I like the efactory best. It’s reasonably priced ($200/month for dedicated desk), spacious, and they have a lot of benefits for small businesses, if you are interested in starting your own or just networking with small business owners. The local tech groups mostly meet there, so it would also be easier to go to those if that’s something you’re interested in. The efactory is part of MSU and they are really trying to build up the tech community here.

There’s a few CAST coworking spaces around the south side, but when I inquired about their desks last year it was like $450/month for a dedicated desk. They do seem really nice, but I just couldn’t justify that cost. I don’t have experience with any others, though I think there are some smaller ones around.

I can’t say I recommend relocating because there’s a lot that goes into that decision. However, I’m a remote software engineer and I like living here well enough. There are a few coworking spaces around town and plenty of coffee shops if you want out of the house. The tech scene is growing here and there’s lots of people here who want to foster that growth. I think Springfield has a lot of potential, but as others have said, it’s not really that much cheaper than a bigger city now and it doesn’t have the amenities that a larger city does.

There are lots of small, local places that hire a handful of devs, but there are also some large companies that have hundreds of devs. We have O’Reilly, Jack Henry, and Expedia here and I know lots of local people who work at those places and like their jobs. I think Bass Pro also has some dev jobs here, as well as Missouri State University.