One of the big names in remote desktop software has announced it will no longer offer a free option. Starting January 21st, 2014, if you want to use LogMeIn to  log into a remote computer, remotely control it, retrieve files, or perform other actions, you’ll need to pony up some cash for a paid account.

LogMeIn Pro accounts start at $49 per year for now. That price represents a half-off discount for existing customers. Or you could use one of the many other remote desktop options available.

logmein

I’ve been using LogMeIn’s free service for years because it’s easy to set up and I don’t actually need to use remote desktop software often enough to pay for it.

Here are a few of the alternatives I plan to try out over the next few weeks. They’re all either free or offer free options:

Update: Another one bites the dust. Crossloop has shut down.

On the other hand, if you do decide to pay for a LogMeIn Pro account, you get access to some of the company’s more advanced features including file transfer, remote transfer, and support for mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Existing users of LogMeIn’s free service will have 7 days after their next login to decide whether to upgrade to a paid account.

logmein not free

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63 replies on “LogMeIn discontinues its free remote desktop service”

  1. Try this Ammyy Admin,
    The software doesn’t require installation and registration. You can connect to any PC which is behind NAT.

  2. Yeah, its really sad news that Logmein free is going away. I used to be a huge fan of Logmein; but as free version is going away, I have discovered an alternative to Logmein: RHUB`s remote support appliance. It provides better security and is easy to use as well.

  3. I guess I will be playing devil’s advocate here a bit… Aside from the notice being a little bit on the short side I think they did nothing wrong at all by closing free accounts. Ignition apps will continue to work in the event you paid for one so I see no issue there either.

    I work in IT and now have a dozen machines I have to find a new solution for, and so what? They provided me a completely free solution to the problem of remote access and I paid them nothing in exchange. So LogMeIn, simply put, owes me nothing either. I did pay for an ignition app but that continues to work so no complaint there from me.

    Currently I am investigating the use of guacamole https://guac-dev.org/

  4. I’m not impressed, i have been using Log Me In for some time not very often but every now and again i need to access a computer on my home network but will now have to pay even though i am a very limited user, i really can’t understand these company’s anyway i will be finding an alternative, if anyone else has any solutions please comment so others know what they can do or what other free services we can use http://www.soundofmusicmobiledisco.com

  5. I feel that in a professional engagement Bomgar is by far the best solution you
    can have. It has all of the basics (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android device)
    and it has all the extended features such as (audit logs of all remote access
    activity, integration and API access as well as recording for RDP and RDP
    access built in! Our company swears by it and they even let you test drive it
    for free…

  6. You guys should really check out Bomgar. It allows you to access almost any OS, has access to RDP protocols and more. My team loves it. They offer a free trial on their website!

  7. Free is nice, but really. What great service is really free?
    Trials rope you in and then make you pay. So why not just find a business
    solution that not only allows remote access, but also can access and Windows,
    MAC, iOS, or Android device, and still keeps a secure audit trail of all remote
    access activities. Check out Bomgar. They do offer a free trial, but I will
    tell you, You will be Hooked. It is the best option out there and
    integrates with most ITSM stems. Minimal configurations and it only one small orange box to hook up.

  8. Interesting. I think LogMeIn is shooting itself in the foot with this move. Frankly, any time you make such a significant change to your business model, removing the one thing that makes people consider your product, you pretty much force people to start shopping. Then again, if you’re providing professional-level support, you should probably be using a professional-level tool like Bomgar (that’s what my company uses). Upgrading to something that supports Windows, OSX, iOS, Android, and the major Linux distros is kind of a no-brainer.

  9. We provide support for over 3,000 nodes. They vary from Linux and Mac to iPad and Windows. We also have outside vendors who remote in to work on things like Library software packages and HVAC. Bomgar has been our tool of choice for almost 2 years now and I don’t remember life without it. And just when we think we have learned almost all there is about Bomgar, they roll out another feature that just adds to the list of assets that makes Bomgar the best. They are the do-all end-all option for your remote needs. See them at: http://www.bomgar.com/trial.

  10. I’ve been using LMI
    Free for years now to support family members and to help support field
    workstations for a company I contract with, but it was a pain to keep up with a
    bunch of different email addresses since you were only allowed 5 free computers
    per account. My office moved to Bomgar
    for remote support about two years ago and as I’ve had need to LMI into a PC, I’ve
    replaced the agent with a Bomgar Jump Client and haven’t looked back. There’s no per-agent fees and I can
    password-protect jump client access so that they remain private to me. Plus, I can support them from anywhere with
    Android/iOS support consoles and the agents auto-update to stay up-to-date and
    connected. It’s not free like LMI was,
    but it’s WELL worth the cost. This thing
    supports Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android device, logs a secure audit trail
    of all remote access activity, integrates with a ton of helpdesk systems, has
    access to RDP protocols and more. They have a free hosted trial as well – http://www.bomgar.com/trial.

  11. “If you’re providing professional support to employees or customers, you should really check out Bomgar. It allows you to access any Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android device, logs a secure audit trail of all remote access activity, integrates with most ITSM systems, has access to RDP protocols and more. My team loves it. They have a free trial here: http://www.bomgar.com/trial.”

  12. Maybe you could also test the other alternatives:

    InPcRemote ( https://www.remote-control-desktop.com/ ) free for all use, some kind of VNC
    RemotePC ( https://www.remotepc.net/ ) 1 computer free, but also works through firewalls (like LogMeIn)
    Ammyy Admin ( https://www.ammyy.com/en/ ) free for personal use only
    Mikogo ( https://www.mikogo.com/download/windows-download/ ) Free for personal use only

    Yet only RemotePC worked for me on my work computer. CrossLoop, InPcRemote and Chrome Remote Desktop did not work through company firewalls / Proxy. For Home Use they should be fine.

  13. Logmein became BUY NOW BUY NOW ware… every time you logged in. You are poor quality compared to Teamveiwer and now you want cash. Your trpping balls. Hope the company loses loads of money and rethinks, else may your passage to the recycle bin of failed GREEDY companies be a quick one.

  14. I used logmein to remote into computers I provided for friends and family to help them when they had problems. Log me in wants well over $1000/yr for me to continue the service…yeah right. I provide computers free of charge to people, mostly children, who wouldn’t otherwise have one and they want me to pay to continue my support services?
    Tried teamviewer but it doesn’t appear to have a secure login which means anyone on my list can control any computer on my list without a password. Useless. There has got to be a good remote program out there that operates like logmein and requires a password to remote control an unattended computer.

  15. I’ve been using Teamviewer for years and it works. I think most persons will be happy with it.

  16. Instead of asking for $49/year for 2 PCs, I would just ask an introductory super price like $10/year for 2 PC so I can eventually make some profit of this, but it looks like they need $$$$$$$$ :-). 7 DAYS NOTICE!?!?!?!? WHAT IS THIS LOGMEIN? GOOD BYE LOGMEIN. VERY BAD MARKETING!!!!

  17. Very disappointing. I guess you can put them into the douche category with Adobe. Fortunately there are a lot of other services out there that will do what I need. Heck, RD is already built into the OS, so I might as well stop being lazy and get it set up.

    Have a good one LogMeIn.

  18. This makes to Logmein only if free users cost it a lot of money in bandwidth. I’ve recommended them for years, even in pay situations, but no more. After using them since they first came out, its time to move on. I don’t use it enough to make the pay version worthwhile. If it was $10/year-PC, then maybe, but not $99/year. Its not like I’m asking them to store data like a cloud system.

  19. I only use remote desktop clients on my notebook which just make use of the builtin RDP for Windows and VNC for Linux. Does LogMeIn provide a better experience than using other RDP and VNC clients on Android? I currently only use SSH for remote stuff on my phone so I’m not familiar with the remote desktop apps on Android.

    1. Same question. Why pay for these when Windows, Linux and Mac OS have builtin RDP and VNC capabilities?

      1. There is no need to know anything about networks really. I can set install it from home, go to work, log in to my account and then log in to my computer. To use RDP or VNC, I would have to either use a VPN or leave the computer open to the whole world.

        1. Thanks. Since I do use a VPN or SSH tunneling then I guess these paid renote desktop software aren’t better than the free ones for me.

          I guess it makes sense why people use these.

        2. Makes sense. I guess not all remote users know or want to set it up securely.

      2. We were using built-in RDP for a small business based upon recommendations from our practice management customer support team. Six months later, the support team contacted us to inform us that any user of this practice management software who was also using RDP was getting pinged every 29 seconds by hackers trying to get into servers. So … no more RDP. They reco’d Logmein or Symantec’s pcAnywhere (paid).

      3. users of Windows home versions, XP Home, Vista Premium and Basic, Windows 7 Premium, and Windows 8/8.1 do not have RDP sollutions built into them. Something like Logmein or Team viewer is critical for those of us who have friends and family who are very computer illiterate and get into trouble with their computers often.
        It has saved me a trip out of town to fix a family members computer more than once when they’ve gotten a virus or other nasty.
        Sure I use VPN’s and RDP to remote into my computers that are Windows 7 Professional but not everyone has that luxuary.

    2. RDP isn’t available on the “home” versions of WinVista and up. And any solution like RDP or VNC requires the remote machine be on the public internet, or to have ports on the router for the remote machine pointing to a static address for that remote system. These are things possibly not configurable, certainly beyond many home users’ capabilities.

  20. Bye bye logmein , do you really think private customers using your free tools will upgrade to pro ? You just lost millions of users but maybe that was the plan .

    1. Yep See ya Logmein, over the last year, you have tried to pressurise your free users, by pushing your buy it buttons in your face. You cant even come up with a windows phone version of ignition, and when you were asked, you said you have no plans to do so. Greedy

      1. They also broke the client’s functionality under Linux, and also said “screw you” to people providing support from Linux systems.

    2. One other point, you reduced the amount of clients per account to 10, obviously none of the former pressure methods worked to line your pockets, so you have made a poor corporate decision to force people to pay. Never recommending Logmein again, and have wasted money on ignition apps twice

  21. It makes me think the earings numbers (announced 2/13/14) are going to be disappointing, so they are trying to get a revenue boost so they can make a positive “going forward” statement. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have made such a sudden announcement.

  22. so how about the people that use and paid for Logmein Ignition? I suppose we can get a refund then?

  23. I’m interested to see a metric of how much their service’s usage drops after this change.

      1. Bad press and user non-recommendations could make them lose potential paying customers. Then again any publicity could get them some more customers. So, I guess, I don’t know.

      2. From a marketing perspective, they just shot themselves in the foot. Recoverable? Yes, but they’ll have to do better than this.

        1. “From a marketing perspective, they just shot themselves in the foot. Recoverable? Yes”

          Not recoverable. Even if they reverse themselves, no one will ever trust them again. I certainly wouldn’t.

      3. Actually, I am leaving and I was both paying, for a few business computers, and also had a free account for some PC’s(mostly personal) that I only accessed rarely.

        1. Rather ironic that I am now using Logmein to install TeamViewer on my remote machines before they cut me off!

  24. TeamViewer is a better free alternative. I left LogMeIn with just a one day notice myself, once I tried TeamViewer.

    1. Perfect! Should have switched a long time ago. Thanks for the suggestion!

  25. I would surely rather have seen them write “No more free option going forward, but for those who HAVE had it, here is a lifetime reduced price.” Or X computers for free, then $X per machine after that – or something. I will surely find another alternative myself – it isn’t like I use it all day, every day . . . I will try the others and make a decision before the date. I doubt i will ever use LogMeIn again, either, you know what I mean? Definitely won’t recommend them anymore.

  26. it is quite insulting as a longstanding user of logmein free to be slapped in the face with “SURPRISE! PAY US OR F#$* OFF!”

    in my opinion, this type of announcement really should have been a 1-3 month advanced notice type of thing. “hey guys, sorry, but this is going to go away. please pay us?”.

    this is a scare tactic, plain and simple. “SURPRISE! you have to pay us, or you wont be able to remote in to your PC and install something different! MUAHAHAHAAH!”

    1. No need to be worried like this. There are plenty of free Remote Access services, including honourable mention for VNC and Microsofts’ RDP

    2. Yeah, I was similarly annoyed at the short notice. But there is a 7 day grace period, which gives you time to remotely login to your machine and install an alternate app if you don’t expect to be able to access your PC in person in the next week.

      I just added Chrome Remote Desktop to the machine I use LogMeIn on the most, and so far I’m pretty happy. It’s also one of the alternatives least likely to cost money in the future (assuming Google doesn’t just kill it… yes, I’m still bitter about Reader).

      1. Brad – If you’re supporting web apps, please take a look at https://sessionbox.com. We’re starting to onboard users, happy to set you up with an account if you want to try it out.

    3. > this is a scare tactic, plain and simple.
      > “SURPRISE! you have to pay us, or
      > you wont be able to remote in to your
      > PC and install something different!

      Which in any OTHER situation would be known as “extortion”, or perhaps “bait and switch”, both illegal practices.

  27. One of the free remote desktop software offerings along with Bittorrent Sync (file access) should be a pretty good alternative.

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