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.
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.
Licence costs are just the tip of the iceberg—most companies spend over 8x more on customizations to make SharePoint intranet-ready
vs ThoughtFarmer Licence costs are just the tip of the iceberg—most companies spend over 8x more on customizations to make SharePoint intranet-ready
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ThoughtFarmer might be a good fit if Suspendisse potenti. Phasellus rhoncus, tortor a malesuada vulputate, sem lacus pharetra neque, a hendrerit est odio sit amet ligula. Phasellus ultricies cursus nulla, gravida imperdiet quam ultrices quis. Mauris porttitor imperdiet neque. Vivamus luctus ex a viverra ullamcorper.
ThoughtFarmer integrates with Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint, pairing a modern intranet alongside your existing Microsoft tools.
Use existing Microsoft IDs to provision and de-provision users, and sync profile fields, groups, and security memberships.
No need to remember multiple passwords—access your intranet using your Microsoft credentials.
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.
We’re here to help, reach out for a friendly chat today.