Seatsurfing

Seatsurfing is a shared-space booking system for organizations allocating desks, rooms and other spaces to employees. It suits workplace teams that need floor-plan booking and administrative controls without per-user pricing. Its strongest fit is internal space management, not commercial rentals.

Overview

Seatsurfing covers desks, rooms, parking lots and other shared spaces through a mobile-ready progressive web app. Employees can choose a floor plan or list view, while administrators manage layouts, booking limits and utilization. This makes it a better fit for workplaces coordinating space across a changing office than for organizations that only need a basic reservation list.

A key boundary is its intended use: Seatsurfing does not include an accounting model for commercially rentable spaces. Organizations providing free seats to employees are the natural audience; businesses selling access to rooms or desks should look elsewhere.

Key features

Administrators can upload floor plans, place spaces with drag and drop, set booking limits and view utilization statistics. These tools connect the booking process to actual office layouts and capacity, though teams without a need to manage floor plans may find less reason to choose it over a simpler booking tool.

Recurring bookings are supported. Professional adds approvals and restrictions, so organizations that need those controls should account for the paid plan rather than assume they are included in the free cloud tier.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Exchange and Atlassian Confluence, with availability depending on plan or plugin. Bookings can sync one way to CalDAV calendars; the personal CalDAV integration does not support Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange. That limitation matters for teams expecting those calendars to serve as the direct personal sync destination.

Authentication supports username and password or an external OAuth2 identity provider, while MFA can use TOTP or passkeys. Its REST API applies role-based permission and organization-membership checks, which gives organizations a controlled basis for connecting booking data to other systems.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing and stays free forever, but is capped at 10 users. It includes managed cloud hosting in Germany and Teams, Exchange and Confluence integrations, making it a sensible starting point for a small organization that can stay within that user limit.

Self-Hosted costs nothing and supports unlimited users, with open-source, self-managed hosting. The Plus Plugin is a yearly add-on and adds features. This avoids a user cap but shifts hosting responsibility to the organization: the Docker guide requires a Linux server, a Docker-compatible runtime and PostgreSQL.

Professional costs €0.90 a month, billed monthly and paid upfront at the beginning of the subscription cycle. It supports unlimited users and adds approvals and restrictions, recurring bookings, custom domains, a third-party identity provider, kiosk mode and 24/7 support. For organizations needing those features without managing their own server, it is the clearest paid step up from the 10-user cloud plan.

Enterprise uses custom pricing for 500 or more users. It includes Professional features, dedicated infrastructure in Germany or Finland, and 24/7 priority support. This is aimed at larger organizations that need dedicated hosting and priority assistance; the price needs to be assessed against the organization’s requirements.

Platforms

Seatsurfing supports web, Linux, API and self-hosted use. Its SaaS servers are in Germany, with Finland hosting optionally available to Enterprise customers. The privacy policy says app servers are in Germany unless otherwise communicated, and data is transported over HTTPS/TLS.

Who it's for

Seatsurfing is best for organizations allocating shared spaces to employees, especially those that need floor-plan administration, recurring bookings or integrations with workplace tools. Small teams can start with the capped free cloud tier; organizations that need unlimited users can choose Professional or take on self-hosting. It is not suited to commercial space rental, and teams dependent on personal Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange sync should consider the CalDAV limitation before choosing it.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Floor-plan and list booking views, plus drag-and-drop administration, give workplace teams practical control over mapped spaces.
• Pros: Professional supports unlimited users for €0.90 a month and adds approvals, restrictions, recurring bookings and 24/7 support.
• Pros: Self-hosting is free for unlimited users, with open-source software and a yearly Plus Plugin option.
• Cons: The managed cloud Free plan stops at 10 users, so larger teams need a paid plan or self-managed hosting.
• Cons: Personal CalDAV sync is one way and does not support Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange.
• Cons: It lacks an accounting model for commercially rentable spaces, limiting it to organizations providing employee access without commercial rental.

Alternatives

Room Booking Software is a useful category overview for comparing options in this space.

desk.ly is worth considering if a free cloud plan for up to 15 users better matches your team; its Corporate plan costs €165 a month.

Flexopus is a paid alternative with a 30-day demo plan that includes Starter and Business functions and requires no credit card.

Officely may suit a very small team seeking a free plan capped at five users, or a simple desk-booking plan at $2.50 a month per user.

Roomzilla is an option if a free plan limited to three resources is enough, or if resource-based pricing is preferable: its Standard yearly plan is $10 a year per resource, billed monthly rate paid yearly.

BookingONE is another paid alternative.

classroombookings is a free self-hosted option for organizations focused on classroom bookings, with a cloud plan billed per year.

MRBS is a free, self-hosted web application for Linux.

Open Meeting is a free, MIT-licensed open-source option for self-hosting.

Verdict

Choose Seatsurfing if your organization needs employee booking across mapped shared spaces, with room to scale through unlimited-user plans or self-hosting. Floor-plan administration and the inexpensive Professional tier are its main draws. Look elsewhere if you need commercial rental accounting or personal Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange sync.