The global shift to remote work has undoubtedly become one of the key trends shaping the world in 2020. It has also sparked a rising interest in various collaboration tools, such as remote desktop software, screen-sharing solutions, etc. Since this trend is showing no signs of slowing down, it’s important to find a cost-effective and reliable solution to establish and support a thriving remote work environment in 2021.
Choosing the perfect remote desktop software for your personal or business needs might be an overwhelming task, especially if your budget is limited and you’re looking for a free, or a low-cost option. It’s worth remembering though that free [or extremely cheap] software does not always mean better or more reliable, as it often has certain limitations and drawbacks, such as poor customer support.
So, what is the best free remote desktop software to try in 2021? Here’s a list of our top picks with all the pros and cons for you to consider.
Chrome Remote Desktop
Ideal for: basic personal use
Pros: easy to set up
Cons: limited features, not suited for business use
Chrome Remote Desktop is a popular free remote desktop application ideally suited for basic personal use. If all you need is to occasionally connect to your own devices and Chrome browser is your thing, look no further than Chrome Remote Desktop.
However, if you’re looking to provide remote support services to customers, you will find Chrome Remote Desktop to be rather poorly equipped. It lacks instant messaging, multi-session handling, file transfer capabilities, and many other remote desktop features which are vital for professional use.
Recommended: You can use FixMe.IT to connect to an unlimited number of on-demand machines and manage a large amount of unattended computers. FixMe.IT is easy to set up and use, provides file transfer, session recording and reporting capabilities at one of the lowest prices on the market.
FixMe.IT has recently been selected by Windows Report as one of the top 7 remote troubleshooting software for Windows 10. Windows Report is a highly trusted web resource for all things Windows including news and tips for tech users.
Microsoft Remote Desktop
Ideal for: personal use, local network administration and support
Pros: easy to set up
Cons: limited features, not suited for business use
Microsoft Remote Desktop is another free remote desktop tool that’s widely used in Windows environments for network administration and employee support. If you’re not planning to do anything outside of your local network and your machines are running on Pro, Business, or Ultimate versions of Windows, then Microsoft Remote Desktop should be your application of choice.
UltraVNC
Ideal for: conservative users
Pros: free
Cons: limited features, difficult to set up, slow connection speed
Unlike Microsoft Remote Desktop, this free VNC-based tool can be used to provide tech support to both local and remote Windows users. However, VNC is an outdated technology that hasn’t changed much during the last 20 years. It overloads the network, it’s difficult to set up, and puts a number of restrictions on multi-session handling, unattended access, and many other important remote desktop features.
TeamViewer Personal
Ideal for: personal use
Pros: easy to set up and use, stable, lots of features
Cons: limited for commercial use
When it comes to doing a quick fix on a remote Windows computer or a Mac, TeamViewer is the remote desktop software of choice for most IT pros. It packs a lot of great features and has an intuitive user interface.
What’s wrong with it? Nothing, as long as you’re not using it for business purposes. Once you’re caught, you will no longer be able to run TeamViewer unless you pay for it.
Zoho Assist
Ideal for: personal use
Pros: easy to use, unattended access
Cons: buggy, too limited for commercial use
Zoho Assist may easily be the second most popular tool after TeamViewer. Unlike the proprietary remote desktop solutions listed above, it offers more features including unattended access, clipboard synchronization and a built-in chat.
The biggest drawback to using Zoho Assist for commercial purposes is that its free personal license is limited to five unattended computers and only one concurrent support session. Clearly not enough even for a one-man tech support business.
Anydesk
Ideal for: personal use, occasional business use
Pros: lightweight, easy to set up
Cons: no drag-and-drop file transfer, no whiteboard tools, poor customer support
Anydesk provides a fast way to access a remote computer or mobile device without having to install anything or configure any ports. It’s an extremely lightweight application – all you have to do is download and run a small file, and you’re almost all set.
It’s not at all perfect though. Unlike many other remote desktop solutions, Anydesk lacks a number of important features, including drag-and-drop file transfer and whiteboard tools. Apart from that, it’s quite difficult to get ahold of customer support when it’s most needed.
Remote Utilities
Ideal for: personal use, limited business use
Pros: inventory management, 10 concurrent support sessions
Cons: paid after 30-day trial, complicated setup
Remote Utilities is another good one. Apart from allowing you to run up to 10 on-demand sessions simultaneously, it also offers an inventory manager that provides detailed information about the remote system. Remote Utilities can be used for free during a 30-day trial period, but that’s it. You’ll have to purchase a “lifetime” license and pay for upgrade once the free trial is over.
If your current needs are limited, or if you’re confident enough that you don’t need a paid solution for commercial purposes, choose one of the seven options listed above. They’re not all ideal, but you get what you pay for, right? In this case, free means putting up with certain limitations along with the fact that vendors are not responsible for your experience.
If you want an easy-to-use, feature-rich, and cost-effective remote desktop solution that won’t let you down, hit the green button at the end of this post and sign up for a free trial of FixMe.IT.
Suggested further reading: Remote Work Tools of the Remote Work Trade
Learn More About FixMe.ITIf you’re an Android user then you are truly blessed with a myriad of apps that you can use for just about anything. The Android market place is teeming with around one million apps these days, and people can get overwhelmed by the staggering amount of tools.
There are hundreds of apps dedicated to photography alone, so how can you choose the perfect one? Make sure you capture, edit, share and preserve the most important moments of your life by using one of the following 20 photography apps for photo shooting, editing and sharing. We’ve broken them down into categories for you, so read on:
Best Editing Apps
Smartphone photography has become heavily reliant on little artistic tweaks, such as color filters, vintage effects, contrast or color adjustments. So, in order to make your photos look better, here are the best editing apps:
1. Photo Editor [Aviary]
The Photo Editor by Aviary is a comprehensive photo editing app on which you can do just about anything you desire. Among the many editing features, we note the cosmetic tools, which remove blemishes and other skin impurities, the meme generator and the one-tap auto enhance option. With over 250,000 five-star ratings, we can safely say that it is among the most cherished Android photography apps.
2. PicSay Pro
PicSay Pro has over 65,000 five-star ratings on the Android, and this makes it one of the most beloved and trusted photo editing tools for Android smartphones, with easy options for exporting photos on Flickr, Picasa or Facebook. It’s also a lot of fun to use because you can adorn your friends’ pretty faces with mustaches, insert text bubbles, or you can simply add different effects to photos. In many ways it’s similar to the photo editors that you are probably already used to because it also has contrast, saturation, tint, exposure and brightness options.
3. Vignette
Vignette is yet another excellent Android camera app. Most users download it for editing because it has more than 70 effects and 50 frame styles that you can choose from. In addition to this, each and every effect can be further personalized with the help of over 20 custom settings. Lastly, you can edit photos as you take them, an extremely convenient feature.
4. Adobe Photoshop Touch
Most professional photographers are already familiar with the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop—one of the most powerful photo manipulation programs—so they were more than eager to try out its companion app, now available for Android. The app basically brings all the important features of Photoshop to the Android OS, and even if it may seem a little difficult to understand at first, if you persevere, you will soon find out that its editing capabilities go far beyond that of Instagram or Aviary.
5. Snapseed
If you are not really into professional photography, or you simply want to make your photos look better for Facebook, make sure to download Snapseed. First of all, it is completely free. Secondly, it’s equipped with many refined filters and tools that will help you highlight the most important features of your photo.
Best Photography Apps
When it comes to photography, the most important process is definitely the shooting. You can easily edit a photo that has good light and decent framing, and with the following smartphone photography apps the process will be very simple. Learn how to change the mood of the camera, the light intake and many other things, in order to capture the most beautiful pictures.
1. Camera360 Ultimate
At the moment, this is the most popular photo app and it also offers a cloud platform to manage files, plus eight shooting modes [including quick-shoot, self-portrait and audio mode]. Camera360 is the best app for those who are still working their way around the Android OS because every shooting and editing option has little notes and descriptions. The app also has a “funny-photography” mode, with which you can create Andy Warhol-style or ghost pics.
2. Pro HDR Camera
As the name clearly states, the Pro HDR Camera is one of the most advanced Android photography apps for shooting photos. With it you can take great photos, with good contrast, lighting and brightness. Another thing that you will definitely appreciate about it is the fact that it can take great-quality photos on dark nights [obviously, this also depends on your camera specifications].
3. ProCapture
ProCapture has received nearly 3,000 five-star ratings, and for good reason: it’s a wonderful photo-shooting app that will definitely enhance your Android camera experience. At the moment it’s available in a free version, and a paid one [which has more features]. With it you can create panoramic photos, and link together several photographs in order to make one, high-quality one.
4. Retro Camera
Are you in love with vintage and retro effects? Android’s answer to iPhone’s Hipstamatic was a vintage camera app called Retro Camera. This tool is basically a camera through which you can add different effects, like film scratching, vignetting etc. It also has a fast sharing option for social media profiles.
5. Photaf Panorama Pro
Photaf is undoubtedly the best Android app for creating 360-degree panoramic photos. As a matter of fact, it is so advanced that you can capture panoramas horizontally, vertically, and even in HD quality. The only thing you need to do is to keep your hand still while taking the shots!
Best Sharing Apps
We live in an age of hyper-mobility, and this has made us heavily reliant on technology. Sharing photos through various social media platforms has become a normal daily habit. Here are five photo sharing apps for Android that will make your life easier:
1. Instagram
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years, you probably know what Instagram is. The app was purchased by Facebook a while back, and at the moment, it is the most popular social platform for sharing photos online. As a matter of fact, Instagram could easily be featured in the editing category as well, but we decided that its most notable impact has been as a sharing medium. So, if you want people to see, like, and share your photographs, you should definitely become a member of the huge Instagram community.
2. Postagram
Postagram is indeed a photo-sharing app, but it may not be the type of sharing that you had in mind. With it, you can turn photographs into high-resolution postcards, printed on glossy paper, and send them anywhere in the world for little over a dollar. If you are traveling around the world, you can easily stay in touch with your loved ones at home.
3. SnapChat
Snapchat has a funny way of sharing your photographs with the rest of the world. The whole idea is to quickly take a funny video or photo and then send it over to your friends. As soon as they see it, it will disappear.
4. DropBox
Dropbox is undoubtedly the best tool for sharing images—with yourself. Forget about the days when you had to connect your smartphone to your computer through USB. With Dropbox, all you have to do is connect to the internet on both devices and it will automatically share your photos, documents and videos. If you want to access your files, you can simply share a link with friends and family.
5. Flickr
Flickr is one of the most popular platforms for people who like to share their photos. It lets its users take pictures with the app’s camera, and instantly share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr groups. Like Instagram, it also has a few editing features, and it is hands-down the best way to share high-resolution photos.
Best Professional Apps
Even if you are a professional photographer, it is impossible to carry your camera around all the time. Luckily for you, the trusty smartphone is always there, and thanks to the incredible developments in technology, it might just save your life the next time you’re feeling inspired. Here are the best professional photography apps for Android:
1. PerfectShot
PerfectShot is a pocket photographer’s dream because it has a wide variety of features like smart auto-focus, fast launching, multiple modes, zooming, and an innovative control system. It basically has all the features that you were used to on your D-SLR. It’s also equipped with some great filters [white balance, exposure, flash-modes, zoom], which will make image shooting more effective.
2. Golden Hour
There is a saying among photographers that the best hours to take pictures are the first one and the last one of the day. They also refer to it as the “golden hour”, but sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly when that hour is. With the Golden Hour app, you can easily calculate the best time for taking high-quality photos, according to your current location, date and season. As if this wasn’t enough, the app also has a weather forecast feature.
3. Photo Gallery [Fish Bowl]
As a professional photographer you will be taking lots of photos, and you need a place where you can organize them all. The Fish Bowl photo gallery will copy all your selected images and arrange them for better viewing.
4. Add Watermark
A great app, based on a simple, yet effective idea. The tools does exactly what it says: it adds watermarks to your photos. This will keep people from stealing and re-posting your photography. You can even create your very own, personalized logo.
5. Photography Trainer
Do you want to become a professional photographer, but you have no idea where to start? Courses are probably expensive, so why not take advantage of this nifty little app. It offers a step-by-step guide that will help you with your D-SLR, scene settings, aperture, shutter speed, ISO and many other. The great thing about it is that you can check out other photos, and see what settings they used.
So these are the top 20 Android photography apps for shooting, editing and sharing. Which one are you using at the moment? Please share your thoughts.
Featured photo credit: davide ragusa via unsplash.com