NetSupport Manager

NetSupport has sold remote control software from the same corner of England since the 1990s, well before the current wave of subscription-priced competitors existed, and NetSupport Manager is still the product that carries that history forward.

It runs entirely on-premises by design — no third-party cloud broker sits anywhere in the session path — with clients for Windows, macOS and legacy Linux plus mobile viewing apps, aimed at IT departments that want to keep the whole connection inside their own network boundary.

The licence is bought once rather than rented: a perpetual licence with support and training included, and no implementation fees, priced by the number of licences a business needs. NetSupport Ltd is based in Market Deeping, near Peterborough in the United Kingdom, and the product is aimed squarely at IT departments and, through a sister product, education, with hardware and software inventory alongside the remote-control core.

Set against RealVNC's direct connections or AnyDesk's on-premises relay, NetSupport Manager's case is simplicity: no broker to configure, no recurring session fee, just a licence you own. The trade-off is a dated interface next to the newer entrants and pricing that requires a sales conversation to see.

What NetSupport Manager does well

• On-premises with no third-party cloud broker
• Perpetual licence, not a recurring subscription
• Support and training included, no implementation fees
• Hardware and software inventory alongside remote control
• UK company selling the product since the 1990s

Where NetSupport Manager falls short

• Pricing not published, quote-based only
• Interface is dated next to newer competitors
• Linux support is legacy rather than current
• Free trial length not stated

Standout feature. A perpetual licence bought once, with no cloud broker and no recurring session fee.