SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS) vs. RealVNC Connect

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
DameWare Remote Support from Austin IT company SolarWinds is remote administration software for the remote control of desktops, laptops, and servers behind or outside the firewall, allowing registry editing, restart services, logging activity, account and password management, and more. The mobile app also provides access from a phone or tablet. DameWare Remote Support licensing is per technician, the number of end-user remote machines is irrelevant; one technician may receive a license for…
$370
one-time fee
RealVNC Connect
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
RealVNC® Connect is a secure remote access solution from RealVNC. It can be used to connect to a remote device anywhere in the world to view its desktop in real-time and take control as though sitting in front of it.
$8.25
per month (billed annually) per concurrent session
Pricing
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Editions & Modules
Dameware Mini Remote Control
$370
one-time fee
Dameware Remote Support
$520
one-time fee
Essentials
$8.25
per month (billed annually) per concurrent session
Plus
$16.50
per month (billed annually) per concurrent session (add up to 3)
Premium
$29.75
per month (billed annually) per concurrent session (add up to 5)
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
per year
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDameWare Remote Support and Mini Remote Control are licensed based on the number of technician users that use the software for remote administration. There are no limits or restrictions for the number of end-users supported or the number of remote endpoints/computers supported. As you buy higher counts of licenses, the per-seat pricing goes down giving you a reduced total price.Plans work on a Per Concurrent Session basis. Each plan gives access to a bundled number of devices, but limits apply to the amount of devices that can be connected at any given time. The Premium plan includes On-Demand Assist, a useful tool for providing just-in-time remote support to end-users without them needing RealVNC Connect installed on their device.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Features
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Remote Administration
Comparison of Remote Administration features of Product A and Product B
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)
8.6
Ratings
6% above category average
RealVNC Connect
7.3
Ratings
11% below category average
Screen sharing10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
File transfer10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Instant message8.30 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication8.70 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Access to sleeping/powered-off computers9.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Over-the-Internet remote session8.50 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Initiate remote control from mobile9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Remote management of servers & workstations9.10 Ratings4.70 Ratings
Remote Active Directory® management7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized management dashboard8.20 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Session record8.50 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Annotations7.90 Ratings5.30 Ratings
Monitoring and Alerts8.70 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multi-platform remote control7.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
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User Ratings
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS)RealVNC Connect
Likelihood to Recommend
I feel like this is a very robust solution that I would recommend to anyone who relies heavily on remote support. Most of the colleagues I work with already use SolarWinds products to one extent or the other. I feel the price for the solution is very fair and a good value for the product.
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It is very easy to use if the remote device is already set up to receive connections, so if you are setting up devices before deploying them, it is a great tool to have. It is well-suited to use when shadowing users or using it as a teaching tool. There are other products that are better if you are trying to help someone on a one-use basis.
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Pros
  • DameWare Remote Support allows us to connect to the desktop of a user very easily and quickly. It can be configured to use different levels of security making it both fast and secure.
  • DameWare Remote Support can be deployed to all computers in the environment quickly using the built in capabilities of DameWare.
  • DameWare provides the ability to get system information as well using the full client not the mini remote control. This is handy in finding running services, events logs, etc and all based on our AD structure.
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  • Allow remote connection to pc and servers that are located within our WAN. The connection is stable with fast response (no lag)
  • Allow remote connection to pc and servers that are located outside. The connection is stable with fast response (no lag)
  • It allows chat function with the user, and pasting capability from local desktop and mapped a drive to the remote system.
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Cons
  • Connecting to last session is not always the last session.
  • Saving your position in the Personal Host List would be helpful. I have a folder structure 3 levels deep and when I'm going through a list of computers it is frustrating to have to browse down through the same levels each time.
  • When connecting to a host, an entry is saved in Saved Host List (even duplicates). I would be nice to have an option to save or not save like a quick connect option.
  • DameWare Mobile has separate password than desktop and cannot be linked to Active Directory password like desktop.
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  • Some of the confusion of VNC upon installation is you need to be connected to the internet for it to function. This is not the case, but is unclear upon installation.
  • The licensing model is not ideal for locations that do not use the internet and function off of the grid.
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Likelihood to Renew
We like DRS for remote support and have been using it for several years. It has made it easy to support our on network users when "hands on" support is required. We currently don't use DRS to its fullest simply because there are other tools that are easier to use, for instance we use AD Manager Plus to handle our AD tasks. I've not found DRS to be all that intuitive to use for anything other than remote support with the Mini Remote Control.
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VNC is a solid product for the price. It simply works and its reliable across different platforms. Some products state they work well in the Mac environment but don't deliver. This one does what it says. Connections are reliable, but of course, this depends on internet connections. The product works well over wireless connections as well. It delivers on what a remote tool should deliver on. My technicians are happy with the product and customers appreciate the ease of use when letting us connect to their systems. Some also appreciate the remote support while they are multi-task.
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Usability
It's effective and easy. It'll do what you want it to do as long as you don't expect the world. I expect it would be even better if you were a Solar Wind shop; for us this is the only thing we use from them, mainly due to price point on other components
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It's a niche product and in that niche they try to cater to as many use cases as they can. Other as a TCO aspect i don't see many use cases where you can't use this product as the one tool for all remote session use cases in your company
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Reliability and Availability
Yes, always available.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
The application always seems responsive to me
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I use a Samsung mobile device; DameWare Mobile was working and then after an Android update it started crashing. I reported the issue to DameWare and worked with the technicians and developers to gather data for them to correct the issue. They quickly published a beta release for me to test (which corrected the crashes) and then published an update to the Google Play Store.
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VNC Connect is a reliable product that has been around for a long time. It is reasonably priced and works well in the Mac & PC environment. When you have a small team that supports many users we need tools that we can rely upon and that will get the job done on the first try. Many customers appreciate the quick assistance and can multi-task while our team works on their computer issues remotely. From a customer service point of view, this tool gives us transparency and efficient effectiveness.
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In-Person Training
It was excellent
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The videos were more than sufficient to learn the product
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The training is very informative, quick and to the point. All of the details one would need are present so the user doesn't have to go searching for additional information just to use the application. The layout of the training was also neat and concise, some of the other training sessions for other companies I've done in the past were confusing and not well thought out, this one is much more superior
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Implementation Rating
It helps greatly if you know someone already using DameWare Remote Support. I was fortunate as my tech support guys were using it at their hospital and assisted me through the purchase, download and implementation of remote support. As well as, knowing how many licenses to purchase at the time. You have to make sure that anyone assisting in IT can have access to the program with their own license.
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No problem at all, love the product.
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Alternatives Considered
SCCM is pretty decent as a Remote Support tool, the main difference is that, as SCCM is much more, it takes long time to load and uses u lots of resources that are wasted if you only uses it to Remote. Dameware Remote Support is specialized software, so it is powerful enough for all your needs, while being light enough to barely make a dent on the system resources.
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VNC Connect stacks up very well to other competitors. With this simple program, you can remotely connect and access other computers with the same VNC Connect agent installed. The only reason we're moving away from using this is that our current Ninja RMM Tools computer monitoring agent includes the TeamViewer tool for us to use.
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Scalability
You get an 8 because of the constant initial freeze on most connections. Takes a reconnect to have it work.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • DameWare has allowed us to maintain our non-traditional approach to IT support. It allows our administrators to work from anywhere and has extended their reach to clients domestic and abroad.
  • Return on investment was realized as soon as we purchased the licenses. We don't have to maintain a large office space or overhead costs due to the flexibility it allows our administrators.
  • First call resolution has increased drastically since implementing DameWare company-wide. The user no longer has to wait to reproduce an error. We can screen share and view it as it happens and mitigate the issues.
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  • I have just used the software for about 1 month and so far so god. I am saving time whenever I can access my client's computers from my desk as opposed to having to leave my office to go to their offices. Saves me time and the client money.
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ScreenShots

SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS) Screenshots

Screenshot of DameWare Remote Support Management ConsoleScreenshot of Remotely Connect to Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X ComputersScreenshot of Over-the-Internet Remote Session via Secure Proxy ServerScreenshot of Connect to Remote Computers from iOS and Android Mobile Devices

RealVNC Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of the Device List in the Connect v8 desktop appScreenshot of On-Demand Assist, which can be used to start a remote support session using a single-use code.