deskbird vs Microsoft Places: desk and room booking compared
You already pay for Microsoft Places. The question is what it costs you the day someone wants a specific desk. Since April 2026 that desk needs its own licence. So does auto-release. So do the occupancy reports that would tell you the office is half empty. deskbird charges for the people who book, not for the desks they book. Add a floor, add a building, and the bill still follows your team.
Quick verdict
Places fits if your desks already live in Exchange Online and a licence per named desk is fine. deskbird fits if you want desks, rooms and parking in one app, paid per person.
A fair choice when the groundwork already exists. You keep the hierarchy in Exchange Online, create desks with PowerShell or the Places portal, and budget a space licence for named-desk booking, auto-release and reports. If that is already how your office runs, Places will do the job.
One app for desks, rooms and parking, with check-in and office analytics in every plan. You pay for the people who book, never for the desks they book. Advanced analytics and exports start at Professional. Visitor management, room kiosks and sensor-free occupancy are add-ons. It runs in Teams and Outlook and syncs with Microsoft 365 and Google calendars.
A mailbox hosted in Microsoft 365. An on-premises mailbox runs on a server your company operates.
A Microsoft licence assigned to a room or a desk, not to a person.
A group of desks in one area. Users reserve a seat in the area, not a specific desk. Microsoft calls it a workspace.
What is Microsoft Places?
Places is Microsoft's answer to hybrid work, and it lives where your people already are. Microsoft calls it "an AI-powered workplace app that supports flexible work", with features "embedded directly in Microsoft Teams and Outlook" (Microsoft Learn, "What is Microsoft Places?", 27 July 2026).
You may already be paying for it. Places comes with most Microsoft 365 plans: Business Basic, Standard and Premium, E1, E3 and E5, A1, A3 and A5, F1 and F3, plus Teams Enterprise, Essentials and standalone (Microsoft licence page, updated 18 August 2026).
What is included without an extra licence?
The same licence page lists these core features:
"Most Places features depend on a fully established hierarchy of buildings, floors, rooms, workspaces, and desks."
Microsoft Learn, "What is Microsoft Places?", 27 July 2026That sentence matters more than the feature list. Places is not a booking tool you switch on. It is a directory you build first.
What changed on 1 April 2026?
April 2026 is when Places stopped being free in practice. Three features moved behind a licence on each space: booking a named desk, auto-release, and occupancy reports. Those are exactly the three you need to run desk sharing. Microsoft's licence page, updated 18 August 2026, dates the move to 1 April 2026 and names the licence: Teams Shared Space, MTSS or MTSS-SS.
Individual desk booking
Booking one specific desk instead of a seat in a pool. Each desk needs a Microsoft Teams Shared Space licence (MTSS) or a Shared Space Single Space licence (MTSS-SS). Desk pools stay in the core plan.
Auto-release
Frees a room or desk that nobody used. It needs a space licence on that room or desk. Microsoft's FAQ, updated 5 August 2026, adds that auto-release works only on reservable desks, not on drop-in or assigned desks.
Occupancy reports
Reports in Places Analytics on how rooms and desks were used. They need space licences on the rooms and desks in the report.
Two changes went the other way on the same date. Places Explorer and Places Finder moved from Teams Premium into the core plan, and Places Analytics no longer needs a Teams Premium licence. Customers who bought Teams Premium before 1 April 2026 keep the premium capabilities until renewal (Microsoft FAQ, updated 5 August 2026). Check-in itself needs no extra licence. Copilot room booking and Quick book need a Microsoft Copilot licence (licence page, 18 August 2026).
How do Places and deskbird compare side by side?
Same job, two different bills. Places charges per space once someone books a specific desk. deskbird charges per person and leaves desks and rooms unlicensed. The table below shows where that difference actually bites. Only rows with a source are included, and where Microsoft's documentation is silent, the cell says so.
Booking a specific desk from the floor plan in deskbird. No licence sits on the desk.
Every Microsoft cell comes from Microsoft's own documentation. The full list is under Sources at the end of this page.
Want this run against your own headcount and desk count?
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ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified, GDPR compliant, hosted in the EU.
When is Places enough, and when do teams add deskbird?
Places is enough more often than a vendor like us tends to admit. If every mailbox sits in Exchange Online, people book an area rather than a named desk, and IT keeps the hierarchy current, you are fine. You hit the wall the day people want a named desk. That is when the licence count starts tracking your floor plan instead of your headcount, and when parking, mixed calendars and visitor management all sit somewhere else.
When is Microsoft Places enough?
- Every employee has an Exchange Online mailbox and works in Teams and New Outlook.
- IT can build and maintain the building, floor, section and desk hierarchy with PowerShell or the Places portal.
- Desk pools match how your office works, or you plan to license individual desks.
- Parking and visitor management are not on your list.
- Occupancy per building, room and desk pool is enough, and you accept space licences for the reports.
When do teams add deskbird?
- People want to pick a specific desk near their teammates in advance, without a licence per desk.
- Desks, rooms and parking should live in one app, still inside Teams and Outlook, with visitors available as an add-on.
- Some staff have mailboxes outside Exchange Online or use Google calendars. deskbird syncs with Microsoft 365 and Google calendars.
- Check-in should work on every desk and room, and usage and attendance analytics should come with the base plan rather than a licence per desk.
- Rollout should take hours, not a PowerShell project. Installation takes about 10 minutes and everyone has it within a day.
How much setup does each need?
Setup is where the two really part. Places wants a full hierarchy before a single desk exists: building, floor, section, desk, then PowerShell or the Places portal to create them. deskbird installs from the Teams admin centre in about 10 minutes, and everyone has it the same day.
Setting up Microsoft Places
- Build the hierarchy. Microsoft's desks page, dated 27 July 2026, requires Building, Floor, Section and Desk to exist before any desk is added.
- Create desks with PowerShell or the Places management portal. Set each desk to Reservable, Drop-in, Assigned or Unavailable.
- Enable analytics with PowerShell for a mail-enabled security group. Settings take up to 12 hours to apply. Microsoft recommends no more than 200 buildings.
- For automatic booking when someone plugs in, use Teams "Bookable desks". It needs the Teams Rooms Pro Management portal and monitors with a unique serial number. Docking stations and webcams are "coming soon" (Microsoft Learn, 3 September 2026). Its reports cover weekdays from 8:00 to 17:00.
Setting up deskbird
- Add the deskbird app in the Teams admin centre. A Teams admin approves it and assigns it through a setup policy.
- Installation takes about 10 minutes. Everyone has it within a day, with no PowerShell.
- Connect your calendars and sign-in. deskbird syncs with Microsoft 365 and Google calendars and supports Microsoft Entra ID. SAML authentication and SCIM provisioning come with the User & Data Management Plus add-on.
- Configure floor plans, booking and access rules, check-in automation and analytics in deskbird's admin area.
Features available
Which one costs less comes down to two numbers: how many people you have, and how many desks and rooms need auto-release or reports. Bring yours to a demo and we will do the maths with you.
Can you use Places and deskbird together?
Yes. Microsoft's partner directory, updated 15 June 2026, lists floor-plan conversion partners such as Eptura, GoBright, Planon and ServiceNow, and sensor partners such as VergeSense and Haltian. Microsoft notes that it "doesn't endorse the partners".
Most teams do exactly that. Teams and Outlook stay the calendar layer, and desks, parking and analytics run in deskbird. Nobody leaves the app they already work in, and no desk needs a licence of its own. You are not replacing Microsoft. You are stopping the licence count from following your floor plan. See the Microsoft Teams integration, the Outlook calendar integration and how booking in Teams works.
Meetings stay in the calendar you already use. The desk and the parking space are booked in deskbird.
Is Microsoft Places free with Microsoft 365?
Can you book a specific desk in Microsoft Places?
Does Microsoft Places work with on-premises Exchange mailboxes?
Does deskbird replace Microsoft Teams or Outlook?
How long does each one take to set up?
Does Microsoft Places detect who is in the office?
Find out where the two models cross
Bring your headcount and your desk count. We run both models side by side and show you where the lines cross, including the licences you would need on each desk and room.
Book a demoHow booking in Teams worksSources
- Microsoft Learn, "What is Microsoft Places?", 27 July 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "License requirements", Microsoft Places, updated 18 August 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Desks", Microsoft Places room and desk booking, 27 July 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Enable Places analytics", 27 July 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Frequently asked questions", Microsoft Places, updated 5 August 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Microsoft Places integration partners", updated 15 June 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Setting up Bookable Desks in Microsoft Teams", 3 September 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, "Compliance, privacy and security in Microsoft Places", 10 March 2025, updated 11 August 2025.
- deskbird, desk booking, room booking, workplace analytics, workplace intelligence, integrations, security and pricing pages, as of 14 September 2026.
- deskbird blog, "deskbird for Microsoft Teams" (11 February 2026) and "How to book desks and rooms in Microsoft Teams" (6 May 2026).
Features, licensing and pricing are based on public information as of September 2026 and can change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.