What Are the Best Virtual Office Alternatives to Zoom and Teams in 2026?

The best alternative to Zoom and Microsoft Teams for immersive remote collaboration is a virtual office: a space your team works in all day, rather than a call you join and leave. Katmai is the one where your team appears as real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office that runs in the browser, at $25 per user per month with every feature included, no minimum number of users and free guests. Gather, Kumospace and SoWork are avatar offices, and Roam is a map of rooms. Most teams keep Zoom or Teams for large external calls and move the daily work into the office.

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.

A video call is a meeting. A virtual office is an office.

Zoom and Teams are very good at what they were built for: a scheduled call with a start, an end and a link. The trouble is that remote teams use them for everything else too. Every quick question becomes a meeting, every meeting needs an invite, and nobody can see who is free in between. The result is a full calendar and a team that only talks when something is booked.

A virtual office changes the unit of work from the call to the day. Everyone is in the same place from the start of the workday, you can see who is at their desk, and a conversation starts when you walk over. The calls you still need happen in rooms inside the office instead of in a separate app.

Virtual office alternatives to Zoom and Teams, compared

Why the video matters when you leave Zoom

Teams that move off a video grid usually want two things: to see each other without booking a call, and to feel like they are in the same place. Avatar offices solve the first and trade away the second. Once you are in an avatar office, you are looking at characters most of the day, and video only appears when two avatars meet. Room maps show you names in boxes.

Katmai keeps the part of Zoom and Teams that works, real faces on live video, and drops the part that does not, the link and the schedule. Your colleagues are on video at their desks in a photorealistic 3D office, so you see who is free at a glance and walk over. It runs in the browser with no headset. Katmai recommends 16GB of RAM and an i7 processor or better.

What changes when a team moves its day into Katmai

• Quick questions stop becoming meetings. You walk over to someone's office instead of sending an invite.
• Standups and one-to-ones happen in conference rooms inside the office, and Meeting Mode brings everyone's video into view around the table.
• Several people can share screens at once, and whiteboards stay where you left them, so the next session starts where the last one ended.
• Chat and activity history are kept, so decisions made in the office do not disappear with the call.
• Clients and candidates join free by link and arrive at your exact spot in the office.
• Focus is protected. Close your door when you need heads-down time, open it when you are free.

Do you still need Zoom or Teams?

Often, yes, for some things. Large webinars, all-hands meetings with hundreds of people and calls hosted by another company still run on whatever tool the organizer chose, and Teams also carries chat and files for many companies. A virtual office replaces the daily internal meetings and the quick calls that fill a remote calendar. Most teams keep their existing tools for the rest.

How to choose between the alternatives

• Pick what you want to look at all day. Real people on video, avatars or a map.
• Check whether it runs in the browser. Anything that needs a headset will not replace a daily tool.
• Look at what each plan includes. Some products split features across tiers. Katmai has one plan with every feature included.
• Look at how guests join. If clients meet you in the office, guest access needs to be simple. Katmai guests join by link for free.

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 the best alternative to Zoom and Teams for remote teams?

For daily remote collaboration, a virtual office. Katmai is the virtual office where your team works as real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, in the browser, at $25 per user per month with every feature included. Gather, Kumospace and SoWork use avatars, and Roam uses a map of rooms.

Can a virtual office replace Slack and Zoom?

A virtual office replaces most internal calls and the quick questions that would otherwise go to chat or a booked meeting. Many teams keep Slack for written updates and Zoom for large external calls. In Katmai, the daily conversations happen face to face on live video in a photorealistic 3D office.

How is a virtual office different from standard video meeting apps?

A video meeting app is a call with a start and an end. A virtual office is a place your team works in all day, where you can see who is free and walk over to talk. Katmai shows real people on live video in a photorealistic 3D office, so it feels like an office rather than a grid.

Is Katmai a video conferencing tool?

No. Katmai is a virtual office: a photorealistic 3D office in the browser where your team is present on live video all day. Meetings happen in its conference rooms, but the point is the time between meetings.

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: Virtual office software vs Zoom · Can a virtual office replace Slack and Zoom? · Katmai vs Zoom · Katmai vs Microsoft Teams · All alternatives guides · Katmai pricing · Book a Katmai demo