HopToDesk VS ForwardMsg

HopToDesk's answer

Two things.

First, the remote session itself is free, for personal and business use alike, with no time limit, no seat count and no account needed to connect. You share an ID and a password and you are in. Paying is only for the Dashboard, which is the fleet management layer on top, so the cost tracks how much you want to manage rather than how many people need to connect.

Second, sessions are end-to-end encrypted between the two devices, so session content is not readable by us, and the client is open source, so that claim can be checked rather than taken on trust.

HopToDesk was also the first remote desktop app to ship MCP support, which lets an AI agent drive a real session on Windows, Mac and Linux.

HopToDesk's answer

Most remote desktop tools bill per technician or per seat, so the price climbs with the size of your team. HopToDesk does not charge per seat at all. The client is free and the Dashboard is priced on the plan, so adding people to the team costs nothing.

It also runs everywhere the work is. Native apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Chromebook and Raspberry Pi, plus a browser client, and one app both gives and receives control rather than shipping a separate viewer and host.

Then there is the part most free tools stop short of. The Dashboard adds live device status with offline alerts, device groups and tags, session recording, session history with a full audit trail and CSV export, a built-in help desk with email intake and a branded customer portal, roles, invites and single sign-on, and custom-branded clients shipped under your own name and logo. Organizations that need everything on their own infrastructure can self-host.

HopToDesk's answer

Three groups, in order of size.

Individuals and small businesses who need to reach their own machines or help someone else, and who use the free client on its own.

IT teams supporting an internal fleet, who want unattended access, monitoring, reporting and a help desk in one place without a per-technician bill.

Managed service providers supporting many separate client estates, who need tenant separation, per-tenant branding, ticketing and volume pricing.

HopToDesk's answer

HopToDesk started in 2022 from a common complaint. Remote desktop tools were either expensive, or free but limited, or free right up until something decided your usage looked commercial and cut you off in the middle of a session.

The first release did the opposite. A fast, encrypted remote desktop that is free for personal and business use, with no account required, no session timer and no usage policing. It spread by word of mouth among technicians who had been caught out by exactly that.

Since then it has grown into a platform. The free client stayed free, and the paid part became the Dashboard: monitoring, device groups, reporting, a help desk and branded clients for the teams and providers who manage real fleets. It is operated by Begonia Holdings LLC, a United States company.

HopToDesk's answer

HopToDesk is built primarily in Rust. The desktop client is a native Rust application that ships as a single executable with no bundled runtime, which is why it starts quickly and can run in portable mode with nothing to install.

The peer rendezvous and relay network is Rust as well, hosted in ISO/IEC 27001 certified datacenters in the European Union and the United States.

The Dashboard is a TypeScript web application running on managed edge cloud infrastructure.

Remote sessions are end-to-end encrypted between the two devices.