Meeting Room & Conference Room Display Buyer's Guide · Lobby

Buying meeting room displays is one of those decisions that feels harder than it should be. Every vendor has a comparison page that picks the dimensions where they win. Every review site has a top-ten list that mostly tracks marketing spend. Every cost calculator hides the renewal price.

This is our attempt at an honest buyer's guide. The decision is broken down into the questions you actually have to answer, in the order you have to answer them. Every section links to the deep dive if you want more detail. We are pricing our own product (Lobby) next to our competitors, and saying out loud where they win. One quick note on wording: some people call these meeting room displays and others call them conference room displays. They are the same thing, and this guide covers both.

The seven questions, in order

If you answer these seven, the right product mostly falls out.

Do you actually need displays yet, or is the calendar enough?
How many rooms, and how many people in the office?
Are you on Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or both?
Do you also need desk booking and visitor management, or just rooms?
What is your hardware budget per room, and do you want vendor lock-in?
What are your security and compliance constraints?
What is the year-five total cost, not just the year-one?

Below, each in turn.

1. Do you actually need displays yet?

For offices under 25 people with 2 to 3 rooms, the calendar in everyone's pocket is the right answer. A pair of flipper signs (Available / In Use) covers the rest. The threshold for needing real displays starts around 3 rooms and 25 people.

Full breakdown: Meeting Room Displays for Small Offices and Startups.

If you have decided yes, move on. If you are at the threshold, try one display on the busiest room first.

2. How many rooms, how many people?

This decides which pricing model wins for you.

Few rooms, small office (under 5 rooms, under 30 people): Free tiers win. Lobby Free covers 3 displays. Joan does not have a free tier. Robin and Envoy are priced for larger teams.
Few rooms, big office (5 to 10 rooms, 100 to 200 people): Per-room pricing wins (Lobby, Joan, Skedda). Per-user pricing (Robin, Envoy) gets expensive fast.
Many rooms, big office (20 plus rooms, 200 plus people): Flat-rate or unlimited plans win. Lobby Unlimited, Skedda Premier, Joan at the volume discount tier.

The single most important pricing question to ask any vendor: "Is the bill driven by rooms, users, or locations?" Whichever metric grows fastest in your office, you want a vendor whose pricing does not attach to that metric.

3. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?

Both platforms are well supported by every serious vendor in this space. The difference is in how cleanly the integration works at scale.

Microsoft 365 tenants: Look for vendors that use Microsoft Places metadata and Graph API. Avoid vendors that still require legacy EWS scopes (deprecated).
Google Workspace tenants: Look for vendors with full Calendar API v3 support and proper handling of resource calendars in nested buildings.
Both (large orgs): Test the multi-tenant story explicitly. Some vendors handle it cleanly, others ask you to maintain two accounts.

The room mailbox or resource calendar setup is the same regardless of vendor. If you have not done it cleanly, fix that first:

4. Just rooms, or rooms plus desks and visitors?

This is the question that decides which vendor category you are even shopping in.

Just rooms. Dedicated room display vendors: Lobby, Joan, MeetingRoom365, similar. Cheaper, simpler, faster to roll out.
Rooms plus desks plus visitors: Workplace platforms: Robin, Envoy, Archie. More functional, more expensive, longer to set up.
Coworking, mixed audiences, paid booking: Space booking platforms: Skedda. Different shape entirely.

The vendor comparisons by category:

5. Hardware budget and lock-in

Three real options.

BYO tablet (iPad or Android)

The cheapest. Use what you have, or buy a Lenovo Tab M9 for around USD 180 per room. Works with any software vendor. No lock-in. Some IT overhead (kiosk mode setup, MDM). The full roundup: The Best Tablet for a Meeting Room Display.

Open-source e-ink (TRMNL)

The interesting middle option. USD 129 to USD 199 per room, battery-powered, no cable run. Hardware is not locked to one vendor. Lobby runs on it. So does Home Assistant on the weekend if you want. TRMNL meeting room display post.

Proprietary e-ink (Joan, Robin Powered devices)

The polished option. USD 400 to USD 1,000 per room. Vendor sells you a finished bundle. Hardware is locked to that vendor's software. Strongest support story, highest price. Worth it if "looks professional, works out of the box" is the brief.

The DIY option (Raspberry Pi)

Tempting for engineers. Almost always more expensive than it looks once you include OAuth, certificates, and ongoing maintenance. The honest cost breakdown: DIY vs Buy Meeting Room Display.

6. Security and compliance

The questions to ask any vendor.

OAuth scopes the vendor requires (read-only vs read-write).
Where booking metadata is stored (region, retention period).
Whether they sign a DPA (you need this in EU and UK).
How firmware updates work on any non-tablet hardware.
Whether the displays can be MDM-managed (Jamf, Intune, Knox).
SOC 2 or ISO 27001 reports, if your security team will ask.

The display-side security checklist: Securing Your Meeting Room Displays.

7. Year-five total cost

The number that matters. Headline pricing in this category is usually fine. Year five pricing is where the surprises live.

The worked comparison at 10 rooms, year five total cost of ownership:

Lobby + BYO tablet: USD 1,800
Lobby + TRMNL: USD 3,300
Joan + Joan software: USD 11,390
Skedda + BYO tablet: USD 11,440
Envoy + BYO tablet (low): USD 17,500
Robin + BYO tablet (60 users): USD 22,500
Envoy + BYO tablet (high): USD 26,500

Full maths: Meeting Room Display Pricing per Room.

Hardware decision tree (meeting room or conference room display)

If you do not already know what hardware you want, this is the short version.

You have spare iPads. Use those. Setup guide: iPad as a meeting room display.
You have spare Android tablets. Use those. Setup guide: Android tablet as a meeting room display.
You need to buy new and want a tablet. Lenovo Tab M9, USD 180 per room. Best tablet roundup.
You need to buy new and prefer e-ink (longer battery, no cable). TRMNL, USD 199 per room. TRMNL post.
You want the most polished proprietary option. Joan 6 or Joan 6 Pro, USD 599 to USD 749. Joan alternatives post covers the full picker.
You need PoE or MDM-managed hardware (regulated industry). Elo I-Series or ProDVX, USD 400 to USD 700. If you want a wall-mounted screen rather than a tablet, the roundup of conference room monitors, TVs, and touchscreens walks through the larger-format options.

Software decision tree

If you do not already know which software, this is the short version.

Just rooms, small or mid office. Lobby (us) or Joan. Lobby if budget-sensitive or you want flat-rate pricing. Joan if brand recognition and polished hardware matter more than price.
Just rooms, large enterprise. Joan Premium, or one of the enterprise display vendors (Condeco for rooms, ASKCody for M365-heavy environments).
Rooms plus desks plus visitors, 50 to 200 people. Robin or Archie.
Rooms plus desks plus visitors, 200 plus people. Robin or Envoy.
Coworking or paid-member booking. Skedda.

What the display actually shows

Whatever hardware and software you land on, the screen outside each room does a small set of jobs. It is worth knowing the words for them, because different vendors use different names for the same feature.

A room schedule display shows the day's agenda for that room at a glance.
A meeting room availability display uses colour (green for free, red for busy) so you can read the room from down the hall.
Most screens also let you book a room on the display itself, so someone can grab a free slot without opening their laptop.
The whole category is sometimes filed under digital meeting room signs, which is the same idea by an older name.
If your calendars live in Microsoft, the Office 365 meeting room display setup is a common starting point.
For remote and hybrid rooms, a virtual meeting room display shows the same status without a physical panel on the wall.

Where Lobby is the right fit (honestly)

Since we are on our own blog, we will say this explicitly. Lobby is the right fit if:

You want meeting room displays specifically, not a full workplace platform.
You are price-sensitive and want flat-rate pricing.
You are on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
You are happy on TRMNL e-ink or BYO tablet, and do not need locked-down proprietary hardware.
You want a setup that takes 10 minutes per room, not a procurement cycle.

Lobby is not the right fit if:

You need desks, visitors, analytics dashboards in one platform. (Look at Robin, Envoy, Archie.)
You are a coworking space taking paid room bookings from members. (Look at Skedda.)
You require strict MDM-controlled, kiosk-grade hardware (regulated industries). (Look at Elo or ProDVX devices.)
You are over 1,000 rooms and need an enterprise contract with on-premise install. (Look at Condeco, ASKCody.)

Two of those are the case for a non-trivial number of buyers. We would rather lose those deals cleanly than oversell and have you migrate off in 18 months.

The starting recipe for most teams

If you are still unsure, this is the recipe that works for the majority of offices we talk to.

Sign up for the Lobby free tier (or your shortlist vendor's free trial).
Pick the busiest room. Mount any spare tablet outside it. Use the setup guide for your tablet.
Connect to your calendar (Google Workspace or M365).
Live with it for 30 days.
Decide whether to roll out to more rooms, switch to e-ink hardware, or upgrade to a paid plan.

You will know more about what you actually want after one display on one room than after three weeks of vendor comparisons. The hardware and software are cheap enough at one-room scale that this is the honest test.

TL;DR

Buying meeting room displays, or conference room displays if that is the phrase your team uses, is seven questions. Do you need them yet? How many rooms and people? Which calendar platform? Just rooms or workplace platform? Hardware budget and lock-in? Security constraints? Year-five cost? Answer them in order and the right product mostly falls out. For most small and mid offices on M365 or Google Workspace that just need displays, the right answer is Lobby or Joan on TRMNL or BYO tablet hardware. For larger offices that need desks plus rooms plus visitors, the right answer is Robin or Envoy. For coworking, Skedda. The biggest cost trap is per-user pricing models in fast-growing teams. The biggest hardware trap is buying proprietary devices when open-source hardware would do the job for a third of the price.

The Honest Meeting Room Display Buyer's Guide (2026)