Remote Support Software for Single Tech / Sole Operator

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Craka

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I know this has been done to death in the past, however I could not find anything very current.

I'm wishing to offer remote support as part of my services, I've played around with ScreenConnect a little on a trial period before the price went throught the roof. I do like it though, I just don't think I can justify the cost.

I have been trying to compare between ScreenConnect, Instant House Call, SimpleHelp, and Zoho Assist.

SC equates to $588 per annum.

Instant House Call is $492 per annum.

SimpleHelp is a one off puchase of $320 and than 20% of that after the first year to keep it up to date with support $64 annually after initial purchase.

Zoho Assist is $115 per annum.


Does Instant House Call include D7 in it's pricing or does D7 have to be purchase seperately?

What are people experiences using SimpleHelp and Zoho Assist?
 
Out of that list I've only used SC but I will say for the pricing differences - keep in mind that you should be focusing on what's easiest for you to use and features that will benefit YOUR way of doing things. Depending on how much you rely on remote support in a year, you can go the cheapest route, taking a few extra minutes to find the long way around a task on each support session that in the end will cost you more in time than the difference in price.

I purchased SC before the price bump and used that solely for a bit. For some reason I used Max's TakeControl / Teamviewer and find myself gravitating to that when I can and using SC for comps not on the RMM. Still happy I have SC but finding I won't be using as much as planned.
 
Instant Housecall includes D7 integration, you don't pay extra for it. I've been using Instant Housecall for (I think) over a year now and really like it alot.
 
We currently use SimpleHelp for a number of residential clients.

It gets the job done and is improving but still has it's flaws.

- Performance is nowhere near that of TeamViewer which we use for MSP clients. On slow connections it can really struggle.

- The file transfer isn't very reliable from our experience. If I have to transfer anything over ~30MB I use our FTP server or DropBox because I know SimpleHelp will just fail or crash half way through.

- Technician client freezes 3-4 times per day for us. Just have to close and re-open it... but can get annoying.


They have just released a new version which may address some issues but we haven't renewed our subscription yet as we are considering moving elsewhere. (the plan was ScreenConnect... until they quadrupled their prices!)
 
Craka said:
Zoho Assist is $115 per annum.

What are people experiences using SimpleHelp and Zoho Assist?
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Hmm. I've looked into some of Zoho's other assets, but some how missed they have remote access software. Guess I'll be trying out their demo this weekend. I'll let you know if it's any good.

115/year is an amazing price if it's stable and reliable.
 
I'm running a trial of SimpleHelp mostly for residential clients. I'm impressed so far. I needed to move away from AeroAdmin after their pricing structure changed.
 
Buy teamviewer and pass the cost on to your clients. I now have managed services on 11 servers monthly. And any remote sessions are a minimum $60. You will recoup the cost the first month. Just charge
 
I view moving to teamviewer as something for a growth phase. My business is currently small enough that I don't have the funds to cover the initial payment, nor the client base to recoup the costs within a reasonable time.

Finding something that is adequate and affordable is a top priority, as it will help draw in more clients. Then, once I can get a base income setup, I plan to start investing in more robust, more-than-just-adequate tools.
 
If you speak with the sales guys at team viewer they will do payments, they just don't advertise this. If I remember right it was $200 a month.
I have to admit its nice to have 10 computers open in one window and not 10 windows I have switch back and forth to.
 
I just purchased AnyDesk a week ago and am really pleased with it. Super fast and very reasonably priced -- 60 Euros/year ($65 USD) or 290 Euros ($314 USD) for the lifetime license, including all future upgrades. These are single-seat prices.
 
kwest said:
Buy teamviewer and pass the cost on to your clients. I now have managed services on 11 servers monthly. And any remote sessions are a minimum $60. You will recoup the cost the first month. Just charge
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Well, now, a payment plan would change things significantly. Makes sense that they don't advertise it, but they just jumped way up my list of future upgrades.
 
For folks not on RMM, I currently use DualDesk. I used to use Remotezilla (made by the same company), but they didn't make the jump to Windows 10 compatibility. Luckily, when I complained, they just gave me a license to DD. (!) I think I only paid about $350 for a lifetime license several years ago, so it's easy to forgive it's shortcomings. Now that it would be nice to have OSX compatibility, I'll probably have to move to something else this year. I have a LMIR license from the business I just acquired, but that will renew in October and I doubt I'll like the price. I'm leaning towards IH, if only because they sponsor so many of the podcasts I listen to. :-)

There's no right answer, you have to find the one that works best for you - and that is unfortunately a trial-and-error process. The price is just part of the cost of doing business, so you have to work it into your budget. Once you get over having to pay for the product, it's easy to realize how lucky we are that there are so many choices.
 
ComputerRepairTech said:
Does splashtop do recording now?
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"Logging of connections, file transfers, and management activity"

^ Stolen from their website.

I just installed their free version for internal network use. I immediately noticed the much quicker response, and HD quality connection, even on my internal network. This version doesn't allow for file transfer (Business version only), but it's far better already than what I'm currently using (Zoho). Zoho doesn't support unattended access to OS X where Splashtop does. Since I have Mac clients that's a big deal to me. Pricing seems attractive as it allows me to grow as my clientele increases. I may just jump ship after playing with this a bit more.

I haven't seen anything on their website regarding co-branding. Anyone know anything about that?
 
Yes, it's TONS faster than most of the other solutions I've tried. There is no chat feature, but it's a minor issue as far as I'm concerned. Half the time clients don't even know how to use the chat thing anyway. And both their applications work beautifully on macs, which is another plus.
 
TechLady said:
Yes, it's TONS faster than most of the other solutions I've tried. There is no chat feature, but it's a minor issue as far as I'm concerned. Half the time clients don't even know how to use the chat thing anyway. And both their applications work beautifully on macs, which is another plus.
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Reading their forums tells me they're working on a chat feature as well as co-branding of some sort. Looking better to me all the time. My users don't seem to be able to master the chat features anyway. they just call, even when I'm remoted in.
 
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