The COVID pandemic taught us to work from home, and once it was over, many companies didn’t want to go back to the office: why bother, when you can save on rent? Among expats in Portugal, the share of remote workers is especially high, since far from everyone wants to work for local companies with modest salaries. Where to go with your laptop so you’re not stuck at home all day is one of the first questions facing anyone without an office in Lisbon, especially as café owners aren’t always pleased to see customers with computers. Fortunately, the Portuguese capital has plenty of coworking spaces (to match the number of remote workers). Alena Khazinurova has put together a list of the most comfortable and interesting ones for Xpat.Land, including some free options.
Heden
A chain of budget coworking spaces with three locations in Lisbon: Rossio, Santa Apolónia and Alvalade. Prices are low: from €10 for 4.5 hours in Alvalade and from €14 for the same time at the two more central locations. A full day costs €17 to €24. You can also book meeting rooms for 6, 10 or 12 people by the hour or for the whole day, or rent an entire office for 16 or 32 people (that will set you back €600–1,000). If you book a desk for a month, prices start at €179, depending on the location and whether you want a fixed desk or are happy to sit somewhere different each time.
Members get Wi-Fi, a printer, free tea and coffee, fruit, showers and lockers for personal belongings. You can also rent a monitor and book a massage.
IDEA Spaces
A large chain with locations in Saldanha, Palácio Sotto Mayor, Parque das Nações and São Sebastião. Three of the four are entire 10-storey office buildings with lots of greenery, a rooftop, terraces, open-plan areas, meeting rooms, quiet private booths, lounge areas, cafés and kitchens. The Saldanha office even has a cinema and a rooftop pool. And the Palácio Sotto Mayor location is literally inside a historic palace.
The company positions itself not just as a place to work but as a community with its own events and traditions: networking sessions, parties, sports competitions and free beer on Thursdays.
Prices start at €25 a day or €125 a month for hot-desk access at any of the four locations on weekdays from 9am to 6pm. A dedicated desk costs from €210 a month, and comes with 24/7 access.
Regus
A major international chain with 18 locations in Lisbon, from central ones on Avenida da Liberdade to more outlying ones in Parque das Nações and Alcabideche. In some cases it’s an entire office building; in others, Regus occupies one or two floors of an ordinary business centre. The atmosphere is businesslike: there are meeting rooms, training and interview rooms, and conference halls. You can also rent a private office to see clients. There’s a business address registration service too, for paperwork purposes.
A day in the open-plan area costs from €25, and a month’s access from €119 upwards, depending on the location. If you just need to take a quick call or finish a short task, you can book a single hour in the shared area for €3.
The same company also owns the Spaces coworking chain, which has a more informal, relaxed vibe.
Second Home
Probably one of the most beautiful coworking spaces in Lisbon: it’s right inside the Time Out Market at Cais do Sodré. Inside is a veritable jungle of plants, plenty of natural light and designer interiors. Many of its members are entrepreneurs and people from the creative industries.
A day pass costs from €25, and monthly memberships start at €165. Day access includes fast Wi-Fi, tea and coffee, printing and use of the common areas.
Impact Hub Lisbon
A good option if you want to be among entrepreneurs and socially minded people. Lisbon’s Impact Hub currently has two locations: Baixa Chiado, in a two-storey historic building, and Penha de França, a huge space of around 1,200 m² with industrial design, lots of natural light, three terraces and an event space for up to 200 people.
A desk costs from €25 a day or €15 for half a day; a fixed desk of your own costs from €220 a month. The price includes Wi-Fi, coffee, tea, fruit and biscuits, and members also get access to the global Impact Hub network. There’s also a business address service for receiving mail and filling in paperwork: from €210 for six months.
Resvés
A small coworking space in Campo de Ourique with a fairly homely atmosphere: lounge areas, quiet phone booths, a meeting room, coffee and tea, events, a wellbeing programme, and you can even bring your dog.
A day here costs €25 and a monthly membership €230. If you need a fixed desk, there’s an option with 24/7 access from €290 a month. Before buying, you can take a free trial day to see whether the space suits you.
NKOOWOORK
A coworking space in Marvila, set in a former industrial loft next to the Braço de Prata arts venue. It has plenty of natural light, views of the Tagus, a kitchen, showers, free parking and 24/7 access for regular members. The space holds more than 300 people, yet it presents itself as a family-run, independent coworking space rather than a big international chain.
A free desk in the shared area costs €20 a day or €120 a month; a fixed workstation of your own costs €170.
LACS
A coworking chain that focuses on creative communities, and one of its most interesting locations is currently in Anjos, in a former labour court building. The old building has been completely remodelled into a bright workspace with large windows, an open-plan area and meeting rooms, rooftop access, a café and showers.
A day in the shared area costs from €20, and private office rooms from €250 per person per month.
Village Underground Lisboa
A place more for people in the creative industries than for tech workers. It consists of several converted shipping containers and old double-decker buses on the grounds of the Museu da Carris in Alcântara. The containers have been turned into workspaces and the buses into a café and meeting rooms. It’s both a coworking space and a cultural venue, hosting concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, DJ sets, markets and workshops.
You can rent a whole container or just one desk in it and share the space with others. Current members include, for example, a photographer, a recording studio, an urban greening project and a company developing AI agents.
Prices start at €20 a day or €180 a month for a desk. A whole container costs €620 a month.
Avila Spaces
A chain with three spaces in Lisbon: Atrium Saldanha, Parque das Nações and Avenida da República. Besides workstations, every location has lounge areas, a kitchen and phone booths. Workshops and networking sessions are held regularly, and members even get access to Avila Runners group runs.
A single day costs €50, and a dedicated desk with 24/7 access starts at €300 a month when paid a year in advance.
Monday Marquês de Pombal
The only Lisbon location of a large Spanish coworking chain. It’s a big office building with shared work areas, private team offices, meeting rooms, a cafeteria, a gym, showers and phone booths. The rooftop terrace overlooks Marquês de Pombal Square and Eduardo VII Park.
A day pass costs €29 and a monthly pass from €199. A fixed desk is €349 a month, and a private office from €499 a month. Members get 24/7 access, plus sports classes and community events, from meetups with entrepreneurs to outdoor cinema.
The Croissant app for coworkers
Handy if you don’t want to tie yourself to one coworking space. Instead of buying a membership at each place separately, you can pick a new workplace every day through the app. You book a desk at any coworking space from various chains, check in and out, and the hours you use are deducted from your monthly allowance. The network includes dozens of spaces, among them many of those listed above, as well as less obvious options such as creative studios and cafés with workspaces.
Subscriptions range from €29 a month for 10 hours to €199 for 120 hours a month.
Free places to work
Lisbon has a whole network of public municipal libraries where you can come and work for free. You don’t even need a library card unless you plan to borrow books. Many branches have free Wi-Fi, and all have power sockets and plenty of desks.
Of course, they’re not a full substitute for a coworking space: libraries are designed primarily for quiet individual work and study, so they’re no good for calls, as silence is required in the reading rooms.
One especially beautiful option is the Biblioteca Palácio Galveias in Campo Pequeno. It’s housed in a genuine 17th-century palace, with azulejo tiles and a spiral staircase inside, and a garden with a café behind the building. Bear in mind that it’s popular, and the best tables are often taken.
Nova School of Business & Economics library in Carcavelos
It’s a university, but you can walk in off the street: you don’t need to be a Nova student. Regular opening hours for all visitors are Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; late hours until midnight and Saturdays are reserved for Nova SBE and Lisbon MBA students. The low, horizontally stretched park-like campus by the ocean stands out sharply from classic Portuguese architecture and looks more like an American institution. Inside, you’re more likely to hear English than Portuguese. There’s a huge two-floor coworking space with power outlets, cafés, a kitchen with microwaves, and printers. Guest Wi-Fi is available in the library and for students, but if you make friends you can usually get the password, since the students here are friendly and helpful. As a bonus, there’s a beautiful view of the ocean.
