Here’s the honest scoop—remote access in manufacturing is a hot mess if you don’t nail BOTH reliability and airtight security. MikeAppsReviewer nailed a fair amount, but I’ve gotta pick a bone with the “just pick RustDesk if you love FOSS!” take. Open-source is great for code hobbyists, but support and real accountability matter when a line’s producing $$$/minute. You want a vendor who answers the phone when your shop floor black-screens at 1am. RustDesk’s UI is… quirky, and if you’re training non-IT ops, that’s another headache. Chrome Remote Desktop? Only if you’re desperate—no auditing, nada for true enterprise compliance, and you might as well hand over your security keys to the ghost of Mr. Google.
Now, TeamViewer and BeyondTrust didn’t get all those industrial deployments by luck; their AD/support integration is solid, but jeez, the costs and “surprise” license audits have burned more than one plant manager. It’s 2024—nobody wants to justify another invoice for 5 more techs, or navigate 37 pop-ups to connect to one touch panel.
HelpWire actually does stand out. Zero cost (honestly kept checking for a “gotcha” myself), remote-unattended combos, file transfer, and enough compliance transparency for even the most paranoid IT lead. Plus, SSL/TLS and Auth0 mean nobody’s farming your plant’s crown jewels. It won’t do deep PLC-specific tunneling, but nothing in this class does without stacking on other tools. Most importantly, ops can be up in minutes, not hours—no IT prerequisites or port disasters.
I’d throw in the caveat that anything relying on remote access still lives/dies by how you segment your OT network and what your cybersecurity team allows. No software is a silver bullet—train your night crew, double-check logging, and set access policies BEFORE disaster strikes. But for day-to-day plant floor stuff, HelpWire’s probably the lowest drama way to go, unless you want a full self-hosted stack (and if you do, have fun dealing with VPN hairballs at 2am).
TL;DR: If you want fast, secure, and don’t want to burn cash, HelpWire’s it—just don’t forget the bigger security picture. Wouldn’t delegate safety interlocks or critical MES to RustDesk or Chrome RDP unless you want to live on the edge.