PrivacyPod vs ROOM: 2026 Office Pod & Phone Booth Comparison

PrivacyPod and ROOM both put a quiet room inside a noisy office, but they sell very different things. ROOM is an architectural, design-led brand whose meeting rooms read like premium interior infill. PrivacyPod is a certified, value-led brand built around fast availability and a full range of sizes. At the 1-person booth they are nearly the same price. At meeting sizes, the gap is large, and that is where this comparison gets interesting.

PrivacyPod vs ROOM at a glance

The table lines up each brand by size tier, with starting prices verified as of June 2026. ROOM meeting prices are for the bench-and-table configuration without an added camera or monitor; shipping is listed separately. PrivacyPod quick-ship prices include free shipping.

Sources: ROOM and PrivacyPod product pages, accessed June 2026. Pricing is volatile in this category. Verify current numbers with each manufacturer before purchase.

How the two brands actually differ

ROOM positions itself less as a phone booth and more as architectural infill. Its newer lineup is organized into a coordinated Room S, Room M, and Room L collection, with a design-forward aesthetic, premium interior finishes, and a look meant to feel built into the space. For a design-led office where the pods need to read as part of the architecture, that is a real strength.

PrivacyPod is built around a different promise: the same kind of speech privacy, certified to a pod-specific standard, across a full range of sizes, with fast availability and direct pricing. The lineup runs from the S Pod booth up through the XL Pod conference pod, plus a 2-person tier, a premium S Pod Plus, and the design-forward Arc Series. The two brands overlap most at the 1-person booth and diverge most at meeting sizes, both on price and on how the product is positioned.

1 person: PrivacyPod S Pod vs ROOM Phone Booth

This is the closest matchup in the comparison. The PrivacyPod S Pod is $6,395 (furniture +$195, free shipping) and the ROOM Phone Booth is $6,495 plus $500 shipping. On the pod itself the prices are within about $100, so this tier is truly competitive.

Two things separate them. First, shipping: the S Pod ships free on quick-ship, while ROOM adds $500, so the landed gap is closer to $600. Second, certification: the S Pod publishes ISO 23351-1 Class A results, the pod-specific speech-privacy standard, while ROOM publishes NIC, a general partition metric (more on that below). ROOM's booth is iconic and design-forward, and for a buyer who loves that look it earns its place. For a buyer weighing certification and total cost, the S Pod edges ahead.

If the appeal of ROOM is mostly its design, the Arc S Pod ($6,295, furniture included) is PrivacyPod's curved, design-forward booth, now quick-ship in the Haze colorway, a closer aesthetic match at a lower landed price.

2 person: PrivacyPod M Pod vs ROOM Room S Meeting

Here the gap opens up. ROOM's Room S Meeting, in the two-bench configuration without a camera or monitor, is $19,995 plus $2,000 shipping. The PrivacyPod M Pod is $9,495, and the slim SL Pod is $10,995, both with free shipping. That puts the M Pod about 52 percent below Room S Meeting on list, and further ahead once ROOM's shipping is added.

Both serve the same job, a quiet, enclosed space for 1-on-1s, interviews, and pair work. The difference is what you pay for the architectural finish. If the design language is the point, ROOM delivers it. If the job is private two-person meetings at a sensible cost, the M Pod and SL Pod do it for roughly half.

4 person: PrivacyPod L Pod vs ROOM Room M Meeting

The 4-person tier is the headline of this comparison. The PrivacyPod L Pod starts at $12,495 (furniture +$395, free shipping). ROOM's Room M Meeting, bench-and-table without a camera or monitor, is $29,495 plus $2,500 shipping. That is roughly 58 percent less for the L Pod on list, and a landed difference of close to $20,000 once shipping is included.

The L Pod is ISO 23351-1 Class A, independently validated by SGS at a DS,A of 30.8 dB, with quad-fan ventilation, adjustable lighting, integrated power, and optional HDMI and Ethernet pass-through. For hybrid calls, it offers a partial solid back wall (+$395) sized for monitor mounting, so the room is video-ready without ROOM's added camera or monitor packages. ROOM answers with its architectural design system and coordinated finishes. Both seat four; the question is whether the design premium is worth roughly $17,000 more before shipping.

6 person: PrivacyPod XL Pod vs ROOM Room L Meeting

For a conference-room replacement, the PrivacyPod XL Pod ($13,995, furniture +$595, free shipping) lands about 64 percent below ROOM's Room L Meeting ($38,495 plus $3,000 shipping). At that gap, a single Room L is roughly the cost of two XL Pods plus change, which meaningfully changes what a fixed budget covers across a floor.

The XL Pod seats four to six, runs six ultra-quiet fans, includes AC outlets with USB-A and USB-C, and carries ISO 23351-1 Class A certification, UL 962 listing, GREENGUARD certification, and ASTM E84 Class A panels. ROOM's Room L brings its premium room-collection design to the same six-person job at a much higher cost.

Acoustics: ISO 23351-1 vs NIC, and why it matters

This is the most important technical point in a PrivacyPod versus ROOM decision, because the two brands report acoustics under different standards. ISO 23351-1 is the international standard developed specifically to measure speech privacy in office pods and enclosed furniture. It tests the whole pod as a system, walls, glass, ventilation, and door seal, and reports a single speech-level reduction figure in decibels. PrivacyPod publishes ISO 23351-1 Class A results across the line.

NIC, or Noise Isolation Class, is a general-purpose acoustic metric originally developed for walls and partitions in buildings. ROOM publishes NIC. Both ISO 23351-1 and NIC report a dB number, and around 30 dB in either represents meaningful privacy, but they are measured differently and are not directly interchangeable. The practical takeaway: when you compare a NIC figure to an ISO 23351-1 figure, you are not comparing like with like. ISO 23351-1 is the pod-specific test, which is why PrivacyPod publishes it.

Why is PrivacyPod cheaper than ROOM?

The gap is mostly about what you are buying and how it reaches you. ROOM sells an architectural product with premium finishes and a coordinated design system, positioned and priced as interior infill, with shipping billed separately and installation quoted on top. That design-led approach carries a higher cost per room.

PrivacyPod sells directly to buyers, focuses the spend on the pod and its certified acoustic performance rather than a bespoke architectural finish, and includes free shipping on quick-ship configurations. Strip each product down to the enclosure, the certified speech privacy, the glass, and the power, and the core job is the same. The difference is the design premium and the shipping that ROOM lists on top.

Lead time and availability

PrivacyPod quick-ships standard configurations, white exterior with ash felt interior, plus the Arc Series in Haze, from its California warehouse in about 1 to 2 weeks, with made-to-order finishes in 8 to 10 weeks. ROOM lead times vary by configuration and finish. If you are solving an immediate noise problem or working to a fixed move-in date, confirm a real in-stock date with each vendor before committing.

Choose PrivacyPod if, choose ROOM if