- Last Updated: June 7, 2025
I’ve experienced both sides of the coin while working from these two types of places. In this article, I will share my experiences and perspective of these places and help you in choosing your next remote workplace.
So, if you are wondering, “Where should I work today?” this is the perfect place for you. Without any further ado, let’s unpack the dilemma with a candid, category-to-category comparison.
Coworking Space Vs Coffee Shop: Pros and Cons
1. Work Environment
One of the major aspects while choosing your workplace is the work environment. It plays a vital role for the remote work setting. Is the place assisting you on focus work? Is it helping you to improve your work efficiency?
Now let’s check it out by comparing both the places below.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
The best thing about coworking spaces is that they are designed for work. Here you will find people working, having meetings, or hosting seminars. The first time I went to a coworking space, I was amazed how quiet it was! There were people around yet minding their own businesses and trying to stay productive.
Coworking spaces have personal desks, quiet zones, and a great atmosphere. Due to the reduced home distractions, it becomes easier to keep work separate from home life, which can improve work-life balance.
However, the physical environment is pretty static. Often you don’t have the flexibility to change your surroundings as easily as in a home or mobile setting.
🔵 Coffee Shops
Unlike coworking spaces, coffee shops pass a different vibe. It feels more cozy and lively as people often chitchat here more than in coworking spaces. Studies even suggest that moderate ambient noise like the buzz of cafes (50–70 dB) can boost creativity and focus.
However, that buzz comes at the cost of comfort and control. You might be sitting in a chair, running to get out of the wall, occasionally getting loud orders coming into the room. This is due to coffee shops being designed primarily for socializing and sipping, not for focused work. So, it is quite common to find very few quiet spaces in coffee shops.
But the good thing is, this problem can be easily eliminated by using noise-cancelling headphones. These headphones block sounds coming from outside and let you have deep concentration.
🏆 Winner: Coworking Spaces for a consistent, distraction-free setup.
2. Wifi Quality or Internet Speed
Reliable, fast internet is the backbone of remote work. It’s so frustrating to have sloppy internet while you are trying to finish your work. So having fast and reliable internet speed is a must.
Now both coworking spaces and coffee shops try offer fast internet. But which one wins in this case? Let’s find out!
🔴 Coworking Spaces
As we know coworking spaces are meant to be for dedicated work, it is obvious to expect great Wi-Fi speed. Some spaces even advertise “fast Wi-Fi” that easily hits 100+ Mbps download.
Apart from that, they often have backup networks or wired Ethernet to keep things running smoothly. As a digital nomad content creator, this is a big factor for me, as I can keep uploading bigger files within seconds!
🔵 Coffee Shops
Coffee shops also offer free Wi-Fi, but it is more likely as a courtesy. You can expect to have an average kind of internet speed. For instance, the average internet speed of Starbucks outlets is around 26 Mbps.
As many people in cafes use it, the speed gets slower at peak hours and result in a bad work experience. I’ve experienced a few Wi-Fi drops in coffee shops while working and most embarrassingly, while stuck in client meetings.
So, if you want to complete basic internet work like doing emails and browsing, you can rely on their internet. But I found it wise to keep a portable Wi-Fi hotspot with me whenever I travel. This ensures I get reliable internet speed while working.
🏆 Winner: Coworking spaces for more reliable and fast internet speed
3. Amenities
Another important aspect of a smooth remote work experience is the amenities. It includes dedicated workspace, a number of power outlets, comfortable seating options, ergonomic furniture, etc. Besides, other amenities like refreshments or kitchen facilities and privacy for meetings or calls are also important for a more productive work experience.
While both coworking spaces and coffee shops offer some degree of amenities, let’s check out what they individually provide.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
Coworking spaces tend to facilitate remote workers with all the required amenities. They offer multiple seating options, from dedicated desks to meeting rooms. Besides, their amenities include ergonomic furniture, coffee on tap, and gyms or nap pods in some fancy ones.
In most coworking spaces, there is access to basic office supplies and equipment like high-speed printers or scanners. Many advertise 24/7 access so you can pull a midnight hackathon without blinking. To put it another way, you show up, grab a desk, and everything you might need is already there.
🔵 Coffee Shops
In contrast to coworking spaces, coffee shops have fewer amenities. It is mainly chairs, coffee, and a number of power outlets—that’s it. Need a printer, a quiet phone booth for calls, or meeting rooms? Forget it. They are mostly a few seating options and a menu of tasty coffee.
🏆 Winner: Coworking spaces takes the lead here
4. Affordability
Till this point, you are maybe wondering why coworking spaces always take the lead over coffee shops. Well, that’s not true! Especially when it comes to affordability, I think coworking spaces will go on the back foot eventually.
Let’s check out what the cost of working from a coworking space vs coffee shop is.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
Coworking spaces broadly run on two major pricing options. One is the membership price point, and another one is day or hourly passes. So, they charge a fixed rate. The higher the pass period, the lesser the cost.
In the U.S., the median price for an open desk is around $149 per month. Day passes range from $20 to $40. Compared to coffee shops, one week of coworking could match a month of coffee expenses.
🔵 Coffee Shops
Coffee shops work on a pay-as-you-go model. Here you pay only for what you consume. A couple of lattes and a pastry might total $10–$15, and you can normally stay for hours if you’re kind enough to buy a refill every now and then.
In coffee shops, you don’t need to pay any fees for working. That’s why many digital nomads like to work from coffee shops to cut down costs. If you only need a couple of hours here and there, the café’s pay-as-you-go model is cheapest.
However, whereas a café’s $5 buy-in mostly covers a cup and a seat, coworkers often take advantage of extras like better amenities, parking, and fast internet. Over time, a heavy coffee shop habit can get as pricey as a coworking membership. Additionally, keep in mind that most cafes don’t allow free sitting and require you to purchase at least one drink every hour or two.
🏆 Winner: Coffee shop wins in terms of affordability, especially for part-timers.
5. Location
Work location matters a lot for digital nomads. You don’t want to go to a work place which makes you travel for hours from your staying. So proximity to your accommodation of the coworking space or cafes is quite important.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
Coworking spaces are not everywhere. They are mainly located in urban centers, startup hubs, and popular city areas. In fact, a recent report predicted nearly 42,000 coworking spaces worldwide by 2024. Though that sounds like a lot, most of them are clustered in big cities or digital nomad hotspots.
In rural areas or smaller towns, you’ll find few to no coworking spaces. If you’re in a remote village or a random city you just flew into, you’re much more likely to find a café than a coworking drop-in desk.
Although coworking lacks global reach, they surely take the lead in the choice of central or high-tech districts.
🔵 Coffee Shops
In contrast to coworking spaces, coffee shops are more ubiquitous. There is at least one corner café or chain on every street of the city. Even in small towns, you can usually find a local coffee spot or bakery with Wi-Fi.
For traveling digital nomads, having a workstation near them is indeed a big blessing. Due to the abundant number of coffee shops, you’re never more than a block away from a potential workspace.
🏆 Winner: Coffee shops win on sheer convenience of location.
6. Flexibility
Let’s talk about the flexibility of work. It’s a vital criteria to choose your next remote workstation. Both coworking spaces and coffee shops have different types of flexibilities. Let’s check it out.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
Coworking spaces usually offer flexible schedules, but there are limits. Many of them have 24/7 access. Here you can reserve desks by the hour, day, or month—and often cancel or adjust your plan. But you must plan ahead in this case.
🔵 Coffee Shops
Coffee shops are more like drop-in free agents. You don’t need to buy any membership. All you need to do is grab your laptop and accessories and head towards a cafe. No bookings, no contracts. As long as the shop is open, you can go there and do your work.
Most cafes have fixed opening hours. It’s very rare to find coffeehouses that operate 24 hours. Also, they can politely ask you to vacate during rush times. But there’s nothing to worry about. You can easily switch cafes. Just pack your belongings and move to the next cafe.
🏆 Winner: It’s a tie on flexibility. Coffee shops win in instant drop-in ease whereas coworking spaces win in scheduled reliability.
7. Networking Opportunities
Networking is a major aspect for digital nomads or remote workers to find like-minded people. It plays a vital role in career growth. As digital nomads are on the go, it becomes easier to get lonely and isolated from friends and family.
Networking opportunities not only help you to grow in professional fields but also become a mental support. Now let’s see which place works great for networking opportunities.
🔴 Coworking Spaces
One big perk of coworking spaces is the people. These places become a gathering of digital nomads, freelancers, startups, and remote teams. They organize seminars and community events and create collaboration opportunities.
In other words, a coworking space is a social environment. People meet with other like-minded people and share ideas to create meaningful collaborations.
I remember once I needed a graphic designer urgently for VivaNomadia, as my graphic designer was on sudden leave. I found a nice guy who was also a graphic designer in the coworking space. He helped me with designs, and later I worked with him on a few projects.
🔵 Coffee Shops
Coffee shops also work great for networking opportunities, but it is different to coworking spaces. Although you may not get too many working professionals like those in coworking, you might end up networking with the person at the next table. I’ve had friendly exchanges over Latin music beats and once swapped web design tips with a stranger who turned out to be a developer.
In coffee shops, networking basically occurs by chitchatting with other digital nomads. But it doesn’t have the consistency of people you’ll find in a coworking space. Besides, a cafe rarely organizes an event or tech talk or refers you to a local client. Cafés are meant to be for social gatherings and generally not built for professional meetups.
🏆 Winner: Coworking takes the lead in the case of networking opportunities.
The Verdict
So we’ve come to the end. Now the question is, which one is better? Well, there’s no concrete answer, as it varies from person to person. It also depends on the day. I, as a remote worker, value both productivity and fun. So, often I take a hybrid measure to balance it both.
Usually, I go to a coffee shop, order my favourite coffee, and have some chill work time mostly in the morning. Later, I switch to a coworking space in the afternoon for more focus work and increased productivity. I also attend my meetings in this period.
But if you tell me to lean one way, I’d tip toward coworking spaces as the all-around winner for remote work. It’s not like coffee shops are discouraged to work from. Rather, for a focused work environment, fast internet speed, and a better number of amenities, I will go towards coworking spaces.
On the other hand, coffee shops will remain the perfect escape for me to avoid constant work burnouts and better comfort. Also, coffee shops work great for budget remote workers, as they tend to be cheaper.
That being said, deciding between coworking spaces and coffee shops is like choosing between cake and ice cream. And it’s not always necessary to go one way only. I’d strongly encourage you to try both and find your sweet spot.
If you like this article and find it informative, feel free to share it with your friends and family. Also, if you want to share your perspective on coworking spaces and coffee shops, leave a comment below!
FAQs
Most shops expect you to make at least one purchase per hour or two. So, as a courtesy, plan to buy something every couple of hours (or order a refill). If you stay there for too long on a single drink, the staff may politely ask you to move along to make place for paying customers.
If you need a reliable workspace daily, coworking can be worth it. Consider day passes or flexible plans: our research shows an average coworking desk runs $150–$300/month , which might equal a few coffees per day at a café.
Coffee shops usually won’t deliver silence. There is music and chatter even in the most silent café. Typically, coworking spaces provide “quiet zones” or phone booths. So, it is safer to use a coworking space or even rent a separate office if silence is essential.
However, whether you work from a coworking space or coffee shop, consider using noise-cancelling headphones to block external noises.
Although you can meet people anywhere, coworking hosts events specifically for networking. In a café, networking is on you. Coworking gives more opportunities for building professional connections.
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