7 best SharePoint alternatives to consider in 2023
SharePoint is a widely used content management system. At the time of its creation, it was one of the first of its kind. However, now you will find many SharePoint alternatives which offer a better functionality, lower prices, or more reliability with open-source code. Read on to choose a solution that will suit you the best.
Why opt for an Intranet SharePoint alternative
SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform for sharing and managing content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork. It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office. Since lots of companies already use Microsoft products, they decide to choose SharePoint as well.
Although SharePoint has a number of benefits, there are some reasons that can make you switch to one of the alternatives to SharePoint 2010/2013:
- SharePoint is expensive. Just as all Microsoft products, SharePoint is not a cost-effective solution. SharePoint + Office 365 subscription costs $20 per user/month. In case we speak about SharePoint Server, a single license could cost thousands of dollars what is obviously not affordable for small and medium-sized businesses.
- SharePoint is complicated. If you seek for SharePoint in the web, you will come across lots of user reviews saying they face difficulties while working with SharePoint. Some of them mention a non user-friendly interface, others — issues with the search feature. As a result, you can spend much time before you comprehend this product.
- SharePoint is not open-source. Its source code is not open to the public so nobody can examine what’s inside and how this all works on the background.
Taking into consideration the above mentioned points, we prepared a list of the best SharePoint alternatives for you to consider.
ONLYOFFICE Workspace — an open-source SharePoint alternative
ONLYOFFICE Workspace is a full-stack productivity platform with collaborative online editors and a bundle of productivity apps that include document management system, projects, CRM, mail, calendars, chat, and corporate social network.
ONLYOFFICE offers a secure cloud storage with a folder structure with possibility to connect other accounts such as Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, and many others, individual and group sharing, flexible document permissions, version and revision control.
ONLYOFFICE Workspace can be extended with external services (such as digital signatures, VoIP, third-party storages, Single Sign-On, etc.) and can be used in the cloud or installed on your own server.
The solution also provides multiple security features, including tools for access control and monitoring, disk and file encryption, backup functionality, and others. Hosting ONLYOFFICE Workspace on-premises gives you full control over your data by letting you keep it completely within your physical perimeter.
Built for companies of all sizes, ONLYOFFICE can be used for free if you have a rather small team, or accommodate thousands of enterprise users providing extra functionality and professional dedicated support.
The cloud version of ONLYOFFICE Workspace is free of charge for teams with up to 5 users, which makes it a free SharePoint alternative for startups. For other crews, the price starts at $4 per user/month.
Liferay — DXP alternative to SharePoint
Liferay is a digital experience platform that allows you to create digital solutions of any kind for your company: innovative marketing websites, intranets, engaging global partner or customer portals.
It offers a web-based hub where you can centralize and share resources. So, Liferay provides collaboration tools, content management, and social networking for enterprises.
Liferay has a user-friendly interface that allows you to interact with team members and sync all of your documents with less effort.
The community edition of Liferay is free of charge. The Enterprise version comes with support, maintenance, and legal assurance what is obviously paid. Subscription offerings include four main options: Digital Experience Platform, Commerce, DXP Cloud, and Analytics Cloud.
Nuxeo — Microsoft SharePoint open-source alternative
Nuxeo is a cross-platform content management system written in Java. It’s completely open-source. Its code repositories, documentation, roadmap, issue tracker, and even testing are open to the public.
With Nuxeo Content Platform, you get a set of server- and client-side software artifacts and tools that allow building, operating and maintaining customized content management applications.
Nuxeo is intended to help companies power up application development and enterprise modernization in the cloud. Along with the platform itself, you can make use of Nuxeo Insight, an AI service which allows you to make predictions, classify and enrich content based on the exact information that matters to you.
Your team can access Nuxeo from any device since it offers content sync with your desktop as well as mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Nuxeo Platform is available free of charge. Subscription licensing that includes customer support and some additional services is also possible.
Alfresco — SharePoint alternative for document management
If you want a robust ECM system, you should probably try Alfresco. They offer a platform that allows you to collaborate on different types of files while also interacting with team members through the social environment.
Alfresco ECM capabilities comprise digital asset and document management, information governance, contextual search, etc. The platform is easy to integrate and customize to your personal needs thanks to its open and modular architecture. Additionally, there are some out-of-the-box integrations with some popular solutions such as Google Docs or Salesforce. Besides, you have an opportunity to use mobile apps to work on your Alfresco contents from anywhere.
Alfresco provides open-source community editions of its products as free, LGPLv3 licensed software. These have some restrictions in terms of scalability and availability, for example, there is no built-in clustering support. You should also keep in mind that quality assurance by Alfresco is rather limited and bug fixes are only issued for the current versions. However, you can always refer to the community support.
Confluence — A remote-friendly team workspace
Developed by an Australian company Atlassian, Confluence is probably one of the most famous rivals to Microsoft SharePoint. It is a web-based corporate collaboration software to manage and share knowledge, work together on files, share calendars, and more.
The main Confluence feature are the so-called “pages”, in other words, documents that team members create. Such docs can be edited in real time online, with comments and notifications from colleagues.
Pages are stored in spaces where teams can collaborate on projects and keep all content organized. You can create as many spaces as your team needs and customize them with names, images, links, and calendars. Confluence provides multiple templates from software development to HR, as well as you can generate your own ones.
Thanks to the Confluence integration with the Atlassian’s own issue tracking software ‘Jira’, you can also make use of features for tracking progress of queries and bugs.
There are several pricing levels for Confluence Cloud, starting from free for up to 10 users, with monthly pricing increasing to $5 per month and $10 per month for expanded user limits and features. Enterprise subscription is also available.
Huddle — Client Portal software
Huddle offers a wide range of tools for team collaboration and project management. It allows you to share files, collaborate on projects, create branded client portals, and organize workflows. Among its key features they mention an intelligent content dashboard, task management and customized cloud workspaces.
Users can edit files directly within the application with automatic version control. Huddle supports both mobile and desktop apps for seamless remote working and offers some native integrations, including Salesforce and Zimbra.
Huddle offers three pricing plans: Basic, Plus, and Premier providing discounts on multi-year deals. The exact pricing is available upon request on the Huddle official website.
Jostle — Cloud-based Intranet solution
Jostle is an intranet solution that promises to help your culture thrive and keep your people engaged. With Jostle, you can share company news to stay up-to-date with your team and safely store all your files. Jostle provides a visual employee directory and a document library with the search capabilities.
You can also benefit from additional features like task management, organizational charts, instant messaging and video calls, and a marketplace-like option for employees to exchange goods and swap shifts.
Jostle offers four pricing plans: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The exact subscription price depends on the number of users in your team. For instance, if you have 25 team members, the price starts from $4 per user per month. If you have less than 15 people, a free pricing plan is available.
Conclusion: how to choose your SharePoint alternative
As you can see, SharePoint is not the only option to boost your team performance. There are free, open-source, more user-friendly or feature-rich SharePoint alternatives which can help you create a collaborative environment for sharing and managing content. Hopefully, you will find this list useful when choosing the right software for your team.
