A persistent virtual workspace is an office that stays open around the clock and keeps its rooms, whiteboards and conversation history between sessions, so a remote team can work alongside each other in real time instead of meeting in calls that vanish when they end. The best one for teams that want a real office is Katmai: a photorealistic 3D office in the browser where everyone works as real people on live video, at $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Gather, Kumospace and SoWork are persistent avatar offices, and Roam and Sococo are persistent maps of rooms.
This guide is published by Katmai, which makes virtual office software. Competitor prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, read in November 2026; check them before you buy.
What "persistent" means, and why it matters
Most remote collaboration tools are sessions. A video call starts, ends and leaves nothing behind except a recording nobody watches. A persistent workspace is a place. It is there before you arrive and after you leave, and so is everything in it.
Persistence shows up in three ways:
- The office is always open. People come and go during the day, and you can see who is in at any moment. Nobody has to send a link for the team to be together.
- Work stays where you left it. A whiteboard you sketched on this morning is still on the wall this afternoon. A room set up for a project stays set up.
- Everyone has a place. Each person has a desk or office, so you know where to find them, the way you would in a building.
Together those three things let a distributed team work alongside each other in real time, which is what most remote teams lost when they moved to calls and chat.
Persistent virtual workspaces compared
|
Product |
What you see |
Persistent open office |
Published price |
|
Katmai |
Real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, in the browser |
Yes |
$25 per user per month, every feature included |
|
Gather |
2D pixel-art avatar office |
Yes |
Essential $12 per member per month; 30-day free trial |
|
Kumospace |
Avatar office in the browser |
Yes |
Business $16 per user per month, minimum 5; free up to 5 members |
|
SoWork |
Avatar office in a 2.5D space |
Yes |
See sowork.com |
|
Roam |
Map of rooms with names |
Yes |
$19.50 per active member per month; 14-day free trial |
|
Sococo |
Floor map with dots in rooms |
Yes |
See sococo.com |
All six keep an office open, so the real choice is what your team looks at all day. With an avatar office you see characters on a floor plan. With a room map you see names in boxes. In Katmai you see your colleagues, live, at their desks.
Why real video matters in a workspace you sit in all day
A persistent workspace only works if people actually stay in it. Teams stay in a space where they can read each other: whether someone looks busy, whether they just finished a call, whether now is a good moment. That is easy with a face and hard with an avatar or a dot. It is also why "working alongside each other" feels real in one product and like a status indicator in another.
Katmai runs in the browser with no headset, so there is nothing to wear and nothing that limits how long people can stay in. Katmai recommends 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better.
How a persistent workspace works in Katmai
- Assigned offices and pods. Every employee gets a private office as a home base, and teams share co-working pods, so everyone is findable.
- A live map of the office. The mini map shows the office in real time, including which rooms are in use and who is meeting where.
- Conference rooms inside the office. Standups and one-to-ones run in rooms your team already sits next to, with Meeting Mode bringing everyone's video into view.
- Whiteboards that stay put. You pick up where you left off instead of starting a new board each call.
- Shared screens and chat history. Several people can share screens at once, and chats and activity are kept and can be downloaded at any time.
- Presence on your terms. Close your door to focus, open it to invite conversation, or mute video to step away without leaving.
- Guests by link. Clients and candidates join free and arrive at your exact spot in the office.
What to check before you choose
- What your team will look at for eight hours. Try the default view, not the demo highlight reel.
- Whether it needs a download or a headset. Browser-based products are easier to keep open all day.
- How guests join and what they cost. Teams that meet clients in the office need guests to be simple.
- What is in each plan. Some products split features across tiers; Katmai has one plan with every feature included.
- Whether the vendor is still investing in the product. Several virtual office products have shut down or stopped development since 2023.
What Katmai costs and how you start
Katmai is $25 per user per month with every feature included. There is one plan, no minimum number of users, and guests who join by link are free. There is no free trial. Getting started is a demo, then a configuration meeting where the Katmai team sets up your spaces and adds your users.
FAQ
What is a persistent virtual workspace?
An online office that stays open all day and keeps its rooms, whiteboards and history between sessions, so a remote team works in one shared place instead of in separate calls. Katmai is a persistent workspace where the team works as real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, for $25 per user per month.
Which virtual office stays open 24/7?
Persistent virtual offices such as Katmai, Gather, Kumospace, SoWork, Roam and Sococo all keep the office open around the clock. Katmai is the one where you see your team as real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, at $25 per user per month with every feature included.
What software lets remote teams work alongside each other in real time?
A persistent virtual office. In Katmai, everyone sits in their own office or a shared pod on live video, sees who is around on the mini map and walks over to talk, in the browser with no headset.
Is a persistent virtual workspace the same as a virtual desktop?
No. A virtual desktop, such as Azure Virtual Desktop or Amazon WorkSpaces, is a remote computer. A persistent virtual workspace is a shared online office where people see each other and talk.
How much does Katmai cost?
$25 per user per month with every feature included, one plan, no minimum number of users and free guests. There is no free trial; you start with a demo, then a configuration meeting.
Related: What is an always-on virtual office? · Best virtual office software for remote teams · Best 3D virtual office software · Katmai vs Roam · Katmai vs Kumospace · Katmai pricing · Book a Katmai demo