With Linux now running nearly half of all cloud workloads and almost 80% of the web’s servers, there’s little reason to keep dealing with HP Anyware. It does support Linux, of course, but the implementation doesn’t feel native at all. The management paradigms are heavy, the licensing models rigid, and the deployment process assumes an infrastructure complexity that many Linux-first teams actively try to avoid.
We’re pretty much a “live in Linux all day” crowd ourselves, so we built ThinLinc to be a truly native remote desktop solution. And as people who spend our time wiring up clustered Linux servers, GPU nodes, and hybrid setups, we did it by combining open standards with optimized enterprise-grade components to give you secure access to full Linux desktops, keep sessions persistent, and avoid the PCoIP-style hardware baggage.
So, while we’ll go over a few other HP Anyware alternatives, you’ll find that ThinLinc is the best for managing CAD workstations, dev farms, and mixed on-prem/cloud Linux infrastructure at scale.
HP Anyware is essentially a rebranded Teradici CAS update with added features like session sharing pulled in from ZCentral Remote Boost. Other than that, it’s the same remote desktop platform, built still on the PCoIP protocol.
There’s some debate around this PCoIP-based approach, though. While it’s known for industries like VFX, broadcast, and high‑end CAD studios, some of those same organizations are now finding it increasingly rigid compared to modern standards. This has only become more obvious since VMware announced end‑of‑support for PCoIP in Horizon after 2025.
For Linux‑centric HPC teams and organizations, though, it goes without saying that open protocols like SSH and VNC. are usually a better long‑term fit than this closed wire format.
We’ve seen that for organizations whose primary concern is remoting into a small pool of Windows or mixed-OS workstations, HP Anyware isn’t that bad, kinda like Citrix actually. Teams whose day‑to‑day workloads are Linux‑centric, however, quickly find they’re paying for a platform that doesn't fit exactly what they need.
Linux support isn’t enough, because in practice, there are times where the tool dictates your environment rather than adapting to it. For example, we’ve come across a few HP Anyware users who’ve had to resort to using Distrobox or containers just to run the PCoIP client on Arch.
Same story if you’re on openSUSE or more modern Rocky/Alma setups. Unlike ThinLinc, HP Anyware focuses on a narrow set of RHEL/Ubuntu distros.
Much like what happened when Omnissa took over VMware’s end-user computing, there’s been a shift that has left many of us confused over their licensing. Some references still point back to Teradici, others mix pricing models, and it’s not always obvious what’s current.
As one of their users noted:
Image source: Gartner Peer Insights
From what we’ve gathered, the latest update on their site from 2023 indicates that subscription licenses start around $240 per concurrent user. Now that’s before factoring in potential costs for dedicated hardware or specialized endpoints.
Image source: G2
At Cendio, we’ve always pushed for a transparent concurrent licensing model that scales with actual usage.
Most of the teams we talk to who have deployed HP Anyware repeat the same thing: the architecture is heavier than they’d like. For example, if you’re a CFD or CAD team with a rack of Linux GPU nodes, a typical HP Anyware rollout means installing PCoIP agents on each Linux workstation, fronting them with HP Anyware Connection Manager and Security Gateway for external access, and then placing a separate load balancer in front once you start scaling users or locations.
If you’re in the media, VFX, or high‑end engineering space, you usually pair that as well with PCoIP Zero Clients on the user side.
Nothing about that is inherently wrong, but it’s a very different picture from having a Linux‑native terminal server that exposes full desktops over SSH and an integrated broker, like ThinLinc does. In our case, you install a master on one node, agents on your compute servers, hook it into LDAP/AD, and you’re effectively done.
HP Anyware is usually chosen when you’re virtualizing powerful individual workstations at studio scale. Applied to that problem, it’s fine, but to Linux-first environments that simply need stable, secure access to a fleet of Linux CAD boxes, development VMs, or GPU nodes, it doesn’t make much sense.
You end up deploying a workstation-grade remoting platform to solve everyday Linux access problems, and paying the operational price that comes with it.
Once you commit to PCoIP, you’re buying into that specific agent/client/gateway ecosystem. If you later decide to move to a different remoting approach, you’d have to replace the protocol and control plane too, which isn’t a small change in an environment that’s already in production.
What’s clear is that the right HP Anyware alternative is the one that fits how your Linux infrastructure actually behaves. On top of that, it helps to make sure the platform lines up with a few practical criteria:
Unless you’re building out a studio‑scale setup for very specialized graphics workflows, you don’t need the complex setup of a cross-platform solution like HP Anyware. All you need is a Linux-native terminal server that handles both everyday Linux desktop access and heavy CAD/CAE/CFD visualization, and has been tested in universities, research labs, and engineering organizations for over 20 years.
Once you get rid of HP Anyware’s extra costs for specialized gateways or zero clients, the overall bill becomes much easier to justify and predict. As of writing, we just license per concurrent session, and if you check our price list you’ll see clear volume discounts and a total cost that’s much lower than HP Anyware as you grow.
ThinLinc is pure software: a master on one Linux node, agents on your compute or workstation nodes, and standard clients (Linux, Windows, macOS, or browser) on the user side. No Zero Clients, no remote workstation cards, no special hypervisor requirements.
We’ve always treated Linux as the baseline because it’s part of us. Unlike HP Anyware, ThinLinc builds on and actively maintains open-source projects like TigerVNC and noVNC, and integrates natively with major Linux distributions and desktop environments.
As you’ve seen our architecture is much simpler, so there’s no need to juggle connection managers and security gateways. Since our last release, administrators can also tune and monitor the load balancer directly through the web administration interface.
While HP Anyware relies on its proprietary PCoIP security stack, ThinLinc runs everything over SSH by default, plugs into LDAP/AD/Kerberos, and supports MFA via standard Linux PAM modules.
ThinLinc focuses on low‑latency interaction and bandwidth efficiency so terminals, IDEs, and administration tools stay responsive even over weak WAN links. If you need to run 3D CAD, CAE, CFD, and visualization workloads, we pair with VirtualGL.
X2Go is a good open-source project for small teams on a tight budget, but as many find, it lacks the centralized management and enterprise stability needed for larger environments.
Many think first of migrating to NoMachine, but just like HP Anyware, it locks you into a closed ecosystem. It’s not Linux-first either, so things can easily get complex and expensive as you scale.
We truly admire Guacamole, but the Linux desktop experience you get won’t match the depth of a dedicated Linux‑first terminal server. It’s a great protocol gateway, not a full multi‑user Linux remote desktop environment with native session orchestration.
There’s always the option of going with VNC variants, like TigerVNC. As we mentioned earlier, we help maintain TigerVNC ourselves, so we know that, on its own, it’s not enough for large, multi‑user Linux estates that need brokering, load balancing, and persistent sessions. You could try other solutions like RealVNC, but again, they lack the integrated session management and Linux‑centric architecture you need.
| Criteria | ThinLinc | HP Anyware | X2Go | NoMachine |
| Licensing cost | Cost-effective (concurrent licensing, free up to 10 users) | Very high (per-user + hardware costs) | Free (open-source) | Moderate (per-user licensing) |
| Hardware requirements | None (software-only) | High (Zero Clients, host cards) | None (software-only) | None (software-only) |
| Linux optimization | Excellent (Linux-first design) | Moderate (Windows-centric) | Good (Linux-native) | Moderate (cross-platform) |
| Management complexity | Low (centralized web admin) | High (multi-component architecture) | Moderate (manual configuration) | Moderate (cross-platform focus) |
| Enterprise security | Excellent (SSH, LDAP/AD, MFA, encryption) | Excellent (PCoIP encryption) | Good (SSH-based) | Good (encrypted connections) |
| Scalability | Excellent (thousands of users) | Good (with hardware investment) | Moderate (limited at scale) | Moderate |
| GPU acceleration | Excellent (VirtualGL compatible) | Excellent (PCoIP host cards) | Limited | Good |
| User experience | Excellent (responsive, persistent sessions) | Excellent (for graphics workstations) | Good (basic applications) | Good |
| Session persistence | Excellent (seamless reconnection) | Good | Good | Good |
| Support quality | Enterprise-grade commercial support | Enterprise-grade vendor support | Community support | Commercial support available |
| Deployment speed | Fast (software-only) | Slow (hardware procurement) | Moderate | Fast (software-only) |
| Total cost of ownership | Very low | Very high | Very low | Low to moderate |
| Vendor lock-in | None (standard protocols) | High (proprietary PCoIP) | None (open-source) | Moderate |
| Best for | Linux-focused enterprises seeking cost-effective, high-performance remote desktop | Ultra-high-end graphics workstations, specialized industries with PCoIP investment | Budget-conscious small/medium deployments | Mixed-platform environments |
Migrating from HP Anyware to ThinLinc is much simpler than you’d imagine.
At the end of the day, enterprise-grade doesn't have to mean complex and expensive. And for Linux-first organizations, HP Anyware brings more complexity than value. It works for some workstation virtualization use cases, but it’s not designed around how Linux environments are typically built, managed, and scaled.
ThinLinc is Linux-native, so you gain a platform that respects your choice of distribution, simplifies your administration, and scales natively with your setup. You also get the transparency of open standards combined with the reliability of a supported, mature platform.
Try ThinLinc free today and see how it stacks up against HP Anyware in your own environment.
