Most pages answering this question are written by someone who sells one of the two options. We sell the artificial ones, so treat this accordingly - but the comparison below is written to be useful rather than flattering, and there are several places where the real plant is the better answer.
Should I get a real indoor plant or fake?
Choose real plants if the space has usable daylight and a specific person is responsible for watering them. Choose artificial if the space is dark, if nobody owns the maintenance, or if the plant needs to be somewhere you cannot easily reach.
That is genuinely the decision. Almost every office plant failure comes down to one of those two conditions being absent, not to anyone choosing the wrong species.
Side-by-side comparison
| Real plants | Artificial plants | |
|---|---|---|
| Light needed | Yes - the binding constraint in most offices | None |
| Watering | Weekly to fortnightly, indefinitely | None |
| Upfront cost | Lower for the plant, higher for a large specimen | Higher, especially at 8 ft and above |
| Ongoing cost | Maintenance contract or staff time, plus replacements | Occasional dusting |
| Large sizes | Expensive, heavy, hard to source and keep alive indoors | Available to 20 ft, moveable, stable |
| Humidity and air | Adds humidity, respires, measurable in sealed conditions | Does nothing |
| Pests and mess | Fungus gnats, mould, soil spills, leaf drop | None - no soil, no sap, no pollen |
| Allergies | Pollen and mould spores possible | No pollen |
| Consistency | Changes, grows unevenly, sometimes dies | Identical on day one and year five, indoors |
| Wellbeing effect | Documented in workplace research | Some visual benefit, less well supported |
| Fire code | Not usually an issue | May require a tested flame rating in commercial buildings |
What real plants do that artificial ones do not
They respire and transpire. A real plant releases water vapour, which raises local humidity slightly. In a Canadian office in February, where forced-air heating routinely drives indoor relative humidity into the twenties, that is a genuine if small benefit. An artificial tree contributes nothing here.
They change. Some people find the fact that a real plant grows, puts out new leaves and responds to care is the entire point, and no artificial substitute delivers that. It is not a trivial preference and it is not one we can argue with.
There is also a reasonable body of workplace research suggesting that adding real greenery to previously bare offices is associated with improved reported wellbeing and, in some studies, productivity. The best-known of that work comes out of the University of Exeter. We are not going to attach a percentage to it here, because the figures get quoted far more confidently than the underlying studies support - but the direction of the finding is real, and it was measured on living plants.
The air quality claim, honestly
You will see it claimed that office plants clean the air. This traces back to a NASA study from 1989 which tested houseplants in sealed chambers and did find that they removed volatile organic compounds.
The problem is the leap from that to an office. Those were small airtight chambers. A real office has HVAC exchanging its entire air volume many times per hour, which overwhelms anything the plants are doing. Researchers who have since reanalysed the data have concluded that you would need an implausible density of plants - on the order of a plant every square foot or more - to match the effect of simply opening a window. If air quality is your actual goal, ventilation and filtration will do more than any amount of planting, real or artificial.
We include this because it is the one claim in this comparison where the real-plant side is routinely overstated, and pretending otherwise would not be honest just because it happens to help our side of the argument.
What artificial plants do that real ones do not
They survive the places offices actually need planting. Interior corridors with no windows, the back of a deep floor plate, meeting rooms that are dark all week, stairwells, the upper level of a two-storey atrium nobody can reach with a ladder. These are exactly the spots where real plants are put and then quietly die.
They go large without a problem. A 12 ft real ficus indoors is a major undertaking to source, move and keep alive. A 12 ft artificial tree is a delivery. Large is not cheap, to be clear - as an example of our own pricing rather than an industry figure, a 9 ft glass fiber coconut palm built for commercial spaces runs $2,787.99 to $6,291.99 CAD. But that is the whole cost, with no maintenance contract behind it.
They are consistent across sites. If you are fitting out six branches and want the same look in all of them, artificial gives you that. Real planting will diverge within a year based on which office has better light and who remembered to water.
They remove the maintenance question. No soil means no fungus gnats, no mould in overwatered pots, no water damage to flooring, and nothing near a kitchen or food-service area that needs a wet growing medium.
What is the best fake plant to use in the office?
For most offices the best artificial plant is a single large tree in a good planter, placed where a real plant would have failed. An olive, ficus or fiddle leaf at 7 to 8 ft in a reception area or at the end of a sightline does more work than a dozen small pots on desks.
The specifics that matter in a commercial setting: choose a tree with a natural wood or cast fibreglass trunk, because in an office people walk past it at arm's length and a moulded trunk is obvious at that distance. Get the canopy width right, roughly half the height. And budget for a proper planter rather than leaving it in the shipping pot, because in a workplace that detail is what separates deliberate from cheap.
To put a concrete number on the table's "higher upfront cost" row, again using our pricing as the example: a 6.5 ft cedar bonsai pine that can stand indoors or out is $2,787.99 to $3,489.99 CAD. That is the order of magnitude commercial-grade specimen pieces sit at, and it is the purchase done rather than the start of an ongoing contract.
The fire code question
This one is specific to commercial buildings and it catches people out. Depending on your jurisdiction, occupancy type and the building's fire safety plan, decorative materials in a commercial space may need to meet a flame-propagation standard. In the United States that is usually NFPA 701; in Canada the corresponding standard for flame tests on textiles and films is CAN/ULC-S109.
A product carries one of those ratings only if a sample of that exact product has been laboratory tested against it, and the certificate names the product. If your building requires a rating, ask the supplier for the test documentation for the specific item, not a general statement about the brand. A supplier who cannot produce a document for the product you are buying does not have a rating for it.
The same rule applies to us. We sell a grass wall panel in 3.3 by 3.3 ft modules at $266.99 CAD per panel - and if your building requires a rating, ask us for the documentation for that exact product before you order, exactly as you would ask anyone else.
Frequently asked questions
Do artificial plants actually clean the air in an office?
No. The claim traces to a 1989 NASA study that tested houseplants in small sealed chambers. A real office has HVAC exchanging its whole air volume many times an hour, which overwhelms anything the plants do - reanalyses suggest you would need roughly a plant per square foot to match opening a window. If air quality is the goal, ventilation and filtration will do more than any planting, real or artificial.
How much should an office budget for a large artificial tree?
At commercial scale, expect four figures. As examples of our own pricing rather than industry statistics: a 9 ft glass fiber coconut palm runs $2,787.99 to $6,291.99 CAD, and a 6.5 ft cedar bonsai pine that works indoors or out is $2,787.99 to $3,489.99 CAD. Budget for a proper planter as well, and remember the ongoing cost after purchase is occasional dusting rather than a maintenance contract.
What maintenance do artificial office plants need?
Occasional dusting, and that is essentially it. There is no watering and no soil, and therefore no fungus gnats, no mould in overwatered pots and no water damage to flooring. That also makes artificial the workable option near kitchens and food-service areas, where a wet growing medium is unwelcome. The trade-off is that a real plant's small humidity contribution and its documented wellbeing effects are things an artificial tree does not provide.
Do fake plants need a fire rating in a commercial building?
Sometimes. Depending on jurisdiction, occupancy type and the building's fire safety plan, decorative materials may need to meet a flame-propagation standard - usually NFPA 701 in the United States and CAN/ULC-S109 in Canada. A rating only exists if a sample of that exact product was laboratory tested and the certificate names it, so ask the supplier for the test documentation for the specific item, not a general statement about the brand.
Where do artificial plants work best in an office?
In the places real plants fail: windowless corridors, deep floor plates, dark meeting rooms, stairwells and unreachable spots like the upper level of an atrium. They also solve consistency - six branch offices can carry the same look, where real planting diverges within a year based on light and watering. Real plants still earn the window line and desks, which is why most well-designed offices mix the two.
The answer most offices should land on
Mix them. Put real plants on the window line and on desks where people can see them and take ownership, and use artificial for the tall specimen pieces and the dark zones where nothing would live. This is what most well-designed offices actually do, and it works better than committing entirely to either.
If you are specifying the artificial side, our artificial plants for offices and workspaces range is sized for reception and floor plates, commercial artificial plants covers the wider trade selection, and green walls and vertical gardens handles the wall-mounted option where floor space is tight.
Eververda prices are CAD and current as of 29 August 2026.