Yes, there is free coworking in Mesa. Our shared workspace costs nothing to use. There is no day rate, no membership and nothing to book. Buy a coffee and the desk is yours for the day.
That is an unusual deal, so it is worth being clear about what you get, what you do not, and when paying for a coworking pass somewhere else is the better choice.
What a paid coworking pass usually buys
Coworking spaces sell some mix of the same things. A desk for the day, a network you can rely on and coffee in the kitchen are the basics. Depending on the space and the tier, a pass might also cover meeting room hours, phone booths, a mailing address for your business, lockers and keycard access outside normal business hours.
Some of that is genuinely worth paying for. Much of it, for most people on most days, is not. If what you need is a good chair, a table big enough to spread out on, a connection that holds up on a call and somewhere to plug in, you are paying for extras you will not use.
What the free desk here gets you
The workspace is its own room, set apart from the cafe, with full-size desks and proper chairs rather than a wobbly table by the door.
- WiFi. It is fast and free, and video calls are fine. Ask at the counter for the password.
- Power. There is an outlet at nearly every seat, so bring the charger and forget about your battery.
- Printing. There is a printer in the workspace. Ask at the counter and someone will sort you out.
- Food. The whole menu is served all day, so lunch happens without packing up.
- Somewhere to rest your eyes. There is a library of donated books and a lounge, plus a shelf of board games for when the work is done.
Nothing needs a reservation for everyday working. You walk in, order and sit down.
What we do not have
There are no private offices to rent. We have offices, but they are all taken on longer arrangements. There is no keycard and no after-hours access, because we keep coffee-shop hours, and those end earlier than a coworking space’s do. Check our hours before planning a long evening around us.
Meeting rooms are the one thing that costs money. The conference room seats ten and has a screen, a mobile whiteboard, blinds and power built into the table. It is booked by the hour through Peerspace, which shows the current rate. The open workspace can also be booked for a group or an event the same way. Everyday working never needs either.
When a paid space is the better call
We would rather you ended up in the right room than in ours for the wrong reasons. A paid coworking membership makes more sense if you need:
- a desk that is yours every day, with your monitor left on it
- somewhere to work in the evening or at the weekend after we close
- a business mailing address
- a lockable office for confidential work all day long
If none of that describes your week, you are probably paying for a coworking pass to get a desk, WiFi and coffee. You can have the first two here for free and buy the third.
Why it is free
Charging for a chair is a strange way to run a coffee shop. We would rather sell you a coffee and let the desk be the reason you came. It means students, freelancers, people between jobs and anyone whose home is not a workable office all get the same room.
That follows from how the business is run. We are a worker directed shop, and the people doing the work decided the room should be open. There is a longer account in why we give the desks away.
The one thing we ask is that you buy something while you are here, and that you do not bring outside food or drink in. Buying here is how the room stays free for the next person.
Choosing where to work
If you are weighing us against other coffee shops rather than coworking spaces, our guide to the best coffee shops to work remotely in Mesa compares five of them, ours included. And if you just want to see the room first, the workspace page has the photographs and the answers to the questions people ask before their first visit.