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Switching

Gather alternatives in 2026: 6 things to check before you switch (with official prices)

Published Other products' prices and terms as of October 30, 2026 (their official pages)

Gather ended its free plan on September 15, 2025. Its Essential plan now costs $15 per member per month billed monthly, or $12 billed annually (official pricing page and help center, as of October 30, 2026). If you are now looking at alternatives, the per-seat price is the least useful place to start. Check six things first: how each tool counts people, what the free tier includes, how the trial ends, what happens at the limit, what gets recorded, and how much work the move is.

This article compares Gather, Kumospace, SoWork, and Hotori on those six points, using only official pages read on October 30, 2026. The other three price in US dollars before any applicable taxes. Where a page does not say, we write “not stated on the official page.”

What changed at Gather, in plain terms

  • The free tier is gone. Since September 15, 2025, there is no free plan for Gather 1.0 or Gather 2.0.
  • Billing is per member. Each member in your workspace is billed; guests are not counted. Seats must be equal to or greater than members.
  • The rate is $15 per member per month billed monthly, or $12 billed annually. Annual customers who contacted support before September 15, 2025 could keep their old rate through September 2026; monthly plans moved to the new rate at the first renewal after January 1, 2026.

For 25 people that is $375 a month, the example Gather’s own help center uses. Essential still bundles meeting recordings, transcriptions, and guest hours (3 per member, minimum 30), and the 30-day trial needs no credit card. None of this is a reason to leave by itself; the question is whether per-member billing fits how your team uses an office.

The four tools at a glance (official pages, October 30, 2026)

GatherKumospaceSoWorkHotori
You pay forEach member; guests not countedEach registered member; minimum 5 on BusinessEach memberThe space: people inside at once
Paid plansEssential $15/member/month monthly, $12 annuallyBusiness $20/user/month monthly, $16 annuallyBasic $6 monthly, $5.40 annually; Premium $15 monthly, $12 annuallyStandard US$39, up to 25 at once; Business US$69, up to 50 at once
Free planNone since September 15, 2025Up to 5 registered members, 1 floorUp to 10 members, 30-minute meeting limitNone; 30-day trial instead
Free trial30 days, no card, up to 50 members14 days; card: not stated on the pricing page7 days, no card30 days, no card, up to 50 at once

For Hotori: Prices are in US dollars for customers outside Japan, and the final amount is shown at checkout. Yearly plans are US$390 and US$599; details are in the pricing section.

1. How does each tool count people?

  • Gather counts members. Everyone with a seat is billed, whether they log in daily or once a month. Guests are not counted.
  • Kumospace counts registered members, minimum 5 on Business. Guests can use your space up to 4 hours a week. Adding a member mid-cycle is billed pro rata; removing one earns no credit.
  • SoWork counts members. Guests use guest passes: 2 per user per month on Basic, 5 on Premium (as the pricing table shows on a desktop screen).
  • Hotori counts people inside at the same time. Register as many members as you like; you only choose how many can be in at once (25 or 50). Guests count while inside.

A 30-person company with 12 part-timers pays for 30 seats on a per-member plan, and for its peak number of people online together on a per-space plan. Worked numbers are in Flat-rate vs per-seat pricing for a virtual office.

2. What does the free tier really include?

  • Kumospace Free: $0 for up to 5 registered members, 1 floor, and 50 guests (4 hours a week each).
  • SoWork Free: $0 for up to 10 members, a 30-minute limit per meeting, and no analytics, recording, or AI.
  • Gather: no free plan since September 15, 2025.
  • Hotori: no permanent free plan. The 30-day trial includes everything in the paid plans for up to 50 at once. Nothing is charged when the trial ends. To keep going, you pick a plan.

For 5 or fewer people with one floor, Kumospace Free costs nothing; for 10 or fewer with meetings under 30 minutes, so does SoWork Free. No paid plan in this article, ours included, competes with $0 at that size.

3. How does the trial end?

  • Gather: 30 days, no credit card, up to 50 members. If you start a subscription, the first payment is due when the trial ends; if you do not upgrade, only one admin can access the workspace at a time (help center). Members added later get their own 14-day trial.
  • Kumospace: 14 days. The pricing page does not say whether a card is required; the help center says the card on file is charged automatically when the trial ends. If you stop, members become guests; up to 5 can be promoted back.
  • SoWork: 7 days, no credit card needed.
  • Hotori: 30 days, no card, so nothing is charged when the 30 days end. There is no sales team and no phone line; questions go by email.

4. What happens at the limit?

  • On Gather, the limit is your seat count: to add a member, you add a seat. A cap on people online at once is not stated on the official page; Gather 2.0 moved away from concurrent-user billing.
  • On Kumospace, the limit is registered members. A concurrent-user cap is not stated on the official page.
  • On SoWork, the limit is members, 10 on Free. An overall cap on people online at once is not stated; its FAQ says about 150 teammates per floor, with unlimited floors.
  • On Hotori, the limit is people inside at once. Up to 2 extra can still get in; beyond that, the next person sees a “full” message, and the owner can always enter. If that happens often, Business (up to 50) is the right size instead of Standard (up to 25).

Per member, the limit is a billing event; per space, it is a capacity event.

5. What is recorded, and where does it live?

  • Gather Essential includes meeting recordings, starting at 20 hours, and transcriptions, starting at 30 hours. Above 10 people, you get 2 additional recording hours and 3 additional transcription hours per member; extra hours cost $2 (recording) and $0.50 (transcription). The period those starting hours cover is not stated on the pricing page.
  • Kumospace includes recording on Business. The number of hours is not stated, and transcription is not mentioned on its pricing page or pricing FAQ.
  • SoWork lists no recording or AI on Free, 2 meeting recording uses on Basic, and unlimited recordings, AI summaries, and transcripts on Premium.
  • Hotori has no recording feature. Voice, video, and chat are not saved on its servers; voice and video only reach people nearby or in the same meeting room. Servers are in Japan; the service is not offered in the EU, the EEA, or the UK for now, and the farther you are from Japan, Asia-Pacific, or the West Coast of North America, the more delay you may notice.

If your team relies on recordings and transcripts of its stand-ups, Gather Essential and SoWork Premium have a real advantage, and Hotori is not a substitute for them.

6. How much work is the move?

A virtual office holds little data of its own, so a move is mostly about people, not files.

  • Does anyone need to install anything? Hotori runs in the browser. Each person needs a computer with a browser, a Google account or an email address, and a mic with headphones or speakers. Phones are still being tested.
  • How do guests get in? Send a guest invite link that expires in 1 to 30 days, with an optional password.
  • What do you leave behind? Download any recordings or transcripts you want to keep before the old plan ends, and read its cancellation terms. On Hotori, the owner can cancel any time from the billing page; the space stays usable until the end of the paid period.

Day to day, Hotori is a 2D floor in the browser: walk up to someone and your voices connect, knock before interrupting, and meet in closed rooms with camera, screen share, and room chat. Short videos are in how it works. It is made in Tokyo by a small team, and there is no sales team to call you.

Monthly cost at 10, 25, and 50 people

Per-member columns show the monthly rate, then the annual rate per month, in US dollars before any applicable taxes (official pricing pages, October 30, 2026). For Hotori, only the number inside at once matters; its dollar figures are the same estimates as above.

PeopleGather Essential ($15 / $12)Kumospace Business ($20 / $16)SoWork Basic ($6 / $5.40)SoWork Premium ($15 / $12)Hotori, flat per space
10$150 / $120$200 / $160$60 / $54, or Free$150 / $120US$39 (Standard, up to 25 inside at once)
25$375 / $300$500 / $400$150 / $135$375 / $300US$39 if at most 25 are inside at once; otherwise US$69
50$750 / $600$1,000 / $800$300 / $270$750 / $600US$69 (Business, up to 50 inside at once)

Read the SoWork Basic column honestly: at 6 people or fewer, it costs less than Hotori‘s Standard plan, both monthly ($36 or less against US$39) and annually ($32.40 a month or less against US$32.50), and up to 10 people SoWork Free is $0 within its 30-minute meeting limit. A flat rate pays off above that size, or when many members are occasional.

Which tool fits which team?

Your situationFit, on the official facts above
5 or fewer people, $0 matters mostKumospace Free
10 or fewer, meetings under 30 minutes, $0SoWork Free
6 or fewer people who are all online all daySoWork Basic costs less than Hotori Standard
Recordings and transcripts must be bundledGather Essential or SoWork Premium
15 to 50 people, not all online at onceHotori Standard or Business
Your team is in the EU, EEA, or UKNot Hotori, for now

Whichever you pick, run the trial with the real team and count how many people are inside at once; that number decides between per-member and per-space pricing.

For these numbers next to the other tools, with sources, see Compare pricing.

Company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. Hotori is not affiliated with them.

Sources