Page 1 of 1

RustDesk: Open Source Alternative to Teamviewer

Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2026 11:02 am
by FlyingPenguin
Teamviewer has become a bloated mess, and the so-called free version was giving me problems setting it up on a new laptop last night. So I hit Reddit for alternatives and found RustDesk highly recommended.

It's open source, it's simple to set up, it can be installed or just run as a one time executable. It runs very light weight, and like Teamviewer you can set it up for a one time password, or a permanent password to be able to access the system unattended.

The free version let's you do most everything, as long as you're connecting to one PC at a time. A paid subscription allows for multiple concurrent connections, like for serious helpdesk work, and adds address books, auditing and 2 factor authentication.

Even more interesting is that if you want the ultimate in security, instead of using their handshake servers to allow your PCs to find each other, you can setup your own private RustDesk server, and it can run on Windows, Docker or Synology. And yeah, there's a free open source version.

https://rustdesk.com/

Re: RustDesk: Open Source Alternative to Teamviewer

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:59 pm
by Losbot
So is your TeamViewer gonna go away?

Re: RustDesk: Open Source Alternative to Teamviewer

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2026 11:56 am
by FlyingPenguin
Teamviewer the product still exists, but I have uninstalled the worthless, bloated crap. This works much better.

Re: RustDesk: Open Source Alternative to Teamviewer

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2026 10:06 pm
by psypher
I got rid of Teamviewer about a year or two ago, they kept jacking up the price. I switched to Anydesk, but I hate their interface. I'm going to take a look at rustdesk, definitely seems to have a much better interface.

Thanks!

Re: RustDesk: Open Source Alternative to Teamviewer

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2026 11:07 pm
by Losbot
Disregard my question. I was thinking about your TeamSpeak server. DOH