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Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs VNC Connect comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Intune
Sponsored
Ranking in Remote Access
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
319
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (1st)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Se...
Ranking in Remote Access
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (5th)
VNC Connect
Ranking in Remote Access
20th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Remote Access category, the mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 9.1%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is 8.2%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VNC Connect is 2.9%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Remote Access Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Intune9.1%
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services8.2%
VNC Connect2.9%
Other79.80000000000001%
Remote Access
 

Featured Reviews

AkashKamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr MacOS specialist engineer at Cyber24
Enables management of multiple operating systems with a single license
The best feature is that it's a Microsoft product, so if anything goes wrong, we get quick support for anything required. Remote system functionality allows us to sit anywhere and take control of any device via remote management. We can enhance security for clients' laptops with built-in Microsoft Defender, which is available with the Microsoft Intune license. We use it for reporting purposes through endpoint analytics. When pushing scripting, there are two types available: remediation script and reservation script. Through endpoint analytics, you can push defender policies to clients. It helps with reporting, inventory updates, and monitoring tenant status health.
reviewer2797143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Compliance Analyst at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Rapid secure remote access has improved collaboration and centralized server management
The best features Microsoft Remote Desktop Services offers include being able to log in and being able to control other machines. Controlling other machines helps me in my role as it improves our workflow, allowing us to get in rapidly and do our work. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to remote in rapidly and securely. The secure aspect of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services helps my team stay secure by supporting MFA, which allows us to secure who logs in. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services helps my team collaborate and work together by allowing us to put everything in one ecosystem with the integration, and it works very well with Windows Server, Active Directory, and Azure. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services handles updates and maintenance in my environment easily, as it is easy to manage. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services performs very well in terms of reliability and uptime for my organization, and I appreciate this feature. Microsoft Remote Desktop Services integrates with my existing security tools and policies and is compatible with our security stack, as we are a Microsoft shop, and it works well with us. When multiple users are logged in at the same time, we have not noticed any issues with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. The user experience for my team with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is intuitive and easy to use.
Jose Miguel Moya - PeerSpot reviewer
SACTA Architect at MRInformatica
Easy to deploy, but scalability needs improvement
There are no specific challenges I faced while using the product. I haven't used the solution to support any AI-driven projects. In our company, we need to have remote access to our labs because if not, people have to move to the laboratory, and we will spend a lot of time working. I don't know the features of VNC Connect that improved our company's support capabilities. I rate the tool a six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The ease of applying security policies to applications we deploy is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune."
"At the moment, Autopilot is the most valuable feature."
"The security posture is very good. It's very customizable."
"Microsoft Intune is far more efficient and faster than MECM."
"Intune enables us to manage our devices from anywhere."
"Agile and easy to deploy MDM solution that covers the maximum number of policies. Stable, scalable, and with knowledgeable technical support."
"Microsoft Intune is best for Windows devices and security in Office 365 and Microsoft-related enterprise environments. It's a nice platform for endpoint management."
"Microsoft Intune has been a time saver and reduces the time and effort IT admins have to invest."
"I like the way it can assess our system."
"Things can be made easier if someone is not with us or at a long distance since we can connect easily with those people. So, it's easy for us to use such features."
"The performance meets our requirements and the stability is good."
"The solution works on Microsoft servers."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is scalable."
"It allows employees to log on to corporate resources remotely."
"Mostly we are quite happy with it."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services are unification, central management, and accessibility."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its ease of use."
"The most valuable features are that it is consistently low profile and consistently works without hiccups or headaches."
"The product’s ease of use and security are valuable."
 

Cons

"Enrollment into the Microsoft Intune service can still get easier, especially for legacy-managed systems, such as how we get it from a GPO or an SCCM configuration into Intune."
"The solution requires Mac support."
"I'd suggest adding more features for macOS in Intune. There should be more functionality for managing macOS. There should be a better capability for pushing things down on macOS. Currently, Intune is not capable of managing macOS at the same level as Windows."
"Sometimes, it takes time to synchronize the policies between the portal and the devices, you don't have a way to estimate how long it will take to deploy. You have some kind of gray area, where it can deploy in 30 minutes or three days."
"There needs to be more support for Mac operating systems."
"The time we have to wait to deploy policies has room for improvement."
"Enrollment into the Microsoft Intune service can still get easier, especially for legacy-managed systems, such as how we get it from a GPO or an SCCM configuration into Intune."
"There is room for improvement in server patch management and allowing direct uploads of EXE applications instead of needing to convert them to Intune format, which would save time."
"We find the services are not as transparent as we would like for our integration with Citrix."
"I would say it's expensive as there similar products available for free."
"Sometimes, the updates break the system."
"The price is too high."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"The solution should introduce a chat feature for end users."
"The pricing could be better."
"There have been some network issues in the solution. So, when we used to connect it, the solution suddenly got disconnected. So the network part needs to be improved."
"Improvements are required in the area of scalability since it is an aspect of the tool where there are shortcomings."
"Ease of access is a bit of a challenge."
"We occasionally have issues with the graphic software of the interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is reasonable for the features it has."
"Intune is cost-effective as it is included in some of the Office 365 packages."
"Licensing depends on how you are providing support to your enterprise, whether it's device-based or user-based."
"There are licenses required for this solution. We enable licenses on the devices we need to manage."
"I recently got to know that the AD P1 license is compulsory to use Intune Autopilot, which was surprising for me. Earlier, this was not the case. It is the wrong thing to do. We now need to purchase AD P1 licenses for us and for our customers. I would rate it a seven out of ten for pricing."
"All security solutions worldwide are expensive. Microsoft has allowed a small scale of features within Microsoft Intune for cost-efficient solutions. If you want the full suite, you need to invest more to gain better security features."
"If you're ever going to buy an Office 365 environment, then pricing is reasonable given all that it does, but if you're not, then you might find the pricing expensive."
"As a partner, we always look for how we can generate more revenue from a consulting point of view, but I do not see any complaints from the customer side regarding pricing, so they are satisfied with it."
"I am aware that for Azure we do have an extra license because we are leveraging on different tenants."
"There is a licensing cost."
"The cost is fair."
"The solution has a pretty comparable pricing."
"The solution is expensive. My company pays toward the monthly licensing costs of the solution...The additional cost, apart from the solution's licensing cost, is related to the technical support a user wants."
"Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is less expensive than some other solutions on the market."
"It's not an expensive product."
"The solution is expensive. Since things are made to be a bit easier in the solution, the solution's cost is a bit on the higher side."
"The tool is not cheap."
"I use the tool's free version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
22%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business122
Midsize Enterprise48
Large Enterprise160
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise33
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
In limited use cases, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is free as it is defaulted by any Microsoft license. The paid...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services?
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services can be improved by better integrating it within Teams or providing a Teams integrat...
What needs improvement with VNC Connect?
The bandwidth is slow. Improvements are required in the area of scalability since it is an aspect of the tool where t...
What is your primary use case for VNC Connect?
I use the solution to get remote access to our labs.
What advice do you have for others considering VNC Connect?
There are no specific challenges I faced while using the product. I haven't used the solution to support any AI-drive...
 

Also Known As

Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Remote Desktop Services
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Bank Alfalah Ltd.
Telesat Canada, St. Anthony's School, Pratt and Whitney, City of Sacramento
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Remote Desktop Services vs. VNC Connect and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.