VNC
Shares rank 7 of 22 game streaming software by recommenders
Simple, long-established remote desktop protocol that some find better than X11 forwarding or Chrome Remote Desktop. Critics call it laggy, weaker than RDP, and poor on slow links.
Simple, long-established remote desktop protocol that some find better than X11 forwarding or Chrome Remote Desktop. Critics call it laggy, weaker than RDP, and poor on slow links.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 19
- approval share
- 34%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Default option for remote access
“Maybe it would be easier to just USE VNC instead.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “We replaced H.264 streaming with JPEG screenshots (and it worked better)” “right now remoting into other systems is just VNC”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Laggy with high latency
“VNC is fine but can be laggy”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “RustDesk now supports true unattended remote access on Wayland” “Try getting a usable VNC session when your cell phone hot spot is hitting 2-30 second ping times”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” “Slow connect times and backpressure/latency”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “We replaced H.264 streaming with JPEG screenshots (and it worked better)” - Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “I refuse to let SPICE die”
Poor overall experience
“I had VNC setup from my phone to my computer, but it's just too awful of an experience”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Anthropic is launching Claude Cowork on mobile and web” “VNC/TeamViewer/Remote Desktop setups are all mediocre imho”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra” “they're pretty mediocre experience-wise”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Why TUIs Are Back” Outdated, worse than alternatives
“So much faster and seamless than VNC.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Any window from your Mac, on your iPhone and iPad” “Anything is better than VNC.”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “I Traced My Traffic Through a Home Tailscale Exit Node” “VNC is well past its prime.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “I refuse to let SPICE die” Weaker than RDP in features
“VNC is not even remotely close to RDP in features or performance. It just isn't.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows” “The terribleness of VNC (vs RDP) is what gets you.”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “Anthropic, please ship an official Claude Desktop for Linux”
Other game streaming software people recommend
The four most recommended other game streaming software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonlight | 68 | 10 | 87% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Sunshine | 55 | 16 | 77% | 10 | — | Approved |
| RustDesk | 32 | 20 | 62% | 8 | — | — |
| Sunshine and Moonlight | 18 | 6 | 75% | 7 | 3 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| VNCThis page | 10 | 19 | 34% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“So much faster and seamless than VNC.”
“VNC is well past its prime.”
“Bad latency, bad quality, bad integration.”
“VNC/TeamViewer/Remote Desktop setups are all mediocre imho”
“Try getting a usable VNC session when your cell phone hot spot is hitting 2-30 second ping times”
“VNC does not, for example, and you need to set up port forwarding through ssh.”
“VNC is fine but can be laggy”
“you need to set up port forwarding through ssh”
“If you already use VNC this is not something for you”
“You can already do this with VNC or Xpra”
“The RFB protocol (VNC) has improved over time like other protocols.”
“didn't find it worth using”
“I had VNC setup from my phone to my computer, but it's just too awful of an experience”
“The terribleness of VNC (vs RDP) is what gets you.”
“they're pretty mediocre experience-wise”
“Anything is better than VNC.”
“Switched to VNC, which worked much better.”
“Much fetter than X11's remote setups, VNC, RDP and whatnot.”
“right now remoting into other systems is just VNC”
“Slow connect times and backpressure/latency”
“it can't render certain graphics or something”
“Maybe it would be easier to just USE VNC instead.”
“It is actually quite elegant in its simplicity.”
“Copying how VNC does it is exactly how my first attempt would go.”
“VNC is not even remotely close to RDP in features or performance. It just isn't.”
“I've found it to perform better than the alternatives (remote X11, VNC, Chrome Remote Desktop)”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.