The open-source remote desktop solution RustDesk has been gaining attention in the technical community, with users sharing their experiences comparing it to established solutions like TeamViewer and AnyDesk. While the platform shows promise in performance and stability, community discussions reveal both strengths and areas needing improvement.
Performance and Stability
Users consistently report that RustDesk delivers reliable performance comparable to commercial alternatives. One particularly noteworthy aspect is its consistent behavior during long sessions, with users noting that it maintains stable performance where other solutions might deteriorate. As one user shared:
I find similar performance to AnyDesk most of the time but RustDesk never seems to get sluggish, while sometimes AnyDesk gets very slow and my view of the remote machine gets up to a few minutes behind.
Key Feature Gaps
Despite positive performance feedback, several critical feature gaps have been identified by the community. The lack of an auto-update mechanism stands out as a significant limitation, particularly for deploying at scale or supporting non-technical users. Additionally, printer support remains a frequently requested feature that's currently unavailable, potentially limiting its utility in certain business environments.
Key Feature Status:
- Auto-update mechanism: Not implemented
- Printer support: Not available
- Multiple monitor support: Available
- Keyboard sync: Available
- Custom server hosting: Supported
- Account naming: Limited functionality
Security and Trust
Recent discussions have addressed security concerns, particularly regarding a previous issue with Chinese root certificates on Windows installations. The community has confirmed this issue has been resolved, demonstrating the project's responsiveness to security concerns and transparency in addressing user feedback.
Technical Evolution
The platform is undergoing significant technical transitions, with plans to move from Sciter to Flutter for its GUI implementation. This change has been well-received by the community, as it moves the project toward a fully open-source stack and potentially enables better cross-platform compatibility.
The combination of strong performance, ongoing development, and active community engagement suggests RustDesk is maturing as a viable alternative to commercial remote desktop solutions. However, the lack of certain features and enterprise-focused capabilities indicates there's still room for growth before it can fully compete in all market segments.
Reference: RustDesk: An Open-Source Remote Desktop Application