Beyond SharePoint
Compare options and choose the right intranet for your workplace
We have SharePoint. Can we use that?
It’s a fair question. SharePoint is bundled with Microsoft 365. It’s flexible. It’s powerful. On the surface, it makes sense, but that doesn’t empower your team, or support your organization’s goals.
A well-designed intranet isn’t just a place to store documents. It’s a central hub that connects employees, encourages communication and knowledge sharing, and aligns teams on important company updates.
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer or custom-built with SharePoint?
When it comes to intranets, there are two paths. Both can lead to an intranet, but there are notable differences.
| Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer | Custom-built with SharePoint | |
|---|---|---|
|
Approach
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Deploy a fully-featured intranet, out-of-the-box
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
SharePoint as a base to build the
intranet you need
|
|
Ownership
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Owned by Comms, HR, and business teams
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Led by IT and dev teams
|
|
Resources needed
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Anyone can manage, no technical skills required
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Developers, consultants, IT resources
|
|
Access control
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Simple, intuitive permission settings anyone
can set
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Complex access controls usually requiring
IT help
|
|
User experience
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Unified, intuitive, and designed for engagement and adoption
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Varies by team, and hard to govern due to
departmental silos
|
|
Engagement
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Built-in targeted news, likes, shout-outs, and comments
to drive engagement
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Requires third-party tools or custom dev to enable basic social functionality
|
|
Focus
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
Communication, culture, connection, and knowledge management
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Document storage, individual group sites, structure, and advanced workflows
|
|
Costs
|
Turnkey with ThoughtFarmer
No IT resources needed. User-based pricing that makes it easy to budget, and includes all feature releases, maintenance, and support
|
Custom-built with SharePoint
Internal dedicated IT staff or contractors needed. Unpredictable costs for customization, maintenance, support, add-ons, and training
|
The challenges with SharePoint
SharePoint can be customized into an intranet. But the reality can get messy. And expensive.
Granular control leads to fragmentation
SharePoint lets you define permissions, build sites, and manage pages at a granular level. The downside? Teams create disconnected spaces, turning your intranet into a maze of silos that frustrates users.
Customization freedom leads to inconsistency
Customization feels empowering, until every department builds its own intranet inside the intranet. The result? A patchwork of designs, navigation, and user flows.
Security structure causes permission confusion
SharePoint security is powerful but complex. It’s easy to over-grant or restrict access, leaving sensitive info exposed or critical updates buried.
Complicated file structures create frustration
When information is buried in folders or scattered across systems, employees waste valuable time searching instead of working, impacting productivity and morale.
The hidden cost of SharePoint
SharePoint can feel like an iceberg. The price may seem small, but as you get deeper you see the costs hiding below the surface.
Licence costs are just the tip of the iceberg—most companies spend over 8x more on customizations to make SharePoint intranet-ready.
ThoughtFarmer takes an all-inclusive approach. Your subscription covers everything needed to launch and maintain a powerful intranet.
No confusing pricing plans, no consultant fees, no 3rd party add-ons. Every customer gets the full ThoughtFarmer experience.
IT teams and costly consultants are stuck managing routine tasks like publishing content, updating news, and handling permissions.
With ThoughtFarmer, those tasks are handled by the people who own the content, not IT, so teams save time, reduce tickets, and focus on strategic projects instead of maintenance.
Customizations add cost and complexity while relying on experts like consultants, agencies or dedicated hires.
With ThoughtFarmer, everything you need is built in. Powerful features, flexible design options, and integrations come ready to use with no coding or outside help required.
You get a tailored intranet experience without the delays, dependencies, or mounting costs of custom development.
The power of a modern intranet
No more digging through files or waiting on IT. Bring your people, content, and culture together in one place.
|
Features
|
ThoughtFarmer
|
Sharepoint
|
|---|---|---|
| Purpose-built for communication | ||
| Full mobile access | ||
| Built-in analytics to track impact | ||
| Easy content creation for everyone | ||
| Clear permissions and governance | ||
| Connection and culture |
SharePoint or ThoughtFarmer?
Which is right for you?
SharePoint might be a good fit if you have dedicated IT resources and in-house developers available to manage and maintain your intranet. It’s best suited for organizations that want deep integration with Microsoft tools, have teams capable of ongoing customization and technical upkeep, and need advanced document management with versioning, metadata tagging, and strict permission controls.
ThoughtFarmer might be a good fit if you have limited IT resources and want a platform that’s easy for anyone to manage with no expertise or coding required. It’s perfect for organizations that use Microsoft tools but want a more intuitive user experience, need predictable budgeting with no hidden costs, and value simple, secure, and user-friendly document management tools.
The best of both worlds:
ThoughtFarmer + SharePoint
Customers who changed from a SharePoint intranet to ThoughtFarmer
Frequently asked questions
SharePoint can technically function as an intranet, but doing so typically requires significant customization, IT ownership, and third-party tools to fill feature gaps. Most organizations underestimate the time and resources required to make it effective for internal communication and employee engagement.
ThoughtFarmer is a purpose-built intranet platform that can replace the communication, engagement, and knowledge-sharing features you might be trying to build on top of SharePoint. It can also work alongside SharePoint if you want to keep it as a document repository.
ThoughtFarmer integrates with Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and Azure AD while offering a more intuitive and engaging user experience.
SharePoint is highly customizable, but this customization work
is very costly. When factoring this in, this means SharePoint is typically much more expensive to build and maintain, with longer implementation times, and ongoing reliance on IT or consultants.
That depends on you, and how much content you have. Most ThoughtFarmer customers launch in a matter of weeks, not months or years. The platform comes fully featured out of the box, so there’s no need to build from scratch or go through a lengthy implementation process.
Unlike SharePoint, which is often IT-led, ThoughtFarmer is designed to be owned by business teams like Internal Comms, HR, or Marketing, the people who are closest to the content and communication needs of employees.
While SharePoint licensing is included in Microsoft 365, turning it into a functioning intranet can require costly add-ons, developer time, training, and maintenance. ThoughtFarmer offers transparent, user-based pricing with minimal setup costs and fewer hidden expenses.
Questions about ThoughtFarmer?
We’re here to help, reach out for a friendly chat today.