March 2023: What's going up with AnyDesk?

[German]I'm picking up on a topic and posting it here on the blog for information purposes with a request for feedback from those affected. It's about the provider AnyDesk and its remote maintenance software of the same name. A reader pointed out to me that there were problems with the renewal of AnyDesk licenses. According to the reader, attempts to contact the sales or support department of this vendor have been "going nowhere" for 2-3 weeks. I did a little search on the Internet and followed the reader's advice. There are some sites where people share similar experiences.

A reader hint

Andreas R., a German blog reader, contacted me yesterday by mail to point out a problem he is currently facing as an authorized signatory of a company that is active in the field of Microsoft software solutions. To this he wrote to me:

Note: Anydesk with serious problems? Company disappeared ?!?

Hello Mr. Born,

we are getting more and more reports from companies / reseller colleagues who do not get their Anydesk license renewed (otherwise always automatically in the subscription).

There are also reports about paid but not delivered subscriptions etc.

Anydesk has not responded to support or sales emails for 2-3 weeks. They are not reachable by phone.

II had reported here in the blog occasionally about AnyDesk, but since the price increase of November 2022 AnyDesk is no longer really attractive for many users (see AnyDesk raises prices for remote maintenance software (Nov. 2022)).

Further references on the internet

Andreas then referred to the ratings at German rating site TrustPilot (I usually see quite critical, because "positive ratings" are often hard to assess in terms of their relevance), where people, however, comment similarly in relation to a contact. Here are some more recent entries (I've translated the German texts):

No contact possible

We have been a customer of Anydesk for years.
The software works well and reliably.
Unfortunately, our license has not been renewed, although this has always happened automatically.
To clarify this, we have been trying to contact Anydesk by mail or phone for days.
Neither by mail nor by phone is anyone reachable.
Thus, after several years, we will look for an alternative.
This is not acceptable.

Experience date: March 29, 2023

Same experience as others…

Same experience as apparently many customers at the moment: license not renewed automatically (despite e-mail that the license will be renewed automatically). Support not available: Except for 1 e-mail, all others were ignored. In this e-mail we were told that the license can be reactivated (or you can switch to the new license model… which would cost 3 times as much). On all e-mails that the old license should be reactivated as offered, we have not received an answer for a week. License is still not renewed.
Slowly I have the feeling that customers should be scared away with the old license model. Unbelievable.

Date of experience: March 30, 2023

Since January 2023, the 1 star reviews have been piling up, reporting unavailable support, non-renewed subscriptions, or invoices for subscription renewal despite cancellation. On Twitter, I came across the following tweet from a pissed customer whose credit card was charged twice and who receives no response to his mails.

Again, the AnyDesk social media team seems to be unresponsive or non-existent. A picture emerges that could indicate (economic?) difficulties – in November 2022 there was the price increase that should have taken effect. And two months later there are problems for people who need support or sales to contact them. Sam Jost also complains about lack of contact options, but at least has received a personal communication from AnyDesk.

After I published the German edition of this post, many customers confirmed this behavior, whilst others told me, that everything is fine till yet and they got their renewal licences.

I did some browsing on AnyDesk's website, but didn't find a way to contact them by phone in a hurry. An email request to their press department is now out – let's see if I get a response (autoresponder says "not before Monday, April 4, 2o23)

Who or what is AnyDesk?

AnyDesk is a remote access software developed by the company AnyDesk Software GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany. AnyDesk enables remote access between computers running different operating systems such as Windows, Linux or macOS. AnyDesk is sold on a subscription basis. An entry-level version is free of charge for private use. Various licenses are offered for use in a commercial environment.

AnyDesk GmbH was founded in 2014 by four former Teamviewer employees in Stuttgart. In May 2018, AnyDesk received an investment of 6.5 million euros in a Series A financing round led by private equity firm EQT Ventures. Business angels Chris Hitchen and Andreas Burike also invested in the process.