If you get onto your machines from somewhere else with TeamViewer, AnyDesk or Dualmon, you already know the job: the PC at the office, the workshop box, a client's server — reach it from home or the road. TYO Reach does that same job. What's different is everything underneath, and that difference is the whole reason to switch.
Here's the honest version — including where those tools still win.
The short answer
TeamViewer and AnyDesk re-encode the remote screen with their own codec and send it through their cloud. Reach instead carries each operating system's own native remote protocol, end-to-end, over a path only you and the machine's owner are on:
- Windows → native Remote Desktop (RDP) — real multi-monitor, proper keyboard, printer and USB redirection
- Mac → VNC (the Screen Sharing that's already built into macOS)
- Linux → VNC or SSH
You get native fidelity instead of a video stream of someone's screen, access is tied to who you are rather than a code anyone can be talked into reading out, and nothing is ever exposed to the internet.
Side by side
| TeamViewer / AnyDesk | Dualmon | TYO Reach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Ad-hoc + unattended screen control | SMB/MSP unattended remote support | Zero-trust remote access to your machines |
| How the screen travels | Proprietary codec via the vendor's cloud | Proprietary, via the vendor's cloud | Native RDP / VNC / SSH, peer-to-peer or your own relay |
| Exposed to the internet | No (outbound) | No (outbound) | No — outbound only, identity-gated |
| Who can connect | A session code (anyone you give it to) or unattended | Unattended | Identity-first — your TYO ID, or a machine you've explicitly granted |
| Cross-platform | Yes | Windows-centric | Windows, Mac and Linux |
| Pricing shape | Per-device / per-seat, with commercial-use detection | Flat per-technician | Per-seat — and your own devices are free |
| Also does | — | — | Split-tunnel VPN, overseas/China access, persistent Sessions, real-time UDP |
Pick the right gear: the full desktop, or a lighter session
Here's something TeamViewer and AnyDesk don't give you at all: a choice of how heavy the connection is. They have one gear — a full stream of the remote screen, every single time. Reach lets you match the connection to what you're actually doing:
- RDP — the full remote desktop. The whole graphical machine, exactly as if you were sitting at it: your apps, your files, multiple monitors, the lot. This is what you want when you need to drive the desktop.
- A Session — lighter and faster. A persistent working session you can leave running, disconnect from, and pick straight back up on another device — carrying on exactly where you left off, with nothing to re-open and nothing lost. When you just need to get back to the work, this is quicker to open and quicker to use than a whole desktop.
Need the desktop? Use RDP. Just need to continue what you were doing? Drop into a Session. Same product, same machines — you choose the gear.
Why teams move to Reach
Native, not a screen video. Because Reach tunnels the real protocol, a Windows session is actual Remote Desktop — multi-monitor spanning all your displays, clipboard, printer and drive redirection, the lot — not a compressed picture of a screen. It feels like the machine is on your desk because, as far as your Remote Desktop app is concerned, it is.
No anonymous session code. The reason so many people have learned to be wary of a "TeamViewer" phone call is the session code: anyone who can talk a staff member into reading one out is in. Reach has no such code. Access is granted to an identity — you, or a teammate or contractor you've explicitly shared a machine with — and revoked the same way.
Nothing exposed, nothing forwarded. No open port on the router, no public Remote Desktop for scanners to hammer, no static IP. The machine quietly reaches out and waits; you're matched to it by identity, never by an address someone can probe.
No per-seat creep, no "commercial use detected." Reach is priced per seat, and your own devices are free — reaching your own machines doesn't meter and doesn't count against you. No mid-job lockout accusing you of commercial use.
It's one tool, not five. Reach isn't only remote control. The same app is a split-tunnel VPN, your path to machines and services overseas (including China), persistent terminal Sessions that follow you between devices, and a fast lane for real-time UDP apps. Remote access is one feature of a product you're already running.
Where TeamViewer, AnyDesk or Dualmon still win
No spin here — if this is your situation, use the tool that fits:
- Helping someone who isn't on your account — a customer, a family member, a one-off "read me this code and I'll fix it." That anonymous-session model is exactly what TeamViewer and AnyDesk are built for, and Reach deliberately isn't.
- Controlling a phone or tablet's screen, or attended support of a random device you'll never see again.
- A Windows Home box as the target. Reach's Windows path uses Remote Desktop, which Home editions can't host — though a Mac or Linux target is covered by the VNC/SSH path, and most business machines are Pro anyway.
Reach is for the machines you own or manage — your fleet, your clients' agreed devices, your team. That's most remote access in a business, and it's where exposing nothing and gating by identity actually matters.
The bottom line
If you've been paying per seat to re-stream your own screens through someone else's cloud — and quietly hoping nobody reads a session code to the wrong caller — Reach is the same capability built the other way around: native protocols, identity-gated, nothing exposed, your own devices free.
Reach is TYO Reach. Remote access lives in the desktop app under "Share this PC" and Remote Machines. Start here.
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