Spacepad vs Joan: Which Meeting Room Display Is Right for You?
A detailed comparison of Spacepad and Joan room displays: hardware requirements, pricing, integrations, and which solution fits your workplace best.
Updated 19 October 2026 with Joan's current prices and hosting details. For the full side-by-side table, see Spacepad vs. Joan.
Joan and Spacepad are both popular meeting room display solutions, but they take fundamentally different approaches to the same problem. Here's an honest breakdown to help you decide which fits your situation.
The core difference
Joan is built around its own e-ink displays: purpose-built devices designed to be mounted outside meeting rooms. Joan devices are wireless (battery powered), have a paper-like display that's easy to read in bright light, and look polished. Joan's software can also run on other screens, but its own hardware is the heart of the product.
Spacepad works with any tablet you already have. An iPad you're not using, a budget Android tablet, a Samsung device. All work. No proprietary hardware required.
This single difference drives most of the pricing, flexibility, and trade-off conversation between the two.
Hardware comparison
| Spacepad | Joan | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Any iOS or Android tablet | Joan e-ink displays (other screens supported) |
| Typical hardware cost | €150–400 | €349–1,198 per device (Joan shop, excl. tax) |
| Power | Wired (standard charging cable) | Battery (4–8 weeks per charge) |
| Display type | LCD/OLED (full color) | E-ink (grayscale, paper-like) |
| Touch interaction | Full touchscreen | Limited (e-ink refresh rate) |
Joan's battery-powered design is a genuine advantage: no cables running along walls, a cleaner installation, and very low ongoing power cost. But you're paying for that convenience upfront.
Spacepad's full-color touchscreen is more capable for interactive features like booking on display and schedule views.
Pricing comparison
| Spacepad | Joan | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes (1 display forever free) | No (30-day trial) |
| Cloud plan | $8/display/month, or $80/year | Plans from €49/month, extra devices €9.99/month (billed annually) |
| Self-hosted | Yes (open source, $5/display/month) | No |
| EU hosted | Yes (Netherlands) | Yes (Google Cloud, Belgium) |
The software prices are closer than the hardware prices. The real difference is the device next to the door: a Joan display costs several times what a good tablet does, and with Spacepad you may already own the tablet.
Calendar integrations
Both Spacepad and Joan integrate with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The key difference:
Spacepad also supports CalDAV, meaning it works with Nextcloud, Baïkal, ownCloud, and any other CalDAV-compatible server. This is important for schools, non-profits, and organizations that self-host their calendar infrastructure or use solutions outside the Microsoft/Google ecosystem.
Joan connects to iCalendar feeds, but read-only, so you cannot book on the display with them.
Feature comparison
| Spacepad | Joan | |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time calendar sync | ✓ | ✓ |
| Booking on display | ✓ | ✓ |
| Check-in & auto-release | ✓ | ✓ |
| Extend meeting from display | ✓ | ✓ |
| End meeting early | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-room overview boards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom branding (logo, fonts) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schedule view | ✓ | ✓ |
| CalDAV support | ✓ | iCal, read-only |
| Self-hosted option | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multiple languages (6) | ✓ | ✓ |
On features, both platforms are well-rounded for core meeting room functionality. Spacepad adds broader calendar support and a self-hosted edition.
Setup experience
Joan's setup involves:
- Purchasing and shipping hardware (lead time varies)
- Charging devices and connecting them to your Wi-Fi
- Configuring each device and connecting to your calendar system
Spacepad's setup:
- Create an account
- Connect calendar via OAuth (takes minutes with admin credentials)
- Install the app on a tablet and enter a connect code
Spacepad typically takes 5–10 minutes per room, compared to 30–60 minutes for Joan.
Privacy and data sovereignty
Both are European companies with EU hosting. Spacepad runs on servers in the Netherlands, and Joan hosts customer data on Google Cloud in Belgium.
The difference is control. Spacepad is open source and offers a self-hosted edition, so organizations with strict data requirements (hospitals, law firms, government bodies, schools) can keep calendar data entirely inside their own network. Joan is cloud only.
When to choose Joan
- A completely wireless, cable-free installation is a hard requirement
- You prefer the aesthetics of e-ink and are willing to pay the hardware premium
- Battery life and low power consumption matter more than color displays and fast touch response
When to choose Spacepad
- You want to use existing tablets or more affordable hardware
- You need CalDAV or Nextcloud integration
- You want to read the source code, or host everything yourself
- You want a self-hosted option for complete data control
- You need a free tier to test before committing
- You want simpler setup and management
Bottom line
Joan is an excellent product if the premium wireless, e-ink aesthetic is your top priority and budget is less of a concern.
For most offices, particularly those that value flexibility, lower hardware cost and full control over their data, Spacepad is the stronger choice.
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