AI Indexes
IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT operations and endpoint › Remote support › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Remote support and remote access for small business buyers

Asked as “remote support tool”, and as “remote desktop software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 60 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · Splashtop Remote Support 23%
38Zoho Assist23Splashtop Remote Support07TeamViewer32others

38% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Zoho Assist38%0%57endorsed leader
02Splashtop Remote Support23%0%49accepted challenger
03TeamViewer7%50%62criticized challenger
04AnyDesk5%23%47accepted challenger
05RemotePC5%0%16accepted challenger
06ConnectWise ScreenConnect5%36%28criticized challenger
07Chrome Remote Desktop3%45%20criticized challenger
08RustDesk2%9%11accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09BeyondTrust Remote Support0%36%11criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
R05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Zoho Assist38%
02Splashtop Remote Support23%
03TeamViewer7%
04AnyDesk5%
05RemotePC5%
06ConnectWise ScreenConnect5%
07Chrome Remote Desktop3%
08RustDesk2%
09BeyondTrust Remote Support0%

What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
TeamViewer
50%
31 of 62 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Tools like TeamViewer have consumer-grade foundations and past vulnerabilities that don't meet enterprise-grade security demands, leaving organizations exposed” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
ConnectWise ScreenConnect
36%
10 of 28 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“ConnectWise ScreenConnect - Exploited in 2024-2025 with zero-day vulnerabilities” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
AnyDesk
23%
11 of 47 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Suffered a major 2024 breach where production systems were compromised... Not ideal for sensitive data until proven stable post-incident.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Chrome Remote Desktop
45%
9 of 20 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid: Purely Consumer/Free Tools (For Formal Operations) ... Chrome Remote Desktop ... no centralized way to revoke access” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

70 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 911 links across 205 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Zoho36 answers · 71 citations · 12 models
vendor site · TeamViewer32 answers · 53 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Guideflow31 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G230 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G229 answers · 47 citations · 11 models
28 answers · 34 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Splashtop26 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Spiceworks20 answers · 20 citations · 6 models
14 answers · 14 citations · 6 models
13 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Zendesk13 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
vendor site · RealVNC12 answers · 13 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best remote support tool”, “remote support tool”, “remote support tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Zoho Assist zoho.com38%1139,9001601,216,894$51,031119
Splashtop SOS splashtop.com
Splashtop Remote Support 23%, Splashtop SOS 2%, Splashtop Business Access 2%
27%136180,282120
TeamViewer teamviewer.com7%159165,0004,179516,592$19,425246
AnyDesk anydesk.com5%116165,0002,090
RemotePC5%27,100263
ConnectWise connectwise.com
ConnectWise ScreenConnect 5%, ConnectWise 0%
5%10422,200792117,593$840120
HelpWire helpwire.app3%72
Chrome Remote Desktop chrome.com3%35301,0001,686
RustDesk rustdesk.com2%2049,50064122,684
DWService dwservice.net2%4

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (dnsstuff.com, getapp.com, teamviewer.com). The first result for “best remote support tool” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best remote support tool for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which remote desktop software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top remote support tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best remote support tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a remote support tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which remote support tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5RemotePC
Three alternativesGoTo Resolve, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
AnyDesk, TeamViewerChanged
Two alternativesChrome Remote Desktop, Microsoft Remote Desktop
against: ConnectWise ScreenConnect
RemotePC, Zoho Assist
Three alternativesAnyDesk, Splashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop
One alternativeZoho Assist
no first choiceagainst: TeamViewer
GPT-5.4 miniZoho Assist
Three alternativesConnectWise, LogMeIn Resolve, Splashtop Remote Support
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
Two alternativesAnyDesk, TeamViewer
Zoho Assist
Four alternativesAnyDesk, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote Support
Two alternativesRealVNC On-Demand Assist, TeamViewer
no first choiceagainst: RDP, VNC
Gemini 3.5 FlashZoho Assist
Two alternativesConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop SOS
against: Chrome Remote Desktop, Microsoft RDP, TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
Three alternativesConnectWise ScreenConnect, RustDesk, Zoho Assist
against: Chrome Remote Desktop, TeamViewer
Zoho Assist
Four alternativesAnyDesk, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, RustDesk, Splashtop Remote Support
DWService, HelpWire
Three alternativesRustDesk, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
against: AnyDesk, TeamViewer
ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support
One alternativeZoho Assist
against: BeyondTrust Remote Support, LogMeIn Rescue, TeamViewer
against: Ammyy Admin, AnyDesk, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, LogMeIn, Raw Windows RDP, Supremo, TeamViewer, UltraViewer
Perplexity SonarZoho Assist
One alternativeSplashtop Remote Support
against: TeamViewer
Zoho AssistHeld
Three alternativesRemotePC, Splashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
Zoho Assist
Three alternativesChrome Remote Desktop, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support
Zoho Assist
Two alternativesAnyDesk, RemotePC
no first choiceagainst: Chrome Remote Desktop, LogMeIn Rescue, Remote Desktop Manager, TeamViewer, Windows Quick Assist
Grok 4.1 FastZoho Assist
Two alternativesSplashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
One alternativeZoho Assist
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
One alternativeAnyDesk
against: NinjaOne, TeamViewer
Zoho Assist
Three alternativesAnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, RemotePC
no first choiceagainst: AnyDesk, LogMeIn, Native RDP, TeamViewer
Mistral SmallZoho Assist
Two alternativesGoTo Resolve, TeamViewer
no first choiceChangedTeamViewer
Five alternativesAnyDesk, BeyondTrust Remote Support, GoTo Resolve, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
LogMeIn Rescue, Zoho Assist
One alternativeSplashtop Remote Support
against: TeamViewer
no first choiceagainst: ConnectWise ScreenConnect, TeamViewer
DeepSeek V4 FlashZoho Assist
Two alternativesAnyDesk, Splashtop Remote Support
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
Two alternativesConnectWise ScreenConnect, Zoho Assist
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
Three alternativesAnyDesk, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
One alternativeRustDesk
against: AnyDesk
Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
Two alternativesAnyDesk, TeamViewer
against: Chrome Remote Desktop
against: Ammyy Admin, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, LogMeIn, MeshCentral, RDP, UltraVNC, VNC
Llama 4 MaverickZoho Assist
Two alternativesGoTo Resolve, LogMeIn Rescue
TeamViewerChanged
Two alternativesLogMeIn, RemotePC
no first choiceZoho Assist
Two alternativesLogMeIn Rescue, Splashtop Remote Support
no first choiceagainst: LogMeIn Rescue
Qwen 3.7 FlashConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support
Two alternativesAnyDesk, Atera
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
Three alternativesAnyDesk, Atera, TeamViewer
Splashtop Business Access
Two alternativesAnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop
against: TeamViewer
RustDesk
Four alternativesAtera, Chrome Remote Desktop, Splashtop SOS, Syncro
against: TeamViewer
ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support
One alternativeAnyDesk
against: TeamViewer, VMware Bespoke
against: AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, GoTo Resolve, RustDesk, TeamViewer, VNC
Kimi K2Zoho Assist
Two alternativesRemotePC, Splashtop Remote Support
against: TeamViewer
Splashtop Business Access, Splashtop Remote SupportChanged
Three alternativesConnectWise ScreenConnect, RemotePC, Zoho Assist
against: AnyDesk, TeamViewer
Splashtop Remote Support
Three alternativesAnyDesk, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Zoho Assist
against: TeamViewer
Chrome Remote Desktop, Zoho Assist
One alternativeSplashtop Remote Support
Zoho Assist
Three alternativesAnyDesk, Splashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
against: AnyDesk, BeyondTrust Remote Support, Chrome Remote Desktop, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, HPE Insight Remote Support, Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol, TeamViewer
GLM 4.7 FlashXRemotePC, Zoho Assist
Two alternativesSplashtop Remote Access, TeamViewer
TeamViewerChanged
Four alternativesAnyDesk, RemotePC, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
Chrome Remote Desktop, Zoho Assist
Six alternativesAirDroid Business, Atera, FixMe.IT, InvGate Service Management, NinjaOne, TeamViewer Remote
against: Datto RMM
RemotePC
Four alternativesAnyDesk, RustDesk, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
against: Chrome Remote Desktop, TeamViewer
no first choiceagainst: AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, MeshCentral, Microsoft Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, VNC, Windows Quick Assist
MiniMax M2.5TeamViewer
Three alternativesBeyondTrust Remote Support, Zendesk, Zoho Assist
Zoho AssistChanged
Three alternativesAnyDesk, GoTo Resolve, TeamViewer
TeamViewer
Three alternativesAnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, Zoho Assist
AnyDesk, Zoho Assist
Two alternativesChrome Remote Desktop, Windows Remote Desktop
no first choiceagainst: Ammyy Admin, AnyDesk, BeyondTrust Remote Support, ConnectWise ScreenConnect, MeshCentral, SimpleHelp
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:27yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:02yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:55yes1726 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:32yes144 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:57yes197 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:22yes105 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:03yes2251 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:25yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:16no025 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:47yes1420 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:12yes1564 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:43yes514 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:55no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:22yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:17yes1023 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:27yes173 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:37yes218 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:34no01 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:45yes2343 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:39yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:31no025 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:33yes1532 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:20yes1538 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:54yes548 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:26yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:54yes78 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:37yes1427 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:06yes145 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:44yes239 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:56yes66 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:18yes2269 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:39yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:18no030 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:52yes1522 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:53yes2272 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:58yes1016 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:59no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:50yes33 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:43yes2825 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:02yes163 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:22yes247 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:35yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 01:29yes1536 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 01:52yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:21no028 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:04yes813 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:52yes1341 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:40no09 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 01:28no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:03no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 01:35yes724 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:16yes154 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:34yes157 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 01:47no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:48yes1670 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:10yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:15no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:37yes1321 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:35yes1348 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 01:21no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:04yes1911 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:49yes44 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:18yes2726 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 01:48yes182 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 01:52yes2511 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:51yes157 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:17yes2564 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:24yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 01:35yes1777 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 01:51yes2521 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:48yes2363 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:57yes1769 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
BeyondTrust read as BeyondTrust Remote Support
Splashtop read as Splashtop Remote Support
Splashtop (Business Access / SOS) read as Splashtop Remote Support
Splashtop (SOS or Business Access) read as Splashtop Remote Support
Splashtop (Specifically Splashtop SOS) read as Splashtop Remote Support
Splashtop Enterprise read as Splashtop Remote Support
Unresolved, counted raw
HPE Insight Remote Support
Microsoft's built-in Remote Desktop
Native RDP (Windows Remote Desktop Protocol)
Raw Windows RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
RealVNC On-Demand Assist
Remote Desktop Manager
SolarView
Supremo
TeamViewer Remote Access
VMware Bespoke
Windows Remote Desktop
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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