Joan is a popular meeting room booking solution known for its e-paper displays. But office managers who use it to manage meeting rooms often run into some limitations:
- Hardware accessories inflate costs and complicate the booking experience.
- Inconsistent Wi-Fi configuration delays booking.
- Complex booking workflow limits recurring meeting scheduling.
- Branding, analytics, and integrations require expensive upgrades.
That’s why many workplace managers look for Joan alternatives that are easier to use, quicker to deploy, and better suited to today’s hybrid work setups.
If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
We’ve reviewed 5 of the top meeting room management software options you’d find when searching for Joan alternatives. Here’s how we grouped them:
- Awaio: Manage the entire meeting room booking workflow without the need for hardware setup.
- Skedda: Manage schedule for conference rooms, gyms, and co-working spaces in one place.
- Envoy: Manage room booking and front-desk operations across multiple office locations.
- Condeco: Simplify room booking with intelligent scheduling and optional hardware setup.
- Office Space: Ideal for facilities that host clients, contractors, or partners.
2025 Joan Alternatives Comparison Table
| Tool | Best for | Price | Notable limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awaio | Managing the entire meeting room booking workflow without the need for hardware setup. | Room booking — 10€ Office map — 190€ QR-code signs — 39€ |
Visitor management is coming soon. |
| Skedda | Managing booking schedule for conference rooms, gyms, and co-working spaces in one place. | Starting from $99/month per space | There’s a limit on the bookable spaces you can manage on each pricing plan. |
| Envoy | Managing room booking and front-desk operations across multiple office locations. | $3 per active user/month | Lacks tools for managing parking, lockers, or shared office gear. |
| Condeco | Enterprises that need recurring room bookings and hybrid flexibility, with or without hardware. | No pricing is shown on their website | Display devices and kiosks run on electricity. |
| Officespace | Facilities that host clients, contractors, or partners and want to automate access control for meeting rooms. | From $440/mo to $611/mo | The wayfinding feature only works when sensors are attached to desks and rooms. |
1. Awaio
Most suitable for: Managing the entire meeting room booking workflow without hardware setup
Awaio is a mobile-first workspace management software that enables office managers to manage meeting room schedules without being overwhelmed by booking requests or troubleshooting hardware issues.
Instead of installing digital screens in every meeting space, you can turn any shared space into a bookable resource by simply uploading it to Awaio and tagging it.
Office staff can then book that space and manage their schedules with options to check in remotely, cancel reservations, or book on-site.
This reduces setup costs, cuts down on support requests, and gives you full control through custom booking rules and real-time usage analytics.
If that sounds like what your organization needs, we’d love to talk.
You can book a demo here or continue reading to understand how Awaio’s approach differs from Joan’s.
Why Awaio is a great alternative to Joan
While Joan and Awaio help with room booking management, Awaio is considered a better alternative to Joan because it provides:
- Hardware-free design that simplifies booking and reduces costs
- QR code connectivity that ensures reliable access
- Faster and simpler booking workflows with fewer clicks
- Detailed analytics and customization for all users
Let’s break it down:
#1. Simplify room booking and save costs with a hardware-free design
If you’re looking for a room booking solution that your employees will actually use— something you can set up and get working today—Awaio is your best option.
That’s because, with Awaio, you don’t need to purchase, set up, and maintain additional hardware devices like e-ink tablets, wall mounts, and Ethernet cables to manage room bookings.
Your employees can easily manage their booking schedule from any web device – be it on their mobile, PC, or tablet.
Here’s how simple it is:
- Add rooms as bookable resources. Admins define which spaces are bookable by adding them to the platform as resources.
- Tag each room by function. Use labels like “meeting room” or “digital conference” so employees can easily filter by need.
- Print and place QR codes. Awaio generates unique codes for each room. Stick them outside the rooms to link them to the system.
- Manage from a single dashboard. Set booking rules, monitor usage, and adjust check-in windows, all from one dashboard.
Once setup is complete, employees can self-manage their room bookings within the limits of the rules you’ve set, such as check-in windows or access restrictions for specific teams or roles.
To join a meeting, users are automatically connected to their scheduled session as soon as they enter the room.
Whether it’s a Microsoft Teams or Google Meet session, Awaio links them in through their Outlook or Google Workspace account.
That’s possible because Awaio is 100% compatible with Microsoft Teams Rooms and Google Meet hardware. As a result, the system instantly recognizes who’s checking in the moment they arrive.
So, whether you manage 10 rooms or 500, the process remains equally simplified.
To achieve similar functionality with Joan, you’ll need to:
- Purchase Joan’s custom e-ink tablets for each meeting space.
- Cover additional costs, such as shipping, mounts, and ongoing maintenance.
- Pay annual license fees
…and most importantly;
- Consider the cost of dealing with performance issues
…users have reported that Joan’s touchscreens are slow, and that loading times (especially for floor plans) can cause booking delays and user frustration.
Source: Joan G2 Review– Laggy Screens
Source: Joan G2 Review– Slow Updates
So…while Joan’s room booking tablets offer portability, making them easy to move and configure for different rooms, the poor user experience might prevent employees from adopting the system effectively.
Additionally, the initial setup cost makes it a costly option for large organizations with multiple rooms and numerous staff members.
In contrast, Awaio strikes a balance between cost and ease of use.
- No additional hardware costs. Your employees’ phones are sufficient
- No mounting or cable setup. The solution lives in their pockets and remains easily accessible
- No lag-induced scheduling. Mobile phones provide fast, responsive booking that’s ready when you need it
Ready to embrace the best room booking experience for your team? Book a demo today
#2. QR code connectivity for reliable access
Where Joan uses Wi-Fi connectivity to keep its booking tablet updated, Awaio uses smart QR codes that you can easily print on any office printer and place outside the meeting rooms. Users can then scan the code to retrieve the meeting room schedule and reserve a time instantly.
So…in cases of spontaneous and ad-hoc meetings, when an employee needs a meeting room immediately, the QR code serves as a shortcut to a specific room’s information within the Awaio app, ensuring a reliable, always-on connectivity.
In Joan, you can achieve a similar functionality—fast and easy room scheduling—provided there is a stable Wi-Fi connection. User reviews consistently indicate that standard Wi-Fi setups often aren’t optimal for Joan devices.
That’s because Joan e-ink devices are designed for low power consumption using 2.4GHz connectivity. If your workspace uses faster 5GHz bandwidth (common in modern offices), the e-ink tablets may fail to connect and provide real-time meeting room schedules.
While it consumes less power, to ensure stable operation without frequent recharging, you may need to perform network configuration periodically.
In Awaio, you don’t have to choose between longer battery life and a stable internet connection. The QR code-based connectivity and 100% mobile experience eliminate internet dependency entirely.
Employees can book meeting rooms using any web device, which provides a clear overview of all available spaces. Upon arrival, they simply scan the QR code on the door, confirm their booking, and gain access.
Simple!
Ready to Embrace the Best Room Booking Experience for Your Team? Book a Demo Today.
#3. Simple booking workflows with fewer clicks
While employees technically manage their own bookings in Joan, administrators still face a flood of support requests due to the clunky and time-consuming experience.
For instance:
- Recurring meetings must be scheduled on a day-by-day basis, which can make the process slow and frustrating.
- Selecting a time window requires excessive scrolling or manual input, rather than a quick tap or intuitive shortcut.
- Checking who’s in the office means switching to a separate desk list view, instead of simply hovering over a profile.
Awaio removes that friction.
With a responsive workflow that works on both mobile and desktop, employees can reserve resources for their entire workweek—or month—with ease.
In just three taps, they can:
- Search and filter resources by attributes (e.g., “digital meeting room” or “standing desk”) to find the ideal meeting rooms
- Confirm real-time availability via a color-coded map that shows which rooms are free, booked, or in use.
- Book for any time window: hours, days, weeks, or even longer.
#4. Detailed analytics and branding for all users
Unless you’re on Joan’s most-expensive plan, you only get two weeks of usage data. And even then, the usage data it provides covers only meeting rooms and digital displays, which isn’t enough to make accurate space optimization decisions.
Suppose a focus room looks underused. It could be that some employees frequently switch between desks and focus areas. Without this context, you might reconfigure or remove the focus room, which is actually needed, just used differently.
In contrast, Awaio gives you unlimited real-time and historical insights into usage trends across all resources. This way, you know what’s used, what’s underused, and where demand is growing.
From a single dashboard, you can access:
- Inventory overview: See what’s available, booked, or occupied across all office resources.
- Occupancy rates: Track the number of employees in the office or using a specific resource at any given time. Broken down by teams, departments, and locations.
- Utilization rate: Know how often each resource is actually used to flag underutilized assets.
- Battery capacity: Track charge left in each lock, so you can replace only the ones that actually need it, instead of swapping all locks on a fixed schedule.
This provides a clearer understanding of workspace utilization over time without exceeding your budget. You can confidently repurpose underused areas, expand high-demand spaces, and use historical data to plan for future needs.
Still wondering how Awaio stands out against Joan? Schedule a call for a one-on-one demonstration of our platform’s features.
Key features of Awaio
- All-in-one workplace resource management (Manage shared desks, office lockers, parking spaces, EV charging stations, and more)
- Real-time office utilization data
- Interactive office map and wayfinding
- Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integration
- SSO login
Awaio pros
- Usage data is tracked long-term across all resources, helping you spot underused spaces, understand occupancy patterns, and optimize layouts.
- You can customize the entire platform with your logo and brand colors. This reinforces your company identity across every interaction and creates a consistent, professional experience for employees and visitors.
- Every reservation—whether made from a phone, browser, or calendar—syncs instantly across the platform. So, everyone sees the same up-to-date availability.
- It’s fully cloud-based. There’s nothing to install or maintain locally.
- Employees can sign in with their existing Microsoft or Google accounts, reducing the risk of weak or reused passwords.
Awaio cons
- Free trials are currently not available. However, we offer personalized, one-on-one demos.
- Visitor management is currently unavailable (It will be launched later this year).
Awaio pricing
- Room booking — 10€/month
- Office map — 190€
- QR-code signs — 39€
While Joan bundles features into tiers, Awaio lets you pay only for the features you need. Want to book rooms? Add that. Do you need a floor map or QR code signage? You can include that too. Plus, there are no expensive devices and IT setups required.
Want to see how Awaio facilitates workplace management without any hardware? Book a 30- minute demo to see how it works
2. Skedda
Most suitable for: Managing schedules for conference rooms, gyms, and co-working spaces in one place.
Skedda is a workplace management platform that lets you manage desks, meeting rooms, and parking spaces. It offers a two-way calendar sync with Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Slack, allowing employees to book resources and view real-time availability directly from their existing tools, without needing to switch apps.
Why Skedda is a great Joan alternative
Skedda’s key advantage over Joan is its advanced booking rules and role engine, which makes it suitable for managing diverse room functions within a single organization.
Say you run a coworking space with tiered memberships that include access to the gym and conference rooms. Skedda allows you to set advanced booking rules, such as enabling premium members to book four weeks in advance, while standard members are limited to just one week in advance.
And, unlike Joan’s wall-only display approach, Skedda offers a fully interactive map with real-time availability, seating details, and visual indicators for amenities like monitors, whiteboards, or standing desks.
But there are trade-offs.
Skedda’s subscription cost scales quickly, due to its per-space pricing approach. Its plans cap how many resources you can manage, and key features—like booking rules and usage dashboards—are locked behind higher tiers.
For example, the Starter plan supports only 15 spaces and lacks check-in rules and usage dashboards. If you grow and need more desks, each additional one will cost you $99/month, making it expensive at scale.
Is Skedda too costly for your budget? Discover the top cost-effective Skedda alternatives for your office.
Skedda key features
- Flexible booking rules
- Resource booking (desks, rooms, spaces, and parking areas)
- Analytics and reporting
- Visitor management
- Interactive floorplan
- Two-way sync with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar
Skedda pros
- It offers a free plan that allows you to try out the platform before committing to a premium plan.
- Supports recurring bookings. This is a huge time-saver for teams that work on a fixed schedule, like weekly client calls or standing team meetings.
- The two-way calendar and Slack sync let employees reserve resources from platforms they already use.
Skedda cons
- Because every bookable resource counts toward your space limit, plans run out of allocated spaces quickly.
- Essential features, such as resource allocation, check-ins, and white labeling, aren’t included in the Starter plan.
- The per-space pricing model drives up your costs as you scale. Each additional desk, room, or parking spot adds to your monthly bill.
Pricing
- Starter: $99/month per space
- Plus: $149/month per space
- Enterprise: $199/month per space
3. Envoy
Most suitable for: Scaling room management and front-desk operations across multiple offices.
Envoy is an office space management tool, built primarily for visitor check-ins. However, it’s also popularly used for managing and sharing rooms, desks, parcel deliveries, and delivering emergency alerts to all employees.
Why Envoy is a great Joan alternative
While Joan focuses primarily on room and desk reservations, Envoy takes it a step further by combining space management with a virtual front desk that supports employee scheduling, visitor handling, delivery tracking, and emergency communications.
With Envoy’s Virtual Front Desk, one receptionist can support multiple offices remotely. With the ability to video chat with staff, the virtual front desk can provide directions, check in guests, and even assist employees in finding their meeting rooms.
That way, Envoy is suitable for companies with offices in different cities that need consistent visitor experiences and room booking across all sites. It might also provide value for a hybrid team that needs to reserve desks and rooms while tracking employee presence and handling ad-hoc visits.
The downside is that Envoy doesn’t include native tools for managing parking, lockers, or shared office resources. You may still need additional systems for those tasks. But for organizations focused on scaling room management and front-desk operations across multiple offices, Envoy delivers robust, consolidated control.
Related article: Best Envoy alternatives for all-in-one workplace management.
Envoy key features
- Visitor management
- Virtual front desk
- Interactive map
- Emergency notification
- Deliveries management
- Analytics
Envoy pros
- As soon as employees connect to the office Wi-Fi, Envoy automatically logs them as present—no check-in required.
- It transforms raw usage data into actionable insights through customizable dashboards and ready-made reports. This makes it easy to spot trends and back decisions with evidence.
- You can use the free trial before committing to the full platform.
Envoy cons
- It lacks tools for managing parking spaces and lockers.
- Users have complained about a lag between when an update is made in the web app and when it appears in the mobile app.
Pricing
- Standard: $3 per active user/month
- Premium: $5 per active user/month
- Premium Plus: $7 per active user/month
4. Condeco
Most suitable for: Enterprises that need recurring room bookings and an optional hardware setup.
Condeco is a simple-to-use platform for managing shared office resources. This includes desks, meeting rooms, gathering areas, parking spots, and lockers. It allows employees to reserve resources for themselves or team members, via the web portal, mobile application, or Outlook calendar integration.
Why Condeco is a great Joan alternative
Condeco stands out from Joan with its intelligent support for recurring bookings and adaptable setup. Users can schedule repeating meetings directly from Outlook, and Condeco automatically reserves the same room for each session.
If that room becomes unavailable on a future date, the system finds the next best match and updates all attendees. No manual rescheduling, no missed conflicts, and real-time updates handled automatically.
A key consideration with Condeco is that it uses a per-user pricing model, so costs increase as your team grows. For large organizations, this can result in a substantial increase in annual expenses.
Additionally, if you choose to deploy Condeco’s hardware (e.g., displays, kiosks, wayfinders), note that these devices require continuous power, which may increase operational overhead.
Condeco key features
- AI-powered bookings
- QR code and automated check-ins
- Visitor management
- Digital wayfinding
- Usage analytics
- Two-way Outlook and Teams integration
Condeco pros
- All booking information easily synchronizes across the mobile app, web portal, and Outlook calendar.
- Integrates seamlessly with Outlook calendar.
- It supports parking spaces, desk sharing, room booking, and even lockers.
- It features an AI-driven booking system that automatically reserves desks for employees based on their schedules, team affiliations, and previous usage patterns.
Condeco cons
- Users complain that it’s sometimes difficult to reach the support team.
- It’s a bit harder to see where teammates are seated on the mobile app.
- The hardware requires a continuous connection to electricity to function properly. This makes the system vulnerable to power outages.
Condeco pricing
- Contact the Condeco team for pricing.
5. Officespace
Most suitable for: Facilities that host clients, contractors, or partners and want to automate access control for meeting rooms.
OfficeSpace is a comprehensive, cloud-first workplace management platform designed to support hybrid work environments. It helps office managers control space planning, bookings, visitor management, and analytics—all within one intuitive system.
Why Officespace is a great Joan alternative
If your office regularly hosts visitors and you need to restrict their access to only the specific meeting or conference room they’re scheduled to use, OfficeSpace could be the ideal Joan alternative.
Instead of a basic sign-in, admins can customize the entire visitor check-in experience—brand the sign-in screen, collect digital signatures, take visitor photos, and require NDAs before access is granted. You can also limit each visitor’s access to just the meeting room they’re booked for, helping keep shared spaces secure and organized.
That said, Officespace’s wayfinding feature only works when sensors are attached to the desk and rooms. This means setup can be more complex and expensive compared to software-first alternatives like Awaio, whose map works without hardware dependencies.
Officespace key features
- Visitor management
- Workplace analytics
- Facility request
- AI assistant
- Wayfinding
Officespace pros
- Users can use the AI assistant (Ossie) to locate resources or teammates, and analyse usage trends.
- It allows you to create scenario floors and compare them against live floors. This way, you can test new layouts without disrupting day-to-day operations.
- Employees can reserve desks, meeting rooms, or parking spots directly through the mobile app, web browser, Microsoft Teams, or even Slack
- Integrates with real estate, human resources, and IT tools, enabling seamless data transfer.
- Office and facility managers can create neighborhoods and assign control of the area to a specific individual, reducing their workload.
Officespace cons
- Wayfinding only works when sensors and digital signs are attached to desks and rooms.
- Some core features like real-time resource availability, reservation from a mobile app, neighborhoods, and detailed analytics are restricted to the most expensive tiers.
Officespace pricing
- Contact OfficeSpace for pricing.
Did you find the best Joan alternative for your team?
Whether you’re looking for hardware-free simplicity, multi-location support, or AI-powered scheduling, the right Joan alternative depends on your specific needs.
- Choose Awaio for low-cost, no-hardware deployment with mobile-first convenience.
- Pick Envoy if you operate multiple locations and need integrated visitor management.
- Go with Condeco if recurring meetings and Outlook integration are top priorities.
- Use Skedda for spaces with tiered access (like coworking or gyms).
- Opt for OfficeSpace if you need advanced access control for visitors and external partners.
Ready to see how Awaio compares live? Book a demo today.
