We performed a comparison between Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and TeamViewer based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Microsoft Remote Desktop Services slightly nudges out TeamViewer in this comparison. Microsoft Remote Desktop is a complete solution that is already a part of every Microsoft ecosystem. TeamViewer’s cost and security concerns make it less attractive for many users.
"We have scaled the solution and find this easy to do."
"The most valuable features are the desktop session and desktop virtualization."
"The technical support is good."
"The solution now includes a multi-screen feature which is great."
"The solution is now stable."
"I give the stability a nine out of ten."
"In terms of the valuable features, I like the profile, the new version is really good."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is the ability to remote into a system that is not on-premises."
"Getting started with TeamViewer was easy, with a very straightforward usage"
"The pilot feature is what stands out the most. I love the ability to use the pilot feature for remote inspections. The augmented portion of the software comes in handy when I have to assist my inspectors. They use the app in the field, and they show me what they're seeing through their phones."
"It was worth the investment. You can do file transfers and video calls with it. You can do a lot of copy paste stuff. E.g., if I have a file and want to place it on somebody's machine, I can just copy it off of mine and paste it right on their machine. I don't have to put it in a Dropbox account and have them log into it to pull it off. I can do all that right through TeamViewer. When you're looking at the TeamViewer screen, you think you are working on your own machine."
"The most valuable feature is you do not need to know the Windows username and password to connect and see the staff screen."
"TeamViewer is a scalable solution."
"I like that it helped a lot, even with low bandwidth network connectivity. For example, while I was traveling, sometimes there were requirements for me to join a TeamViewer session and provide technical support. I was able to do that without much of an issue. It is also a secure solution."
"I recommend it as a solution for remote disk users."
"There have been a couple of times with the handy remote access feature, where I have been asked for something at eight o'clock on a Thursday evening and it is on my desk machine, but I am driving back to my office. With TeamViewer, I can just stay at my home machine, connect to my work machine, and get the data needed without having to drive back across town."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is only available for the professional version of the Windows operating system. This restricts a lot of users. The feature should be available for all versions."
"From the perspective of an IT professional, Microsoft Remote Desktop is very easy to use. However, it could be made easier to use for the end user, especially when it comes to activating it."
"There are problems with using Microsoft Teams within a virtual desktop on a mobile device."
"I want to connect easily from an external network even when I'm not in my enterprise or company. It should be easy to connect or integrate Microsoft Teams, for example, with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services."
"It could be made simpler from a management perspective."
"The stability must be improved."
"The training profiles could be better."
"It could offer better security for enterprises."
"It becomes complicated to switch from one monitor to another for different windows."
"The file transfer functionality crashes sometimes."
"If were to I put myself in the seat of a small business owner, I would prefer TeamViewer to be more of a pay-once-and-own-it solution, rather than paying via a subscription model (although I am using the free version). Only annual subscriptions are available. It makes paying for it the first time seem a little daunting."
"TeamViewer is publicly available and anyone can use it. This is the reason that many organizations do not permit the use of this solution. It is not considered to be secure enough."
"The stability of TeamViewer is good, but it could be better."
"It needs to have proper authentication. I would like to see in-depth integration with Google and Microsoft products, for example. It would be nice to have a cell phone version as well."
"They could give more information about using certain kinds of applications for secure transactions, such as secure file transfers."
"I didn't like the fact that you had to install a client for remote support. If you didn't install the client, you were very limited in terms of what you could do. For a whole enterprise, it is just not an easy task to install a client on everything. Even if you're using SCCM, it is an undertaking. For transient clients that you don't necessarily support a hundred percent of the time, it would be nice to be able to connect to them and support their issues without having to install something on their machines. In my previous company, we were looking at this solution as being a collaborative tool for the enterprise in terms of video conferencing, calling, and scheduling. They were working on bringing a bunch of products together to make their suite a little more integrated, but it really wasn't at the point where we wanted it to be in terms of integration. We looked at it, reviewed it, and tested it out a bit. We then decided to go with Microsoft Teams. It has the clunkiness of having separate modules that aren't totally integrated. There are different methods for doing different things, which makes it a little bit more complicated. There should be the same way whether you are doing remote support or just calls."
More Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is ranked 2nd in Remote Access with 76 reviews while TeamViewer is ranked 1st in Remote Access with 85 reviews. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is rated 8.0, while TeamViewer is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services writes "Easy to set up and reliable, but needs an additional control panel". On the other hand, the top reviewer of TeamViewer writes "Solid cross-platform remote control, but with kludgy central management and some serious feature issues on macOS". Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is most compared with VMware Horizon, Citrix Workspace, VMware Workstation, Parallels Access and Apache Guacamole, whereas TeamViewer is most compared with TeamViewer Tensor, Parallels Access, ISL Online, BeyondTrust Remote Support and Webex. See our Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. TeamViewer report.
See our list of best Remote Access vendors.
We monitor all Remote Access reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.