Remote Vpn Software For Mac
Last Updated: August 28, 2018 If you need to control, fix or simply access another computer from a Mac, we’ve taken a look at the very best remote desktop software for Mac in 2018. Taking control or accessing another PC or Mac computer remotely is known as Virtual Network Computing (VNC). It can be useful in a variety of situations such as screen sharing, working from home, fixing a computer remotely, gaming or administering a network of computers. With the release of macOS Mojave, Apple has the popular free Mac remote desktop tool Back To My Mac so if you’re looking for an alternative, you’re in the right place. Here then are our picks of the best remote desktop tools for Mac in order of ranking.
Price: $23.99 Mac App Store for Mac remote desktop is an extremely user friendly, slick and straight forward screen sharing tool for Macs and iOS devices. Screens allows you to connect to other Macs, PCs, Linux machines and even Blackberry Pis. Screens makes things easy thanks to – a free open source remote desktop client for Mac setup service which means you don’t have to configure routers, firewalls or anything else. Note however if you’re behind a corporate network or firewall, ScreensConnect won’t work. There’s also which provides an easy way to share your screen and vice versa with friends and family via a temporary link.
What we like about Screens is that it automatically scans for iOS devices or Macs on the same WiFi or LAN network as you and all you have to do is click on it to connect and enter a passcode to start screen sharing. Once you’re connected, useful tools include a screenshot tool, copy and paste from Mac to Mac tool and manage multiple displays at one time. This means you can even view the screens on Macs with several monitors attached.
Connecting to iOS is particularly well done as Screens makes your trackpad or mouse cursor fit perfectly well with touchscreens. Note that there’s no web access to Screens – i.e. You can’t connect to a device via your browser like some VNC clients. Because it’s based on the open source VNC protocol, unless you use ScreensConnect it’s also a bit tricky to setup as you need static IP from your internet service provider (most people have a dynamic IP address).
For quickly connecting to friends and family screens, Screen Express is also extremely easy to use. Screens looks great on OS X, is easy to use and at, is very reasonably priced for a reliable and thoughtfully designed remote desktop client. You can also get 20% off if you with coupon code RIPBTMM. If you purchase the app this way, you’ll also get faster updates when they are rolled out.
Price: Free/Paid Plans is easily one of the easiest to use remote desktop tool for Mac users making it simple enough for anyone to connect to another PC or Mac. All you need to do is install the TeamViewer client on both machines, enter the ID of the computer you want to connect to and that’s it – extremely easy.
There’s very little configuration of ports or firewalls as everything is handled automatically by the setup wizard. Teamviewer is particularly popular with gamers who want to game alongside friends and with technicians that need to perform maintenance on a remote computer. The free version of TeamViewer is one of the most popular desktop sharing tools out there for both Mac and PC providing many features that other clients charge for. Once installed, you simply ask the person you want to connect to for their Partner ID to establish a connection.
Alternatively, you can give someone your partner ID and password to allow them to connect to you. TeamViewer can easily be used as an RDP client for Mac and is ideal for those that want to give remote technical help to friends or family or those that want to have more fun when gaming with friends. It can also be used as a tool to host online meetings instead of using Google Hangouts or Skype.
Once connected you can share Presentations, Video Calls and make audio calls to other users. Teamviewer works on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS and has some useful features such as wake-on-LAN to activate a Mac or computer in sleep mode and even put it back to sleep when you’ve done. You can transfer files, connect to mobile devices and copy and paste from one computer to another. TeamViewer is completely free to use for personal use although if you intend to use it for commercial gain – such as a remote PC or Mac repair business or in a business environment, there are modest.currently offer 15% for new users. Basic paid plans allow you to use one user profile on up to 3 devices, 1 session channel and a basic management console with the possibility to manage up to 200 unattended devices. There are Premium and Enterprise plans for businesses with advanced needs too. You can to see for yourself.
Price: ($29.99 Mac App Store) is easily one of the slickest and easiest to use remote desktop solutions for Mac users. Remote networking can be a complicated affair but it’s clear the developer has gone to a lot of effort to make remote desktop connections easy enough for anyone to use without sacrificing features and stability.
In fact, Jump Desktop is unique in using your Gmail account to automatically setup and configure a remote connection without any further effort on your part. Jump Desktop for Mac is multiplatform supporting, and even and can be used for. Jump Desktop is extremely easy to use and doesn’t require networking knowledge making it ideal for beginners to Remote Desktop software. All you need is a Gmail account to get started: Alternatively, Manual setup is also available for those that know what they’re doing when it comes to Remote Desktop connections: One of the smartest things about Jump Desktop is that it can map Mac keyboard shortcuts to make them work on Windows. You can also copy and paste between OS X and Windows and vice versa which is really helpful if you work on both Mac and Windows constantly. You can also connect to another computer via WiFi which we found was the fastest way to connect.
Connections via WiFi are almost instant and there is virtually no lag. You can also connect to another computer using iPhone too but this we found a lot slower although if you turn the settings down and run in greyscale, it’s also remarkably fast to say you’re connecting via a mobile device. It’s easy to see how many computers or devices you are connected to as you get live previews of all ongoing connections and we also found it seems considerably lighter on your Mac battery power than many RDP for Mac software. Security is naturally a concern when sharing your screen and files with another computer but almost all remote desktop clients nowadays use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) as a minimum standard and some go beyond this.
Jump Desktop is very secure and supports SSH connections and NLA for MSFT hosts. Even in full screen mode we found Jump Desktop fast and stable, allowing you to share files and manage remote machines with ease.
The live previews make it excellent at managing several connections at once and we also like the fact that it’s regularly updated to handle the latest Windows releases (it was in fact one of the first Remote Desktop clients for Mac that officially supported connections to Windows 8). Overall, Jump Desktop is incredibly slick, user friendly, reliable and feels like everything Microsoft Remote Desktop should have been. If you want to see what it can do for yourself, you can try a (note that this only works on OS X 10.8+ although there’s also an older version of for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and OS X 10.7 Lion). The full version of Jump Desktop is which is a modest one-off price to pay without any other monthly fees for a first class VNC client with fast and efficient support from the developer. Price: (Free/Various Pricing Plans) After years focusing on Windows, Developer Devolutions now has a which is a powerful remote desktop software for Mac that’s free for individual use but can also easily be deployed in business environments. Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager isn’t just a port of the Windows version – it’s been built specifically for Mac and the result is very good. Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager is a little bit like Royal TSX (see review later) and although it’s not quite as powerful as that, is definitely suitable for system admins and small businesses and has all you need to manage a network of computers.
One of the handy things about it is that it’s integrated with other popular RDP clients such as Teamviewer, Microsoft Remote Desktop (see reviews for both later on) and even Telnet. The interface is also well designed allowing you to organize sessions by groups or folders and if you already use the Windows version, you can connect to the same databases with the Mac version so you can access all previous sessions.
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager isn’t quite as RDP novice friendly as applications such as Splashtop and Teamviewer but for those with just a little Remote Desktop experience, it offers a lot of Remote Desktop power for free. You can see a. You can also sign-up for a. Price: $20/month is owned by LogMeIn, one of the biggest players in the remote desktop market. GoToMyPC is suitable for home users, samll businesses and corporation as it sets up everything automatically even if you’re behind a corporate firewall or on Mac or PC.
As a result, GoToMyPC is a particularly popular choice among companies and corporations that allow employees to work from home. One nice feature of GoToMyPC is that you can invite another user into a session temporarily which is useful if you need tech support to help fix a problem with your Mac or PC. GoToMyPC is a bit pricey compared to other options featured here but Citrix has over 10 years experience in remote desktop networking and both reliability and customer service is widely regarded as excellent.
GoToMyPC also has an which allows you to easily connect to your Mac or PC from your iPhone or iPad. The cursor controls are well implemented in the iOS app and it’s one of the better remote access mobile apps out there for handling the difference between touch screen and desktop interfaces.
If you connect to a PC, you can even hear the sound from your PC on your iOS device although unfortunately this doesn’t work for connecting to Mac. Other useful tools include the ability to cut and paste from Mac to Mac or Mac to PC, file transfers and multi-display support. GoToMyPC uses 128 bit AES encryption which is pretty standard for most remote desktop software but it also puts two more layers of protection with dual passwords and end-to-end authentication. This makes it very secure and is largely due to GoToMyPC’s popularity in the enterprise market. GoToMyPC for individuals but If you’re a small business and need to up to 50 computers, you need to sign-up to the Pro Plan which costs $23 per 2 computers per month.
For large enterprises and companies, you can connect to 1000+ users although pricing for this is on demand. There’s also a so you can judge for yourself. Although you need to enter your card details to sign up for the trial, if you cancel the free trial before 7 days, Citrix won’t charge your card but will allow the 7 days term to complete before the trial expires.
Some vendors can be unreliable when it comes to cancelling free trial subscriptions but Citrix are geberally very reliable about cancellation for all their products. Price: $39.99 Mac App Store. Free Demo is an extremely fast, slick and user friendly remote desktop connection client for Mac. Remotix is integrated with OS X’s screen sharing tool (see more on Back to My Mac later in this article) which makes sharing screens between Apple devices particularly easy and reliable. In fact, If you just need to share the screen of your iPad or iPhone with your Mac, then there are few better RDP clients around.
There’s very little lag in connections made with Remotix to Windows either as it quickly optimizes itself for the speed of your internet connection. For those new to remote desktop connections, it guides you clearly through the setup process. You can store connection profiles via iCloud backup and even access printers from your remote Mac using Remotix. You can clearly see how many connections you’ve got open via the Multiple Computer Observer screen: Remotix is also one of the most secure RDP clients for Mac available with built-in SSH tunneling for both RDP and VNC.
You can also set a master password to protect all of your connections rather than have to enter individual passwords for each one. If you’ve been having problems with Back to My Mac, or just want to connect to Macs, Remotix is definitely worth checking-out. Remotix costs $39.99 from the Mac App Store for personal use but there’s also a Professional License for $79.99 for small businesses and for large enterprises, a Site License for $799 and a Multisite License for $2399. Price: Free/$49+ per year for Mac is a powerful remote desktop solution which also has a free version for up to 5 computers. LogMeIn is a good solution if you are working behind a company or enterprise firewall but is still easy to setup and use. LogMeIn does not compromise a firewall but unlike many VNC clients for Mac, is able to share screens behind one while still using SSL/TLS or even RSA SecureID and 2-factor authentication. There are also which make it very easy to log into your Windows PC on your iPad or iPhone.
The LogMeIn interface hasn’t changed much in the past 10 years and it does look quite dated and basic compared to TeamViewer. However, despite this it’s still very reliable and powerful and keeps things simple which isn’t a bad thing when it comes to remote networking. Although LogMeIn Hamachi is free for up to 5 computers, anything above that costs $49 per year for up to 32 computers, $199 per year for up to 256 computers and $299 for unlimited networks.
Note that unlike TeamViewer, LogMeIn Hamachi uses an annual subscription model rather than a one-off payment. Price: Free/$29+ Limited Demo is focused firmly on system administrators or professionals with remote desktop needs that need a high level of security. Royal TSX is very well designed and makes it straightforward to manage connections in the left-hand sidebar with convenient tabs to control sessions.
Royal TSX is very versatile supporting RDP, VNC, SSH based terminals or web-based interfaces. Security is a big selling part of Royal TSX for Mac as it uses using the highly secure 256 AES encryption standard. Other enhanced secure features include built-in credential management, safe team-sharing features and the ability to share a list of connections without sharing your personal credentials. Royal TSX is also one of the few RDP servers for Mac which supports PIV or CAC Smart Card Redirection. It’s also available for Windows, Android and there’s a so you can open Royal TSX documents on Windows and Mac. One unusual thing about Royal TSX for a Mac remote desktop software is that, like a browser, it can be enhanced with plugins.
For example, there’s a which allows you remote control computers using TeamViewer. The FreeRDP Remote Desktop Plugin meanwhile allows you to connect to Windows Computers or to Hyper-V instance consoles using the Remote Desktop Protocol. Although Royal TSX for Mac is a highly sophisticated and technical RDP software for Mac, the basic version is actually free for use without any time limit although it is restricted to no more than 10 connections and credentials and you can only open one TSX document per application. There are various for those that need more than this with the Startup Bundle very good value at $82 including Royal TS for Windows, Royal TSX for Mac and Royal Server which is the Royal TSX powerful server software. Alternatively, an individual user license for Mac costs $29 which gives you 5 licenses and for small businesses and large enterprises, there are site wide licenses ranging from $536 to $1731.
You can try a to judge before you buy too. Royal TSX for Mac is definitely the Rolls Royce of remote desktop software and it’s incredibly powerful and versatile. If you’re a system administrator or IT professional, you can’t really get much better. Price: Free/Cloud & Enterprise Versions is a slick Remote Desktop Client which tends to go under the radar when Mac users are looking for remote desktop software but is definitely worth a look.
NoMachine looks great on OS X, is very easy to setup and use and there’s a free version for limited connections. The good thing about NoMachine is all you need to connect to another machine over the internet is its IP address and port number. It’s incredibly easy to use and A setup wizard clearly takes you step-by-step through the connection process. Commections are stable and fast and there’s a where you’ll get help with any problems you might have with the client. There’s also an extensive for those with more technical needs but generally, you shouldn’t have many problems if you just need NoMachine for basic remote connections. NoMachine for Mac is free for personal use but there are available.
There’s also a which is well designed, easy to use and allows you to connect to OS X, Windows and Linux. The Enterprise and Cloud versions of NoMachine are seriously powerful and easily on a level with Royal TSX and Apple Remote Desktop. Enterprise and Cloud versions of NoMachine use a subscription model and start at $794.50 for up to 10 subscriptions and unlimited connections. The NoMachine Cloud Server Premium Subscription costs $6994.50 and is suitable for large companies managing computer networks worldwide.
Price: $99/year (formerly known as “2X RDP Client”) is a remote desktop server that can only be used with from the Mac App Store. Although the client is free to download, a subscription to Parallels Remote Application Server starts at $99 per year. Parallels Remote Application Server and Parallels Client are designed for the needs of businesses and works very well with all versions of Windows due to Parallels experience with running Windows on Mac via.
Parallels Client was originally a hugely popular independent app called 2x for Mac which was a popular remote desktop client used by major corporate customers such as Airbus, McKesson and WD-40. As a result, it attracted the attention of Parallels which bought it in 2015. Parallels then changed the name to Parallels Client and sold it alongside Parallels Remote Application Server. The old 2x client used to look like this: And Parallels has updated the interface a little to make it look like this: Parallels Client is (if you’re still using Leopard OS X 10.5, you can even still for free too) but it only works securely with a subscription to which starts at $99 per year. Note that Parallels Client can also be used with other RDP servers but the default and securest is the Parallels Remote Application Server. Parallels Client for Mac has a modern interface and is generally very fast and stable with secure SSL connections.
One of the nice features of Parallels Client is that you can even play sound from other devices and machines you are connected to on your Mac and print remotely. You can switch between OS X and Windows simply by hitting CMD+Tab, cut and paste using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V and there’s very little lag on connections. However, you can’t change default connections and you can’t duplicate a connection which is annoying if you work with multiple connections. There’s no way to import connections from Microsoft’s RDP client but it does now support Retina Macs. However, for those that are looking for a fast and reliable away to connect to Windows machines in corporate environments, it’s a very robust client. Price: Free is a Google plugin which works directly within the Google Chrome web browser. If you’re a Chrome user, it’s a very simple and free way to connect your Mac to another user.
Simply install the Chrome Remote Desktop plugin and you can connect to any other user with Chrome installed on any type of computer or mobile device (including iOS). Once installed, Chrome Remote Desktop works pretty much in the same way as TeamViewer. Just enter the ID of the computer you want to connect to, and it will connect instantly. Since it’s only a browser plugin, it can be prone to a certain amount of instability and bugs and there’s no way to share sound between computers with it but as a cheap and cheerful VNC solution that requires no client to install, it’s very effective. Note that Google does not record any of your activity using Chrome Remote Desktop – it uses SSL and connections are directly from host to remote session with no Google interference in the middle.
Price: Free/In-App Purchases is another user friendly way to connect to another computer or device. There’s a free version for personal use and also Enterprise and Business plans. Splashtop is particularly good for gaming needs as it streams 3D graphics, sounds and video across local devices extremely well. For example, if you need to play a 3D game from your iPhone or iPad , Splashtop enables you to play it on your Mac with almost no noticeable lag. The downside is that Splashtop is only really free for local use because for remote access features across the internet, you must purchase in-app upgrades. If you want to access another computer over the internet for example, you must pay for Access Anywhere which costs either $1.99 a month or $16.99 per year.
It’s also a little tricky to setup compared to LogMeIn or Teamviewer but o it’s generally very reliable and effective at remote networking. Price: $79.99 Mac App Store No review of remote desktop software on Mac would be complete without a mention of which is Apple’s version of Microsoft RDP for Mac. With Apple’s decision to drop the free Back To My Mac tool from macOS, Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) is now the only remote desktop software that the company offers nowadays.
It’s important to be aware that ARD is mainly aimed at system administrators and there are far easier remote desktop apps to use nowadays. Apple Remote Desktop is also only for connecting to other Macs and iOS devices and if you’re not experienced with remote networking or VNC clients, we don’t recommend it.
As a professional tool for system administrators to manage Apple devices on a network however, it gives you a lot of power to install software and updates such as Flash and Java, push UNIX commands and update OS X remotely. Because of the explosion in more user friendly remote desktop apps, ARD has become an increasingly unpopular remote desktop solution except amongst IT users. You may also find that despite it being an Apple product, ARD for Mac is also frustratingly slow at times compared to most of the other remote desktop software featured here. Price: Free Mac App Store No review of remote desktop software on Mac would be complete without looking at.
Microsoft RDP for Mac is now called Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (confusingly also known as RDC for Mac or Remote Desktop for Mac). Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac is a Microsoft tool which allows you to connect your Mac to PC Windows machines and other devices. Microsoft RDP is used by applications such as Microsoft Azure to run Windows only applications and we showed how effective it is in our tutorial on.
Microsoft released the latest version of Remote Desktop 8.0 on 17th October 2013. It was the first update to the client in two years and previous to that, there was no official Microsoft RDP client on Lion or above. The last version, (see below) only supported up to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and does not officially work with Lion or above although some users claimed they had limited success using it.
With the release of Remote Desktop 8.0 however, Mac users finally have an official client for OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite. The release of version 8.0 coincided at the same time that iTap for Mac (see review mentioned earlier) was discontinued and the similarities in the new 8.0 version confirmed that. The question is, have they improved it or ruined it? Remote Desktop 8.0 allows Mac users to access virtual desktops on Windows, Windows RT, Windows 8, iOS, OS X and Android. The Mac version also includes support for printing to Mac configured printers and support for multiple monitors/projectors for presentations.
Version 8.0 is definitely an improvement over version 2.1.1 but yet still falls short of the Windows version. The connection speed is the most notable improvement on the last version and both full-screen and multi-monitor support were long overdue. The latest version also supports high quality audio and video streaming and connections feature greater NLA quality encryption. Microsoft also seems to be putting more effort into updating Remote Desktop on Mac too. More recently for example, it improved the app by allowing you to use Mac keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste. There are some basic features missing from the Mac version however which many users will find frustrating.
For starters, there’s no way to import connections from the old version of Microsoft RDP for Mac meaning you have to go through the time consuming process of re-setting up all of your connections again. There’s also no way to manage or even see how many multiple connections you’ve got going on at one time. Also, simple features such as Font Smoothing, Wallpaper options and Full-Screen drag are missing. Unlike the Windows version too, the Mac version does not support more secure methods of login such as via smart cards, PIV and CAC cards etc. If you need PIV and CAC Smart Card redirection support, check out the Royal TSX client further down in this article.
The Mac version also seems less helpful than the Windows version. For every new connection you make, you must preconfigure everything and add it to a connection list – you can’t simply just paste in an IP address and connect to another machine like the old version. It can also be quite unreliable at connecting – sometimes it simply times out, freezes or won’t connect and you feel like you’re never sure if you can trust it to work when you really need it. You can get from the Mac App Store Conclusion As you can see, there is a wide range of Remote Desktop Connection Managers for Mac although this list is by no means exhaustive. We’ve covered a combination of paid and free remote desktop apps for Mac software and many vendors such as TeamViewer, LogMeIn Hamachi and NoMachine also offer a free version if you just want to use it for personal use and connect to a few computers.
If you want an easy, user friendly way to connect from your Mac to another PC or Mac, we still think there’s nothing better than. Some of the software featured here such as Royal TSX for Mac and Apple Remote Desktop are more suitable for system administrators than general users but we’ve included remote desktop apps of all types. Most of the remote desktop software featured here is also suitable for connecting from Mac to Mac as well as Mac to PC and most are also compatible with other versions of macOS including Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave. Beyond these RDP clients for Mac, there are a few other more expensive high-end corporate Remote Desktop for Mac solutions that we haven’t mentioned such as designed for the needs of large organizations. Ericom is officially partnered with Microsoft, Oracle and IBM and pricing is only available by quotation.
There are also more complicated remote desktop software for Mac such as but unless you really know what you’re doing with router configuration and static IP addresses, there are far more user friendly remote desktop clients to use such as those featured here. As stated earlier however, if you’re just intending to use a remote client to run Windows applications on your Mac, there are better ways and we recommend reading our guide on the. If you have any suggestions for other remote desktop software for Mac that should be included in this article, or have any experiences or questions with the Mac remote apps reviewed here, let us know in the comments below. Ian Hi I am currently trialing a free copy of Royal TSX using a Mac Mini to connect to 2 different Windows servers one running server 2003 (running an old version of filemaker which we are upgrading over 6 months) and one running server 2012 (our recent replacement which will take over the filemaker once upgraded). We had been using Microsoft remote desktop on all other macs and PC’s needing access to these servers but found incompatibility between Mac OS versions and the different server OS’s.
Back to Royal TSX on my Mac mini, I was wondering if any other users had trouble with copying and pasting text. I might select and copy from an email on the 2012 server and then go to the 2003 server and paste into filemaker but find the text isn’t on the cl;ip board. This seems to get progressively worse over the course of a day.
I have also experienced crashes with TSX – “Warning (a) Decryption using Standard RDP Security mechanisms (section 5.3.6) failed. (b) Session key creation using Standard RDP Security mechanisms (section 5.3.5) failed” This morning I had a prompt for an upgrade to TSX and went through the install. When I next launched TSX and connected to my connections I had the following warning – The plugin you’re trying to use is incompatible with the Royal TSX version you’re currently using! If you choose to continue you might encounter bugs and crashes.
Are you sure you want to continue? I assume the upgrade would have updated the plugin as well.
I don’t get an option on how to fix. Anyway this is some feedback on the Royal TSX product so far.
Screens for and is the best remote access solution for accessing our Macs when away from home. It uses industry-standard technology for remote access (VNC), but the free service makes it easy to setup.
This removes the requirement to use a static IP address or configure your router manually. If your machine is behind a corporate network that prohibits Screens from working remotely, we recommend. The and Mac apps are free, but the service is prohibitively expensive for most users. Free Productivity Guide: Download our simple guide to productivity to help you improve your workflows and be more focused with your time and attention. Why do you need remote access? With the rise of services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud, remote access services aren’t necessary for simply accessing files remotely.
There are countless ways to sync documents and access them from anywhere. Accessing a PDF file using that is stored in Dropbox is certainly better than remotely controlling a Mac and opening the document. I use remote access to manage a Mac mini at and my at home. Accessing a Mac remotely allows you to run desktop applications, have access to a full web browser from iOS, and access files and programs that are only on that one machine. Screens How does it work?
Screens, at its core, is a VNC client. VNC stands for.
It was created by The Olivetti & Oracle Research Lab back in the late 90s. The lab was later purchased by AT&T, but shut down in 2002.
The original VNC source code is now open source. With VNC apps, there are two pieces. You have the VNC server (typically a laptop, server, or desktop) and the VNC client (another laptop, desktop, or mobile device). The client generally connects to the server from port 5900 and allows the client to see the display of the VNC server. Screens is using industry-standard technology, but with an easy-to-use and beautiful user interface.
Design Screens has stayed current, following Apple’s ever-changing design standards. Both apps received quick updates for the new iOS 7 design a couple years back. The iPhone and Mac apps share a lot of similar buttons and layout functions, so users of both apps can swap back and forth without having to re-learn workflows. The apps look for available machines on the local network, and also shows you the ones available with Screens Connect (more on that later). Double tapping/clicking on a machine launches it and either logs you in or prompts you for the passcode depending on how the security of that machine is setup. Once you are logged into a machine, you are free to use it like you would just sitting in front of it. There is a dedicated Screenshot button, options to send/receive the clipboard, an option to scale down the display when network conditions are not optimal, and the ability to manage multiple displays if they are available.
Vpn Client Software For Mac
On the Mac side, using a remote machine feels extremely normal. Both devices use a mouse and keyboard, so it’s fairly easy to implement that. On the iOS side, you are taking a touch screen device and making it work with a desktop OS.
You quickly find out why Apple didn’t simply port Mac OS X as-is to the iPad. A touch-based OS requires drastically different interactions than a mouse/keyboard paradigm. With that being said, Screens offers the best experience in my opinion. It’s easy to zoom in and tapping moves the cursor to your desired location and initiates a click on the server. There is also an optional trackpad mode that turns your display into a trackpad and will make the cursor follow your finger around as you track. Both options work well, and it just comes down to personal preference.
Our friends at MacMini Colo to use on a remote Mac that is “headless” (a Mac mini or Mac Pro) in order to use higher resolutions. If you plug into the HDMI port, you’ll get access to all available resolutions up to 16×9 1080p. Features Since Screens is built on open source technology, it is probably always going to lose the feature check list game when compared to custom-built services like LogMeIn. Companies that are building their own technology have the ability to do whatever their product managers can come up with. Screens is built on open-source VNC technology, so it’s going to be a much simpler design.
Most of the extra features aren’t needed in 2015 for most people (remote printing, file syncing, etc) anyways. Screens offers exactly what I want out of remote access without a monthly fee.
Access Options Screens is available for and for. It does lack a web access component, so if that is a feature that you need, then you should look at one of the other options below. Web access used to be important to me, but that was before I had multiple iOS devices in my bag. I’ve actually found myself using Screens on my iPhone 6 Plus quite a bit, not to mention the extremely capable iPad version.
Setup As I mentioned earlier, Screens is really just a beautiful VNC application. VNC server support is built into Mac OS X by default, and this app is just building a VNC client. The main downside with VNC, since it’s an open-source platform, is that the setup can generally be tricky. You have to make sure the computer is configured right, and you need a static IP from your internet provider (or use a service like to update your dynamic DNS to a static host). Screens has a free service called that takes care of that for you.
You create an account, install the Screens Connect app on the Mac you want to remotely access, and log in with your user name and password. On the client side, you simply log in with your Screens Connect account, and you see your logged in computers. The only place this service won’t work is when a corporate firewall is blocking VNC traffic. Screens also offers a free program called that makes it easy to connect to a friend or family member’s Mac with a temporary link. Reliability In my experience, Screens has been rock solid. I bought it a few years back after LogMeIn discontinued their free service and haven’t looked back. Screens is really the best of both worlds.
It’s pairing open-source technology that’s built right into Mac OS X with a well-supported and frequently updated app. On iOS, the developer has worked to add things like TouchID support, Touch Bar support, an adaptive toolbar and more. Regular updates help us feel more comfortable relying on this app day in and day out. Runner Up LogMeIn ($249.99/year for two computers) is our runner up for remote access solutions. We also recommend it for the times when VNC technology is blocked or a corporate firewall prevents Screens Connect from working. LogMeIn is easy to install and easy to use. In fact, I use it on a few machines at work in order to always have easy access to them from offsite.
LogMeIn allows me to keep my firewall locked down, but still get to these machines. It works from the web, but they also recently added a Mac client that is installed when you sign up. It allows quick access to a machine. LogMeIn also offers free.
I’ve found that their iOS apps are the easiest to use. I found scrolling and tapping/clicking to feel the most native of anything other than Screens. From a security perspective, LogMeIn uses for all its communications. You can also use RSA SecurID or 2-factor authentication along with requiring your Mac’s username and password.
One of the main reasons we chose Screens over LogMeIn is the price. Screens is a one-time app purchase where LogMeIn is $249.99/year.
It’s difficult to justify that price unless this is something you depend on every day. Free Productivity Guide: Download our simple guide to productivity to help you improve your workflows and be more focused with your time and attention. The Others Back To My Mac Back To My Mac (free) was originally a feature of MobileMe, but it is now a part of iCloud. Since iCloud is free, it’s a natural choice for a lot of users. However, we don’t feel like it’s the best solution due to the fact that we can’t get it to work the majority of the time. Apple’s mentions a few tips related to its own routers, but not much else. Some users have no issue getting it to work, while others have no success at all.
Another reason that it’s not our pick is there is no way to use it on iOS. I use remote access apps as much on my iPhone as I do other laptops. Back To My Mac is free with an iCloud account, but it’s support and features reflect the price tag. Security-wise, Back to My Mac uses IPSec and SSL encryption between your Mac and Apple’s servers. It uses Kerberos with digital certificates to verify that you are authorized to connect to the Mac in question.
Apple Remote Desktop ($79.99) is a tool that’s aimed at Mac system administrators, but it’s really not that useful for them any more. It goes years without updates, and the ones it does see are usually for Mac OS X compatibility. Like Back To My Mac, it also lacks an iOS component. Setting it up to work remotely is also going to take some networking configuration on your router and VPN setup. Most Mac system administrators have moved onto a tool like from JAMF Software. Apple Remote Desktop fits in a weird place of not being useful for the prosumer, but not powerful enough for the IT department. I’d rather see it become a Back to my Device app and work with iOS devices (remote access from a Mac to iOS) and make it work similar to Find My iPhone.
From a security perspective, you can encrypt your session with an SSH tunnel, but it does come at a security cost. Authentication to clients uses an authentication method based on a Diffie-Hellman Key agreement protocol that creates a shared 128-bit key. This key is used to encrypt the login credentials using AES. The Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol used in Apple Remote Desktop is similar to the one used in Mac file sharing. Chrome Remote Desktop (free) is a Google Chrome plugin that allows you to access other Macs that are logged into your Google account (with the Remote Desktop extension installed) through the web browser. The price is right, it’s simple to setup, and offers access. I found the iOS app to be subpar compared to Screens, though.
It functionally worked fine, but Screens handled multi-monitor setups better, scrolled easier, and was just all around more functional. Remote access tools are already a bit of a hack, so smoothness and speed are imperative. Chrome Remote Desktop uses Chrome’s SSL features, which includes full support for AES.
None of your session data is ever recorded by Google, and in most situations, the connection is directly from the client to the remote session without passing through Google. It’s free, so there is no reason not to give it a shot if a free solution is what you are after. TeamViewer (free for non-commercial, starts at $795 for commercial) is another popular remote access solution. Like LogMeIn, it handles the router configuration for you. You install the client on your Mac, and then you can log in from the web or an iOS device.
TeamViewer works well and is fast, but the setup and configuration was a bit more complicated than LogMeIn. While it is a remote access solution, its also heavily pitched as a remote support and online meeting solution as well. The price is right, but LogMeIn is easier to use, and Chrome Remote Desktop is easier to set up. TeamViewer’s encryption is based on RSA private/public key exchange and AES 256-bit session encryption. RealVNC (free and paid products available) was founded by the original developers of the VNC protocol (it’s open source). They offer support for and, and also offer free and paid, but it’s not a product we recommend to most people because of how difficult it is to for off-site access.
It involves knowing your public IP (most residential users have a dynamic IP that can change) and forwarding ports on your router. The paid products offer 128-bit AES encryption or better. If you are looking for a free solution, we recommend Chrome Remote Desktop since it is a lot easier to set up. GoToMyPC ($11.95/month or $114.72/year) is one of the most well-known remote access plans. It shares a lot of features with other popular options, but it’s a little pricey per computer compared to its competitors. There is no configuration needed on your router. You simply install the client, and then you can access your computer from the web or an iOS app.
You can print to your home computer from your work computer, drag and drop files, and copy/paste between computers. From a security standpoint, it supports 128-bit AES encryption, dual passwords, and end-to-end authentication. Alternative technology Remote access solutions aren’t as essential as they once were. I used to use them to access files from off-site, but with the popularity of folder syncing services, we can have access to most of our files from any device or location already.
Here are a few of the common options for Mac users: Dropbox (free up to 2 GB, $9.99/month for 1 TB) is the go-to folder syncing solution for a lot of users. Its client is relatively stable, it has great third-party app support, and offers a free plan for beginners. Paid plans start at $9.99/month for 1 TB of storage. This makes it a nice option for storing large amounts of data and having access to it from anywhere. Google Drive (free up to 15 GB, plans start at $1.99/month for 100 GB) will be a great choice for a lot of users due to the fact they likely already use Gmail. Google Drive is best used on the web, but it has a Mac client as well that works very similarly to Dropbox.
The client works well, but it lacks some of the features of Dropbox related to bandwidth control and controlling which folders are stored locally on your Mac. Google Drive only supports selective sync on root folders, where Dropbox supports it for sub-folders. The price is right for up to a terabyte, and then Dropbox offers similar plans. Google Drive is ideal when you need more than 2 GB, but less than 100 GB, and it does offer better web support than Dropbox. Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Slides are much better than anything Dropbox offers in terms of web-based editing.
ICloud Drive iCloud Drive (free up to 5 GB, plans start at $.99/month for 20 GB) is Apple’s answer to Dropbox. It’s a folder than syncs on your Mac. Contents can then be synced to an iOS device or another Mac. It lacks true web access, though.
OneDrive (free up to 15 GB, plans start at $1.99/month for 100 GB) is Microsoft’s answer to Google Drive. It includes Microsoft Office online for free.
1 TB is only $6.99/month and it offers access to Office 365 which includes Office for Mac and unlocks a few features on the iOS apps. It offers selective sync support that is similar to Dropbox, but web access that is similar to Google Drive, so it’s an attractive choice for heavy Office app users. Synology If you want to have a bit more control over your files, consider a device like.
It’s a network-attached storage device aimed at the prosumer. It offers a lot of great features, but at its core, it’s storing your files and making them available everywhere (web, iOS, etc). Plex If the only thing you want to access a Mac remotely for is your media collection, you might consider using as a media manager (movies, TV shows, music, photos, etc). It installs on your Mac, and then you can access it from the web and ($4.99). It handles all of the login management, so there are no router configurations needed.
An optional gives you features like syncing offline, camera roll uploads, and cloud sync (backup your media to various cloud services in case your server goes offline). Conclusion While remote access to a Mac isn’t as essential as it once was due to multiple options for syncing your files across your various devices at low cost, Screens is the best choice for when you need it. With native apps on and, it offers the most streamlined experience without a subscription.
If you have more complex needs or your Mac is behind a corporate firewall, I recommend checking out. Free Productivity Guide: Download our simple guide to productivity to help you improve your workflows and be more focused with your time and attention.