The Best RDP Clients for Linux in 2025

Though it was initially created with Windows in mind, the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is incredibly useful on Linux. It allows you to securely connect to not only remote Windows hosts, but also to Linux desktops.

Microsoft, however, does not provide an official RDP client for Linux. Instead, users must choose between one of dozens of third-party applications, which may differ in feature set, reliability, and security. While we can't make the decision of RDP client for you, this guide will provide more clarity on what the options are and how they differ to allow you to make an informed choice.

Key features for a Linux RDP client

Due to the number of RDP clients, you should be looking for the following minimum features:

1. Ease of Use: A straightforward GUI can save time. Casual users may prefer a graphical client with an intuitive interface, while power users might not mind command-line tools if they offer more control.
2. Clipboard & File Sharing: The ability to copy-paste text (and even files) between local and remote desktops is crucial for productivity. Some clients also support mounting a local folder or drive in the remote session for easy file transfer.
3. Printer & Device Redirection: If you plan to print from the remote Windows system to your local printer, ensure the client supports printer redirection. Similarly, redirection of drives, smart cards, or even USB devices (like webcams) can be important for certain tasks.
4. Audio Support: For multimedia or conferencing, the client should handle remote audio playback (sound coming from the Windows machine) and possibly microphone input redirection. Many RDP clients support audio redirection, so you can, for example, hear a video playing on the remote PC.
5. Security (Encryption & NLA): Modern Windows servers require Network Level Authentication (NLA) and TLS encryption for RDP. A good client must support these, so you can connect without weakening the server’s security settings.
6. Performance & Reliability: RDP can be bandwidth-intensive when drawing a remote GUI. Clients that offer good performance (through efficient encoding, caching, or even hardware acceleration) will provide a smoother experience. Stability is also key – you don’t want frequent crashes during a session.
7. Compatibility: The RDP client should work with a range of Windows versions (Windows 10, 11, and Windows Server editions). Ideally, it supports the latest RDP protocol features for full compatibility. Support for other protocols, such as VNC, is a bonus.

With this in mind, we'll assess the best RDP clients for Linux for most users.

The best Remote Desktop Protocol clients in 2025

Remmina

It will be no surprise to frequent RDP users that Remmina is on this list. It's easily one of the most popular open-source RDP clients and the default one in many distros. A large reason for this is its versatility, with the client able to support not just RDP but also VNC, NX, XDMCP, and more.

Though it has a simple interface, Remmina has plenty of useful features under the hood. It supports all of the key features outlined above, plus additions such as connecting through a remote desktop gateway, advanced and quality settings, proxy support, and more.

Remmina pros:

• Easy to use: Remmina’s GUI is beginner-friendly, offering a tabbed interface to handle multiple sessions and a profile manager to save connection settings. You don’t need to fiddle with command-line options for common tasks.
• Multi-protocol support: Besides RDP, Remmina speaks VNC, SSH, and others, which is handy if you manage different types of remote system. This versatility means one tool can do it all.
• Feature-rich: Supports key RDP features like shared clipboard, sound, file transfer, and even remote printing via a “share printer” option. It also supports encryption and Network Level Authentication for secure connections.
• Active development: Remmina is actively maintained, with an extensible plugin system. It uses the FreeRDP library under the hood for RDP, ensuring compatibility with the latest RDP protocol versions and Windows servers.

Remmina cons:

• Occasional stability issues: Some users report that Remmina can crash or hang, especially with many sessions open. In practice, it’s generally stable, but it may not be as rock-solid as some simpler clients.
• Limited UI customization: While you can adjust performance settings, Remmina doesn’t expose every low-level RDP tweaks in the GUI. Extremefine-tuning of the connection (as you might via command-line in FreeRDP) is not its strong suit.
• Slight performance overhead: Because Remmina is a GUI wrapper, its performance is very good but not quite as optimized as using the raw FreeRDP client with custom parameters. In a side-by-side comparison, users may notice that the underlying xfreerdp can feel a bit faster, whereas Remmina trades a tiny bit of performance for convenience. In practice, however, normal users on a stable connection will not feel a difference.

FreeRDP (xfreerdp)

FreeRDP is the open-source engine powering many graphical clients, including Remmina. FreeRDP is a library and set of tools, with the main relevant component for you being xfreerdp, its command-line RDP client. xfreerdp is highly configurable and very fast, but does not forgo key features such as compatibility, sound, printer, file, and clipboard sharing. Like Remmina, it is actively maintained and updated.

FreeRDP pros:

• The best performance: FreeRDP uses the same technology as most of the other apps in this list, but does not have a UI overhead. Users generally agree that it is the fastest RDP option as a result, being extremely efficient and offering a smooth desktop experience even on lower-bandwidth connections (with some tuning).
• Fully-featured: FreeRDP supports all of the key features above, plus some less common ones such as RemoteFX graphics, multi-monitor setups, and USB redirection. It supports all major Windows versions, as well as security features like TLS and NLA.
• Automation: CLI tools really start to shine over GUI applications when you consider automation and scripting. FreeRDP is no different, with the possibility to save connection parameters in scripts or shell aliases, use it in cron jobs to launch an RDP connection on start-up, and more. It's a useful tool for anyone, but it becomes even more powerful in the hands of sysadmins or power users who need to manage multiple connections.

FreeRDP cons:

• Not ideal for new Linux users: Users who are unfamiliar with Linux and using the command line may struggle with FreeRDP. There is a learning curve when it comes to learning its commands and then memorizing them.
• Configuration complexity: Configuring FreeRDP to meet your needs typically involves consulting the manual for the right combination of flags, rather than just pressing a few buttons. This isn't as intuitive and is typically slower.

GNOME Connections

GNOME Connections is all about minimalism. From the UI to the feature set, it's all about delivering the essentials in a clean and performant way with minimal configuration required. You can think of it as a similar experience to Microsoft's RDP client on Windows.

GNOME Connections Pros:

• Very beginner-friendly: Connections is almost the perfect client for Linux and RDP beginners. It's integrated with GNOME desktop, providing a cohesive visual style and user experience. Starting an RDP connection couldn't be much easier: you press the "+" button, enter the IP address and protocol, and press connect. Advanced options are hidden from the user to avoid confusion.
• Well-implemented basic feature set: Connections currently focuses on doing the basics well. There's a lot to be said for focusing development resources on the core features of an RDP client rather than trying to cater to every niche use case. Despite this, it supports clipboard sharing, local printers, audio, and the other key features listed above.

Clean UI: If looks are important to you, Connections has one of the nicest-looking GUIs of any RDP client — not that that's saying much.

GNOME Connections Cons:

• Lacking advanced features: The simplicity is a blessing and a curse. There aren't many customization options here, including advanced performance options, USB redirection, etc.
• Gnome-focused: The look and feel of Connections is geared towards a GNOME desktop environment. Non-GNOME users may need to install it via Flatpak and might just prefer a more agnostic option.
• Teething problems: As a somewhat new app (released in 2020), Connections doesn't have as many forum threads or how-tos surrounding it. This can make things a bit more difficult if you run into problems. It's also more likley you'll run into bugs with Connections than a very established client that doesn't change much.

KDE Remote Desktop Client (KRDC)

If you use KDE Plasma, KDRC is worth looking at. It's installed by default on some KDE environments and enables a consistent visual experience by following your theming and settings.

KDRC Pros:

• KDE integration: KDRC's inclusion in many KDE desktops makes using it a frictionless experience. As well as following theming, it makes use of the KDE wallet to store passwords and offers a similar user experience to other system apps.
• Easy session management: KDRC is one of the better RDP clients for managing multiple servers. You can save and bookmark connections, with the application remembering which server you connected to last and serving that to you first. If you're often connecting to a variety of different services, this can save a lot of time.
• Strong basic feature set: KRDC offers essential features such as adjusting the resolution to fit your window, plus full-screen and windowed mode support. It acts as a wrapper around the FreeRDP backend, providing functionalities like clipboard synchronization and basic audio support. It also supports both RDP and VNC and various Windows versions and has configurable security and encryption options.

KDRC Cons:

• KDE-first design: If you're using GNOME or another desktop, KDRC probably isn't going to fit in with your theming or UX, and you'll have to manually install it. At that point, you're probably better off installing a client that is either more suited to your DE or has a more comprehensive feature set.
• Updates tied to KDE: Updates to KDRC are tied to KDE's release cycle. Though this means they are usually stable, you may have to wait a bit for the next KDE release if Microsoft makes a major change to the protocol or Windows hosts.
• Lacking in advanced features: KDRC was late to the FreeRDP train, relying on rdesktop for quite a while. The switch to FreeRDP added additional functionality and compatibility, but KDRC is still lacking in some features, such as a built-in printer or drive redirection UI and a general lack of advanced options.

Thincast

Thincast is a newer (2020) RDP client also based on FreeRDP. It has an array of basic and advanced functionality, with support for various Windows and Unix-like operating systems. The application is free for personal users and features a clean UI that many will find appealing.

Thincast Pros:

• Excellent feature support: Thincast's money-maker is the enterprise, and as such, it has an array of features, some of which aren't often seen on other RDP clients. As well as covering the key features above, it supports RDP Gateway, device/folder redirection, hardware acceleration, WebAuthn security, and more.
• Wide redirection support: As it is based on FreeRDP 2+, Thincast supports redirection for a variety of devices. This includes not just printers but also webcams, USB, smart cards, drives, etc.
• Good performance: Thincast tends to perform very smoothly without significantly affecting battery life due to its support for hardware acceleration and resource-efficient codecs such as AVC and H.264.
• Cross-Platform: Thincast supports all major desktop OSes – Linux, macOS, Windows, and even Chromecast (via its web client).

Thincast Cons:

• Not open-source: While Thincast is based on open-source projects, the client itself is not open-source. This means users cannot personally audit the code and cannot fork the software to make their own changes and improvements.
• Less community presence: As a new client, there are few forum threads or articles about Thincast, which can make it difficult to get support if it's not covered in the official documentation.

Parallels Client

Parallels is a Mac and Windows virtualization software that happens to provide a free RDP-capable Parallels Client for Linux as part of its Remote Application Server product.

Parallels Client Pros:

• Polished and user-friendly: As a commercial product, Parallels is largely bug-free and has a slick GUI that makes it easy to configure and use. Even users who are unfamiliar with RDP should have little problem using it.
• Good support for peripherals: The client has broad support for peripherals and local resources. Drives, printers, audio, and microphones are all supported, as well as more niche peripherals like smart cards.
• Advanced feature set: Parallels has several quality-of-life features that aren't often seen in other RDP clients. For example, it has seamless multi-monitor support and allows you to drag and drop files to transfer them to and from your session. It also has several conveniences for enterprise users, including automatic gateway configuration using invitation files when using its Remote Application Server (RAS).
• It's free: The Parallels client won't cost you anything despite its advanced functionality. You don't need a license for its Remote Application Server to use it, as you can connect directly via RDP instead.

Parallels Client Cons:

• Closed source and commercial: The fact that Parallels is not open source will be a con for many Linux users because they cannot vet the code or benefit from community collaboration. You won't find resources such as community plugins that add niche functionality. Additionally, due to its focus on the enterprise, you may find it difficult to get support. While there is a knowledge base, you'll need to be a client to ask specific questions, rather than just raising an issue on GitHub, etc.
• It could be overkill: Open-source clients already do most of what Parallels does. You could argue that most of its additional functionality is aimed at enterprise users and has little benefit for home ones. Some may consider it additional fluff that they don't need.

Conclusion – The best RDP client for Linux

While there will obviously be differing opinions on RDP clients based on the use case, we think there are a few that stand out above the rest.

Remmina, Thincast, and Parallels are the best Linux RDP clients overall. They combine slick GUIs with advanced functionality without becoming sluggish or overwhelming. If you prefer open-source, Remmina is going to be the clear pick of the three. Thincast and Parallels are good picks if you have a use case for the additional features they provide.

FreeRDP, meanwhile, is the way to go if you do not care for GUIs, need to establish RDP connections programmatically, or just want to RDP with the lowest performance overhead.

Don't have a Windows machine? Sign up to BitLaunch and launch a Windows RDP VPS server in minutes. Launch servers programmatically to use with FreeRDP, or use our control panel to select from various regions and VPS providers.