Business Tips
Team Deskworks
August 20, 2026
Every coworking membership plan is built from a few core components: a type of workspace you offer, the level of access members have to it, and the pricing, inclusions, and perks that make the plan worth choosing.
The workspace might be open coworking, a dedicated desk, a private office, or another reservable resource like a meeting room. Access could mean unlimited 24/7 use, working hours only, a set number of pre-paid passes, nights and weekends, virtual access, or pay-as-you-go. The right combination depends on the members you serve, how they use your space, and what makes sense for your business.
Getting your coworking membership plan design right can have a direct impact on occupancy, revenue, and the member experience. Plans that are easy to understand and aligned with how people actually want to work are easier to sell and easier to manage.
In this guide, we’ll break down how to design coworking membership plans around your workspaces, access options, pricing and benefits, community rules, and the systems you use to track membership usage automatically.
A coworking membership plan is a package that defines the workspace, access, and benefits a member receives for a set price. Members typically pay for plans on a recurring basis or for a defined period of time. While plans may vary between coworking spaces, they generally consist of four main components:
Most coworking spaces offer multiple membership plans to accommodate different types of members and usage patterns. One member may need full-time access to a dedicated workspace, while another may only need a few days of coworking each month. Offering a range of plans gives operators more flexibility to serve those different needs while making better use of their space and creating more predictable recurring revenue.
The best coworking membership plans start with the people you actually serve.
Coworking members can come from almost anywhere: solopreneurs, consultants, remote employees, startups, nonprofits, and small teams from larger companies. They work across nearly every field, from architecture and law to software, product design, and nonprofit work.
But when you look at how they use a workspace, their needs often have more in common than you might expect. What usually matters most is the size of the business, how often they come in, how much privacy or security they need, how established they are, and how they like to work.
That’s why it helps to build a few member personas for your space. Not generic personas based on who you think should join, but profiles based on the people and businesses you’re actually trying to attract.
To build useful member personas, gather information from a few key sources:
For each persona, note how they actually use the space: frequency, privacy needs, meeting cadence, security requirements, storage, bandwidth, and how often they bring guests or clients. Those usage patterns are what your plan combinations need to serve. Understand the mix first. The plan design follows from it.
Every prospect conversation should surface enough information to identify the right plans for that person and help them choose the best fit. Potential members don't know your field as well as you do, so they might not know which options are relevant. Use the questions below as a guide, along with anything else that helps you understand how they work.
You won't have to ask all of these. Many will be obvious. People may think they need an office when really they intend to pop in with their laptop a few times a week, or want to use a phone cube occasionally. What matters is understanding how they actually work and use space -- that leads directly into the workspace types and plan options below.
Before you can design a plan, you need to know what physical resources or services you're building it on. You're in the space and community business, but really the space/time (and community!) business. Members perceive plans by size of space, privacy, included hours, price, and included extras.
Typically you'll have 3 - 4 types of personal workspace, plus reservable/on-demand spaces covered below. Each resource serves a distinct member profile, and each can be offered under multiple access options (covered in the section after this).
Open coworking is 3 to 4 feet of table space in a shared area, for members whose work life fits on a laptop and who might drop in anytime. This is definitely for unfunded startups or individual employees paying for a plan themselves. Even corporate teams may want open coworking plans for employees who come in occasionally.
California-based reference pricing from a Deskworks-managed operation (Satellite Workplaces): Working Hours access starts at $205/mo, Unlimited 24/7 open coworking at $225/mo. US market ranges for hot desk plans commonly run $200 to $600 per month depending on market.
A dedicated desk is 5 feet of desk with a privacy barrier and locking storage, guaranteed to the same member daily. This works for people who need to leave a couple monitors in place and want the same space every day. If they have a very personal call, they'll use a phone cube. They might need the conference room occasionally if they have clients in, but they don't need a private office full time.
California-based reference pricing (Satellite Workplaces): $325/mo and up. US market ranges commonly run $300 to $700 per month.
A Workstation is a 6-foot by 6-foot semi-enclosed space with more locking storage and possibly a hard-wired internet connection. It's an additional level of workspace offered in the coworking spaces our founder operates, Satellite Workplaces (not a category typically found in traditional coworking). We find it works well for people who need more space to spread out and can't quite afford an office, or who function better in a more open environment. It's also great for corporate employees whose company pays for their space, or anyone who needs the hard-wired connection.
California-based reference pricing (Satellite Workplaces): $495/mo and up. No direct US market benchmark exists for this tier; it typically prices between a dedicated desk and a small private office.
Private offices and team rooms are fully enclosed spaces sized to the team using them. The amount of space depends on team size and budget. Any vacant spaces should be usable on a part-time or day-use basis until they're needed by someone full-time. US market ranges vary significantly by market and office size: $500 to $1,500 per month is typical, with premium markets and larger team rooms going higher.
Reservable spaces are the shared amenities members book by the hour or day: conference rooms, day offices, event space, phone cubes, podcast booths, and event space. You may have consultants who just want conference rooms, podcasters who like using your recording space, or teachers and therapists who want phone cubes for Zoom meetings. These can be sold as standalone plans (a certain number of hours on a monthly or prepaid refillable basis) or bundled as perks into other plans (covered later in "Build Community and Added Value Into Plans").
The same physical resource can be sold under multiple access options, and that's how you build a full plan catalog. An Open Coworking desk can be sold as Unlimited 24/7, Working Hours, or a bucket of day passes -- three plans, one resource. A Workstation can be sold as Unlimited 24/7, 5 days per month, or 12 days per month. Every access option below pairs naturally with certain resources (noted for each).
Unlimited 24/7 gives a member access at any hour, any day. Members on this plan tend to have higher retention because they see the space as their primary workplace, not a casual drop-in.
Works best with: Private Offices, Dedicated Desks, Workstations, Open Coworking
Time-restricted plans give members access only during certain parts of the day or week, allowing you to offer a lower-priced option while using the same space across different member schedules.
The two most common versions are Working Hours, typically 8 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday, and Nights and Weekends, for members who need workspace outside the standard workday.
Time-restricted access is less commonly paired with dedicated resources because members generally can’t leave their belongings or setup in place if someone else needs to use the space during the opposite access period. However, a workstation or other dedicated space can be shared between members on complementary schedules if it can be cleared and reset between use.
Works best with: Open Coworking
A monthly pass plan gives members a fixed monthly allotment of visits, such as 5 days or 10 hours per month, that resets each month. Unused passes don’t carry over. Members know exactly how much access they’re paying for, and you get predictable recurring revenue.
Encourages routine reservations, typically on the same days and times each week, so only offer this type of plan for spaces where members can reliably book in advance. It may not be a good fit for your busiest conference room or other high-demand spaces where recurring availability is harder to guarantee.
Works best with: Workstations, Offices, Team Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Podcast Rooms
A Bucket of Passes is a prepaid bundle of visits, such as 10 half-days or 20 hours, that a member uses at their own pace. When the bucket is used up, it rebills automatically -- whether that happens in a week or six months.
This is different from a monthly allotment. Monthly allotments are time-based: they reset on the billing date regardless of how much the member used. Buckets are usage-based: they rebill when depleted.
Buckets work well for people who want low commitment or whose schedules vary from month to month. At Satellite Workplaces, for example, many legal professionals keep a bucket of private office or meeting room hours to use as needed for client meetings. Buckets can also pair well with virtual office plans.
Works best with: Open Coworking, Meeting Rooms, Offices, Team Rooms, Podcast Rooms, and Phone/Zoom Rooms
An Access or Pay-as-You-Go plan gives members the ability to book space as they need it, with little to no monthly commitment. You might charge a small monthly or annual access fee in exchange for the convenience of booking whenever they want, sometimes at a preferred rate.
Pay-as-you-go rates for bookings and services are typically higher than the effective rates paid by recurring monthly members, but because these members use the space less frequently, the model still makes sense. They get peace of mind knowing they have a professional space available when they need it without paying for access they won't use.
Works best with: Open Coworking, Meeting Rooms, Offices, Team Rooms, Podcast Rooms, and Phone/Zoom Rooms, Event Space
A Virtual Office plan gives members a business address, mail handling, and optional access to meeting rooms or other shared amenities -- without assigning them a physical workspace. It’s the exception to the usual “space + access” combination: the core product is the service, not the workspace.
When virtual members do need to come in, you can give them pay-as-you-go access or include a small allotment of day passes, meeting-room hours, or credits. This works well for solopreneurs, consultants, remote-first businesses, and others who want a professional presence without paying for a dedicated desk or office.
Works best with: No dedicated physical resource. Pair virtual plans with Pay-as-You-Go access, a Bucket of meeting-room hours, or a few day passes per month for occasional in-person use.
Pricing a plan starts with your fully loaded cost per square foot, divided by target occupancy, plus margin. For example, if rent, utilities, labor, and software work out to $30 per square foot per month and your target occupancy is 75%, the base cost of every dedicated desk (5 feet) becomes $30 × 5 ÷ 0.75 = $200 per month before margin. From there, layer value-based markup on top for things like 24/7 access, private storage, mail handling, and meeting-room hours.
A Bucket of Passes should cost less than buying the same visits one at a time, because the discount is what drives commitment. For example, if a Day Pass costs $45, a Bucket of 10 Day Passes should cost less than $450. The per-day rate should still be higher than the effective daily rate of a monthly coworking plan, since monthly members are making a larger commitment.
For reference, US coworking hot desks commonly run $200 to $600 per month; dedicated desks $300 to $700; single-person private offices $500 to $1,500 depending on size and location. Use your local market as a guide, pricing near the middle unless your amenities, community, or location justify a premium.
Set up your security and internet bandwidth options ahead of time so you aren't caught flat-footed when someone asks. You may have members who need dedicated bandwidth and are willing to pay extra for it, or someone who asks about a private network or VLAN. If you throttle everyone to a standard level, you may get members who need more.
Have your available upgrades and set prices ready so they can be added automatically to the member's monthly bill.
The plans a member sees on your website aren't just "a desk and a price." The community, perks, and added value bundled into each plan are what turn a shared workspace into a place people stay -- and what differentiate your plans beyond just space, time, and price.
Community benefits and perks to bundle into your plans:
Community rules that keep the space functional
Perks build attraction to your space, while rules keep it running. With members from different industries, companies, and work styles, be very clear about expectations from the start. Some people will want to be highly involved in the community, while others will stay more connected to their own company or work.
Publish policies around noise levels, guests, shared-space etiquette, and cleaning up after yourself both through physical signage and virtually in your member portal. Make sure to cover them during onboarding too. And when you plan community events, vary the timing so everyone has a chance to participate -- not just the members who happen to be on-site at 3 PM.
Flexible plans only work if the operational plumbing behind them is automatic. Three things need to happen without you touching them.
Deskworks was built by workspace operators to run every plan type covered above, without spreadsheets or manual tracking. All three functions above are handled in one connected coworking management software platform.
What are the most common coworking membership plans?
The most common coworking membership plans combine one type of workspace with one level of access, at a set price. Common workspace types are open coworking, dedicated desks, workstations, private offices, and reservable spaces like conference rooms. Common access options are unlimited 24/7, working hours, a set number of passes per month, pre-paid buckets of passes, nights and weekends, virtual office, and pay-as-you-go. Most spaces offer several combinations that match the members they best serve.
How do you decide the right membership plan for a coworking space?
Ask the eight discovery questions above to identify the plans that fit a prospect's actual work patterns, then help them choose from that shorter list. Members who pick their own plan without guidance often over-buy (a private office when they need a hot desk) or under-buy (a bucket of passes when they need dedicated space), and both drive early churn.
How are coworking membership plans structured?
A coworking membership plan is built by combining four things: a workspace or resource (open coworking, dedicated desk, workstation, private office, conference room, mailbox), a level of access to it (unlimited 24/7, working hours, buckets of passes, monthly allotments, pay-as-you-go), pricing (monthly, annual, or as-needed refills), and inclusions and perks (24/7 entry, mail handling, meeting-room credits, community events). The same resource can be offered under multiple access options. For example, an open coworking desk can be sold as Unlimited 24/7, Working Hours, or a Bucket of Day Passes, creating three distinct plans from one resource.
Do coworking spaces offer virtual office plans?
Yes, virtual office plans are a standard coworking membership option. A virtual office gives a member a business address, mail handling, and often access to meeting rooms, without a dedicated workspace. They can be a good entry point into a full membership later, and one of the highest-margin coworking membership types because they consume almost no physical capacity.
How do coworking spaces track member usage across different plans?
Coworking spaces track member usage automatically through the WiFi or ethernet network (a member's login records their check-in) or through the reservation system for spaces booked in advance. Honor-system tracking is not reliable at any real member volume. When a plan includes a set number of hours or day passes, the software records usage against the plan and either invoices the overage or rebills when the passes are depleted, for individuals and teams alike.
Business Tips
Team Deskworks
August 20, 2026
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