ScreenConnect VS Instant Housecall

[ComputerRepairTech]

I can tell you we're most often compared directly with TeamViewer, LogMeIn, and Bomgar. Most of our customers were once their customers. We very rarely lose on product performance. We never lose on price.

I like you guys dont get me wrong...

However I don't know about the price thing. Your licensing system is probably very appealing for technicians that work on one customer at a time like over the phone and such. Some of us do multiple customers at a time though and thats when your pricing system loses.

One idea...and forgive me if you already have this implemented it isn't clear on your site. One idea that would make you more appealing to technicians that handle multiple clients at a time would be if the list of connected computers had thumbnails that refreshed every few seconds.

That way its possible for a technician to still handle multiple clients at the same time and yet does not punish those that already bought multiple session licenses for that purpose as its more useful to stay connected than switching back and forth.

 

[Bubbajoe]

I like you guys dont get me wrong...

However I don't know about the price thing. Your licensing system is probably very appealing for technicians that work on one customer at a time like over the phone and such. Some of us do multiple customers at a time though and thats when your pricing system loses...

How do you figure that? A SC license is good for life.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

How do you figure that? A SC license is good for life.

because 4 being handled by me at same time is 1200 dollars. Unless I keep swapping which is why i mentioned the thumbnail idea.

 

[Bubbajoe]

because 4 being handled by me at same time is 1200 dollars....

Maybe I missed it, but which competitor beats this price for lifetime licensing?

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

teamviewer, remoteutilities, instant housecall (well sort of)

 

[SAG]

teamviewer, remoteutilities, instant housecall (well sort of)

Are you sure about that?
Comparing my ScreenConnect purchase (3 consecutive for $900) to TeamViewer..... and looking at TeamViewer the only one that matches that is the Corporate for over 3X what I paid for SC.

Even looking at the TV "Business" license, $750 for 1 session and you can only access that session from 1 computer.
SC, for about $300 you get one session and can access it from wherever the heck you please. And I never even looked further into the unattended stuff or anything else.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Are you sure about that?
Comparing my ScreenConnect purchase (3 consecutive for $900) to TeamViewer..... and looking at TeamViewer the only one that matches that is the Corporate for over 3X what I paid for SC.

Teamviewer sessions are per workstation its being connected from.

With just the business license you can connect to as many as you want (well there might be a limit but i havent reached it) from one workstation.

Screenconnect wins easily in a situation where your taking calls and each employee connects to support the individual on the phone with them since its a 1on1 type situation.

Edit: and don't get me wrong, its no secret that i hate the teamviewer company nothing would make me happier than for someone to dethrone them. Unfortunately at this time for my purposes they are the best fit.....well I do use remoteutilities for its task manager and command prompt though.

 

[SAG]

Teamviewer sessions are per workstation its being connected from.

With just the business license you can connect to as many as you want (well there might be a limit but i havent reached it) from one workstation.

That's the problem.
You are locked to just using your original workstation and only 1 session at a time.
With SC I have used (for supporting others) my ipad, my phone, my desktop, any of my laptops, a client's computer, etc etc - without violating a license.

 

[Bubbajoe]

teamviewer, remoteutilities, instant housecall (well sort of)

Huh? Unless I'm missing something:

TV lifetime will cost you $3828 for 4 simultaneous sessions.

IHC lifetime will cost you $1699 for 10 simultaneous sessions, but you are limited to 200 unattended installs.

RU lifetime will cost you $2156 (4 x $539) for 4 simultaneous sessions.

 

[SAG]

For the record, if ScreenConnect was out of the picture I'd be using IHC without a second thought.

Got a buddy who is a competitor (but we're still cool) and he uses IHC. It's stable, fast, affordable.... I like it.

So I'm not trying to shill for SC (or maybe I am ), it's just my druthers.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I can see how you can get confused on that.

Teamviewer channels work like this...

You can connect to as many clients as you want from 1 computer but your co worker can not connect from his workstation to another client without an additional channel. You can pay extra money (139 dollars to install teamviewer business (free if a bigger license)) on his computer and then he can connect to as many clients as he wants but NOT at the same time you are connected to someone as that would require a 2nd channel/session which cost like 989 dollars.

Does that make sense?

 

[SAG]

I can see how you can get confused on that.

Teamviewer channels work like this...

You can connect to as many clients as you want from 1 computer but your co worker can not connect from his workstation to another client without an additional channel. You can pay extra money (139 dollars to install teamviewer business (free if a bigger license)) on his computer and then he can connect to as many clients as he wants but NOT at the same time you are connected to someone as that would require a 2nd channel/session which cost like 989 dollars.

Does that make sense?

Was this meant towards me?
I understand how their licensing works.
For $750 I can install TV on my workstation ONLY and support as many people as I see fit - but only one at a time. If I were to want to use my laptop to support them I'd have to fork over more money.

Now look at SC.
I pay $325 to support one person at a time. I can support them using whatever computer I want without additional charge. Still, I can only support one at a time.

And that doesn't touch on other features that are standard with SC that you'd have to pay extra for in TV.

 

[TenYardFight]

I can see how you can get confused on that.

Teamviewer channels work like this...

You can connect to as many clients as you want from 1 computer but your co worker can not connect from his workstation to another client without an additional channel. You can pay extra money (139 dollars to install teamviewer business (free if a bigger license)) on his computer and then he can connect to as many clients as he wants but NOT at the same time you are connected to someone as that would require a 2nd channel/session which cost like 989 dollars.

Does that make sense?

I am glad you clarified this. I bought Teamviewer almost 3 years ago for about 800 USD. Never paid them another dime, and I've enjoyed unlimited sessions simultaneously from my computer. I've even moved the license to another computer several times. I would challenge anyone to get their customer connected faster. Usually about 15 seconds. Never any problems with UAC. I can even connect to a domain member workstation when the user isn't a local admin. I can push my domain administrator credentials one time and never need the users intervention again.

I've never really posted about how much I like Teamviewer in remote support threads, because it always seems people are looking for Teamviewer alternatives. I agree their business practices can be questionable...but we all deal with Apple and Microsoft right?

The upfront cost can be daunting, no doubt, but once you start comparing it to a year or two's worth of a subscription service, it is still the best in my book.

 

[Bubbajoe]

I can see how you can get confused on that.

Teamviewer channels work like this...

You can connect to as many clients as you want from 1 computer but your co worker can not connect from his workstation to another client without an additional channel. You can pay extra money (139 dollars to install teamviewer business (free if a bigger license)) on his computer and then he can connect to as many clients as he wants but NOT at the same time you are connected to someone as that would require a 2nd channel/session which cost like 989 dollars.

Does that make sense?

Was this meant towards me?
I understand how their licensing works.
For $750 I can install TV on my workstation ONLY and support as many people as I see fit - but only one at a time. If I were to want to use my laptop to support them I'd have to fork over more money.

Now look at SC.
I pay $325 to support one person at a time. I can support them using whatever computer I want without additional charge. Still, I can only support one at a time.

And that doesn't touch on other features that are standard with SC that you'd have to pay extra for in TV.

I am glad you clarified this. I bought Teamviewer almost 3 years ago for about 800 USD. Never paid them another dime, and I've enjoyed unlimited sessions simultaneously from my computer. I've even moved the license to another computer several times. I would challenge anyone to get their customer connected faster. Usually about 15 seconds. Never any problems with UAC. I can even connect to a domain member workstation when the user isn't a local admin. I can push my domain administrator credentials one time and never need the users intervention again.

I've never really posted about how much I like Teamviewer in remote support threads, because it always seems people are looking for Teamviewer alternatives. I agree their business practices can be questionable...but we all deal with Apple and Microsoft right?

The upfront cost can be daunting, no doubt, but once you start comparing it to a year or two's worth of a subscription service, it is still the best in my book.

Hmmm, differences of opinion/fact here? If TV does indeed provide unlimited simultaneous connections for one tech (from different computers) for $800, that is indeed a great deal. But unless I'm missing it, that is not explicitly stated in their license agreement.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Hmmm, differences of opinion/fact here? If TV does indeed provide unlimited simultaneous connections for one tech (from different computers) for $800, that is indeed a great deal. But unless I'm missing it, that is not explicitly stated in their license agreement.

For the 800 dollar license its FROM one computer to connect to unlimited customers. 139 dollars to install to a different location for you or someone else to connect to unlimited customers but 2 computers can not be establishing connections to customers at the same time. If you want to connect from multiple devices to multiple customers you need an extra channel for each additional connect FROM device (to connect FROM multiple devices at the same time that is) which is like 989 dollars.

Edit: Ive never established additional locations for 139 ive always used the same machine so i have no knowledge if they enforce that or not.

Edit2: I wouldnt necessarily say great deal, you will likely grow to hate their licensing system. I use dSupport to end process for existing teamviewer installs to allow my old teamviewer to run.

 

[Bubbajoe]

For the 800 dollar license its FROM one computer to connect to unlimited customers. 139 dollars to install to a different location for you or someone else to connect to unlimited customers but 2 computers can not be establishing connections to customers at the same time. If you want to connect from multiple devices to multiple customers you need an extra channel for each additional connect FROM device (to connect FROM multiple devices at the same time that is) which is like 989 dollars.

Maybe a little word-smithing going on here, but to me "connect to unlimited customers" does not mean the same thing as "unlimited simultaneous connections"....

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Maybe a little word-smithing going on here, but to me "connect to unlimited customers" does not mean the same thing as "unlimited simultaneous connections"....

If I have a business license, and I get 10 customers contacting me via live chat I can connect to all 10 of them and fix their issues at the same time.

 

[SAG]

For the 800 dollar license its FROM one computer to connect to unlimited customers.

To be clear on this, you should say it allows one host computer to support any number of remote computers but only one at a time.

Tossing "unlimited" around can start confusing people.

And since I seem to be the SC proponent at the tail end of this, I'll say that SC does this same thing for about $300 - with the caveat that if I want to connect (provide support) from a different computer I do not need to pay an additional licensing fee.

 

[SAG]

If I have a business license, and I get 10 customers contacting me via live chat I can connect to all 10 of them and fix their issues at the same time.

Surely this can not be the case.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/licensing/index.aspx

 

[SAG]

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not one of those people who loves arguing over the internet - that'd be my wife. I'm just stating my understanding of their licensing structure.
Like most people I don't care much for the taste of crow, but I'll eat a plate of it if my understanding of the TV licensing is incorrect.