Best oVice Alternatives in 2026: Gather, Kumospace, SoWork, Tandem, and Hiroba Compared

ovice (formerly styled oVice) offers both per-space and per-user pricing. Entry-S costs $78 a month ($65 with annual billing) for a space recommended for about 10 regular members. Entry-M costs $294 a month ($245 with annual billing) for about 40. Business Starter switches to per-user pricing, starting at $16 per user per month with annual billing and a 20-user minimum.

The best alternative depends on your team size, the features you use, and whether people are happy to leave the app open all day. This guide compares Gather, Kumospace, SoWork, Tandem, and Hiroba, using prices from each vendor's official pricing page as of October 10, 2026. We build Hiroba; below, we explain where it fits and when another product may be a better choice.

Comparison table

Prices are in USD, as shown on official pricing pages on October 10, 2026. Where both billing options are available, we list the monthly price first, followed by the monthly equivalent with annual billing in parentheses. Team totals use monthly billing. The table scrolls horizontally on small screens. Check each vendor's pricing page before subscribing.

What ovice costs and includes

ovice is a 2D virtual office developed in Japan, with proximity audio, meeting rooms, and custom layouts. Its English pricing page lists the following plans in USD, excluding tax:

• Free: after the 14-day trial, your space moves to the Free plan. It includes one S-size space for up to 50 people online at once, video calls, chat, guest invitations, and custom layouts. It does not include integrations, SSO, or access control. ovice states that Free "runs on our pre-release environment and has no SLA or support."
• Entry-S: $65 per space per month billed annually ($780 a year), or $78 billed monthly. Includes one S-size space, recommended for about 10 regular members, with up to 50 people online at once. Also includes SSO, Google Calendar and Microsoft Teams integrations, access control, and an SLA. No per-user fees.
• Entry-M: $245 per space per month billed annually ($2,940 a year), or $294 monthly. Includes one M-size space, recommended for about 40 regular members, with up to 200 people online at once. It has the same feature set as Entry-S.
• Business Starter: $16 per user per month billed annually, or $19.20 monthly, with a minimum of 20 users ($320 a month at the annual rate). Unlimited spaces and buildings up to L size, plus organization and user management, permission groups, two-factor authentication, and remote-work reports. Recording, transcription, seat reservation, and SAML/SCIM are available on request.
• Enterprise: custom pricing, with dedicated onboarding and paid add-ons for XL spaces and ovice shield (end-to-end encryption, audit logs, long-term chat retention).

Per-space pricing can be good value if your team fits comfortably in one space. The trade-off is the jump in cost when you need a larger one: Entry-M costs $294 a month compared with $78 for Entry-S. The figures of about 10 and 40 regular members are space-size recommendations, not the concurrent-user limits listed above. If a 15-person team finds Entry-S too small, it would need to pay for an M space or at least 20 Business Starter seats.

Four things to check before switching

1. How does pricing change as your team grows?

The products here use three main billing models:

• Per space (ovice Entry plans): a fixed price for a space of a given size. The value depends on how much of that space your team needs.
• Per registered member (Gather, Kumospace, SoWork, Hiroba): everyone on the roster counts, whether they log in or not. Kumospace has a 5-seat minimum.
• Flat rate by team size (Tandem): $64 covers up to 10 members; $129 covers up to 50.

Calculate the cost for your current team size and the size you expect in a year. The cheapest option today may not be the cheapest as you grow.

2. Do you need an everyday office, meetings, or events?

ovice supports both an everyday virtual office, where people can see who's available and walk over to chat, and events such as conferences and meetups. It sells separate one-time passes for events. If you already use Zoom, Meet, or Teams for scheduled meetings, a simpler office focused on presence and spontaneous conversations may be enough. If you rely on built-in meetings and recording, make sure your replacement includes them.

3. Can it stay open all day without slowing down laptops?

A virtual office only works if people leave it open. CPU and memory usage matter, especially on older laptops running other work apps. Fan noise or sluggish performance can be enough to make someone close the office for the day.

During each trial, ask your team to leave the app open for a full working day alongside their usual tools. Check how their laptops perform and whether the app is still open at 5 pm. Hiroba's published idle figures are CPU usage near 0% and memory usage of about 100 MB; test it with your team's actual workload, too.

4. How do clients and contractors get in?

ovice includes guest invitations on every plan. Guests count toward the space's concurrent-user limit rather than its member count. For each alternative, check whether guests need to install an app or create an account, and whether they count toward your paid seats.

The alternatives, one by one

Kumospace

Kumospace offers a similar office experience: a 2D space with spatial audio, multiple floors, chat channels, recording, and analytics. The Business plan costs $16 per member per month with a 5-seat minimum. The free plan allows up to 5 registered members on one floor, with limited guest hours. Kumospace is available in a browser and as desktop and mobile apps. For a closer look, see our Kumospace alternatives comparison.

Best for: teams that want an experience similar to ovice, with per-member billing and built-in recording.
Watch out: on monthly billing, 10 members cost $160, just over twice the price of Entry-S. At 40 members, the $640 bill is also more than twice the price of Entry-M.

Gather

Gather is a pixel-art 2D world with proximity video, custom maps, meetings, chat, recording, and transcription. It removed its free tier in September 2025. The Essential plan now costs $15 per member per month ($12 with annual billing), with a 30-day trial for up to 50 people and no credit card required. Gather is available in a browser and as desktop and mobile apps. We cover it in detail in our Gather alternatives comparison.

Best for: teams that want ovice-style custom spaces and built-in meetings with no seat minimum.
Watch out: there is no free plan. On monthly billing, Gather costs more than Entry-S once you reach 6 members ($90 versus $78).

SoWork

SoWork is a 2.5D isometric office with customizable avatars and furniture. Basic costs $6 per member per month ($5.40 with annual billing) and includes unlimited calls, team chat, calendar integration, and 2 recordings. Premium costs $15 ($12 with annual billing) and adds unlimited recordings, AI summaries, analytics, and noise cancellation. The free plan allows up to 10 members, with a 30-minute limit per meeting. Paid plans start with a 7-day trial. SoWork is available in a browser and as a mobile app.

Best for: teams that want a customizable office with unlimited calls at a price below ovice's Entry plans. On monthly billing, Basic costs $60 for 10 people versus $78 for Entry-S, or $240 for 40 versus $294 for Entry-M.
Watch out: unlimited recording and AI summaries require Premium, which costs 2.5 times as much as Basic on monthly billing.

Tandem

Tandem replaces the office map with a team list. Its desktop app and Chrome extension offer rooms, availability indicators, and one-click audio and video calls. Pricing is per team: $64 a month covers up to 10 members, and $129 covers up to 50. Both tiers are 20% cheaper with annual billing. The free plan allows up to 4 members and 5 hours of calls a day. There is also a 2-week trial for teams of any size.

Best for: teams of 20 to 50 that want to see who's available and start quick calls without navigating a virtual office. At 50 members, its $129 monthly price is lower than every other paid option here except Hiroba.
Watch out: you can't walk an avatar over to start a conversation. Smaller teams may also pay for capacity they don't use.

Hiroba

Hiroba is the product we build. It is a lightweight native desktop app for macOS and Windows, built with Tauri. With idle CPU usage near 0% and memory usage of about 100 MB, it is designed to stay open throughout the working day alongside your other apps.

Your organization gets a floor with a lobby and team rooms. Your avatar shows that you're around. As you walk closer to someone, you can hear their voice, much like in ovice. A Call button lets you reach teammates in other rooms. During a call, you can share your screen or turn on your camera. Each room also has a shared bulletin board for notes you want to keep after a conversation ends.

Audio and video use peer-to-peer WebRTC connections rather than passing through Hiroba's server. The server is a single Rust binary that relays presence and position updates.

Guests don't need to install the app or create an account. They open an invite link in their browser and enter a name. You can try the same experience in our public demo office using the card below.

The hosted edition costs $2 per registered member per month, with no minimum or space-based pricing tiers. A 12-person team pays $24 a month. The 30-day trial starts when you sign in, with no credit card required. The code is available on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license, and the self-hosted version has no seat limits or features locked behind a paid plan. Hiroba is available in English and Japanese.

Best for: teams of roughly 3 to 50 that want a lightweight office for everyday conversations and pricing that scales one member at a time.
Watch out: if you need meeting recording, you'll still need a tool such as Zoom or Meet.

Which alternative fits your team?

We're 11 to 19 people and need more room than Entry-S offers

Consider Hiroba at $22 to $38 a month or SoWork Basic at $66 to $114, compared with $294 for Entry-M. Tandem costs $129 a month and may be worth considering if you expect to grow toward 50 members. These figures use monthly billing.

We use ovice's meeting rooms and recording every week

Consider SoWork Premium or Gather for built-in recording and transcription, or Kumospace for a similar office layout. Compare costs for your team size and the ovice plan you would otherwise use. On monthly billing, all three cost more than Entry-S for 10 people and more than Entry-M for 40, but they may be cheaper for teams between those sizes.

We want a free or low-cost option

SoWork Free supports up to 10 members, Kumospace Free up to 5, and Tandem Free up to 4. Check their meeting and guest limits before choosing. Hiroba costs $20 a month for 10 people after the trial. You can also self-host it without a software license fee, though you'll need to cover hosting and maintenance.

Our current virtual office slows down people's laptops

Try Hiroba. Its native desktop app is designed for low resource usage while idle. Leave it open alongside your team's usual apps for a day to see whether it solves the problem on their machines.

We have lots of guests: clients, candidates, contractors

Hiroba lets guests join from a browser link with just a name, and billing counts registered members only. Check guest limits on the others during the trial.

We're a large organization with procurement requirements

Consider Kumospace Enterprise, SoWork Enterprise, or Gather Custom if you need SSO, SLAs, and invoicing. Hiroba also offers an Enterprise arrangement with invoicing on request.

Why we'd suggest trying Hiroba first

If your main goal is to help teammates find each other and start conversations, Hiroba is a good place to start. A virtual office needs people to stay connected: if the app gets in the way of their work, they close it, and the office loses its value. We built Hiroba around that everyday use, with a lightweight desktop client, proximity voice, screen sharing, and video when you need it.

Pricing is straightforward, too. At $2 per member per month, a team of 10 pays $20 and a team of 40 pays $80, compared with $78 for ovice Entry-S and $294 for Entry-M on monthly billing. There is no minimum seat count or need to change space tiers as you grow. If you prefer to manage your own deployment, the Apache-2.0 server runs on a small VM with no seat limits or software license fees. The open-source license also means you can continue running it independently of us.

Frequently asked questions