An open-source, low-latency remote desktop. Hardware-accelerated H.264/H.265, peer-to-peer by default over a custom UDP protocol, end-to-end encrypted with Noise IK, self-hostable end to end. Free under AGPLv3.
The network stage is your link, not our code: on a wired LAN it is a fraction of a millisecond, over the internet it costs whatever your route to the other machine costs.
Vivora is built on a small, opinionated foundation: latency first, everything open, and one codebase behind all three desktops. Every release is measured against that, and where a platform falls short we write it down rather than round it up.
The whole pipeline — capture, encode, transport, decode, render — is budgeted inside a single frame. Hardware-accelerated H.264 and H.265; custom UDP transport; no software bottlenecks.
Every component is AGPLv3 and on GitHub — client, relay, rendezvous. Run your own infrastructure end to end. No telemetry, no analytics. No account for direct use.
One protocol, one codebase, three native clients — no browser, no Electron. Apple silicon, Intel, x86_64, ARM64. Wayland and X11. Windows 10+ via Direct3D 11. Each platform uses its own capture, encoder and decoder, so each is at a slightly different point; STATUS.md says exactly where, per platform, without varnish.
A feature comparison — verifiable facts only. We haven't published latency benchmarks yet; when we do, they'll ship with raw data and a reproducible harness.
| Vivora 0.1 | RustDeskv1.3.8 | Parseccloud | HopToDeskv1.0.34 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open source license | AGPLv3 | AGPLv3 | — proprietary | GPLv3 |
| Self-hostable relay | — | |||
| NAT traversal (P2P) | rendezvous + relay | ICE | STUN/TURN | partial |
| Codec | H.264 / H.265 | VP9 / H.264 | H.265 | H.264 |
| Wayland native | capture ✓ · pointer via X11 | partial | — | — |
| Multi-monitor | Windows host · picker everywhere | — | ||
| End-to-end encrypted | Noise IK | TLS 1.3 | DTLS | TLS 1.3 |
No accounts, no dashboards, no setup wizard — for direct use. Build, share, connect; the whole flow lives on the command line and in a single keyboard shortcut.
One repo, one binary — the download and the source are the same program. Take the installer above, or build it yourself: the build is three commands, though Qt 6.5+ and the media libraries have to be in place first, and the README lists exactly what per platform. No background service, no kernel extension, no admin prompt.
The host is shareable from launch — a memorable peer code plus your Ed25519 pubkey. Keys exchange via Noise IK over your relay (or ours); you approve every incoming connection, with a 30 s auto-reject.
Peer-to-peer by default — the rendezvous server only brokers the hole-punch. Once the tunnel is up, packets flow directly; the rendezvous never sees your frames.
The binaries are not code-signed yet. A certificate Windows trusts costs a few hundred dollars a year and, since 2023, a hardware token to go with it — 0.1 ships without one, so SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC” and hides the Run button behind More info. It says nothing about the file; it says nobody paid for a certificate.
You do not have to take that on trust. Every release lists a SHA-256 for each file in SHA256SUMS.txt, and the whole program is here to read and build yourself — a signature you can check beats one you cannot inspect.
macOS is the same story from the other side: without an Apple Developer certificate a downloadable .dmg would need a right-click-Open every time, so 0.1 ships macOS as source instead of pretending otherwise. Signed builds for both follow.
The client is free under AGPLv3 — always. Pro adds a managed relay and a commercial license for people who can't, or don't want to, self-host.
The full client. Self-hosted relay. Unlimited everything for a single user.
For users behind strict NAT / CGNAT who don't want to self-host a relay. Per-user, billed monthly.
Vivora is 0.1 and building in the open. If it's not the fastest desktop you've used off your own LAN — we'd genuinely like to hear about it.