Alternative to Remote Desktop Manager (Devolutions)? New licensing model is forcing me to switch
Hi! we've been using Remote Desktop Manager from Devolutions for years, and honestly, the software is perfect for our admins and helpdesk: centralized management of all connections (RDP, SSH, web, network devices), shared credentials for the team, everything…
Hi! we've been using Remote Desktop Manager from Devolutions for years, and honestly, the software is perfect for our admins and helpdesk: centralized management of all connections (RDP, SSH, web, network devices), shared credentials for the team, everything in one place. The problem: Devolutions has gone off the rails with their new licensing model. Instead of just licensing RDM, I'm now supposed to pay for a bundle of 6 products, of which we need exactly one. That's completely out of proportion, so I'm looking for alternatives. On top of that, until now we could simply use MS SQL as the backend – which is apparently going away as well (it's already marked as "deprecated" for iOS). So the writing is on the wall. What we need: Centralized connection management for a whole team (servers, network devices, websites/web logins, etc.) Shared credentials that are maintained centrally Granular permissions – this is the key point: I need to be able to distinguish between "may use the connection" and "may reveal the password". Helpdesk staff should be able to connect with one click without ever seeing the password in plain text Support for multiple protocols (RDP, SSH, VNC – web would be ideal) On-prem or self-hosted would be nice, but cloud isn't a dealbreaker What are you using? Is there anything that comes close to RDM's feature set without having to pay for an entire product suite? Combo solutions (e.g. connection manager + separate password vault) would also be interesting, as long as the permission model works properly. Thanks in advance!
Collected discussion
Yeah same, whenever someone new starts we just export the list of RDP sessions and import it to the other guy and change credentials. Our team is only 4 though
Are you using 2-FA to access RoyalTS?
If you want security, RoyalTS is not it
How do you make sure to harden RoyalTS? At our eval between RoyalTS and RDM, we picked RDM due to security issues with RoyalTS
What have been your security issues?
Been using this for quite a while myself. It's free, it works.
I usually don't like posting on reddit with my Devolutions named attached to it, but I think it's fitting here :). The new model bundles the full platform in with RDM. The key part is bundles in, not forces on you. You don't have to deploy or use every piece. If your team only wants RDM for connection management, you just use RDM. Nothing makes you roll out the rest. What actually changed is that things you used to pay for separately are now included with RDM, most importantly access to Devolutions Server (self-hosted) or Cloud. I can understand how this can be seen as a way to pump the pricing, but when we did the change, it was actually just an inclusion, without a price increase. You mentioned MS SQL is deprecated as a data source. That's eventually going to be true (no dates on that yet), and the main reason is security: every user holds a direct connection to the database that stores your sensitive data. The recommended replacement is Devolutions Server (self-hosted) or Cloud, a more secure way to store the same data. And it's now included with your RDM licensing rather than a separate purchase, so the migration is already paid for. Moving your existing SQL workspace into Devolutions Server is straightforward: we've implemented a migration tool that takes care of it. Devolutions Server also brings the team features you'd expect once more than a couple of people are involved. You can integrate it with your IdP so users and group-based permissions map to what you already manage in your directory, instead of having to redo everything in our platform. It also gives you centralized MFA, so you enforce multi-factor consistently across the team from one place rather than per machine. If you want to discuss it further, I'd be more than happy to jump on a call, send my a DM if you're interested.
Thank you for contributing to the discussion. Regarding MS SQL Server MS SQL Server has not yet been deprecated for the Windows application. However, I have always relied on the ability to use RDM on iOS while travelling, and that functionality now appears to be increasingly restricted. MS SQL Server is already marked as deprecated on iOS, and two-factor authentication no longer works. Regarding the licensing model Moving from perpetual licences to a subscription model for such business-critical software represents a significant risk for customers. This is a fundamental change after many years, particularly given the substantial price increase. Subscription models can leave customers highly exposed to sudden price increases and unilateral licensing changes shortly before renewal, when switching to another solution is often no longer feasible. We have seen this happen with vendors such as Broadcom and Paessler, among others. Regarding Devolutions Server Devolutions Server may offer additional benefits, but collaboration was already possible with the existing setup. Thousands of business-critical applications run reliably on MS SQL Server, and in my view, it can be secured appropriately when configured and maintained correctly. I sincerely hope that I will be able to continue using RDM, as I genuinely like the product. However, after experiencing similar licensing and product-strategy changes with other vendors, I have become increasingly cautious about creating further dependency on a single provider.
RoyalTS. We just switched. It's awesome :)
Nah we're fine: Can I use Remote Desktop Manager Free for commercial usage? Yes, you can use RDM Free Edition for commercial purposes; however, it is limited to individual use only. While it's fully functional for managing remote connections and credentials on a personal workstation, it does not include features designed for team environments, such as shared vaults, role-based access control, or centralized management. We just don't get the fancy team features https://store.devolutions.net/package
We've been using rdpman as well. How do you solve central connection mangmt? Right now everyone one our team has his own connection file. Changes don't get sync to other team members
We are using Royal TS with my business, and it's great! In fact I would like to say more stable than RDM. For the past months I have been running a pilot for RDM because thay do support Linux. Unfortunately I find RDM having more inconsystancy than Royal TS. licence of RTS is realy easy and good value for the money!
We are using Royal TS and are very happy with it. I'm not 100% sure if "can use password but not see it" is possible though, it's not a concern for us in our team.
Always been using remote desktop connection manager by sysinternals. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rdcman
Our team just each uses the personal versions, guess that is probobly against their ToS but we dont need any features other than a clean RDP interface with saved creds, I guess they could audit us? Haha
Beyondtrust remotesupport can help It also support 2fa and passkeys and has vault to store and shared credential injection with session recording and audit
We're still using RDM, but we are migrating everything slowly into our PAM (Idira).
Securden (passwordmanager) with integrated Remote desktop connection should cover what you need.
We have the same issue and we're looking into TS currently
how about RoyalTS ? We use it with our ITSM team. It does lag the permissions flexibility.
RoyalTS
!RemindMe 1 week
Im using rocket remote desktop lately and works fine for me 💛
MremoteNG is what I used to use in windows. On my Linux box I use asbru-cm.
I believe Beyond Trust has a solution but I'd be surprised if they were less expensive than the Devolutions offering.