Which houseplants actually survive a room with no direct sun?

First, an honest distinction: no plant grows in low light, plants only tolerate it. Photosynthesis is how a plant earns its living, and in dim conditions the best outcome is slow maintenance rather than growth. Any list of "low light plants" is really a list of species that lose the least when underlit.

The genuinely tolerant group is short. Zamioculcas zamiifolia stores water and starch in rhizomes and can coast for months; it is the closest thing to a plant that survives a windowless office with fluorescent light. Sansevieria (now Dracaena trifasciata) is similar, with the added advantage that it forgives long gaps between waterings. Aspidistra elatior earned the name cast-iron plant in Victorian parlours for exactly this reason. Epipremnum aureum and Philodendron hederaceum will keep going in dim corners, though they stretch and their leaves shrink.

Below those, tolerance drops quickly. Ferns and Calathea are often listed as low-light because they dislike direct sun, but they are understorey plants from bright shade, not dark rooms, and they decline steadily indoors away from a window.

Two adjustments matter more than species choice. Water far less than you would in a bright spot — dim light means slow water use, and overwatering in low light is what actually kills these plants, not the darkness. And rotate the plant a quarter turn weekly so it does not lean and thin out on one side.

If the room genuinely has no window, a modest LED grow light on a timer for ten hours a day changes the situation entirely and costs very little to run. That is a more honest solution than hoping a species will defy physics.