5 Best Software Picks for Your Coworking Space

In the era of increasing remote and hybrid work options, coworking spaces bridge the gap between the challenges of working from home and the routine of traditional in-office environments. Coworking spaces give freelancers, traveling professionals, and remote workers access to the tools and surroundings that help them work at their best.

Globally there are more than 18,700 coworking spaces, with an expected growth of 13 percent per year. All these spaces need software to keep them running day to day. Strong technology helps owners of coworking spaces keep things operating smoothly, impacting everything from promotions and advertising to space management, member onboarding, and procurement.

Below are five types of software to consider when building a coworking space, with information on the leaders in every category.

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Website software

Web-building software is an application or platform that helps businesses create and manage a low-code or no-code website. These software tools provide an easy-to-use drag-and-drop design system and various features to customize and personalize website layout and content. A coworking space can use these tools to create an informative website to promote business information, such as: 

• Space details, amenities, photos, and capacity information
• Special event postings and registration forms
• Membership details, pricing, and sign-up pages
• Informative content to drive inbound traffic
• Contact and support info for members

What’s the best website tool for coworking spaces?

For coworking spaces that need features without frustration, Wix provides an excellent balance of customization and ease of use. It provides plenty of options for beginners and seasoned developers to create pages, host digital assets, and integrate other tools. 

Top features:

• Templates for fast-start website creation
• Advanced in-platform design capabilities
• Full-stack web development tools for customization

Pros:

• The user-friendly interface allows beginners and casual users to create an attractive, functional website quickly
• The free version encourages new users to try the product and build skills
• Apps are available to extend the user experience of the platform

Cons:

• Customer service and support sometimes need more information for issue resolution 
• Apps have limited free feature abilities, causing friction in the building process
• Some users report failed saves that cause lost work

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Marketing tools

Marketing tools are software applications that assist users in creating, managing, and optimizing online marketing campaigns. They offer user-friendly interfaces for creating ads, managing data, tracking performance, and more. Examples include email marketing, social media management, and website analytics tools. These apps help businesses:

• Identify and engage audiences
• Craft effective messaging
• Build customer relationships
• Measure campaign success

With these capabilities, businesses maximize ROI and enhance their digital presence. Sometimes these tools are combined within a single platform, which benefits small businesses (like coworking spaces) with limited resources and insufficient staff for maintaining an online presence.

What’s the best marketing tool for coworking spaces?

Hubspot Marketing Hub is a great option for businesses that need an all-in-one solution for managing email, social posting, content creation, and more. It’s easy to use and provides detailed analytics, so you can track performance and measure how your campaigns are doing. Plus, it has a comprehensive library of resources that help guide new businesses in marketing their coworking spaces. 

Top features:

• Marketing automation features
• Resources for learning marketing skills
• Analytics for measuring performance

Pros:

• Strong integration capabilities with other systems and applications 
• Time-saving scheduling and content-planning features
• Helpful customer support and self-serve resources for addressing issues and expanding skills 

Cons:

• Panel limits apply even within the paid plan 
• HubSpot requires setup and management, which presents a learning curve
• Some users find the user interface (UI) less intuitive than other popular platforms

Event scheduling

Sponsoring in-person events is a great way for coworking businesses to invite new members to their space. Scheduling software provides an easy-to-use platform to manage these events, share them on social media, and target specific audiences so that you get the most out of your investment. Most scheduling tools offer features such as ticketing, registration tracking, and reporting to monitor your events' success and measure ROI. 

What’s the best event scheduling tool for coworking spaces?

Cvent event management software presents optimal scheduling solutions for a coworking business. Its user-friendly interface streamlines event management, promotion, and guest engagement. The platform seamlessly integrates with popular payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe for hassle-free payment processing. 

Top features:

• In-person, hybrid, and remote event features
• Personalized mobile app experiences
• Check-in- and badge printing

Pros:

• Easy-to-set-up events and registration pages, with data capture for back-end reporting
• Responsive support desk for help creating and managing your hosted events
• Flexibility for supporting different meeting structures and locations

Cons:

• Some limitations to testing and marketing, such as lack of A/B testing and time-expiring emails
• Difficult for registered users to change the amount of communication they’d like to receive from organizers
• System updates aren’t always well-implemented, and some features roll out prematurely

Space management software

Space management software is a platform or tool designed to manage private and shared workspaces in coworking environments. It optimizes flexible space allocation, visitor management and access control, resource control, and billing automation. Fully featured tools typically include a dashboard, desk booking system, member portal, and mechanisms for managing conference rooms, office spaces, flex spaces, and lounges. Additional features may include maps with floor plans, attendance tracking, asset management, usage pattern analysis, and automated services for events. With coworking space software, coworking organizations maximize resources, provide cost-efficient services, and improve member management support.

What’s the space management system for coworking spaces?

Tactic space management platform is a comprehensive solution that provides intuitive tools to help coworking spaces maximize efficiency and keep track of meeting room booking. Its key features include an easy-to-use interface to search and book meeting rooms, lockers, desks, and even sleep pods. It helps streamline managing and scheduling events in the workspace, making it easier for coworkers to check availability and book their required spaces in real time. This software solution also offers valuable insights into usage, such as peak times and occupancy trends. This enables coworking operators to identify areas of improvement and develop strategies to better utilize resources.

Top features:

• Federal and OSHA guideline compliant
• Capacity and space controls
• Integrations with other popular tools (MS, Slack, etc.)

Pros:

• Intuitive and easy UI that users say surpasses the functionality of other options in the market
• Competitive price with many advanced features perfect for new coworking spaces operators building their tech stack
• Excellent customer service and development experiences with many additional features added regularly

Cons:

• App user experience doesn’t compare to the web interface; hard to see maps or check reports
• Could benefit from a better-integrated member experience for check-ins
• Weekly desk reservations are not currently available within the platform; users must book one day at a time

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Procurement

Procurement software helps businesses streamline purchasing and supply chain operations. It automates tasks like creating purchase orders, managing vendors, and controlling inventory. With the right procurement tool, companies minimize costs and optimize spending while still getting the items they need to run the business. Features of these solutions often include reporting tools, analytics dashboards, supplier evaluation tools, and invoicing management systems. Integration capabilities with other systems like ERP, CRM, and accounting software are also common.

What’s the best procurement tool for coworking spaces?

Order.co is a fully featured procurement platform that helps coworking spaces get the supplies and equipment they need quickly and efficiently. The platform offers a unified view of procurement and many automation features for creating orders, curating vendor catalogs, and analyzing spend. The system is great for single-location or multi-location workspace management of ordering, supply logistics, and gaining visibility into purchasing.

Order.co offers comprehensive spend efficiency tools for better budgeting and expense management. With Order.co, coworking spaces provide visitors with consistent experiences, equipment, and service.

The platform also features working capital management tools to help new locations build out, ramp up, and get ahead of their cash cycle. Order Capital gives users access to up to $500,000 in spending power to shop with their favorite suppliers. It offers low financing rates, extended net terms, and reasonable paperwork requirements.

Top features:

• Spend management and reporting
• Automated AP workflows
• Curated product catalogs and spend control rules
• Financing and flexible net terms options

Pros:

• Intuitive user interface with browser extensions for quick item reorders directly from a supplier’s website
• Find similar items automatically to ensure backordered items are replaced with similar-quality products
• Spend analysis features and workflows to surface cost savings opportunities and curb out-of-policy spending

Cons:

• Some similar replacement items are not exactly the same as the desired item, though the platform strives to find the nearest match
• Tracking information is sometimes delayed before appearing in the system
• Searching for budget spend on individual locations may need to be clearer, according to some users — however, the development team is continually updating functionality and user experience

The world’s top coworking spaces use Order.co

Coworking businesses of every size and stage need fast, efficient procurement and spend control to maintain profitability and increase customer satisfaction. Many of the top coworking spaces use Order.co to achieve optimized results in less time.

Companies like WeWork, Serendipity Labs, and The Yard use Order.co to streamline processing on thousands of monthly invoices across hundreds of global locations. With AP automation, they are able to automate the processing and order reconciliation process to save money and reduce time-intensive manual invoice tasks. 

A spend management tool like Order.co helps coworking spaces get high-quality products for their members, streamline their procurement practices, and save money on the items they use most. 

If your space could use the power of automated spend management, request a demo of Order.co today.