---
publishDate: 2026-06-29T18:05:00Z
lang: en
translationKey: anydesk-price-increase-alternatives
draft: false
title: 'AnyDesk Price Increase: Alternatives for Teams'
excerpt: "Another AnyDesk price increase pushing your budget? Here's how teams switch to a predictable, self-hosted, open-source remote desktop — and the break-even math."
image: ~/assets/images/blog/anydesk-price-increase-alternatives-og.png
category: Guides
tags:
  - RustDesk
  - AnyDesk
  - pricing
  - alternative
author: RustDesk Team
faq:
  - question: 'What are my options when AnyDesk raises the price?'
    answer: 'You really have two moves: renew and negotiate, or switch to a self-hosted, open-source tool like RustDesk where your recurring spend becomes your own infrastructure plus a license rather than a seat count a vendor re-prices on its own schedule. Cost both honestly before deciding.'
  - question: 'Does self-hosting make remote-desktop costs more predictable?'
    answer: 'Self-hosting changes who holds the pricing power: with RustDesk Server Pro you host it, so the cost is your infrastructure plus a license instead of a renewal the vendor sets. The product still has annual license terms, so compare the current pricing page at each renewal.'
  - question: 'Is switching away from AnyDesk worth the migration cost?'
    answer: "There is a real one-time switch cost — migration time, some retraining, and standing up your own server — but when the increase recurs, a switch often pays for itself within a renewal cycle or two. Estimate the switch cost once and weigh it against the increase you'd otherwise absorb at every renewal."
  - question: 'Can I audit what the RustDesk client does?'
    answer: 'Yes — RustDesk is AGPL open source. You can read exactly what runs on your endpoints, build the client from source, and run the free community server for as long as you like.'
  - question: 'Is self-hosting always cheaper than AnyDesk?'
    answer: 'Not necessarily in every configuration. Compare current quotes using the same login-user, managed-device, concurrency, feature, infrastructure, and support requirements; see rustdesk.com/pricing.'

metadata:
  description: 'Facing another AnyDesk price increase? See why teams switch to RustDesk: predictable self-hosted cost, your own data, open-source transparency, and the break-even math.'
  keywords: 'AnyDesk price increase, AnyDesk renewal cost, AnyDesk pricing alternatives, AnyDesk three-year TCO'
---

If you searched for "AnyDesk price increase," you have two real options: renew and negotiate, or switch to a model whose cost you control. This guide is the one about **who holds the pricing power** — it weighs both moves, shows the break-even math on switching, and explains why owning the infrastructure (and being able to audit it) is the durable exit. For the full feature-by-feature view, see [RustDesk vs AnyDesk](/blog/rustdesk-vs-anydesk).

## Why AnyDesk renewals aren't yours to set

AnyDesk is sold as **annual subscriptions in tiers**, metered by managed devices, concurrent sessions, and namespaces, with higher tiers unlocking more simultaneous sessions and administration features — and the **on-premises appliance only on the top tier**. The vendor owns the infrastructure your sessions run through, so renewal pricing, tier boundaries, and session counts are theirs to adjust. When they do, your options are pay more or migrate — and migration is painful enough that most teams just pay.

We won't invent AnyDesk's numbers; check the [current rates](https://anydesk.com/en/pricing) yourself.

## Verify what actually increased

Before comparing anything, put the previous invoice, the renewal quote, and AnyDesk's current plan page side by side, and normalize currency, tax, billing period, discount, licensed users, concurrent sessions, managed devices, namespaces, and add-ons. A larger total can come from a rate change, a discount ending, increased usage, or repackaging — often several at once. Record the effective per-year cost and the exact entitlements in both quotes so you have a defensible "price increase" figure rather than a gut feeling.

## The core difference: you host it, you control the cost

With RustDesk Server Pro you **self-host** the ID/rendezvous server, relay, console, and stored device data ([why that changes the economics](/blog/why-self-host-remote-desktop-software)). The product still has annual license terms, so compare the current pricing page at each renewal — but what renews is a license, not a metered service.

RustDesk licensing is **per login-user plus per managed-device**, and you can [upgrade](/blog/upgrade-rustdesk-license-mid-subscription) with proration. Standard plans include unlimited [concurrent connections](https://rustdesk.com/pricing); [Customized V2](https://rustdesk.com/pricing#custom2) limits and prices them separately. For exact license prices and plan tiers, [see rustdesk.com/pricing](https://rustdesk.com/pricing).

## Own your data — and audit the client

Cost is not the only reason teams leave. Self-hosting lets you choose where the rendezvous, relay, console, and managed-device data run — though it does not by itself guarantee that direct endpoint traffic stays in one country or make a deployment compliant; map the full data flow in the [data-sovereignty guide](/blog/remote-desktop-data-sovereignty-gdpr). And because RustDesk's core is **open source under the [AGPL](https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk)**, you can read the code, verify what the client does on your endpoints, and run the free community server indefinitely. (Weighing the incumbent's security separately? See [Is AnyDesk safe?](/blog/is-anydesk-safe))

For MSPs and IT teams, Pro adds a [self-hosted web console](https://rustdesk.com/docs), a custom-branded client generator, and [device groups plus a shared address book](https://rustdesk.com/docs/en/self-host/rustdesk-server-pro/permissions/) for per-user access control; [LDAP/SSO](https://rustdesk.com/docs/en/self-host/rustdesk-server-pro/ldap/) (OIDC) is available from the Basic plan and up, and RustDesk publishes [large-fleet planning guidance](/blog/rustdesk-scale-50000-200000-devices) for bigger estates.

## Renew-and-negotiate vs switch: the break-even

When the renewal jumps, you really have two moves, and it's worth costing both rather than reacting reflexively.

**Renew and negotiate.** The fastest path: no migration, no retraining, a tool your team already knows, and sometimes you can talk the increase down. But you negotiate from the weaker seat — the vendor knows switching is painful and likely factors that in — any discount tends to be temporary, and you're back at the same table next year. This is the right move when the increase is genuinely modest, you're mid-project, or your switching cost is unusually high.

**Switch.** There's a real upfront cost, and we won't pretend otherwise: migration time, some retraining, and standing up your own server. What that one-time cost buys is a recurring spend that becomes your own infrastructure plus a license.

**The break-even.** Estimate the switch cost once — hours to migrate plus server setup — and weigh it against the increase you'd otherwise absorb at _every_ renewal. A one-time cost is a single line; a compounding annual increase is a curve. When the increase recurs, a switch often pays for itself within a renewal cycle or two. If you arrived from a "commercial use" prompt rather than a renewal, [that scenario has its own guide](/blog/anydesk-commercial-use-detected).

## Build a comparable three-year cost model

Put each option into the same worksheet instead of comparing one renewal quote with another vendor's entry price:

| Cost input                                 |            AnyDesk renewal |                                      Self-hosted alternative |
| ------------------------------------------ | -------------------------: | -----------------------------------------------------------: |
| Required licensed users and endpoints      |           Your dated quote |                             Login users plus managed devices |
| Required concurrency or sessions           | Plan allowance and add-ons | Unlimited on standard plans; defined Customized V2 allowance |
| Hosting, backup, monitoring, and bandwidth |   Usually included in SaaS |                                     Your infrastructure cost |
| Deployment and migration labor             |      Policy/client changes |                 Server setup, client rollout, access mapping |
| Ongoing administration                     |  Vendor/account management |          Patching, certificates, capacity, incident response |
| Optional branding, SSO, and admin controls |       Correct tier/add-ons |                                      Correct Server Pro tier |

Run a base case and a growth case over the same 36 months. A self-hosted option may reduce vendor-cloud costs, but it is not operationally free; the useful result is total cost for _your_ workload, not the smallest number on a pricing page. If you want the dedicated migration walkthrough, see [the best AnyDesk alternative in 2026](/blog/self-hosted-teamviewer-alternative).

## Run the comparison on your own infrastructure

You don't need to book a demo to find out if this fits. Give the free community server a couple of technicians and a handful of devices, run real sessions for a week, and see whether owning the infrastructure feels like the right trade — it's open source and costs nothing to keep running. For Pro evaluation terms, write to [sales@rustdesk.com](mailto:sales@rustdesk.com), and feed the per-user and per-device numbers from [rustdesk.com/pricing](https://rustdesk.com/pricing) into the three-year worksheet above.

If another price-increase email comes, self-hosting is how you stop being on the receiving end of it.
