This article is for home users who rely on the free AnyDesk or TeamViewer client, and for help-desk and MSP technicians who need to explain to a customer why the “free” tool suddenly stopped working. The short answer: both products are shareware (conditionally free). Their no-cost tier covers private, non-commercial use only. Connecting to your own work PC from home, helping a colleague, or supporting a paying customer is commercial use in both vendors’ definitions, and both vendors detect usage patterns that look professional and restrict the client until you either prove private use or buy a licence. Below: what each vendor actually says, what the restriction looks like, how the reset and whitelist processes work, and which free tools permit business use.
Free for personal use: the two definitions side by side
| Question | AnyDesk | TeamViewer |
|---|---|---|
| Licence type | Shareware (conditionally free), proprietary | Shareware (conditionally free), proprietary |
| What counts as personal use | Non-commercial purposes, “with no work or business activity involved” | Connections between your own devices at home, or helping friends and family |
| What ends personal use | Work-related tasks, paid technical support, or reaching “a device you use for your job” | Anything “directly or indirectly paid for”: your work PC, colleagues, clients, server monitoring |
| Who must be licensed | Only outgoing clients that start connections; incoming clients that only accept or reject sessions need no licence | Commercial environments count for incoming and outgoing connections alike |
| What you see when flagged | “Commercial use detected” and sessions may be disconnected | “Connection timeout” errors and sessions that end after a short time |
| How to dispute it | Whitelist request form linked from the commercial-use page on anydesk.com | Reset form on teamviewer.com, up to 10 IDs per form |
What AnyDesk means by personal use
AnyDesk’s professional-use page puts it in one sentence: personal use means using AnyDesk for non-commercial purposes with no work or business activity involved. A licence is required if you use AnyDesk for work-related tasks, provide paid technical support, or access a device you use for your job. That last clause surprises people: a home PC that you also use for your employer’s e-mail is, in AnyDesk’s reading, a work device, and connecting to it is commercial use even though nobody pays you for the session.
One detail helps support scenarios. Only the outgoing client, the one that initiates connections, needs a licence; incoming clients that only accept or reject sessions do not. A licensed technician can therefore support any number of unlicensed users, but an unlicensed technician cannot support anyone for money.
AnyDesk flags clients by behaviour. Its own wording is that your user pattern “suggests you are using AnyDesk on a professional, work-related level”. When that happens the client shows “Commercial use detected” and sessions can be dropped. There is no published list of thresholds, so there is no known limit to stay under.
What TeamViewer means by personal use
TeamViewer’s knowledge base defines the free version for personal users as making connections between your own personal devices at home, or connecting to friends and family to assist or communicate with them. It is explicitly not free if you use it in relation to your employment or within an organisation. The examples given are connecting to your work computer or colleagues, working from home, supporting clients, and connecting to or monitoring any devices that create revenue or compensation. Not-for-profit organisations are not exempt either.
The commercial-use article defines commercial use as any use of TeamViewer for purposes that are directly or indirectly paid for. It names home-office use “even if you just quickly connect to your work computer to check your emails”, support for customers and colleagues, server administration and monitoring, and any use in a commercial environment, including incoming connections. A charity whose staff draw a salary counts as a commercial environment.
What the restriction looks like
AnyDesk
- The client displays “Commercial use detected” during a session.
- Sessions may be disconnected. AnyDesk publishes no fixed time limit for private clients, so any minute count you read elsewhere is not an official figure.
- The flag follows the usage pattern, not a particular machine, so reinstalling does not reliably clear it.
TeamViewer
- Connections fail with a “connection timeout” message, or a session ends after a short time and further connections are refused for a while.
- The suspicion is attached to the TeamViewer ID. Uninstalling does not remove it.
- If the remote device’s ID is also flagged, you cannot reach it even after your own ID has been reset; both sides need to be clean.
Do not confuse this with TeamViewer’s “Sorry, connections are blocked” message: that one means a device is tied to an account with an overdue invoice, and the fix is payment by the account owner, not a personal-use reset.
How to dispute a wrong classification
AnyDesk whitelist request
- Open the commercial-use page on anydesk.com; it links to the whitelist (fair-use) request form.
- Describe your actual use case honestly: which devices, who owns them, and why none of it is work related.
- If you do hold a licence and the client is still flagged, sign the client in to your licensed my.anydesk account so AnyDesk can identify it correctly.
- If you decide your use really is professional, buy a licence for the outgoing client only; the people you connect to can keep the free client.
TeamViewer reset form
- Submit the reset form on teamviewer.com. You need your name, the e-mail address of your TeamViewer account and an explanation of how you use the software.
- List every TeamViewer ID involved, both the IDs you connect from and the IDs you connect to. Up to 10 IDs fit on one form; file another form if you have more.
- TeamViewer says it aims to answer within seven business days. If the reset is declined, you may be offered a declaration of private use to sign.
- After approval, restart the TeamViewer service (or the computer) so the client picks up the new status.
Both processes work only for genuine private use. If the honest description of your usage matches the vendors’ commercial examples, the correct outcome is a licence, not a reset. Tools that claim to remove the flag violate the licence and are often malware; we do not cover them.
Free tools that allow business use
| Tool | Licence | Business use | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| RustDesk | Free, open source (AGPL-3.0) | Allowed | ID-based connections like AnyDesk; public servers or your own relay |
| Remote Utilities Free | Free licence for up to 10 remote PCs | Allowed | Viewer, Host and Agent for Windows, macOS and Linux; one free licence per person or organisation |
| HopToDesk | Free, open source (AGPL v3) | Allowed | End-to-end encrypted, unattended access with 2FA |
| Chrome Remote Desktop | Free | Allowed | Google account plus PIN; no address book or team management |
RustDesk is the closest replacement for someone used to AnyDesk: the same ID-and-password flow, file transfer and unattended access, with the option to run your own ID and relay server later. Remote Utilities Free suits a small IT team with a fixed set of machines. Chrome Remote Desktop is the simplest choice for a relative who already has a Google account. For a wider comparison see our best free remote desktop software overview, and before you grant anyone unattended access read the remote access security checklist.
Limitations
- Neither vendor publishes the signals that trigger a commercial-use flag, so there is no safe threshold.
- The rules cover the purpose of a connection, not the type of account: a personal e-mail address or a home IP does not make work use private.
- A reset or whitelist clears the past; if the usage pattern continues, the flag comes back.
- Both products broker every session through the vendor’s network. To keep sessions inside your own infrastructure, see our self-hosted remote access guide.
- Both tools are favourites of tech-support scammers. Never install either at the request of an unsolicited caller.
FAQ
Is AnyDesk free for personal use?
Yes. AnyDesk is shareware (conditionally free): private, non-commercial use needs no licence. Any work-related task, paid support or access to a device you use for your job requires a paid licence for the client that starts the connection.
Does the AnyDesk free version have a time limit?
AnyDesk does not publish a session time limit for private use. What it does publish is that clients whose usage pattern looks professional are flagged with “Commercial use detected” and may be disconnected. Genuine private users should submit the whitelist request; there is no self-service reset.
Is TeamViewer free for personal use?
Yes, for connections between your own home devices and for helping friends and family. Connecting to a work computer, working from home, supporting clients or monitoring revenue-generating devices is commercial use and needs a licence, which makes TeamViewer shareware (conditionally free).
TeamViewer says “commercial use detected”: how do I fix it?
If your use is genuinely private, fill in the reset form on teamviewer.com with your name, account e-mail, an explanation and every ID involved (up to 10 per form). TeamViewer aims to respond within seven business days; restart the TeamViewer service once the reset is approved. If your use is commercial, the fix is a licence.
Can I use portable AnyDesk to avoid the commercial-use check?
No. The Windows executable does run without installation, but the licence terms apply to how you use it, not to whether it is installed, and the behavioural flag follows the usage pattern. Portable mode is useful for one-off sessions, not for changing your licence status.
Last updated: 6 October 2026 · CtrlRemote editorial team. Licence, version and platform details are checked against each developer's official documentation.