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8 self-hosted Microsoft Remote Desktop alternatives

Microsoft Remote Desktop is a service and set of client applications that let users connect to and control Windows PCs, virtual desktops and remote applications (including Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop) from other devices, with authentication, session management and device/resource redirecti

Alternatives to Microsoft Remote Desktop

Self-hosted game streaming server for Moonlight with low-latency streaming, hardware/software encoding, and web-based configuration and pairing.

Sunshine screenshot

40.6k stars2.1k forksGPL-3.0last commit Actively maintained

Self-hosted server management platform with web SSH terminal, SSH tunneling, remote file manager/editor, Docker controls, monitoring, and RBAC with OIDC and 2FA.

Termix screenshot

14.9k stars689 forkslast commit Actively maintained

Desktop application that centralizes SSH, containers, VMs, Kubernetes and remote file management; integrates local CLI tools and syncs connection data via git.

XPipe screenshot

14.5k stars554 forksApache-2.0last commit Actively maintained

Headless Steam Docker image for remote game streaming with noVNC web desktop, Proton support, and NVIDIA/AMD/Intel GPU acceleration, compatible with Steam Link and Moonlight.

4.7k stars285 forksGPL-2.0last commit Actively maintained

#7

Open-source Moonlight streaming server that runs in Docker to share a single host among multiple remote clients.

Wolf screenshot

2.1k stars149 forksMITlast commit Actively maintained

What replacing Microsoft Remote Desktop actually involves

Every option on this page is open source and free to run on your own hardware, so you own the data and there is no subscription to cancel. 7 of 8 shipped a commit in the last six months. Licences in this list: GPL-3.0, Apache-2.0, GPL-2.0, MIT. In exchange you take on hosting, backups and updates yourself.

Browse everything in Remote Access & Remote Desktop.

Other tools people replace alongside Microsoft Remote Desktop