Comparison
HubThread vs Gather
Looking for a Gather Town alternative for your distributed team? Here’s an honest, side-by-side look at how HubThread and Gather (formerly Gather Town) compare as virtual offices — pricing, focus, and which one fits your team.
The short version
Pick Gather if…
- • You want a pixel-art metaverse vibe with avatars walking around a 2D map.
- • You’re running large social events, conferences, or game nights.
- • Map-building and decoration are part of the fun for your team.
Pick HubThread if…
- • You want a virtual workspace your team actually uses every day, not just for events.
- • You’d rather have clean rooms than a pixel-art map to decorate.
- • You need simple, predictable per-seat pricing without per-event headcount surprises.
- • You want meeting recordings as files you own — every person’s audio and video, separately.
- • Self-hosting or SAML SSO matters for your organization.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | HubThread | Gather |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace metaphor | Persistent rooms & offices | 2D pixel-art map with avatars |
| Best for | Daily remote & hybrid work | Events, conferences, social |
| Starting price | $7.50 / user / month (annual) | $12 / user / month (annual), $15 monthly |
| Browser-based, no install | ||
| Persistent virtual offices | ||
| Screen sharing | ||
| See who’s online and which room they’re in | ||
| Meeting recording | Each person’s audio & video as separate files, with timings | 20 hours / month on Essential |
| Meeting transcription | — | 30 hours / month on Essential |
| Icebreaker games | Built into calls (This or That, Two Truths and a Lie) | Office mini-games (e.g. go-karts) |
| Guest access without an account | Business plan and up | |
| Pixel-art map editor | — | |
| Spatial / proximity audio | — | |
| Self-hosted deployment | — | |
| SAML single sign-on | Enterprise only | |
| Free trial | 30 days, no credit card | 30 days, up to 50 users |
Pricing and features reflect publicly published information at time of writing and may have changed. Comparing your specific use case? Talk to us.
Where Gather is stronger
Gather pioneered the “virtual office as a pixel-art game” category and they’re still the best at it. If your team genuinely enjoys building and decorating a 2D map — arranging desks, hanging posters, programming little interactive objects — that’s a real differentiator and Gather does it better than anyone.
Their proximity audio (volume fades as your avatar walks away) is also a genuinely fun mechanic for large social events and conferences. If your primary use case is hosting events for hundreds of attendees, Gather is built for that. HubThread isn’t.
Gather also transcribes meetings for you today (with a monthly hour allowance). HubThread records meetings but doesn’t transcribe them yet.
Where HubThread is stronger
We built HubThread for one specific job: a virtual workspace your distributed team actually uses for daily work. That focus means a few things:
- No map to maintain. You create rooms — engineering, design, all-hands, one-on-ones — and your team drops in. No one needs to learn pixel-art conventions or program interactive furniture.
- Predictable pricing. Flat per-seat. No surprise overage charges when your event runs long or your headcount spikes.
- Recordings you own. When someone records a call, everyone sees a recording bot join, so no one is recorded by surprise. Afterwards each person’s audio and video is its own file, with exact timings, ready to download from your admin page or feed into any transcription tool.
- Icebreakers where the meeting already is. Start a quick game like This or That or Two Truths and a Lie right inside a call — no one has to walk an avatar anywhere. Admins choose which games are on.
- Self-hosting is available. Run HubThread inside your own network on the Enterprise plan. Useful for regulated industries or teams with strict data-residency requirements.
- SAML SSO on Enterprise. Tie HubThread access to your existing identity provider.
- It’s lightweight. No game engine in the browser. Faster to load, lower CPU, longer battery life on laptops.
Thinking about switching from Gather?
Most teams switching to HubThread tell us the same thing: Gather was fun for the first few weeks, then attendance quietly tapered off. The pixel-art layer is great for events but adds friction to daily work.
HubThread takes about 10 minutes to set up. Create your virtual offices, invite your team, drop the link in Slack. There’s nothing to import — just spin up the rooms your team actually needs.
We offer a 30-day free trial, no credit card required. If it’s not a fit, cancel and walk away.
Frequently asked questions
-
Is HubThread cheaper than Gather?
Yes — meaningfully so. HubThread Pro starts at $7.50/user/month (annual), while Gather’s Essential plan starts at $12/user/month. For a 20-person team, that’s roughly $1,080 in savings per year. Both have 30-day free trials, so the easiest way to compare is to run them side by side.
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Does HubThread have proximity / spatial audio like Gather?
No, and that’s on purpose. Proximity audio is a great mechanic for events but adds noise to daily work meetings. HubThread uses standard room-based audio — when you’re in a room, you’re talking to everyone in that room. No avatar steering required.
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Can I record meetings in HubThread?
Yes. Once an admin turns recording on, members can record any call. A recording bot joins so everyone knows. Each person’s audio and video is saved as a separate file with timings, and admins can play or download recordings from the admin page. HubThread doesn’t transcribe recordings yet; Gather includes transcription with a monthly hour allowance.
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Can I self-host HubThread?
Yes, on the Enterprise plan. Gather is cloud-only. If self-hosting or data residency is a hard requirement, HubThread is one of the few virtual workspaces that supports it.
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How long does it take to migrate?
Most teams are set up in under 30 minutes. There’s nothing to import from Gather — you just create rooms that match your team’s actual structure (engineering, design, all-hands, etc.) and share the link.
Try HubThread free for 30 days
See if a focused virtual workspace fits your distributed team. No credit card, cancel anytime.