Joan Alternative: MIDAS Room Booking Software

MIDAS is a mature room and resource booking platform that's been independently developed for two decades. Joan (made by Visionect) has built a genuinely innovative product around its battery-powered e-paper displays - they look great mounted outside meeting rooms. But the platform's heavy hardware orientation, plus the per-user-plus-per-device pricing model, often makes it the wrong choice for organisations that don't want to be locked into proprietary tablets.

The Hardware-First Trade-Offs

Joan's e-paper displays are widely praised in reviews - "elegant", "battery-powered", "no wiring required". But beneath the hardware shine, the platform has structural limitations that consistently push organisations to evaluate alternatives:

• Heavy hardware orientation drives up total cost. The list-priced per-device cost (around €9.99/device/month) plus per-user cost (around €0.99/user/month) sits on top of the up-front hardware itself - which can run €300-€800+ per display. Joan's pricing calculator surfaces these costs, but they add up faster than most buyers expect.
• Battery and connectivity issues. Capterra and Software Advice reviewers report battery life problems and Wi-Fi connectivity issues, particularly on mesh networks where multiple access points share the same SSID. As one reviewer put it: "The software interface is done very well... but it's let down by terrible hardware implementation."
• Software is constrained without Joan hardware. Joan can run on iOS or Android tablets, but reviewers note that without the proprietary e-paper devices "it only covers the very basic functionalities of booking a room and displaying the current status and schedule".
• No floor plan management. Capterra reviewers specifically request "a main floor plan layout" - useful for orienting users in larger offices but not part of Joan's current feature set.
• Mobile app speed issues. "The App is very slow and I have to wait until the Map is loaded. When I go from one day to the next one, it takes a lot of time to load the map." (Verified Capterra reviewer, August 2025).
• Tier escalation as you add devices. Joan's tiered pricing means adding rooms beyond your tier limit forces an upgrade. The Enterprise+ plan starts at €999 base for 20 devices - useful at scale but a steep step up from smaller tiers.
• SaaS-only with no self-hosted option. Joan is cloud-only. Organisations that need on-premises deployment for data residency have no path.

MIDAS vs Joan: Side-by-Side

Feature	Joan
Hardware Strategy	Proprietary e-paper displays recommended; limited features without them	No proprietary hardware - works with any web browser on any device
Pricing Model	Per-user (~€0.99/mo) + per-device (~€9.99/mo) + hardware	Per-venue and per-user, with one-time self-hosted option
Hardware Cost	~€300-€800+ per Joan display, plus ongoing subscription	Zero - reuse existing tablets, monitors, or TVs for digital signage
Battery Concerns	E-paper devices need recharging every 1-2 weeks	No proprietary hardware to maintain or recharge
Self-Hosted Option	Not available	Yes - one-time purchase, runs on your own server
Resource Types	Rooms, desks, parking, assets (within tier limits)	Rooms, equipment, staff, consumables - all native
Floor Plans	Limited - no main floor plan layout	Available via configurable views
Digital Signage	Tied to proprietary displays	Optional Digital Signage addon on any HDMI display
Free Trial	Available	30 days, fully featured, no credit card required

The bottom line: Joan is fundamentally a hardware company. MIDAS is fundamentally a software platform. If you don't want hardware lock-in, that distinction matters.

The Real Cost Comparison: A Worked Example

Consider a 20-room office with 50 staff who book meetings:

• Joan (typical configuration): 20 e-paper displays × ~€500 = €10,000 hardware up-front, then 20 devices × €9.99 + 50 users × €0.99 = ~€249/month subscription, or €2,990/year ongoing. Total over 3 years: roughly €19,000 (~$20,500).
• MIDAS cloud-hosted (annual): 20 venues, 50 users = roughly $595/year. Three-year total: ~$1,785.
• MIDAS self-hosted: 20 venues, 50 users = roughly $1,520 one-time + $189/year optional support. Three-year total: ~$2,098.

That's roughly a 90% saving over three years - and you avoid the proprietary hardware investment entirely. If you want digital signage outside meeting rooms, the MIDAS Digital Signage addon works with any HDMI-capable display (including the cheap LCD TVs you can buy from any electronics retailer for $100-200).

The Hardware Lock-In Problem

Joan's e-paper displays are genuinely well-designed. Battery-powered, no cabling, low power consumption - the engineering is impressive. But that hardware integration creates several long-term issues:

• Vendor concentration risk. If Visionect (Joan's parent company) changes strategy, gets acquired, or discontinues a product line, your displays may become orphaned hardware. This isn't hypothetical - the booking software market has seen multiple vendor consolidations in recent years.
• Hardware refresh cycles. Battery degradation, display wear, and Wi-Fi standard evolution mean these devices have a finite useful life. When Joan releases new generations, you'll face a replacement decision.
• Cost compounds. Every new room means buying more Joan hardware, paying for shipping, mounting it, and adding it to your subscription. With MIDAS, adding a new room is a configuration change.
• You're paying twice for displays you may already own. Most offices already have iPads, Android tablets, or LCD TVs that could display booking information. Joan asks you to add specialised hardware to that mix.

Beyond the Door Sign: Resource Types Joan Doesn't Cover Well

Joan's strength is the dedicated meeting-room display. MIDAS handles much more on a single platform:

• Equipment scheduling alongside rooms. Book the AV cart, the projector, the mobile screen, the catering trolley - and have conflict detection across all of them.
• Staff scheduling. Assign caretakers, technicians, or instructors to bookings - useful for community centres, training providers, and conference venues.
• External lettings and invoicing. Generate invoices, track outstanding payments, and manage non-staff customers booking your facilities. Stripe and PayPal payment processing are included as standard.
• Public-facing booking forms. Take requests from your website without exposing your full admin interface - ideal for halls, churches, and conference venues.
• Schools, churches, community centres, conference venues. Joan was designed for the meeting-room-outside-the-door use case. MIDAS handles the full breadth of organisations and resource types.

Digital Signage Without the Hardware Tax

If the appeal of Joan is the visible digital sign outside each meeting room, MIDAS provides equivalent functionality without the proprietary hardware. The optional Digital Signage addon displays your booking schedule on:

• Existing tablets you already own (iOS, Android, or web)
• LCD TVs connected via HDMI - the cheap ones from any electronics retailer work fine
• Existing digital signage hardware your organisation has deployed for other purposes
• Old laptops or PCs repurposed as display kiosks

The visual result is similar to Joan's displays at a tenth of the hardware cost.

Resource Reporting You Won't Find on Joan

Joan focuses on the front-of-room booking experience. Where it falls short is in helping you understand how your rooms are actually used over time. MIDAS includes a Resources report as standard, alongside five other categories - Bookings, Venues, Clients, Invoices, and Users - all displayed as graphs and tables, with full Excel export.

The Resources report specifically gives you visibility on resource popularity, potential income from those resources across a date range, and which resources are most-watched - useful when you're deciding whether to invest in another mobile screen, AV cart, or other shared kit. Joan's analytics don't go this deep.

The Self-Hosting Difference

Joan is SaaS-only. MIDAS gives you the choice: cloud-hosted convenience, or self-hosted on your own web server. For organisations with data residency requirements, regulated industries, or simply a preference for owning their software outright, self-hosted MIDAS is a category Joan doesn't compete in.

Migration: How to Move from Joan to MIDAS

The most common migration path:

• Start a free 30-day MIDAS trial with your real venues. No credit card, no sales call.
• Decide what to do with existing Joan hardware. Most organisations either keep them as decoration during the transition, or repurpose them for digital signage on the new system. Joan displays won't run MIDAS natively, but other devices you have already will.
• Recreate your booking rules - moderation chains, how-far-ahead users can book, who can book what, and how long bookings can last. Most have direct MIDAS equivalents.
• Set up digital signage on existing tablets, monitors, or TVs you already own.
• Run in parallel briefly, then cut over fully before your Joan renewal lands.

If you have specific questions about migrating booking data or repurposing existing hardware, our team can help. Get in touch.