On this page
- 01SharePoint as an intranet: what it does well
- 02Where a SharePoint intranet pinches
- 03The four routes side by side
- 04Google Sites: the simple route
- 05An intranet package: news and an app
- 06Which route for which team
- 07A custom intranet: built around your team's tasks
- 08SharePoint and custom together
- 09Signing in with your Microsoft account
- 10Further reading
SharePoint is the best intranet choice when everyone works at a desk and already has a Microsoft 365 account: you pay nothing extra, and documents, team sites and news are up quickly. A custom intranet pays off when part of your team has no desk or work email, or when the intranet has to do more than show things: request leave, file a receipt, report a defect. Google Sites is the simple choice for teams on Google, and an intranet package suits a larger team that wants a news app and is happy to pay per user.
What an intranet is exactly, and how it differs from an extranet, is in the glossary under intranet.
The start page of an intranet that works
Good morning, Lotte
Search a document, colleague or procedure
Announcements
New site workwear from Monday
Ines, safety
41 of 52 read
Office closed on 11 November
Tom, admin
52 of 52 read
Quick requests
Opened most
- 1Work regulations 2026
- 2Procedure for an accident on site
- 3Material order form
Example of what we can build, with made-up names.
SharePoint against a custom intranet
For a small business of thirty people, twelve of them without a desk.
- Licence
- SharePointA Microsoft 365 licence per user, also for people who only open the intranet
- Custom intranetNo licence per user, a build price
- People without a work email
- SharePointA Microsoft account each, or a cheaper frontline licence
- Custom intranetSign in with a link by text or a name tile with a code
- Leave, expenses, reports
- SharePointWith Power Apps and Power Automate, a lot of set-up work
- Custom intranetBuilt in, the way your process runs
- On the phone
- SharePointThrough the SharePoint or Teams app
- Custom intranetAs a web app on the home screen, no app store
- Languages
- SharePointMicrosoft's languages
- Custom intranetAny language your team speaks, per person
For an office team in Microsoft 365, SharePoint is almost always the cheapest start. Once half your team works outside or the intranet has to take over real tasks, the set-up work and the licence per user add up, and a custom build becomes the more logical route.
SharePoint as an intranet: what it does well
SharePoint is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium. If you already work with Outlook and Teams, you have it at no extra cost. On 1 July 2026 Microsoft did raise the price of the Business plans; Business Basic went up by about 16 percent.
Its strength is document management. Versions, rights per folder, working in one file together, searching across everything. A communication site with news and quick links is up in a day. For an office where everyone already works in Microsoft, that is hard to beat.
Where a SharePoint intranet pinches
People without a desk. A driver, an engineer or a cleaner does not have Outlook open. To use SharePoint, each needs a Microsoft account and a licence. Microsoft has cheaper frontline licences, but those also count per person. And the SharePoint app is built for documents, not for someone who wants to request leave quickly between two trips.
Tasks instead of pages. A leave request with an approval, an expense claim with a photo, a report that reaches the right person: in SharePoint you build that with Power Apps and Power Automate. It can be done, but someone has to set it up and maintain it, and it stays a pile of separate parts.
The intranet nobody opens. A SharePoint site with news from management stops being updated after three months. That is not SharePoint's fault, but that of an intranet that gives nothing back. More on that in intranet development.
How to choose in four steps
- Count who has no deskHow many people on your team work without a work email or computer? If it is more than a quarter, SharePoint pinches.
- Write down the questionsWhich questions does HR or the owner get every week? Is it about information, or about requesting something?
- Work out the licencesWhat does it cost to give everyone an account, and what to have the set-up done in Power Automate?
- Pick the first taskStart with a task everyone does every week. Whichever route carries that task best is your answer.
The four routes side by side
| SharePoint | Google Sites | Intranet package | Custom intranet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | In Microsoft 365, per user | In Google Workspace, per user | Per user per month, often on top of 365 | A build price |
| Strong at | Documents and team sites | A simple start page | News and a polished app | Tasks for your whole team |
| People without a work email | An account and licence each | An account each | A licence each | Sign in with a link or code |
| Requests with approval | Through Power Automate | Through forms, limited | Whatever the package offers | The way your process runs |
| Connecting your own software | Through connectors | Limited | Whatever the package offers | Directly |
Google Sites: the simple route
If you work in Google Workspace, Google Sites is included. You drag together a start page with links, a calendar, documents from Drive and a few texts. For a team of ten in an office that is often enough.
Google Sites does not do tasks. A leave request becomes a Google form that lands in a spreadsheet, and someone has to keep that spreadsheet up to date. And just like SharePoint, every user needs an account.
An intranet package: news and an app
There are packages that turn an intranet into a news app: a feed of posts, a staff directory, birthdays, an app for the phone. They often run on top of Microsoft 365 or Google, and you pay per user per month.
For a larger company where communication is the main goal, that works well. For a small business that mainly wants leave, expenses and reports in one place, you pay for a lot of news and few tasks.
Which route for which team
| Your team | Logical choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ten people at the office, everything in Microsoft 365 | SharePoint | It is already in your subscription and strong at documents |
| Ten people at the office, everything in Google Workspace | Google Sites | A start page with links and Drive is up quickly |
| A large company where communication is the goal | An intranet package | News, a staff directory and an app of its own |
| Thirty people, twelve of them without a desk | A custom intranet, with SharePoint for the documents | No licence for someone who only wants their roster and leave |
| Leave, expenses and requests need one place | A custom intranet | The tasks run the way your process runs |
If you hesitate between two rows, look at who opens the intranet every week. If everyone sits at a desk, SharePoint is the cheapest start. If part of the team works outside, the question of how those people sign in decides. How we approach such a project is on custom intranet development.
A custom intranet: built around your team's tasks
A custom intranet does not start with the start page but with the questions your team asks every week. Where is the form? Can I take next week off? Who fixes the cold store? Those questions become tasks in the intranet: requesting leave, filing an expense claim, a report in the internal ticketing system, their own documents in the employee records software.
People without a desk open it as a PWA on the phone, in their own language, and sign in with a link or a code. People with a Microsoft account use that. The documents can stay in SharePoint; the intranet shows them through API integration services.
What we built for drivers
For a Belgian transport company we built a platform where drivers request leave, send in receipts, see their appointments and report problems with their truck or a collision on their phones, in Dutch, English or Turkish. They sign in with a tile showing their name and four digits. In the office everything arrives in five queues. None of those drivers needs a Microsoft licence. The full story is in the DA Logistics case.
SharePoint and custom together
It does not have to be either or. Many companies keep SharePoint for documents and Teams for meetings, and build a custom intranet for the tasks and for people who work outside. The intranet reads the documents from SharePoint, signs office staff in with their Microsoft account and gives everyone else their own login. That way you pay no licence for someone who only wants to see their rota and their leave.
Signing in with your Microsoft account
A custom intranet can sign people in through Microsoft Entra ID, the service behind your Microsoft 365 accounts. Office staff click sign in with Microsoft and they are in, with the same two-step verification they already know. When someone leaves and you close their Microsoft account, their access to the intranet goes too.
For people without a Microsoft account, the intranet creates its own login: a link by text or email, or a name tile with a code on a shared phone in the canteen. The administrator sees both groups in the same list, with the same roles. So nobody has to keep two systems up to date, and a new driver gets access to their rota on day one, without anyone buying a licence.
SharePoint or custom
Is SharePoint free as an intranet?
It is included in the Microsoft 365 Business plans. If you already use those, you pay nothing extra. Every user does need a licence.
Can a driver or engineer without a work email use SharePoint?
Only with their own Microsoft account and licence. A custom intranet can sign people in with a link by text or a code.
Can a custom intranet work with SharePoint?
Yes. Documents stay in SharePoint, office staff sign in with their Microsoft account, and the intranet shows what they need.
What is the difference between SharePoint and Teams?
Teams is for meetings and chat, SharePoint for documents and sites. The files in Teams are stored in SharePoint.
When does a custom intranet pay off?
When a large part of your team has no desk, or the intranet has to handle leave, expenses and reports. Then the licence per user drops away.
Further reading
The general trade-off between renting and building is in build vs buy software. Work out what a custom intranet costs with the software development cost calculator. An assistant that answers questions about the staff handbook from your own documents is covered in AI for HR. We build the intranet as a web application.
Not sure which route fits your team? Get in touch.