.
What remote desktop program is best among these?
It depends on your needs and your use cases.
If you are a system administrator of a large computer lab or a lot of machines, then perhaps Apache Guacamole is the best one for you because it is the easiest to set up.
On the other hand, if you are just an ordinary machine who wants to access his grandma’s computer to fix it, then RustDesk and X2Go are good enough.
Why you did not mention RPort, DWService, UltraVNC?
RPort is not an open source remote desktop software, and should not be included in any list talking about them.
DWService is indeed an open-source solution, but it is old and not very actively maintained like the other ones mentioned in this article.
UltraVNC is old as well, and has very limited features compared to the software mentioned in this list. Its classic 2000s-like user interface may prevent many users from easily using it.
Remember that we are talking about the “top” open source access software in this list, and not just any of them.
Conclusion
As you should have seen by now, there are many alternatives to TeamViewer and other proprietary remote desktop programs in the open source world. This list should get you going for that matter.
If you know any other open source remote desktop program that should be added to this list, then let us know in the comments below.
Other interesting reads:
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