
Is the 1871 hub in Chicago worth it? - bentaylor8
I&#x27;m considering applying for a nights&#x2F;weekends membership to the 1871 hub in Chicago to work on a software startup.  My co-founder is in another city.  If anyone has experience with the 1871 hub or another co-working hub, I&#x27;d be interested to hear what your experience was.  Thanks!
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tptacek
I've always thought 1871 was _way_ too expensive for what it offered, but I
don't know what the pricing on nights/weekends is.

Just for the extremely great location, we're in Wework at Fulton Market; I
would rent the coworking space there before I would pay for the coworking
membership at 1871.

Both spaces are, in my opinion, pretty extremely douchey. Wework probably a
little more so.

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syedkarim
If you're just looking for a place to work in the evenings, we're happy to
have you in our space at Catalyze.
[http://www.catalyzechicago.org/](http://www.catalyzechicago.org/)

It's a co-working space specifically for hardware startups. May not be super
relevant to you, but the shop on the second floor is pretty fun to fiddle
around in.

To be clear, we would not charge you to use one of our desks.

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timjahn
Start by asking yourself: what do you need?

There are now dozens of co-working spaces in Chicago, with all sorts of
amenities, specialties, sizes, etc.

1871 is the flagship, created by and supported by the city/government and rich
tech leaders. But it is far from the only community in town available to you.

Think about what you need first and go from there.

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theaccordance
If you're going to take advantage of the events and networking with others at
1871, then it's worth it.

If you're just looking for a place to work on nights and weekends, there's
plenty of excellent coffee shops around our beautiful city that you can use
instead.

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147
What about in the western suburbs? I usually go to Starbucks but I'd like to
try perhaps some local places out.

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tptacek
In the suburbs, the public library is usually a great bet. The Oak Park public
library was a fantastic working space for my last startup.

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1123581321
For further northwest, Gail Borden in Elgin and the Schaumburg library (forget
the name, but it's won a lot of awards) are good as well.

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ashwn
The Arlington Heights Library has some good resources as well, if you're
looking for NW Suburbs

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atomical
Check out NextDoor. It's a nice place to work or meet someone for coffee.

[https://www.nextdoorchicago.com/](https://www.nextdoorchicago.com/)

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rabidonrails
We had a membership there for a while but found it was too loud to actually
work. On the other hand, the events were great and it was a good location to
have meeting at.

