# RustDesk

32 Hacker News commenters recommended RustDesk and 20 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open source remote desktop that works without opening ports and beats VNC on performance. Critics note direct IP connections are not encrypted.

## Why people recommend it

- Open source and self-hostable (5 comments): "If you self host a relay/coordination server - encryption works as documented." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49304371)) "RustDesk is also open source including the server so you can fully self-host." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49303044)) "RustDesk connections are fully encrypted even when using a self-hosted server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310586))
- Faster than VNC (4 comments): "RustDesk works so much better and easier than vnc and other vendored solutions. No need to open ports, no need for vpn, it just works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302593)) "Rustdesk is considerably more performant than the VNC family, because the latter primarily sends framebuffer updates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302466)) "RustDesk is video-stream based (in many formats), while TightVNC is image(-region) based." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49304601))
- Good AnyDesk alternative (4 comments): "Rustdesk has been a nice alternative/replacement for Anydesk, I use both 10+ times a day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49308611)) "It works for me, and I see little difference with AnyDesk I used before." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46067579)) "RustDesk has a similar business model and works fine for what it is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48544388))
- Used daily for remote help (4 comments): "Since I have a desktop I do use rustdesk way more often to just boot into that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48170606)) "Rustdesk is amazing. I was using it just 2 days ago and ran into this hiccup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49305619)) "I installed rustdesk so I can help them through whatever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480712))

## What people warn about

- Direct connections not encrypted (4 comments): "RustDesk already encrypts connections going via Relay. Encryption is missing in direct IP to IP connections only" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49311746)) "Direct connections in a local network are not encrypted, and RuskDesk doesn't plan on implementing it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307094)) "RustDesk still does not support encrypted connections when self hosting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302135))
- Trust and reputation concerns (4 comments): "Both client and the free server depend on a separate submodule that has no LICENSE file whatsoever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49305297)) "And they deleted this discussion too, along with the issue mentioned earlier! Really bad look." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49332852)) "the developers have a sketchy enough reputation already from other incidents" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49313026))
- Weak Wayland support on Linux (2 comments): "works pretty well for casual use despite wayland support being labelled experimental" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487126)) "it doesn't really work well in linux with wayland" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48536147))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Microsoft Remote Desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-remote-desktop.md): 10 recommend
- [TeamViewer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/teamviewer.md): 7 recommend
- [GNOME Remote Desktop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnome-remote-desktop.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "RustDesk", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rustdesk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).