What is the best co-browsing software in 2026?

Crisp is a shared inbox first (site chat, email, WhatsApp and Instagram in one place), and its co-browsing feature, MagicBrowse, is the simplest way to see what your visitor sees. From a conversation, the agent starts a session and Crisp mirrors the page of your site the visitor is on, cursor and scrolling included. The agent can point, scroll and click. No extension or plugin is needed on either side.

On privacy, it has the most careful defaults in this ranking. The agent only sees that page of your site, never the visitor's desktop, other tabs or files. Visitor approval is on by default, input fields are masked by default, and Crisp won't start a session if the browser sends a Do Not Track signal. No session recording is stored on its servers.

The limits are technical, and Crisp's own help center lists them. Its servers must be able to reach your site, so a staging site behind a login or a localhost page won't render. Any page over 500 KB is blocked. A strict Content Security Policy can block the connection, so allow Crisp's server. And MagicBrowse isn't on Free or Mini: you need Essentials. Our full Crisp review breaks down every plan.

Cobrowse.io does one thing: co-browsing, on the web and inside native mobile apps. Setup goes through an SDK, a small code package your developer adds to the site and app. After that, the agent sees the app screen or the site tab, can draw and point, and can take control if you allow it. It is the only tool here that sees inside a native app.

Pricing is public, which is rare among specialists: $18 per named agent per month for web, $36 with mobile, billed yearly only. No free trial is listed, just a demo. The Custom plan adds self-hosting in the cloud and region you choose or on your own servers, which matters for banks and insurers.

Get masking right on day one. Cobrowse.io keeps masked content on the customer's device, which is great for privacy. But in its default mode nothing is masked automatically: you list the sensitive fields yourself, or switch to "private by default", where everything is hidden unless you allow it. A handy detail: masking rules can be edited from the dashboard, so you don't need to ship a new app build to fix one. Reviewers mention occasional lag at peak hours and the need for developer time.

Zoho Assist isn't co-browsing. It's attended remote support: your technician sends a link or code, the customer runs a small program, and the technician sees and controls the whole screen. That is exactly what you need when the problem lives outside your website, like a crashing accounting app, a printer driver or an email setting.

The pricing page is one of the clearest around: a free plan to start, then Standard at $10 per technician per month billed yearly ($12 monthly) with 2 concurrent sessions, Professional at $15 with 4 and Enterprise at $24 with 6. Ad hoc sessions are unlimited per technician. One catch: plain screen sharing starts at Professional, and true co-browsing is an add-on to the Corporate plan, sold as a separate product with no public price.

Users like how easy it is to get started. The most common complaint is the time it takes to establish a connection, more than lag during the session. On a small phone screen, scaling takes some getting used to. And the usual rule applies: you contact the customer, never the other way round, so you never look like a tech support scam.

Splashtop is best known for reaching your own computers, which is why it tops our remote desktop ranking at 4.5 out of 5. Here we're looking at its support product, Splashtop SOS. The customer opens a small app and reads out a 9-digit session code, and the technician takes control of their computer or phone. Nothing is installed in advance.

The feature list reads like a help desk tool: in-session chat and voice calls, Windows admin elevation (UAC), file transfer, session recording, up to 3 technicians in one session, and integrations with Freshservice, Zendesk and Jira. Pricing starts at $259 per year per concurrent technician, about $22 a month. Every plan is billed yearly, with no monthly option.

Licenses count technicians online at the same time, not headcount. A team of five that never has more than two people connected can live on two licenses. It's the strongest tool here for fixing devices and the weakest for helping someone on your website: there's no co-browsing, and the customer installs an app for each session.

CrankWheel flips the usual setup: the agent doesn't see the customer's screen, the prospect sees the rep's. During a call you text or email a link, the prospect opens it in a browser and sees your screen, a window or a tab, with nothing to install. For a phone rep, it's faster than setting up a video call.

We include it because many teams searching for co-browsing actually want to show, not watch. There's also a remote control feature: the presenter can hand control to a viewer, as long as the presenter is on Windows or macOS. But CrankWheel will never show you your customer's screen.

Pricing is public: a free plan for one user with 15 meetings a month and 3 viewers, then Solo at $29 a month (48% less on a 12-month plan) and Team from $99 a month for 100 shared meetings. A meeting counts once a viewer stays 40 seconds or more. Integrations are its weak spot. Our full CrankWheel review covers each plan.

Chrome Remote Desktop is Google's free tool for reaching a computer remotely, and it has a support mode many people miss. The person who needs help generates a one-time code and gives it to you. You enter it, they accept, and you see and control their screen. Both sides need a Google account and the Chrome browser.

During a shared session, Chrome asks the person being helped every 30 minutes to confirm they want to keep sharing. It's a good safeguard, and a small annoyance on a long fix. There's no session history, no technician accounts and no link to a ticketing tool.

So it's the opposite of a support platform: great for a fix now and then, wrong as soon as you have a team, customers who won't use a Google account, or a need to keep records. On Windows, Quick Assist plays a similar role for free.