How it compares
A short, honest map. We have measured only Waydesk: nothing here claims that it is faster than the others, only what each tool is built around.
The tools
| Tool | Built around | A good fit when |
|---|---|---|
| Waydesk | one Wayland session per account over standard RDP, H.264 tuned for screens; the Waydesk desktop (Sway) by default, or COSMIC, KDE Plasma or Hyprland for an account | you want several people on one Debian, Ubuntu or Arch server, with their own session and any RDP client, and a package to install |
| xrdp | RDP in front of an X11 session (Xorg or Xvnc) | you want the long-established option, with many desktop environments and distributions |
| GNOME Remote Desktop | the GNOME desktop's own RDP server | you already run GNOME and want to share or reach that desktop |
| X2Go | NX-style remote X11 sessions over SSH | you want everything inside SSH and use X11 applications |
| NoMachine | its own protocol and clients | you want its clients and features, and accept a product with commercial editions |
| VNC | sharing a framebuffer | you want the simplest thing, and bandwidth and per-user sessions matter less |
When to choose Waydesk
- You want standard RDP (the Windows App, mstsc, FreeRDP) and no Waydesk client to install.
- You want one isolated session per account with memory limits and new logins refused when the server is full, not a shared screen.
- You want a desktop chosen per account: the Waydesk desktop for most, KDE Plasma, COSMIC or Hyprland for those who ask, on the same server (Other desktops).
- You want it in one package:
apt install waydesk(or a pacman repository on Arch), with a desktop, a shell and a dock already set up on Debian and Ubuntu. - You care about slow links: the encoder follows what the link delivers and the pointer is drawn by the client.
When not to
- You need an X11 desktop environment such as XFCE, MATE or KDE on X11: Waydesk sessions are Wayland. X11 applications run inside them through XWayland, but an X11 desktop does not.
- You need KDE Plasma or COSMIC tested under load, or on Debian and Ubuntu: they run inside the session's Sway and were tried on Arch (Plasma also on Debian 13), not under load. GNOME is not offered.
- You need Windows-style features beyond what was tested (see Limits and status).
- You need something mature and widely deployed today: xrdp has years of use behind it, and Waydesk is early.
This page is a file in the repository: corrections are welcome.