Top VDI Alternative for Secure, High-Performing Remote Access
With Splashtop, hundreds of thousands of businesses, schools and government institutions are enjoying high performance, quick-to-deploy remote access to existing Windows, Mac & Linux computers, servers and virtual machines.
The Real Challenges of Relying on Traditional VDI Today
While Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions have been widely used, many organizations are finding them increasingly difficult to manage in today’s hybrid work environment. Common challenges include:
High Costs – VDI requires significant upfront investment in servers, storage, and licensing, plus ongoing maintenance. These expenses make it difficult for smaller IT teams and growing organizations to scale.
Complex Setup and Management – Deploying and managing VDI often demands specialized expertise, dedicated infrastructure, and continuous oversight, adding unnecessary burden to IT staff.
Performance Limitations – End users frequently encounter latency, bandwidth bottlenecks, or degraded experience when accessing resource-intensive apps, especially in creative, design, or engineering workflows.
Security Concerns – While VDI centralizes data, misconfigured systems, outdated patches, or vulnerabilities in the VDI environment itself can expose sensitive information. Keeping up with evolving threats requires constant vigilance and extra layers of protection.
Limited Accessibility – Traditional VDI setups often struggle to provide seamless access across all devices and operating systems. Remote workers may face restrictions or compatibility issues when trying to connect from personal or mobile devices.
These drawbacks highlight why many organizations are seeking flexible, secure, and cost-effective alternatives like Splashtop, which provides high-performance remote access without the heavy infrastructure demands of VDI.
Overcoming VDI & DaaS Challenges with Remote Desktop Solutions
Remote desktop software like Splashtop provides a modern alternative to traditional VDI and DaaS models. By removing the need for expensive infrastructure and complex management, Splashtop helps organizations overcome the most common pain points.
Lower Costs – Eliminate costly servers, storage, and licensing tied to VDI. Splashtop delivers secure access without the heavy overhead.
Simple Deployment – Get started quickly with lightweight software instead of lengthy infrastructure projects. IT teams can scale access instantly across users and devices.
High-Performance Experience – Splashtop offers low-latency, 4K-quality streaming that supports demanding applications used by designers, engineers, and media professionals.
Enterprise-Grade Security – All connections are secured with TLS and 256-bit AES encryption, multi-factor authentication, device verification, and compliance with standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR.
Cross-Platform Accessibility – Users can access work desktops and apps from Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and Chromebooks, enabling true device flexibility for hybrid and remote workforces.
Splashtop Remote Desktop vs. Traditional VDI/DaaS: Detailed Comparison
| Splashtop | VDI / DaaS |
|---|---|---|
Performance | Users get reliable, high-performance remote sessions allowing them to carry out even resource-intensive tasks like video-editing, graphic design, creating animations, coding, and much more with low latency. Splashtop supports NVIDIA and AMD GPU acceleration. | DaaS and VDI infrastructure could be located many hundreds of miles away resulting in laggy remote access experience, hampering productivity. |
User Experience | In addition to high performance remote sessions, additional features like drag and drop file transfer, true multi-multi monitor support, 4:4:4 color mode, high-fidelity audio and ability to redirect usb devices like stylus pens/tablets, enable an immersive remote access experience, just as if you were in-person. | Lack a comprehensive feature set that increases productivity and enables a seamless user experience during remote sessions. |
Software Licensing | No additional software licenses are required. Users can access the work computers and use existing licensed applications, just as they would on campus. | Many of the existing apps would need to have different licenses that cover virtualization. In fact, some software vendors do not allow their software to be virtualized due to their inability to properly track licensing, and ones that do offer virtualization licensing often charge a premium. Engaging all the software vendors to relicense will expand license management complexity, cost, and time. |
Time to Deploy | Up and running in minutes. | VDI deployment can take months / DaaS can take weeks. Engaging different software app vendors to relicense for virtualization usage can take months. |
Scheduling Student Access | IT admins can schedule specific times, and manage permissions for employees to access computers through a centralized admin console, giving IT admins tight control over access and usage. | No inherent scheduling capabilities. |
Cost Incurred and Ability to Leverage Existing Investment | Pay for concurrent user licenses and utilize existing investment in computers. Physical computers (CapEx) allow institutions to better manage and control their budget. | The operating cost (OpEx) can be very high especially when based on a metered or on demand bases. High usage drives the price up significantly. Imagine many users forgetting to log off their VDI cloud instances that kept running. |
Data Security and Privacy | All data resides in the office. | With DaaS, careful review and monitoring are required to protect user privacy as data is stored in the cloud. There are additional data privacy compliance requirements overhead and risks. |
Mac Support | Many businesses use Windows as well as Mac computers. Splashtop delivers a consistent user experience across Windows and Macs. | X |
Ability to Collaborate on Remote Sessions | Multiple users can join a remote session and collaborate with colleagues on the same computer. | X |
Consolidated Platform for Remote Access and Support | Splashtop Enterprise also offers remote support capabilities enabling IT teams to manage and monitor computers, as well as provide on-demand support to employees from anywhere. | X |
Best Suited for Hybrid Work | A combination of in-person and remote work is the future and Splashtop is the best-suited remote access partner. Employees can work on the computers when in-office and can also get remote access to the same computers from home. IT can leverage the same platform for endpoint management and to provide remote support on any device, anywhere. | Not suitable for a hybrid work environment. |
Splashtop is used by over 30 million people worldwide. Read more about Splashtop Enterprise.