# Remote support and remote access for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "remote support tool" and as "remote desktop software", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/operations/remote-support-and-remote-access/smb/

**Standing:** Zoho Assist leads with 38% of first choices; verdict contested. 60 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zoho Assist | 38% | 0% | 57 |
| 2 | Splashtop Remote Support | 23% | 0% | 49 |
| 3 | TeamViewer | 7% | 50% | 62 |
| 4 | AnyDesk | 5% | 23% | 47 |
| 5 | RemotePC | 5% | 0% | 16 |
| 6 | ConnectWise ScreenConnect | 5% | 36% | 28 |
| 7 | Chrome Remote Desktop | 3% | 45% | 20 |
| 8 | RustDesk | 2% | 9% | 11 |
| 9 | BeyondTrust Remote Support | 0% | 36% | 11 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: RemotePC; alternatives GoTo Resolve, Splashtop Remote Support, Zoho Assist
- GPT-5.4 mini: Zoho Assist; alternatives ConnectWise, LogMeIn Resolve, Splashtop Remote Support
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Zoho Assist; alternatives ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop SOS
- Perplexity Sonar: Zoho Assist; alternatives Splashtop Remote Support
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Zoho Assist; alternatives Splashtop Remote Support, TeamViewer
- Mistral Small: Zoho Assist; alternatives GoTo Resolve, TeamViewer
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Zoho Assist; alternatives AnyDesk, Splashtop Remote Support
- Llama 4 Maverick: Zoho Assist; alternatives GoTo Resolve, LogMeIn Rescue
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Splashtop Remote Support; alternatives AnyDesk, Atera
- Kimi K2: Zoho Assist; alternatives RemotePC, Splashtop Remote Support
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: RemotePC, Zoho Assist; alternatives Splashtop Remote Access, TeamViewer
- MiniMax M2.5: TeamViewer; alternatives BeyondTrust Remote Support, Zendesk, Zoho Assist
- GPT-6 Luna: Zoho Assist; alternatives Splashtop SOS
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HelpWire, Zoho Assist; alternatives AnyDesk

## Sources the answers cite

70 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- zoho.com: 36 answers, 71 citations
- teamviewer.com: 32 answers, 53 citations
- guideflow.com: 31 answers, 33 citations
- learn.g2.com: 30 answers, 43 citations
- g2.com: 29 answers, 47 citations
- dnsstuff.com: 28 answers, 34 citations
- splashtop.com: 26 answers, 33 citations
- spiceworks.com: 20 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://zoho.com/assist/articles/top-remote-support-software-for-it-teams.html (26 answers)
- https://dnsstuff.com/remote-support-software (25 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/remote-support-software (24 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-remote-support-software (21 answers)
- https://spiceworks.com/tech/tech-general/articles/best-remote-support-tools (20 answers)
- https://financesonline.com/c/remote-support-software (14 answers)
- https://teamviewer.com/en-us/special/top-10-remote-desktop-software-solutions (14 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/affordable-remote-desktop-software-for-smbs (13 answers)
- https://zendesk.co.uk/service/ticketing-system/remote-helpdesk-software (13 answers)
- https://asianetnews.com/finance/remote-desktop-software (12 answers)

## Warned against

- TeamViewer: 31 of 62 labels 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: 10 of 28 labels negative. "ConnectWise ScreenConnect - Exploited in 2024-2025 with zero-day vulnerabilities" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)
- AnyDesk: 11 of 47 labels 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: 9 of 20 labels negative. "Avoid: Purely Consumer/Free Tools (For Formal Operations) ... Chrome Remote Desktop ... no centralized way to revoke access" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.