Intranet software means different things to different people, from an in-house social media platform to a modern-day phone directory for your colleagues, but in truth, it can cover all these things. Some of the big brands charge exorbitant prices for software that doesn’t perform any better than those products that aren’t such household names. In recent years, we’ve seen a major loss of power for so many traditional platforms with a high price tag. As technology becomes more and more democratized, you can get incredible intranet software for little or no money.
What is an intranet software application?
Your company intranet is one place for all your company-wide announcements, your key documents, an onboarding tool, and more. An intranet often resembles a social media platform with a dashboard that gives you notifications, keeps you engaged with the company, and bridges the gap between work and play.
Why would a company use an intranet?
One of the greatest issues for companies big and small is poor internal organization and communication. If your employees are singing from different song sheets, your business will never be as efficient as it could be. However, by creating processes that become part of the company culture, your teams will start working like a well-oiled machine.
By adopting intranet creation software, you can make announcements, organize your onboarding processes for new employees, and store all your key documents. So if you want an easy company intranet that you can customize to your own needs, read on!
1. Bitrix24 — intranet and much more for free!
Bitrix24 impresses with its free intranet software that covers all the features you’ll find in its competitors but without dipping into your budget. Each team member has an activity stream with company-wide announcements as well as task-related updates and an internal social media.
Alongside your activity stream are an endless list of other features that are all interconnected to save you time. You’ve got your Drive for collaborations, internal communication tools, and an organizational chart so you can see your whole team and even external collaborators. With so many features all in one, it’s world-class intranet software.
2. Zoho Connect — doing communication right
Zoho Connect is one of those tools that does exactly what it says on the tin. Your team can talk in real time, collaborate on work, create their own apps, and use your internal social network. Of course, you’ll also have a classic organizational chart that includes external members and you can create chat rooms so each team can collaborate with instant messaging, video calls and more.
Although Zoho Connect is good for communication, it doesn’t extend much further than that. However, you can integrate it with project management tools, and document management tools like Google Drive.
3. Microsoft Sharepoint — intranet with a great mobile app
Anything under the Microsoft umbrella is likely to be a good contender in the world of office tools and Sharepoint is no different. Once you log on to the portal, you’ll have all your tasks and notifications, and you can separate your company into more focused teams.
Microsoft Sharepoint stands out for its slick mobile app and project management tools that come with easy-to-use timelines. Although the brand comes with a worldwide seal of approval, it also comes with a price tag, starting at $5 per user per month.
4. Blink — the go-to tool for many companies
Blink may not be as well-known as Microsoft Sharepoint, but it’s got an impressive range of features for its $3.40 per person per month price tag. Alongside all the classic intranet software tools you’d expect, Blink gives you forms, timetables, and more on one secure portal. It’s no surprise that the NHS, Stagecoach, and Dominoes use this well-rounded internal communication platform.
5. Jostle — polls and shout outs
Jostle shares a lot of features with other intranet platforms on this list, helping to keep colleagues engaged with a feature-packed in-house social network. Users can contact each other either publicly or on private chats, so you keep things secret when you need to.
Want to survey your team? Set up a live poll and share the results across your company, just like on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You also get like and comment options for work and non-work related updates, and you can also give a shout out for when someone really stands out from the crowd.
6. ThoughtFarmer — hi-tech intranet
With ThoughtFarmer’s organizational structure software, it doesn’t matter how big your company is or how well you know your colleagues. The search bar will guess what you mean if you can’t remember how to spell someone’s name, and you can search for pages and documents too.
You can set your intranet software up with all your own branding and share documents, videos, articles, and more.
7. Workplace by Facebook — Facebook quality
If you’re wondering what is social intranet software, there’s no better place to look than Workplace by Facebook, an intranet solution that works in a very similar way to the social media giant’s main product. Think of it as a closed version of Facebook, where you can send videos, photos, likes, and private messages to other team members.
As a step up from the free social media platform, Workplace by Facebook gives you a paid knowledge library where you can store all your key documents for easy access.
8. Workvivo — Focus on what’s important
Workvivo stands out for focusing more on the social side of its company intranet than any of the other options here — even Facebook. Despite being designed to bring people together, Workvivo is super easy to use and helps your team stay focused throughout the day.
It doesn’t come with extra tools outside your intranet, but you can integrate it with most popular communication tools.
9. Simpplr — Great UX/UI
Simpplr is an advanced intranet software used by big names such as Workday, AAA, Fox, DocuSign, Eurostar, and Coursera. They only offer custom paid versions, so you need to be convinced by its features, and it does offer some showcase features.
It has a very sleek UX/UI and doesn’t just deal with keeping your team organized on its day-to-day tasks. It has built-in analytics that see how much your employees engage with your content so you can design it to work for them.
10. Staffbase — Get your internal comms flowing
Compared to the rest of the apps on this list, Staffbase is more focused on internal communications itself.
Like Simpplr, you can go further than just creating content for your team, you can measure their engagement just like your social media team do with your users. It doesn’t come for free though. After a trial, you can talk to their team and get a custom deal for your company.
Which intranet software is right for you?
When deciding what is the best intranet software for you, we would always recommend looking at the bigger picture for your business. A solid intranet is great, but products like Bitrix24 offer you so much more on the same platform. You can link together your HR processes, sales targets, marketing campaigns and so much more under one roof, so why not get started today?
