TeamViewer is one of the go-to remote desktop applications that people know of, but it's nowhere near the best. While it was one of the first to make unattended access easy and made it possible to do remote support for friends and family members, it has since been usurped in recent years thanks to the proliferation of other remote desktop applications, including ones built into the operating system like Microsoft Remote Desktop. I used to use TeamViewer but I don't anymore, and here's what I use instead.

Chrome Remote Desktop

It's basic but gets the job done

If you want something that gets the job done and requires minimal setup, Chrome Remote Desktop is more than good enough. You can install it on your computer and immediately get unattended access to your computer from anywhere in the world. It works via your Google account and is a simple extension for Google Chrome.

However, it's a really simple application. Chrome Remote Desktop is literally just for remote desktop access only, and because it works through your Google account, it's not really good for remote support. It can do remote support, but it lacks a lot of features that other applications have that people enjoy, such as file transfers and screen highlighting.

In a pinch, Chrome Remote Desktop is great, but there are even better applications out there, and one of them is my favorite that I've used yet.

RustDesk

Free, open-source, and self-hostable

RustDesk is the best TeamViewer alternative that I've found, and there are a few reasons for it. First, for basic usage, it's completely free, and that "basic" usage is actually quite a lot. It's also open-source, and even better, completely self-hostable. By default, it works through the official RustDesk servers, but it's actually very easy to host your own relay server for remote accessing your own machines, and that's free, too.

If you want to upgrade, there are paid tiers with additional features that you can set up, but to be honest, the free version of RustDesk is more than enough for pretty much anyone. It's a fantastic application that's pretty easy to set up, and I set it up on my TrueNAS Scale machine in minutes.

However, there are some people who have concerns about RustDesk and its development, particularly as the developers can be difficult to communicate with. If you want to get really in-depth when it comes to self-hosting remote desktop software, you can install something like MeshCentral either. The point is that there are self-hosted alternatives to TeamViewer that are better, open-source, and can be self-hosted, giving you full control of the data that goes through it if you wish.

Why I stopped using TeamViewer

Security concerns, primarily

TeamViewer has long been on the chopping block for many tech enthusiasts, with a few prominent reasons as to why. TeamViewer is free for personal use, though users frequently get flagged as being "commercial users," where they are then permanently banned from the software or forced to pay up.

On top of that, the company itself isn't the most trustworthy. There have been several security breaches over the years, and allegations of attempted cover-ups have led to users losing faith in the company as a result. For example, in 2019, the company disclosed a breach that had happened in 2016, three years earlier, after downplaying its impact and initially denying it. While it said that no data had been stolen, it didn't exactly instill confidence.

With a more recent breach taking place only a couple of months ago and TeamViewer stating that it was only a corporate network that was affected, cybersecurity researchers are skeptical. The company has been proven to have tried to sweep a breach under the rug in the past, and it would be no surprise if it was happening again.

There are other reasons as well that I don't like using TeamViewer, but security alone is the number one reason why I would be afraid to use it nowadays. There are better, safer alternatives out there, and when you can self-host your own replacement, why wouldn't you?