HelpWire

Name: HelpWire
Rating: 5.0 (6 reviews)

Remote support that starts from a link, not a setup call

5.0•6 reviews•

76 followers

Remote support that starts from a link, not a setup call

5.0•6 reviews•

76 followers

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Remote support software for IT teams and technicians. Send the end user a link, they run the client app and grant access, and you're in. No account or code on their side. Unattended access when you need the same machine again. Windows, macOS, and Linux.

This is the 2nd launch from HelpWire. View more

HelpWire

Launched this week

Remote support that starts from a link, not a setup call

Free Options

Launch tags:SaaS•Monetization•Tech news

Launch Team

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Promoted

Electronic Team, Inc.

Maker

📌

👋 Hey Product Hunt, I'm Yaroslav, PMM at HelpWire. The problem we set out to solve is narrow and happens thousands of times a day. Someone needs help with their machine. Before anyone can help, there's a phone call about downloading something, a session code read out loud twice, and an account nobody wanted to create. Support hasn't started yet, and ten minutes are gone. HelpWire starts a session from a link. You send it, the end user opens it, runs the client app, and clicks "Grant access." You're in. No account, password, or code on their side. The rest of it: ● Sessions don't time out or throw prompts at you mid-repair. ● Direct connections where the network allows them, so control stays responsive; relay fallback where it doesn't. ● Unattended access for the follow-up, because the first fix often isn't the last one. Built for IT support teams, solo IT providers, and internal IT at small and mid-sized businesses. And now, HelpWire leaves early access. What those three years gave us: Linux on both the technician and end-user side, unattended access on Windows, macOS, and Linux, a team layer (invite technicians, join a session together, groups, permissions), Quick Connect for one-off sessions without an account, two-factor login, reconnect after a reboot, and several sessions open at once. Plus the small things you only find by watching real support work, like pasting into password fields that block pasting. Try it: https://www.helpwire.app/ One note for the record: we've been on Product Hunt before, in 2023, as part of Electronic Team's company page. This is the first listing that's just HelpWire. And a question, because the best part of a launch day is the comments. What's the longest it has ever taken you to get a non-technical person into a remote session before any actual work started? I'll be here all day answering, and I'd like to hear the worst ones.

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4d ago

Hello everyone. I am a former TeamViewer customer. I do not ever want to use Teamviewer again. I am very happy with HelpWire. I have an urgent request which really should be taken up by the developers, and that urgent request is this:

In teamviewer, somebody can install a branded teamviewer remote help app by getting from "get.teamviewer.com/whatever_name" and run it, whereupon it will display for them their "teamivewer id" and password. They can tell me their username and password, and i can add the client to my list of terminals, and remotely login and help them, at their approval of the login attempt.

On helpwire, you send to the user a custom URL that is long and highly technical, so it is difficult to manually type it in.

What helpwire needs to do is to let me post my own custom version of the helpwire app for download, at my own site or wherever, such as "mydomain.com/helpwire" and when they install it, they can tell me their similar helpwire id and password, so i can add them to my client list.

Alternatively, a better solution than teamviewer, would be that a new user might be able to install that particular custom helpwire_setup.exe or .msi or .zip or whatever, but where that version automatically assigns that terminal to my helpwire account, where i can click on it, but, perhaps it needs the customer to tell me a helpwire "terminal id" and random PW to complete the account assignment.

The difficulty in typing a long URL out manually is untenable.

If you email the customer the link, it presumes they will log into their email on that PC to click the link. I typically use whatsapp to convey the link by going to web.whatsapp.com but even that is a large inconvenience.

Please consider streamlining the company-linked or group-linked batch of remote-eligible windows installations of helpwire by distribution one single installer of helpwire, pre-configured for a particular customer.

I could say to one customer, to install helpwire, on all your 10 terminals that you need my help on, go to the URL mydomain.com/helpwire_customerid_001 and install the program there, where customerid001 is their name or numbers or whatever, and where another customer would install the version from URL mydomain.com/helpwire_customerid_002.

So there it is then, a teamveiwer beating way of letting customers easily install helpwire, instead of them having to go to a URL like this when you click, in helpwire.app, "create a client":

https://www.helpwire.app/builds/?token=QfQVuUHv2ODit5uFkx0xWK6scqsbwJX0kvjSkquW

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3d ago

Electronic Team, Inc.

Maker

@craig_thorner Thanks a lot, Craig, glad HelpWire is working well for you. And thank you for laying this out in so much detail.

You’re right that the setup link is hard to type in when you can’t simply send it to the computer you need to help. Making it easier to get the client app onto a customer’s computers is something we plan to improve. Your idea of a pre-configured installer, set up for each of your customers, is really helpful for that, and we’ve passed it to our developers.

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3d ago

Congrats on the commercial launch! I saw you had initially revealed Helpwire in 2023. What changed between early access and today?

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4d ago

Maker

@dmytro_movchan Thanks for commenting! Here’s what we built on top since 2023.

Linux support
Team features: inviting operators, shared sessions, client groups, and permissions per group
Connecting to several clients at once
Additional localizations
Unattended access for all platforms: Windows, macOS, and Linux
And lots more refinements

All of it came from watching real support sessions go wrong in small ways, which is roughly what early access was for.

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4d ago

I have used Teamviewer in the past but prefer the ease of use with Helpwire. The end user doesn't have to do anything complicated to connect. However, there should be an easy way for the end user to disconnect from a session. One possible way to do this would be to lock out the support person (operator) if the end user moves their mouse. Currently, if the mouse is being used on both sides of the connection, a "battle" ensues that ends in a stalemate unless one side gives up. The end user must be able to override operator easily and effectively.

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3d ago

Electronic Team, Inc.

Maker

@warmland36 Thanks, Brian, glad HelpWire is working well for you and your users. You make a good point that the person on the other end should always be able to take back control easily, without fighting the operator for the mouse. Locking out the operator when the user moves their mouse is a clear way to do that, and I’ve passed your suggestion to our developers.

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3d ago

How do the plans differ? And how much do extra concurrent connections cost for a team?

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4d ago

Maker

@annybenny There’s no separate charge for concurrent connections. Plans differ by the number of operators and unattended devices, and every operator can work at the same time.

Free: 1 operator, 5 unattended devices, 1 session at a time
Solo, $10/month: 1 operator, 50 devices
Team, $30/month: 4 operators, 250 devices
Business, $70/month: 10 operators, 800 devices

All paid plans allow multiple sessions at a time. For more than 10 operators or 800 devices, there’s a Custom plan.

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4d ago

Does HelpWire work client-side on Ubuntu? I run Windows 11.

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3d ago

Maker

@karyna_khmeliuk Yes, it does! Cross-platform support works both ways between Windows, macOS, and Linux.

As for Ubuntu, we ran tests on versions 18.04 through 24.04.

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3d ago

How does the file transfer work? Any size limits?

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3d ago

Maker

@_serg Drag the files into the session window to transfer them. Works both ways.

There's no size limit, though speed depends on your connection.

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3d ago

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Previous HelpWire Launches

HelpWireRemote support made simpler

Launched on November 15th, 2023

On helpwire, you send to the user a custom URL that is long and highly technical, so it is difficult to manually type it in.

The difficulty in typing a long URL out manually is untenable.

So there it is then, a teamveiwer beating way of letting customers easily install helpwire, instead of them having to go to a URL like this when you click, in helpwire.app, "create a client":

https://www.helpwire.app/builds/?token=QfQVuUHv2ODit5uFkx0xWK6scqsbwJX0kvjSkquW

HelpWire

Remote support that starts from a link, not a setup call

Remote support that starts from a link, not a setup call

HelpWire

Previous HelpWire Launches

Previous HelpWire Launches

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What needs improvement

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What's great

What needs improvement

vs Alternatives

What's great

What needs improvement

vs Alternatives

What's great

What needs improvement

vs Alternatives

What's great

What needs improvement

vs Alternatives

What's great

What needs improvement

vs Alternatives