WeWork Alternatives: Choosing the Right Coworking Space for Your Employees

If you think about coworking pre-pandemic, it was mainly aimed at individuals, freelancers, and digital nomads.

Fast-forward to 2024, and the post-pandemic landscape of remote work caters mainly to companies and their remote or hybrid employees. Some of these companies use WeWork, a well-known shared office space brand. However, there are better alternatives that give access to more locations, robust data, and granular budget controls and permissions.

A deeper look at WeWork

WeWork was founded in 2010 and quickly became known for its flexible office spaces. It attracted tenants of all backgrounds, from entrepreneurs working on their startups to enterprises looking for alternatives to the traditional office.

The rise of WeWork brought the coworking industry to the mainstream, and its name became synonymous with pay-as-you-go workspaces.

In recent years, WeWork has gone from a $47 billion valuation and being the world's most recognized shared workspace provider to struggling with an unsuccessful IPO and filing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023. As of 2024, the company is going through a financial restructuring.

WeWork has two main membership options: All Access and On-Demand, each tailored to the different needs of individuals and remote workers.

WeWork On-Demand

WeWork On-Demand is a pay-as-you-go membership that gives users access to day passes for coworking spaces, meeting rooms, and private offices. You only pay for the spaces you use and can book any space you wish, depending on their availability.

Due to its flexibility, WeWork On-Demand is an excellent choice for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and remote employees booking a space for themselves. 

WeWork All Access

For those who don’t like coworking space rentals by the day or hour, WeWork All Access offers a monthly membership for workspaces nearby and worldwide. They offer 586 locations in 118 cities. 

With All Access, you book spaces in advance via the WeWork app and use your access card to gain entry when the time comes. AllAccess members have a credd system for booking meeting rooms and private offices, and their membership lets them wor from hot desks or lounges, and use phone booths when needed. 

All spaces are covered with fast Wi-Fi, have unlimited coffee for members, and offer on-site support. WeWork All Access is a great option for employees using coworking spaces their companies are paying for, or workers who travel often and need access to spaces in more locations. 

How Gable On-Demand differs from WeWork

Gable is not a flexible workspace operator or owner. It’s an all-in-one platform that lets companies provide employees with flex spaces everywhere, access real-time insights and data, and manage budgets and spending. 

With Gable, workplace and HR leaders get better insights into flex space usage, granular controls and permissions, and considerable real estate savings. 

Here are the main differences between Gable On-Demand and WeWork:

Flexible invoicing and no added fees

With Gable On-Demand, you get one fixed SaaS fee billed annually. That means no membership charges per employee and no overage charges. Our pricing is straightforward, and there’s no credit system like at WeWork.

There are no setup fees for getting started with Gable, and no minimum spend is required. The invoicing is flexible and customized to your needs, whether by cost center, location, or space type.

Global network of pre-vetted, high-quality workspaces

Gable has partnerships with workspaces worldwide and offers access to 8,500+ spaces in over 600 cities. All Gable spaces are pre-vetted for high quality, maximum comfort, and essential amenities so remote workers can enjoy all the same perks as WeWork members.

Unlike WeWork, which only offers its own spaces, Gable provides your employees access to the best coworking spaces in each location, including big portfolios and local favorites. Once you start using Gable, all your employees will have access to spaces–not just those with memberships.

Over 80% of Gable spaces have instant bookings turned on, so there’s no worrying about availability and delayed responses. The Gable team will onboard new locations on demand if there isn’t a space near your employees. We’ll help you provide all your employees with great workspace options, not just those in New York City, San Francisco, or London.

Budget and permission controls for workplace leaders

With WeWork, getting control over your employees’ spending and usage isn’t straightforward. You’re paying for memberships, but there’s no granularity for different employees and teams or controls you can implement.

Gable’s platform is designed with permissions and controls at the forefront, as we know different teams and regional hubs could have entirely different needs.

With Gable, you can set budgets by user, department, location, space type, and the number of bookings per week or month. Our analytics dashboard shows real-time usage data, and there are additional booking controls you can set up.

There is also an option to allow employees to book company-approved spaces only. Additionally, you can introduce geo-fencing, which prevents employees from booking spaces within a radius of a location you choose.

Real-time analytics and data

WeWork’s analytics and data aren’t very robust, which means workplace teams get little or no insight into: 

• How the company is spending money
• How many employees are using coworking spaces, and how often
• If the employees are spending time together or working by themselves

Gable’s dashboard lets you see insights into space usage, reports on budget spending and employee usage, and breakdowns by department, user, and location.

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Additionally, admins can see employee satisfaction ratings, space reviews, and why they book spaces, which helps make decisions on recommended spaces and meeting frequencies.

A platform with collaboration built-in

WeWork does have some collaborative functions, such as adding a booking to the calendar, inviting colleagues, and viewing their bookings. However, they're limited and don't allow for visibility across teams. In contrast, Gable offers a robust set of collaboration features.

Gable’s TeamView feature lets employees see their colleagues’ bookings and join them in a coworking space with just a few clicks. It makes it easy for employees to organize their days in person and get together on their terms. On the other hand, it saves time and reduces the workload of workplace teams who don’t have to coordinate gatherings.

With Gable, employees can also send external invitations for a day together, and admins can personalize the space recommendations by team and location for an optimal experience in all regions and geographies.

Integrations

WeWork offers some basic integrations to their users, like Google Calendar and Teams/Outlook.

Gable has both of these integrations and several more that let you connect Gable to the workflows and apps you already know and use:

• HRIS Integration: See all your employees on a map alongside Gable spaces near them and get additional granularity in budgeting and invoicing.
• SSO: Log in without passwords and automatically onboard and offboard employees.
• API Integration: Map any Gable data into your data visualization tools.
• Slack Integration: Let employees book directly on Slack and track, approve, and reject all requests.

Office and event management software

In addition to the On-Demand offering, companies can also manage their leased offices and events through Gable, which is not possible for WeWork users.

Gable HQ lets you: 

• Manage desk booking and room reservations
• Upload your office spaces and get a map view 
• Handle the visitor experience 

If your company hosts offsites and large gatherings, you can take advantage of Gable Events, a feature allowing companies to: 

• Book event spaces
• Plan and promote events
• Keep a pulse on spending and RSVPs 
• Get complete event data and reporting 
• Enjoy our concierge event services for large offsites and gatherings

With Gable, you get much more than a coworking marketplace: it’s an all-in-one platform that powers all your workplace needs across geographies and space types. 

Benefits of choosing Gable On-Demand

Gable’s platform and products are aimed at modern, distributed companies with various needs, populations, and team configurations. Companies of all types use Gable to provide excellent employee experience to team members everywhere, scale their operations efficiently, and fulfill evolving employee needs. 

Here are some of the benefits reported by companies using Gable:

Lower real estate costs

Gable customers see twofold real estate savings using our flexible, pay-per-use model.

First, they’re reducing the costs of maintaining underused office spaces, especially in high-price markets. Then, they’re eliminating the need for expensive WeWork memberships that go unused and are often overcharged. 

As a result, some of Gable’s customers are decreasing their real estate spending by as much as 85%:

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Greater visibility and control of flex space usage

With access to granular controls and real-time data, workplace leaders get unprecedented visibility into how, when, and why employees use flex workspaces.  In turn, they can stop or limit workers from overspending and ensure that a good employee experience doesn’t come with a hefty price tag. 

Enhanced collaboration and employee experience

Companies who opt for Gable report a much better employee experience compared to other tools and workspace providers.

The lack of flexible workspace options for their hybrid and remote teams is solved by onboarding spaces onto Gable. Opportunities for in-person meetings and teamwork are now readily available to all employees, no matter where they live.

For workplace and people teams, Gable helps solve and facilitate in-person connections and collaboration without handling logistics and coordinating meetings.

Data-driven workplace management

With other workplace platforms and workspace providers, the data and insights about utilization and spending are limited. Gable solves this by providing real-time data by team, department, and location, allowing leaders to make informed real estate decisions and investments.

How to know you're choosing the right coworking space

Whether you’re using WeWork or another flexible workspace provider, here’s what you should look for when choosing a coworking space for your team:

• The space is near your employees: In recent years, workers are living further away from employers and aren’t big fans of taking long commutes to the office. If your employees are in Brooklyn, choosing a space nearby instead of one in Manhattan will increase the chance of them coming in more often.

• Amenities are essential: High-speed internet, printers, and good coffee are no longer perks of a good space — they’re crucial. When looking for your team’s new regular space, consider whether there are phone booths, outdoor seating, natural light, and meeting spaces.

• Variety of space types: While the majority of remote workers still opt for day passes, your coworking space of choice should have hot desks, dedicated desks, private offices, meeting spaces, and conference rooms available if needed.
• A good work environment: Consider your employees' needs and choose spaces that will benefit them and be enjoyable. Greenery, quiet focus areas, and hospitable staff can make a big difference between an average and perfect space.
• Potential for social gatherings: When meeting in a coworking space, your employees will likely want to hang out together after work. In addition to workspaces hosting networking events and happy hours, make sure to recommend spaces with coffee shops, restaurants, and other activities nearby.

Discover a better WeWork alternative with Gable On-Demand

Choose Gable over WeWork and access more places to collaborate, better data and insights, and granular workplace controls – all with simple pricing that reduces your real estate costs.

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