Installation

Install FreeRDP on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS using pre-built packages.

Pre-built FreeRDP packages are available for all major platforms. Choose your platform below.

Linux

Linux

FreeRDP is packaged in the official repositories of most Linux distributions.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install freerdp2-x11

Ubuntu and Debian ship freerdp2-x11 (FreeRDP 2.x) in their stable repositories. FreeRDP 3.x packages may be available via a PPA or the distribution’s backports channel. Check your distribution’s documentation for the latest available version.

AppImage and Flatpak

Portable builds that run on any Linux distribution without system-level installation:

• AppImage — Download from pub.freerdp.com/releases. Mark the file executable and run it directly.
• Flatpak — Search for FreeRDP on Flathub.

What gets installed

After installation, the following binaries are available on PATH:

Binary	Description
xfreerdp	X11 RDP client
sdl2-freerdp or sdl3-freerdp	SDL-based RDP client (may be in a separate package)
winpr-hash	NTLM hash utility
winpr-makecert	Certificate generation utility

The SDL client (sdl2-freerdp / sdl3-freerdp) is sometimes packaged separately. On Ubuntu/Debian look for freerdp2-wayland or a freerdp3 package. On Fedora it is included in the main freerdp package.

macOS

macOS

The easiest way to install FreeRDP on macOS is with Homebrew.

brew install freerdp

This installs the xfreerdp command-line client and the SDL-based client alongside the FreeRDP libraries.

Homebrew installs the latest stable FreeRDP release. Run brew upgrade freerdp at any time to update to a newer version.

Verify the installation

xfreerdp --version

What gets installed

Binary	Description
xfreerdp	RDP client (runs via XQuartz or XWayland)
sdl2-freerdp or sdl3-freerdp	SDL-based RDP client (native, no X11 required)
winpr-hash	NTLM hash utility
winpr-makecert	Certificate generation utility

On macOS the SDL client (sdl2-freerdp / sdl3-freerdp) works without XQuartz and is the recommended choice for a native-feeling experience.

Windows

Windows

Pre-built Windows binaries are published at:

pub.freerdp.com/releases

Download the latest release archive for your architecture (x64 is standard for modern systems), extract it, and add the directory to your PATH if you want to run the clients from any terminal.

The Windows binaries are built with MinGW and include all required DLLs. No installer is provided — simply extract and run.

What gets installed

Binary	Description
xfreerdp.exe	RDP client
sdl2-freerdp.exe or sdl3-freerdp.exe	SDL-based RDP client
winpr-hash.exe	NTLM hash utility
winpr-makecert.exe	Certificate generation utility

Building from source on Windows

Building from source on Windows requires a Visual Studio command prompt or a cmd environment where vcvarsall.bat has been run. See the Building from source guide for full instructions.

Android

Android

FreeRDP is available for Android through the Google Play Store and as a direct APK download.

• Google Play Store — Search for “FreeRDP” or visit the FreeRDP page on Google Play.
• APK — Download directly from pub.freerdp.com/releases.

To install the APK directly, enable “Install from unknown sources” in your Android security settings.

iOS

iOS

FreeRDP is available on the Apple App Store.

Search for “FreeRDP” on the App Store, or look for it at apps.apple.com.

The iOS client uses the same underlying libfreerdp as all other platforms, providing full RDP protocol support including NLA authentication.

Verify your installation

After installing on any platform, confirm that the client is accessible by printing the version:

xfreerdp --version

Once installed, follow the Quickstart to make your first connection.