Coworking spaces usually run two kinds of software. A space-management platform books desks and meeting rooms, opens doors, signs visitors in and invoices for space, and often has some community features. A community and membership platform runs the member directory, messages, discussions, events and news. Start with the first, and add the second when your community outgrows it.
We make Portava, a community and membership platform with no desk booking or door access. Below we compare six products, using only what each company says on its own website. For the wider questions to ask any supplier, see our buyer's guide to membership software.
Start with a space-management platform, because desks, rooms, doors and invoices have to work from the first day, and the four compared below all include a member directory and events. Add a community or membership platform when you run a regular programme, publish news and resources, or need to see which members are drifting away.
These are built around the building. A member books a hot desk and a room for a client call, and their phone opens the front door. Visitors sign in at reception, and the platform invoices each month for desks, room hours and extras. Community features sit on top, typically a directory, a feed and an events calendar.
These are built around the people. The directory lists members and their companies, so a design studio's founder can find the accountant three desks away and message her. Events have tickets, check-in and follow-up emails. The team publishes news and resources, runs discussions and surveys, and can see who has stopped taking part.
A member directory of people and companies, direct messages that members can limit, events with booking and check-in, a place for news and announcements, and a portal or app that works on a phone. Beyond that, look for discussions, surveys and a way to see which members have gone quiet.
The directory matters most, because the introduction a member wants is often in the same building. Check that a profile says what the person does and what they are looking for, and that members control who contacts them. A directory of bare names is the first thing to fix after launch.
Example screen with sample data
Events are where coworking communities are made, from Friday drinks to a breakfast with a guest speaker. Check that non-members can book, since an event is often a prospect's first visit, and that tickets can be checked at the door from a phone.
Finally, you should be able to see which members have not signed in or booked anything for months. Our guide to why member portals go quiet after launch covers what to do about them.
Checked on 29 September 2026 against each company's own website, linked in the notes below. Features change, so check the current page before you decide.
| Product | Type | Space operations named on its site | Community features named on its site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nexudus | Space management | Desk and room booking, access control, visitor management, invoicing | Directory, discussion boards, events with tickets, newsletters, articles, perks, surveys |
| OfficeRnD Flex | Space management | Desk and room booking, mobile door access, visitor sign-in, invoicing | Directory, messages, posts, events |
| Optix | Space management | Desk and room booking, visitor management, invoicing, access control integrations | Directory, messaging, community feed, events |
| Cobot | Space management | Bookings, access control integrations, visitor tracking, invoicing | Community directory, events |
| Circle | Online community | None described | Discussions, chat, directory, events, live streams, courses |
| Portava | Membership and community | None: runs alongside a booking tool | Directory of people and organisations, discussions, messages, news, events with QR-code tickets, surveys, AI assistant |
The first four do jobs Portava does not: booking, door access, visitors and invoicing for space. If your members mainly need a desk and a door that opens, one of them may be all you need.
Nexudus lists desk and room bookings, access control, visitor management and automated invoicing, with a white-label member portal and app. Its community page names a member directory, discussion boards, perks, surveys, newsletters and articles, and its event management page describes free, paid or member-only tickets, ticket scanning at check-in and follow-up emails. Test that with real members before adding a second tool.
OfficeRnD Flex is OfficeRnD's coworking product, covering memberships, desk and room bookings, and invoicing. Its member app page describes a white-label app with room booking, mobile door access and invoices, plus a member directory, messages, posts and events. Guest sign-in is handled by its visitor management product.
Optix is aimed at coworking and flexible workspace operators. It lists desk and meeting-room booking, invoicing, visitor management and a branded mobile app, plus a directory and messaging, a community feed and events. Its community page adds profiles members can search by skill, and its integrations page lists Kisi and Salto for access control.
Cobot covers bookings, billing and invoicing, access control, visitor and drop-in tracking, and a native mobile app. Its access control page describes granting door access when a member activates a plan and revoking it when the membership lapses. In its white-label member portal, members can browse a community directory and attend events.
Circle is a platform for online communities, events and courses under your own brand. It lists discussions, chat, a member directory, events, live streams, courses and membership payments, and a branded app comes with Circle Plus. The pages we checked do not mention desk booking or door access.
Not always. If your booking platform has a directory, messaging and events, and members already open its app every day to get in, one tool is simpler to run. A separate community platform earns its place when community is part of what you sell, or when many members are rarely in the building.
Signs you need a second tool: non-members book your events; you publish news or guides every week; many members work from home and stay for the network; several sites share one community; or members ignored the booking tool's feed.
The cost of two tools is mostly staff time: two logins, two member lists and two places to update when someone leaves. For a team of one community manager, that can outweigh what the second tool adds.
If members open your booking app every day to get in or book a room, anything you post there gets seen. A second app has to earn a place on their phone, and not every member will install it.
Stay, too, if door access follows membership in your current tool, as Cobot describes above. Move membership billing elsewhere and that link can break, and Portava does not control doors at all.
Before you buy anything, give the community features you already pay for three proper months: complete profiles, one event a week and a few regulars starting threads. If members use them, you may need nothing more. If not, you will know what a second tool must do better.
If you run two tools, agree four things before launch.
We make Portava, membership software that runs the community side while a booking tool runs the building. It does not book desks or rooms, control doors or sign visitors in.
Members sign in to a portal in your logo and colours, in a browser or through a branded mobile app. The directory lists people and organisations, and each member chooses who may message them. Your team moderates discussions and publishes news, insights and resources, and the AI assistant answers members' questions from that published content, showing its sources.
Example screen with sample data
Events have separate ticket types for members and non-members, with a QR-code ticket for each booking. Your team checks people in from a phone and sends follow-ups to those who came and those who did not. Surveys go to everyone or a chosen audience, and each member has an engagement score, so the team can see who has gone quiet.
Monthly access can run as a membership subscription, paid by card through your own Stripe account, and a company with a team office can hold a company membership with a set number of seats. Members cannot yet change or cancel their own tier, so your team does that for them. To see the member side, request a demo.
Most do. Nexudus, OfficeRnD, Optix and Cobot all describe a member directory and events on their own websites, and several add messaging, a feed or discussion boards. How far those features go varies, so ask to see a member profile, an event booking and the feed working with real data before you decide.
Choose one system as the true list of who is a member, usually the one that bills for access, and update the other from it. When someone joins or leaves, change both on the same day. The mistake to avoid is a leaver who keeps door or community access for weeks.
Some can. Circle's website describes payments for memberships and recurring subscriptions, and Portava runs monthly memberships as card subscriptions through the organisation's own Stripe account. Portava does not book rooms or control doors, so you would keep a booking platform for room hours, day passes and access, and agree which tool invoices for what.
Give them reasons they need it. Put event booking in the app, list every member's company in the directory before launch, and post something new each week. Ask reception staff to point people to it when they ask who does what.
Nexudus, OfficeRnD, Optix, Cobot, Circle, Kisi, Salto and Stripe are trademarks of their respective owners.