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What is Free Remote Support Software?
Remote support software is used by IT troubleshooting experts to directly access customers’ computer systems to resolve their issues. The app allows agents to view the system and screen info, and to transfer files. Features of this software include customizable polls, support portals, CRM integration, screen sharing, skills-based routing, and chat support.Show more Agents can send a custom link, email, or website address and request customers to join a remote session. They can then access the customer’s system and troubleshoot the issue. Support reps can also install patches and updates on the remote computer. Leading vendors offer remote support solutions that enable users to access computers using mobile devices. You can start your research for the perfect software by browsing the top-ranking platforms in this category, including our current front-runner ScreenConnect.Show less
How was this ranking made?
In order to come up with this list of best Free Remote Support Software we have checked popular solutions currently available on the market, comparing their features, how easy are they are to learn, client support, possible integrations with other systems as well as mobile support with our exclusive SmartScoreTM rating system. This ranking has been prepared by Nestor Gilbert, our B2B expert responsible for the Free Remote Support Software category.
List of Top 12 Free Remote Support Software
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1. ScreenConnect
Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 96%ScreenConnect is a software app that gives you an enriched remote control experience and helps you resolve customer inquiries efficiently and without delay. Aside from helping reps provide efficient remote support, the software also includes collaboration features that let users exchange files and work simultaneously on one task.
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2. Zendesk
Our score: 9.6 User satisfaction: 98%Winner of our Supreme Software Award, Zendesk is a customer support solution that helps boost customer service and improve customer retention. The platform's modules include chat support, call center solutions, help desk applications, and knowledge base, so you'll cover all the bases of efficient customer services.
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3. Zoho Assist
Our score: 8.5 User satisfaction: 98%Zoho Assist is an advanced, easy, and free remote training and troubleshooting platform with dual screens and two-way file sharing that doesn’t need installation. Key features include clipboard sharing, unattended access, instant chat, and even a reboot and reconnect capability. Zoho Assist also has Mac support.
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4. HubSpot Service Hub
Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 98%Online customer service, support, and help desk solution native to the HubSpot suite. The software has a built-in conversations feature that helps boost customer engagement by adding context to customer communication. A universal inbox also collects messages from multiple channels, helping teams collaborate and provide better customer support.
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5. Freshdesk
Our score: 9.8 User satisfaction: 100%An efficient and reliable help desk solution and winner of our Best Help Desk Software Award. The software offers multi-channel support, automation tools, gamification, and self-service portals to help businesses deliver high-quality customer support. The software helps improve organization and ease collaboration within support teams.
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6. CloudBerry Remote Assistant
Our score: 8.8 User satisfaction: 100%A Windows software for remote control and desktop sharing. The solution is designed to quickly and securely access and control a remote desktop or server computer over the Internet.
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7. TeamViewer
Our score: 8.4 User satisfaction: N/ATeamViewer is a software tool that enables you to remote control any computer over the internet within seconds and also conduct online meetings. It is straightforward to use. Just download the client and enter the target's details. Its free version is already a powerful tool for technical support operations.
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8. SWAG
Our score: 8.0 User satisfaction: 97%A free service designed to connect businesses and organizations with experts to help them with their business needs and operations.
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9. Atlassian Confluence
Our score: 9.1 User satisfaction: 98%Collaboration software that lets you build your own workspace through customized pages, which facilitate easier knowledge sharing, ease collaboration, and improve user engagement. The platform offers various built-in templates for Pages, along with features to help organize these pages. Inline and page comments also speed up the feedback process.
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10. Jira Service Desk
Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 96%A full-featured service desk platform that allows IT teams to deliver rapid end-to-end service delivery. The software lets you automate tasks, build knowledge bases, and collaborate in real-time, so you can deliver the best customer service possible. You can also link tickets to your team's task queue on Jira for faster issue resolution.
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11. Zoho Desk
Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 100%Zoho Desk is a support desk platform that helps you deliver top quality customer support with tools that increase agent productivity and improve analytic operations. Equipped with robust reporting tools and analytics, managers can keep track of their agents’ KPIs and address performance issues and make data-driven decisions.
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12. Kayako
Our score: 9.0 User satisfaction: 95%Kayako is the winner of our Expert's Choice Award. This help desk solution helps businesses build an efficient customer service infrastructure by creating a single platform for all customer service channels. Kayako also has a mobile app for providing seamless customer support on the go.
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Table of contents
Remote work has provided employees and independent professionals with a different level of convenience. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, remote operations have become part of the norm, and among those who made the transition possible are IT professionals. With the help of remote support software, IT pros are able to provide tech support regardless of their and their clients’ location, especially for issues that involve complicated troubleshooting and software upgrades and installations.
Remote support solutions, however, often come with price tags that not everyone is willing to invest in right away. This is where free remote support applications have better advantages and here is a brief guide to help you learn more about the best software solutions in this category.
Get to Know Each Product with Free Trial
Free remote support solutions are the free trial versions of premium apps, the only difference is you can use them for as long as you like. Opting for vendors that offer free versions instead of limited free trials gives you an unlimited amount of time to test the features and other important elements that are included in the free plan. This allows you to make a more in-depth comparison of different remote support solutions, as well as helps you make a more informed decision on which software is worthy of upgrading to a premium version.
When it comes to choosing the best free remote support software, the best approach we recommend is narrowing your list down to the platforms that currently have the highest SmartScore rankings and Customer Satisfaction Ratings in our remote support software reviews. This list includes ConnectWise Control, Zendesk, Zoho Assist, HubSpot Service Hub, and Freshdesk.
Targeted Businesses
Free remote support platforms are useful to IT professionals and businesses that only need standard or basic tools to access a computer remotely for different purposes, such as the following:
- SMBs looking for a cost-effective, user-friendly remote support solution for their clients. Small businesses have very limited resources. They cannot waste time and money on setting up and training for a sophisticated remote support platform. Remote support software free tools provide small businesses with the capability to assist customers from anywhere in the world.
- Companies with remote employees. Businesses with employees working remotely need access to office computers. Furthermore, remote employees also need hands-on assistance from the IT team, especially when it comes to troubleshooting or installing and updating work-related software.
- Freelance IT professionals. Independent IT professionals and IT consultants can benefit from free remote support platforms’ features, such as performing remote access on their clients’ devices, tracking issues, and more.
What are examples of free remote support software?
Below are some of the leading remote support software with completely free tools:
- ConnectWise Control. ConnectWise Control is a self-hosted remote support software that offers a free license for single-user accounts. The free version gives the user access to remote access, remote support, and remote meeting features.
- Zendesk. This popular helpdesk platform provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of applications that allow remote teams to provide customer support from any location via multiple channels, such as phone, email, live chat, social media, etc.
- Zoho Assist. Zoho Assist is a dedicated remote support and access solution designed for SMBs. It is a completely free platform that comes with advanced features, such as unattended access, two-way screen sharing, multi-monitor navigation, and SSL and 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard.
- HubSpot Service Hub. This product is part of the HubSpot CRM platform and provides businesses with free customer support tools, such as contact management, ticketing, and live chat.
- Freshdesk. Another leading helpdesk solution is Freshdesk and it offers modern customer support tools for small teams. Among free customer support features included in the free plan are an integrated ticketing system, a knowledge base, and team collaboration.
Types of Free Remote Support Software
Free remote support solutions can be divided into the following major categories:
- Operating system-based solution. This type of remote support solution is built into the operating system a business is using.
- Third-party platforms. Third-party solutions fall under the more popular type of remote support software. These can either be self-hosted or cloud-based and require users to download the application to their devices or access the platform through the service provider’s website.
Key Features of Free Remote Support Software
The features offered in the free plans of remote support platforms are typically standard tools that allow IT professionals to access, troubleshoot, and manage remote computers. Although the suite of tools can vary depending on the service provider, below are some of the important features you should be looking for in a good free remote support software:
- Unattended access. This feature allows IT technicians to access a remote computer even without anyone present on the other end. This feature is helpful during instances when remote clients are not capable of manually granting IT professionals access to their computers.
- File and clipboard transfer. Built-in file and clipboard sharing capability enables technicians to install applications, copy scripts or commands, etc., on their clients’ computers.
- Auto reboot and reconnect. This feature is critical when IT technicians need to manually install patches and software updates, or other tasks that require a reboot of their clients’ computers.
- Built-in chat. This eliminates the need for third-party communication tools as IT technicians and their clients can instantly exchange messages and updates through the remote support software’s chat feature.
Benefits of Free Remote Support Software
Aside from being cost-effective, using a free remote support solution also have the following advantages:
- Less intrusive tech support. With the capability to access a client’s computer remotely and even when unattended, IT professionals are able to perform their tasks without disrupting their clients’ schedules.
- Immediate support. IT professionals no longer have to spend time traveling to their clients’ locations, which is very helpful during instances when clients need immediate assistance.
- Efficient network monitoring and management. For companies that have remote employees, remote support platforms allow their IT staff to monitor and manage user access to the company’s network and resources.
Payment Schemes
Using free remote support software is ideal for SMBs and independent IT consultants and technicians testing out a software’s reliability. There, however, comes a point when premium upgrades are necessary. Below are the pricing schemes remote support service providers typically offer:
- One-time purchase. This is a common payment scheme for on-premise or self-hosted software. You only have to purchase a software license once and you have complete control over your data, integration, configuration, and system updates.
- Fixed monthly and annual plans. This is typically offered by cloud-based remote support service providers and gives you more options based on your budget and frequency of payment.
- By-quote. This offers more flexibility, especially in terms of only getting and paying for the features you need.
The Bottom Line
For SMBs and independent IT professionals looking for a cost-effective remote software solution, opting for the free versions is an easy decision. Choosing the right software, however, is the real challenge as free remote software systems have limitations, especially when it comes to the number and type of features offered. This is why it is important to know and understand your business needs as it plays a crucial role in helping you decide which software solution is the best fit.
Furthermore, it is also important to keep in mind that you will not be using a free remote support solution forever. This is where you have to take a software’s scalability into consideration and figure out whether its premium version is capable of supporting your business as it grows.
List of Free Remote Support Software Companies
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Things to consider when you invest in a SaaS
Disaster recovery and security are two main factors that need to be considered by SaaS buyers when evaluating potential vendors.
Many SaaS providers do not have a disaster recovery site. Therefore, ask the following queries to your shortlisted providers: How do you test your disaster recovery processes? What is your recovery time? How often do you test? Do you have dispersed infrastructure; are your main site and your disaster recovery site situated in different geographical locations?
You need to be aware that many SaaS vendors do not use enterprise-grade infrastructure to deploy SaaS apps. Many programs have multiple providers. For example, there may be a firewall provider, an Internet provider, and a few others too in the mix. If an issue rears up, there is a lot of finger-pointing. This issue is common with on-premise IT platforms. The solution is to reduce the number of vendors so that there is accountability to ensure they take responsibility about performance.
Ask the potential SaaS vendors the following questions about security: Is your firm SAS70 compliant? What security measures are used at your data centers? What security audits and principles does your firm follow? Who manages access and identity management, web application firewalls, log file management, and network connectivity?
Needless to say, take your time to research thoroughly and get the answers to the above queries before you invest in an apt SaaS solution.
Frequently asked questions about Free Remote Support Software
What is the best free remote support software?
The best free remote support solution is ConnectWise Control. This self-hosted software offers a comprehensive set of modern tools that enable technicians to be more productive and efficient in providing tech support and managing attended and unattended remote computers securely. Its free version is good for a single-tech license account and supports a maximum of three access agents.
Aside from its free remote access, troubleshooting, and device monitoring and management capabilities, ConnectWise Control also allows IT teams to conduct online seminars and presentations for remote meetings, which is helpful for collaboration and training purposes.
What are the benefits of free remote support software?
There are a number of benefits that come with using free remote support software and here are some of them:
- Easy-of-use. Free remote software solutions are designed to be user-friendly, which helps technicians and even their clients adopt them quickly.
- Cost-efficient. Premium software solutions are significant investments that can be burdensome for SMBs and independent IT professionals. A free remote support platform not only offers a zero-cost business solution, but it also minimizes, if not completely eliminates, the cost of operation that comes with having on-site and/or traveling IT staff.
- Happy, uninterrupted clients. While clients are happy with the immediate tech support, they might not always appreciate the disruption it can create in their schedule. Fortunately, good remote support software has an unattended access feature that enables IT technicians to conduct repairs, install updates, or manage a client’s device even without the physical presence of the client on the remote end.
What are the features of remote support software?
Free remote support platforms offer different sets of tools but here are the general features you may want to look for:
- Built-in clipboard sharing and file transfer. This allows technicians to transfer app installers from their computers to their clients’ devices faster instead of uploading and downloading files, software, etc., from a third-party platform.
- Automatic reboot and reconnect function. Technicians lose connection to their client’s device when the latter’s computer shuts down. The auto-reboot and reconnect feature prevents this from happening, especially during the process of installing software updates and patches.
- Unattended access. Some clients may not be available during the time when technicians need to remotely access their computers. This feature allows IT professionals to perform and complete their tasks even without their clients’ physical access to their devices.
- Built-in communication tools. This feature provides technicians and clients with a faster and more efficient way to communicate as they can exchange messages directly on the remote support platform instead of using third-party communication channels.
What is the easiest free remote support software to use?
Free remote support solutions often have an interface that is easy to navigate and features that do not require in-depth training to be utilized effectively. Among the free remote support software available today, below are the top three most user-friendly:
- ConnectWise Control. As one of the leading software in this category, ConnectWise Control is not only easy to deploy, but it also provides SMBs and IT professionals with straightforward features that make remote access, tech support, and real-time collaboration seamless and easy.
- Zoho Assist. This software does not require manual installation and maintenance and also comes with a security feature that automatically detects bugs that even a non-IT user can fix.
- TeamViewer. Usability is one of the reasons why TeamViewer has become one of the most popular remote support platforms. It allows users to quickly access desktops and mobile devices remotely, as well as easily share files via its drag-and-drop file-transfer functionality.
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