Choosing the right office management software is essential for any company adopting a hybrid work model. The wrong tool can lead to double-booked desks, missed meetings, and costly inefficiencies, slowing your day-to-day operations.

When evaluating options, focus on seamless integrations, real-time data insights, and user-friendly interfaces. Flexibility, robust analytics, and smooth bookings are essential for hybrid success.

We’ll explore the top alternatives to Robin, including Gable, which excels with real-time insights, customizable features, and integration with tools like Microsoft Teams and Google Calendar.

What is Gable?

Gable is an all-in-one workplace management system designed to simplify hybrid work. Offering a desk booking system, visitor management, and real-time insights, Gable provides flexible, customizable tools that enhance productivity and adaptability, positioning it as a strong alternative to Robin.

Core products from Gable:

1. Gable HQ helps your business manage its office spaces effectively by streamlining desk and room reservations. Comprehensive analytics and real-time data allow your teams to track space usage. These insights help prevent overbookings, optimize resource allocation, and adjust layouts to meet evolving team needs.
2. Gable Visitor Management provides visitors with a smooth and secure check-in process. This feature reduces administrative overhead and ensures visitors aren't left waiting by automating guest management.
3. Gable On-Demand gives your employees access to over 10,000 premium workspaces worldwide, including coworking spaces, conference rooms, and private offices.
4. Gable Event Orchestration simplifies corporate event planning, allowing your teams to focus on collaboration and engagement without the complexity of juggling separate applications. With options for RSVP tracking, budget management, and real-time updates, this tool helps you streamline event logistics from one unified platform. 

What is Robin?

Robin is a workplace management platform that streamlines office operations with desk booking, visitor management, and workplace analytics, enhancing in-office experiences by connecting employees and resources with real-time data.

Key features from Robin:

1. Desk and room booking: Robin allows your employees to easily book desks or meeting rooms, whether they are planning or making last-minute reservations. This feature minimizes confusion about workspace availability, helping your teams stay organized and efficient.
2. Visitor management: Robin simplifies your visitor check-in process, ensuring guests have a pleasant experience from arrival. Employees can pre-register visitors and monitor their check-in status in real time, creating a smooth experience for staff and guests.
3. Workplace analytics: Robin offers your leaders detailed insights into how office spaces are used. This data-driven approach enables you to optimize office layouts, making allocating resources and managing costs easier.
4. Integrations and automation Robin integrates with tools your employees already use, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Calendar, and Slack. These integrations and automated processes lighten the administrative burden, allowing teams and managers to handle daily operations efficiently.

Robin is popular, but it’s not the only choice

When exploring alternatives to Robin, four notable tools for managing workspaces come to mind: Gable, SpaceIQ, OfficeSpace, and WorkInSync. Each of these platforms provides practical solutions to enhance hybrid work settings.

Here’s a quick overview of these tools' main features and pricing.

Gable

Gable is an all-in-one workplace management platform for hybrid and remote teams. Its HQ solution streamlines desk and room booking, offers insights into space usage and costs, and integrates easily with everyday tools, making it a flexible and cost-effective choice for businesses.

Key features:

• Desk and room booking: Allows your employees to effortlessly book desks, reserve meeting rooms, and collaborate with colleagues in the office.
• Visitor management: Enhances your visitor check-in process, ensuring a secure and welcoming experience from registration to departure.
• Data and insights: Offers detailed analytics on metrics such as office space usage and employee engagement, facilitating better resource planning.
• Integration capabilities: Works seamlessly with everyday platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Calendar to enhance workflow management and minimize friction.
• Event orchestration: Eases the planning and management of onsite and offsite events through a single unified platform.

Pricing

Gable's pricing starts at $3 per seat per month for HQ desk booking and room reservation, all-inclusive. Visitor management costs $150 per month per location. Custom pricing and discounts are available for enterprise clients, offering flexibility depending on the scale of your organization.

Why choose Gable over Robin?

Gable provides detailed real-time insights into workspace usage and seamlessly integrates with HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems), SSO (Single Sign-On), Slack, and Microsoft Teams. This makes it an excellent choice for organizations aiming to improve workplace experience and boost employee engagement.

SpaceIQ

SpaceIQ is a robust Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) that aims to enhance the efficiency of office space usage. It assists businesses in refining space planning, forecasting real estate needs, and managing moves, providing valuable insights into space utilization and employee engagement.

Key features:

• Desk and room booking: Allows your teams to coordinate desk and room reservations effortlessly, reducing scheduling conflicts.
• Move management: Streamlines internal relocations, enabling your facilities teams to adjust seating arrangements and smoothly reorganize offices across various locations.
• Space utilization and forecasting: Delivers comprehensive insights into office occupancy, helping you allocate resources more effectively and plan for future space requirements.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates effortlessly with tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams, facilitating space bookings without interrupting your teams' workflows.
• Real-time analytics: Provides detailed data and reports on workspace usage, ensuring your business remains flexible and prepared to respond to changes in space needs.

Pricing

SpaceIQ offers custom pricing based on your company’s needs. You can contact them for specific quotes.

OfficeSpace

OfficeSpace is a versatile workspace management tool that assists companies in managing hybrid office settings. Its user-friendly platform enables businesses to simplify desk and room reservations, enhance space utilization, and foster a more organized environment for employees.

Key features:

• Desk and room booking: Gives your employees an easy way to reserve desks or meeting rooms, providing transparency on space availability and helping avoid conflicts.
• Interactive floor plans: Allows employees to visualize and navigate your office layout, making it easier to locate colleagues and resources.
• Space usage and occupancy reports: Provides real-time data on how office spaces are used, enabling better resource planning and cost management.
• Integration capabilities: Integrates smoothly with popular platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Calendar to streamline booking and workflows.
• Customizable workflows: Allows your teams to set up workflows tailored to their needs, offering flexibility in how they manage office space and resources.

Pricing

OfficeSpace offers custom pricing based on your company’s requirements. Visit their site to request a quote. Capterra reports OfficeSpace has a starting price of $500/month.

WorkInSync

WorkInSync is a management system that assists businesses in effectively managing hybrid workplaces. It provides features for desk and meeting room booking, managing visitors, and optimizing space usage, enabling companies to foster more efficient and adaptable work environments.

Key features:

• Desk and room booking: Allows your employees to quickly reserve desks and rooms, enabling better coordination and maximizing their time in the office.
• Visitor management: Streamlines your check-in process, ensuring a smooth, secure experience for all visitors from the moment they arrive.
• Space utilization insights: Provides detailed analytics on how your office spaces are used, enabling better decision-making around resource allocation and cost optimization.
• Mobile app integration: Empowers your employees to manage their bookings, check-ins, and space utilization directly from their mobile devices, making the process seamless and accessible from anywhere.
• Team collaboration tools: Integrates with communication platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams.

Pricing

WorkInSync offers pricing from $2.50 per seat. However, be aware that they have a minimum billing of 100 seats per month for each plan.

Gable vs. Robin: A detailed comparison

While both Gable and Robin provide robust workspace management solutions, Gable stands out for its ability to manage hybrid and remote teams with enhanced flexibility, a wider range of tools, and more affordable pricing.

Let’s take a closer look at how Gable surpasses Robin in several essential aspects.

What users are saying

Gable has received positive feedback for its intuitive interface, customization options, and smooth integration with popular tools like Slack, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Users emphasize its flexibility for hybrid and remote work settings, positioning it as an excellent choice for managing distributed teams. The platform's capability to deliver real-time data insights is especially valued, aiding businesses in making informed decisions regarding space usage and employee engagement.

In contrast, Robin is well-known for its user-friendly design and desk and room booking functionalities, which integrate with tools like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack. Users value Robin’s visitor management features, which enhance the check-in process and bolster security.

However, some users note that Robin’s pricing can be high, particularly for smaller organizations, with rates beginning at $5 per seat. A few users have also experienced confusion with space booking features and issues with reservations not being held. Despite these concerns, Robin’s straightforward user interface and real-time availability features remain popular among those seeking a simple workspace management solution.

Real-time data and analytics

Gable delivers real-time data on workspace usage, employee engagement, and resource allocation, enabling smart decisions to optimize space, cut costs, and boost efficiency. Seamlessly integrating with HRIS and SSO, Gable provides actionable insights that enhance space utilization and adapt office layouts to evolving needs.

Ironclad noted, “With Gable, we can look at the actual utilization in our offices and coworking spaces. Now we can see how many people intend to come in, how many people come in, and make decisions based on that.”

Robin provides real-time insights into desk bookings and visitor management, focusing on basic occupancy metrics. While helpful in monitoring desk and room use, Robin’s analytics may lack the depth needed for complex hybrid workspaces requiring detailed resource allocation and engagement analysis.

Integration and workflow automation

Gable integrates with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Calendar, allowing employees to manage workspace bookings within their daily tasks, reducing platform switching and boosting productivity. Beyond desk reservations, Gable offers fully automated workspace management, seamlessly fitting into the tools teams already use.

Robin also integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams for desk and room bookings, supporting in-office operations. However, its automation features are limited for hybrid workspace management and real-time adjustments, making it better suited for centralized teams, while Gable offers more extensive automation for hybrid setups.

Cost-effectiveness

Gable is recognized for its affordability, with prices beginning at $3 per seat per month for desk and room bookings, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. Additionally, Gable provides custom pricing for enterprise clients, allowing companies to scale their workspace solutions without breaking the bank.

Robin’s pricing is reportedly at $5 per seat per month for desk bookings and room reservations, which is significantly higher than Gable's. However, this information is not readily available on their site.

This positions Robin as a pricier option, particularly for companies with large or distributed teams. While Robin offers robust booking features, it does not include Gable's cost-saving tools, making it more challenging for businesses to manage workspace expenses as they expand.

Customer support: Review-based comparison

Gable has earned significant praise for its personalized customer support, available 24/7 via email, live chat, and phone. Users often highlight the quick response times and the customized assistance they receive, especially during onboarding or when urgent issues arise.

Gable’s proactive approach ensures that customers feel supported at every step, from setting up the platform to managing ongoing operations.

Wheel commented, “One of the factors that made us decide to use Gable is the level of support we get. Gable’s team feels like an extension of our team, and with most other companies, you never experience that. It’s a rarity to see a company going to these lengths to support our team’s needs.”

Robin also offers solid customer support, which is accessible through email, live chat, and phone. However, some users have pointed out occasional delays in response times, particularly for more complex issues or during weekends.

Features: Side-by-side comparison of key features

• Room and desk booking: Gable and Robin offer desk and room booking but with different focuses. Gable provides real-time availability and easy cancellations across multiple locations, which is ideal for distributed teams. Robin, meanwhile, centers on in-office bookings for centralized spaces, with interactive maps suited for single-location setups.
• Visitor management: Both platforms offer visitor management, but Gable focuses on streamlined check-ins and tracking for a welcoming experience. Robin adds pre-registration, badge access, and notifications, making it ideal for offices with strict security protocols.
• Space utilization: Gable provides real-time analytics on workspace usage, engagement, and cost optimization, enabling informed decisions across multiple locations. Robin offers occupancy data focused on desk and room availability in centralized offices, making its insights less suited for hybrid or global operations.
• Event orchestration: A key difference is Gable's Event Orchestration, enabling on-site and off-site event management with RSVP tracking, budgeting, and real-time updates. Robin lacks event management, focusing only on daily desk and room bookings.
• Integration capabilities: Gable and Robin integrate with Slack and Microsoft Teams. However, Gable adds Google Calendar and budget management tools for multi-location expense tracking, while Robin emphasizes access control integrations.‍
• Analytics and insights: Gable offers comprehensive data on bookings, space utilization, and budget management for optimized, cost-effective spaces. Robin provides occupancy analytics but lacks Gable’s financial tracking and budget optimization.

Switch to Gable to elevate your workspace management

Are you ready to enhance your workspace management? Schedule a Gable demo today and see how it can revolutionize your organization. Don’t settle for anything less than a solution tailored for the future of work.