Joinways alternative
The Joinways alternative for Australian and UK function venues
Joinways is the closest architectural match to Function Desk we have found: it sends from your own connected Gmail or Outlook, prices per venue, and generates a banquet event order. The difference is what the AI is trusted to do without you. Joinways drafts and extracts, and a person reviews and sends every message; Function Desk’s agent auto-sends the low-risk replies itself and escalates only when it matters.
Every claim about Joinways on this page links to Joinways’s own website or support documentation. Checked September 2026. Where we could not confirm something, we say so rather than guess.
Who each one is built for
Function Desk
Australian and UK function and event venues wanting the enquiry answered automatically from their own inbox, with the option to hand off entirely for low-risk replies.
Joinways
Event venue managers, halls, restaurants, châteaux, hotels and conference spaces, weighted to Europe, who want every message read, extracted and drafted for them but still want to press send themselves.
Why venues look for a Joinways alternative
The mechanism is genuinely close: both send from your real inbox
Joinways’ own product page states it plainly: an email sent from Joinways “appears in your sent folder,” connected over OAuth with no password stored, and “Joinways syncs, it doesn’t replace.” That is the same real-inbox approach Function Desk uses. Where the two diverge is what happens next.
It drafts. Function Desk’s agent sends.
Joinways is explicit that a person finishes every reply: its quoting page states the AI “drafts a quote from the inquiry; you approve it before it goes out” and that “nothing goes out without you.” Function Desk’s agent auto-sends the low-risk replies itself, follow-up messages and answers from your knowledge base, and only escalates to you when a lead needs a person or is ready to book.
They build the banquet event order we do not
Joinways generates a function sheet (BEO) directly from the signed quote, covering the timeline, spaces, food and beverage, equipment and a financial block, exportable as a PDF or a vendor-safe public link. That is real operational depth Function Desk stops short of by design; the product’s scope ends at booked.
Currency and channel coverage
Joinways prices from $49 per venue per month on annual billing (or $69 for the Pro tier, with e-signatures), plus applicable VAT, and folds Instagram and WhatsApp into the same inbox as email. Function Desk publishes one number, A$119 per venue per month in Australian dollars, and is email-first by design.
Side by side
| Capability | Function Desk | Joinways |
|---|---|---|
| Price published on the website, no demo required to see a numberJoinways publishes tiered per-venue pricing on its site without requiring a demo. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Yes |
| Sign up and start without a sales callA free plan and a 30-day trial of the Pro plan are both started directly on the site, no card required. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Yes |
| Replies go out from your own Gmail or Outlook, so they land in the inbox and sit in your Sent folderJoinways connects Gmail and Outlook over OAuth and sends from your own mailbox, the same architecture Function Desk uses. This is parity, not an advantage over them. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Yes |
| AI carries the back-and-forth itself, auto-sending low-risk replies and escalating the restQuotes are AI-drafted from the inquiry, but Joinways states a person reviews and sends every one: “nothing goes out without you.” Nothing sends automatically. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: No |
| Banquet event orders / function sheets for the kitchen and floorFunction Desk exports a run sheet from the booking (times, guest count, setup, catering and staffing notes), not a formatted BEO. Joinways generates the function sheet from the signed quote, with a public link for vendors that hides pricing. Source | Function Desk: Partly | Joinways: Yes |
| Priced and billed in Australian dollarsJoinways’ pricing page shows a dollar figure and states VAT is added by location, but does not name the billing currency. We could not confirm whether an Australian venue is billed in AUD or USD. Ask them directly. | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Not verified |
| Multi-channel inbox including Instagram and WhatsAppA genuine gap in Function Desk, which connects Gmail and Outlook but not Instagram or WhatsApp. Source | Function Desk: No | Joinways: Yes |
| Month-to-month, no minimum termJoinways offers monthly billing at a higher per-venue rate ($61 Basic, $86 Pro) alongside its annual price, with no stated minimum term on the monthly plan. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Yes |
| Proposals, e-signature and a deposit taken by cardAvailable on Joinways’ Pro tier: one-click e-signature, plus invoicing and deposit collection via Stripe. Source | Function Desk: Yes | Joinways: Yes |
When Joinways is the better choice
We would rather you bought the right thing than bought ours.
- You are in Europe, or euro-denominated pricing and VAT handling suit your business better than a single AUD price.
- You want a banquet event order generated automatically from the signed quote. Joinways has this; Function Desk does not.
- You want enquiries from Instagram and WhatsApp landing in the same inbox as email, not just email.
- You would rather review and personally send every AI-drafted reply than have any of it sent automatically, even the low-risk ones.
Other Joinways alternatives
Function Desk is one option. Here is what each of the others actually publishes, so you can shortlist properly rather than take our word for it.
- 01
Function Desk
Australian and UK function and event venues wanting the enquiry answered automatically from their own inbox, with the option to hand off entirely for low-risk replies.
- 02
Tripleseat
Restaurants, hotels and hospitality groups, single and multi-location, with a buying process that includes a demo and a quote.
Ahead on banquet event orders / function sheets for the kitchen and floor. Function Desk exports a run sheet from the booking (times, guest count, setup, catering and staffing notes), not a formatted BEO. If your kitchen runs on printed BEOs, Tripleseat is ahead. Source
Full comparison - 03
Event Temple
Hotels with meeting space, and hotel chains and groups. Group sales, RFPs, and a Cvent-connected pipeline.
Ahead on banquet event orders / function sheets for the kitchen and floor. Function Desk exports a run sheet from the booking (times, guest count, setup, catering and staffing notes), not a formatted BEO. Source
Full comparison - 04
iVvy
Hotels, convention centres and large multi-space venues, plus venue groups. Quote-based, enterprise-leaning.
Ahead on banquet event orders / function sheets for the kitchen and floor. Function Desk exports a run sheet from the booking (times, guest count, setup, catering and staffing notes), not a formatted BEO. Source
Full comparison - 05
Perfect Venue
US and Canadian restaurants and venues running private events, with the operational paperwork (BEOs, floor plans) that a kitchen and floor team need.
Ahead on banquet event orders / function sheets for the kitchen and floor. Perfect Venue auto-generates BEOs from event data, and Enterprise plans can build a separate chef BEO template. Function Desk exports a run sheet from the booking (times, guest count, setup, catering and staffing notes), not a formatted BEO. Source
Full comparison - 06
HoneyBook
Independent businesses with clients, across creative, consulting and service industries, with a venues vertical alongside the rest.
Ahead on floor plans and table layouts. HoneyBook’s venues pages advertise 2D top-down venue layout visualisations. We have none. Source
Full comparison - 07
Everybooking
High-value, multi-line bookings: retreats, conference hotels, tours, equipment rental and venues, weighted to the US market, wanting an instant automated quote across every channel including phone.
Ahead on instant, automatically priced multi-line quote on first contact. A genuine gap in Function Desk. Everybooking’s own comparison page states this lands “under 1s”; Function Desk answers the enquiry but does not auto-generate a priced, multi-line quote on first contact. Source
Full comparison
Questions people ask
- Does Joinways send emails from my real Gmail or Outlook, like Function Desk?
- Yes. Joinways connects your mailbox over OAuth and states that an email sent through it “appears in your sent folder.” This is one of the places the two products are simply level, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
- Does Joinways’ AI reply to leads automatically?
- No, not by default. Joinways’ own quoting page states a drafted quote waits for review and that “nothing goes out without you.” Function Desk’s agent auto-sends the low-risk replies itself, follow-ups and knowledge-base answers, and escalates to you when a lead needs a person or is ready to book.
- Is Function Desk cheaper than Joinways?
- Joinways is $49 to $69 per venue per month on annual billing, plus VAT, though we could not confirm the billing currency for an Australian venue. Function Desk is A$119 per venue per month, one flat price with everything included. Compare the total against what each plan actually includes rather than the headline number alone.
- What does Joinways do that Function Desk does not?
- Generates a banquet event order from the signed quote, and reads enquiries from Instagram and WhatsApp in the same inbox as email. Both are real gaps for us. If either decides it for you, Joinways is the stronger choice.
See it on your own enquiries
A$119 per venue per month, one plan, everything included. Connect your inbox and watch it answer a real enquiry. No demo, no call.
Start free 14-day trialJoinways is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Function Desk. Comparisons reflect publicly available information at the date shown. If you believe something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.