There are a few solutions to have remote access from iPad to MacBook:

• Chrome remote desktop
• Teamviewer
• Jump desktop
• SSH, Mac screen sharing app ’ Some other options

I’ll start with simples - Teamviewer and Jump Desktop.

Teamviewer and Jump Desktop

Both Teamviewer and Jump Desktop work well and the setup is easy:

• Install the iPad app (Jump Desktop app is $15, but it is one-time payment)
• Install and run the Mac app
• Connect from the iPad app to Mac

Some notes on teamviewer vs jump desktop

• jump desktop has several input modes: standard, locked screen, pen, trackpad, direct touch (I ended up mostly using the trackpad mode)
  • teamviewer has two modes: touch and mouse, the touch mode works well and feels more intuitive than any of the jump desktop modes
• in both the mouse mode can be used to trigger hot corners and mac toolbar at the bottom
• in both I cannot use three finger gestures fot mac remotely
  • I use three fingers swipe left / right to switch desktops and three fingers swipe up to show all desktops
    • instead, I have to use mouse mode and the “hot” top right hot corner that is configured to show all desktops (same as 3 finger swipe up)
  • maybe because these gestures conflict with ipad gestures? I did not find a solution for this one
• audio passthrough works in both, both create a virtual audio devices that is activated during the screensharing
• jump desktop has some annoying slight vertical scroll
  • maybe because of that, I also have to scroll remote screen with two fingers (one finger scrolls the local screen, two fingers - remote)
  • this is more natural in teamviewer where I can scroll remote screen with one finger
• both have extra bar for the keyboard to add Shift, Control, CMD, Alt
  • note that for combinations like CMD+Shift+T we need to use this special bar (Shift on iPad keyboard would not be counted as a part of shortcut)
• Teamviewer: there is a problem with passing some keys from the external keyboard (connected to iPad)
  • I use Voyager (QMK keyboard), there is a problem with some keys that are on a layer
  • it looks like the layer key is interpreted as Alt, so, for example, instead of double qoutes I get “” and for single I get ‘’
  • there is not such problem in Jump Desktop
• Teamviewer has an annoying issue with screen blinking and scaling for a split second
  • not sure why, maybe it reconnects to the host or something

Chrome remote desktop

Overall it works, but less conveninent than Teamviewer or Jump Desktop.

Setup:

• Go to https://remotedesktop.google.com/access
• Install on Mac, give all the permissions (accessibility, screen recording)
• On the “access” tab - allow access, set pin code
• Open the URL above on iPad, connect to Mac

What worked:

• Remote access works
• There are two modes: touch and trackpad
• The on screen keyboard has modifier keys (Cmd, Shift, Alt, Ctrl), but I did not find Esc
• External keyboard can be connected to iPad (with USB hub)
  • I have USB-A to USB-C adapter in the hub USB-A port and the keyboard connected to it
  • Power connected to the hub too, iPad is charging from it

What did not work:

• Auido
  • not sure why, it seems that it should be working
  • maybe there is some setting or it picks up wrong output (maybe blackhole?)
• Three finger touchpad gestures (same as in Teamveiwer and Jump Desktop)
  • I also tried to physically connect the trackpad to iPad, gestures operate on iPad, not on mac

Related links:

• http://www.howtogeek.com/180953/3-free-ways-to-remotely-connect-to-your-macs-desktop/
• https://www.macworld.com/article/671212/how-to-remote-access-a-mac-from-an-ipad-for-free.html
• https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-remote-control-your-mac-from-your-iphone-or-ipad

NoMachine

I did not try it, but NoMachine for iOS should also work. As far as I understand, NoMachine uses a different approach from other remote access software, having a peer-to-peer network to discover devices.

VNC

I also did not try this, but theoretcically, if there is a good VNC client for iOS, it could be used as a remote access solution to connect to the VNC server running on Mac.

SSH, screen share app

Mac has a few tools that seem to be for the mac-to-mac remote management, but maybe some of these can also be utilized to connect from iPad (I did not try this):

• Mac screenshare app
• Remote login feature that allows SSH connections
• Apple Remote Management.

Related video.