How to Build a Remote Desktop Software App?

Remote desktop software, though being widely known before, came as a rescue during the COVID-19 pandemic. It came out as a vital tool connecting teachers and students empowering e-learning and also remote workforces. Many businesses faced the challenge of bridging distances and arranging the working process in a global lockdown. Corporate data needed to be accessed from distant locations. Though not without challenges, businesses quickly embraced the convenience and flexibility offered by remote software solutions. So, due to the increasing adoption of work-from-home, the market of remote software got a shot in the arm.

Remote Desktop Software Market

In 2019, the investments in Edu-tech globally reached about US $18.7 billion. The adoption of remote software technologies has only grown since then. The global market of remote desktop solutions is projected to grow almost 4 times from $3.33 billion in 2024 to $12.28 billion by 2032, demonstrating a CAGR of 17.7%.

Below, you can see the market share of remote desktop access software worldwide by end-users in 2023. Obviously, the key industries are increasingly adopting and consequently need remote desktop software.

That’s why today we are going to delve deeper into the development of remote tools for various needs - management, monitoring, education, and much more. Let’s start from the very beginning.

What Is Remote Desktop Software?

This is the software that allows a user to access a computer from a far-away place. Such solutions provide a distant desktop connection and allow users to see the screen of another device. They can view and control another PC’s desktop remotely making modifications, printing documents, transferring files, etc. One can install, uninstall, configure applications, and troubleshoot the problems. Even complicated tasks can be handled from a laptop because all that is needed is the possibility of connection. For carrying out the tasks, the resources of a powerful computer are used. So, no matter where the machine is located, a user can see its screen and interact with it as though they were in front of it.

Nowadays it’s a popular service for businesses of all sizes. Corporations use it widely because they gain convenient access to their devices, computer resources, or networks from far-away places.

As far as we can see the trend, the growth of the market will be fueled by small and mid-sized businesses adopting remote desktop solutions to save their costs on IT resources. However, to use it, you should develop it. So, let’s find out how to build a remote desktop software application for the benefit of your business.

How to Create Remote Access Software?

To craft a really competitive product you should make it stand out in the market and this requires much effort. Below you can find the critical milestones to follow.

Determine the user segment, offer, price, and other aspects of the remote-working software to be

Users are the driving force of your product’s popularity. Before you decide how do you build remote access software, you should determine the user segment to service. Figure out the use cases of your solution, whether it will serve those who work from home, those who travel or study, or maybe gamers. Will it function as a remote IT helpdesk or customer support, used for remote desktop access or administration, etc?

Depending on the user segment, you can also strategize on the pricing of your product. You may offer an abridged free version or only paid plans. So, at this step use brainstorming, competitor research, market studies, and strategize.

Select the features for the remote desktop access software

The key functions of a remote desktop solution are sending requests to the host, executing requests, and transmitting the related datum back to the client. The datum becomes visible on the user's display. The connection should be built over a secured channel and secured with SSL. It makes data passing completely safe and secured against unauthenticated persons.

So, based on the mentioned above consider the following features:

• Remote computers’ access,
• Sharing a screen,
• File transferring,
• Drag and drop tools,
• Chat or messenger,
• Collaboration tools,
• Videoconferencing and chat,
• Session recording option;
• Compatibility with popular OSs and cross-platform support,
• Workflow management and automation functionality.

Besides the feature list, you should compose a non-functional requirements description. As a rule, it touches upon:

• Performance,
• Scalability,
• Reliability,
• Security,
• Availability,
• Maintainability.

It’s critical to decide on the type of app you are going to offer, whether it’ll be web, desktop, or mobile. As soon as done, finalize the design parameters of the user interface.

If everything is ready, proceed to the next step.

Plan the MVP for the proposed remote desktop software

To validate your business idea and your product's general concept, we advise building a Minimum Viable Product. It should have fewer features, yet be quite functional to get the feedback of real users. You can later enhance and improve the software, based on market insights. MVP will prompt you on how to create a remote desktop access software most effectively.

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Plan the key functionality development of a software application for remote work

There are certain major features you should focus on first. They are:

• Remote machines access
• Secure interaction with remote computers
• Data encryption

So, the development team should study the key technologies RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), VPN (Virtual Private Network), and the 256-bit AES encryption algorithm.

The RDP allows one PC to access a remote device. Besides, it lets a user administrate data and use resources on a distant computer. An RDP-based communication system uses multiple virtual channels to transmit data such as serial device signals, licensing details, encrypted data, and presentation one.

Decomposing the connection into 9 stages an RPD transmits the remote desktop monitor to a client. By clicking the mouse or keyboard the latter executes actions on a remote PC.

A VPN provides a protocol program and encryption to browse the Internet with privacy and security. It prevents external entities from snooping on you. The encrypted tunnel serves as a black box for them.

256-bit AES encryption is reputed to be the strongest encryption algorithm. It should be your first choice in the process of remote desktop software app development.

Plan the development of secondary functions of the remote desktop tool

Key features are the basis, but you should also offer secondary functionality to make your product stand out and keep your users loyal. Consider the following features and the relevant technologies.

• Video conferencing. It’s usually realized with open-source Web Real-time Communication protocol. The latter helps to implement the feature of video calls for web, Android, and iOS solutions.
• Secure file transferring. SSH File Transfer Protocol is a trusted protocol that may help you prevent cyber-attacks like “Man-in-the-middle” or “password sniffing”. It uses encryption and cryptography to protect the integrity of the transferred data.

Select an MCSP to create remote desktop access software

We advise using a Managed Cloud Services Provider to build remote desktop access software.

Several MCSPs offer quite comprehensive cloud services. Just a few to mention are Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and Microsoft Azure. The platform you choose should be determined by the project requirements. The choice can be IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), or MBaaS (Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service).

The first provides cloud infrastructure, networking, servers, etc. PaaS takes care of the servers, networking, OS, runtime environment, and middleware, as well as databases, DevOps tools, and more. MBaaS deals with mobile app development projects, handling the consistent storage and cloud infrastructure. It also simplifies API integration, making the mobile backend development and maintenance easy.

So, analyze the requirements of your project and choose the right MCSP, tech stack, and cloud platform. Let’s speak about it in more detail.

Select a tech stack for building remote desktop software

Depending on the type of app you develop, you need the relative tech stack. Java is highly recommended for desktop enterprise-scale applications.

JavaScript works perfectly for web app front-end development, consider AngularJS or ReactJS. Node.js can be applied for back-end development of performant and scalable web apps.

Kotlin is our primary choice for Android development and Swift for iOS. React Native is good for hybrid mobile app development.

Don’t forget about Relational Database Management Systems, choose MySQL or PostgreSQL. Also, MongoDB or Apache Cassandra can be used as NoSQL databases.

In case you need AI or ML capabilities for your product, choose Python.

However, the most reliable way to choose the right tech stack is to hire a professional development team. This is our next point.

Hire a development team to build remote access software

For software product development, you need a professional development team. It usually consists of programmers, UI designers, DevOps engineers, and testers.

The variants of cooperation may be different. We recommend hiring a dedicated team from a highly experienced company, like Stfalcon. Companies provide management support and can advise the best development approaches, based on their expertise.

Test and deploy the remote desktop access software developed

As soon as your software solution is developed, you should test it and deploy it. Stfalcon’s specialists take care of this for their clients, because we know all the ropes of the process.

What’s more, our experts help to fix bugs and correct mistakes revealed, based on user feedback.

Top 3 Popular Remote Access Programs Examples

To outperform the existing software in the market, you need to know well your competitors. Here are our top picks of present-day remote access solutions.

Team Viewer

This is the best remote access software for personal use because it’s completely free. Free users can enjoy all the features commercial clients get. Easy access, audio and video chats, and seamless file transfers are among them. Note that AI detects commercial usage of team viewer, and commercial usage is rather expensive. There are cheaper alternatives to look at and one of them is described below.

RemotePC

This cross-platform solution is considered the best for small businesses. The software is regularly updated, quick to download and configure, and offers cloud storage. RemotePC offers multiple collaboration tools for team members. The functionality includes file transferring, voice chats, video conferencing, virtual whiteboard, remote sounds playing, and session recording. A critical RemotePC’s advantage is its 24/7 support.

Unfortunately, the product has an abridged web app and lacks certain features for smooth iOS or Android usage.

Zoho Assist

This cloud-based software deals with mobile devices, a feature not offered by the other products of the kind. Android devices can be remotely controlled with Zoho Assist. Apple's operating system prevents it for iOS. However, troubleshooting is quite possible, because a user can see everything on the remote display.

The software offers security and ease of use. It runs completely from the browser. You can access your devices from anywhere—even from PCs you can't install software on.

The features offered are files of up to 2GB transfer, chat, video conferencing, multiple screen sharing, remote power control, and session recording. What’s more integration with other Zoho products is possible, Zoho CRM is just one option.

These are the software solutions leading the edge in 2024. However, there are many more products in the market. Google and Microsoft also offer their solutions for remote desktop access, but we are now going to look at the major use cases for such software.

Remote Desktop Software Use Cases

Remote Desktop Protocol serves multifaceted purposes in the digital present-day landscape.

The primary use cases are about remote troubleshooting. This software allows IT professionals and technicians to connect, diagnose, and fix remote systems.

Another application of RDL in the increasingly remote work landscape is the connection to work computers from anywhere. It ensures the productivity, efficiency, and flexibility of dislocated employees. They can seamlessly access their work environment and all files and programs necessary for the job without requiring extra software. It helps ensure continuity in their tasks.

Remote desktop access is essential for off-site IT administration. Admins can configure, manage servers, and update systems and their components from a distance. This can be beneficial for remote work settings and corporate environments as well.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop Remote Desktop Software?

The question of price is rather awkward. It often sounds like “How much does it cost to build a house?” What house? How large should it be? What building materials do you want? What do you want inside? Which building company do you prefer?

We guess you’ve got the metaphor already. The cost of a remote desktop access software product can start from US $50,000 and soar to US $1000000 and even above.

Nobody will give a definite answer to this question until you specify all the project details - the general concept, complexity of the product, the features, the preferred tech stack, and such aspects as the level of developers, form of cooperation, and timeline. The choice of specialists also matters in terms of location. East European specialists are well known for their perfect value-for-money ratio. So, Ukrainian developers and Stfalcon’s team can be your ideal choice. As soon as we find out all your project details, we can estimate it, figure out how to develop remote desktop software for you most effectively, and even prompt certain cost-saving development tricks.

Conclusion

Trusting your software product creation to an expert development team you risk getting a highly-competitive innovative product. Our team has almost 15 years of experience behind our back and we like challenging projects. So, we will gladly craft a remote desktop software that will measure swords with the present-day giants of the market. If you need a custom solution for your exclusive needs, we are also eager to craft a top-notch solution for your corporate usage. Contact us right now and we will discuss all the details.

Find the most popular questions that will spot light on the remote desktop access software development to save time in our discussion.