The 10 Best Intranet Software for Businesses this Year

Intranet software means different things to different people, from an in-house social media platform to a modern-day phone directory for your employee communications, 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 task management power for many traditional platforms with a high price tag. As technology becomes more and more democratized, you can get incredible intranet-packaged solutions for little or no money.

What Is an Intranet Software Digital Workplace?

Your company intranet platform is one place for all company-wide content management, like announcements, key documents, an onboarding tool, and more. An intranet often resembles a social media platform with a dashboard where you can access company news and notifications but for employee communication and internal knowledge management.

It also keeps you engaged with the company and bridges the gap between work and play. Moreover, it provides mobile access for employees working remotely to stay in touch with relevant content and stay on the same page with other team members.

Modern Intranet Software Solution Types

Modern intranet solutions come in two core types:

• Cloud-based company intranet platform

• On-premise intranet software built on-site

Let's take a closer look.

Cloud-based Company Intranet Solutions

They are a great choice for businesses looking for an urgent and easy implementation process with little to no fuss. This intranet platform type is easy to install and it's 100% customizable. Companies offering a cloud-based digital workplace platform do not initiate any on-site infrastructure changes and are a wise choice for small teams with no internal IT department.

Cloud SaaS providers control all backups and updates. Moreover, they take care of security issues and challenges as well. Server maintenance and regular checkups are always an intranet software provider's responsibility.

On-premise Company Intranet Solutions

They are a great option for those brands that want to end up with a solution that has capabilities geared specifically to their company's needs and requirements. However, the on-premise option means building a modern intranet solution from scratch.

This is time-consuming and pricey. This is definitely for people who boast patience and bravery when in comes to implementing a new internal communication software.

The development flow incorporates the download and setup of WordPress or SharePoint software to create your own platform hosted on your company's server. This means you need to have technical experience and expertise enough to navigate through the software.

Note: If you are looking for a quick setup, go with a cloud-based solution. If you have time, budget, and necessary skills, opt for an on-premise intranet software.

How Do Internal Software Solutions Work?

They offer a centralized digital collaboration tool where teams discreetly access and share company digital instruments and other resources. Intranet software comprises three core segments:

1. The platform
2. Internal internet apps
3. The server side

The social intranet platform is no other but software to manage tasks with applications and instruments attached to it. The applications are an array of computing instruments and content management features available to a company's teams to help them meet business needs. Among them are:

• instant messaging tools,

• directories with enterprise search functionality,

• instruments for document management,

• forums for discussions and employee feedback.

Basically, these are the tools that employees use on a daily basis. The task of the platform is to unite them under one hood for easy and safe access to internal communication and data.

The server is the area where the platform with all its tools and apps resides. The server allows users to access the intranet knowledge services by entering their credentials. For intranet software platforms to be effective, the platform, its apps and tools, and the server need to work together as a whole.

Why Would a Company Use an Intranet?

One of the greatest issues for companies, big and small, is poor internal communication and organization. If your employees are singing from different sheets, your business will never be as efficient as it could be. However, by creating knowledge management processes that become part of the company culture, your teams will start working like a well-oiled machine.

By adopting intranet packaged solutions to improve internal communication, you can make announcements, organize your onboarding processes for new employees, and store all your key documents. So, if you want one of the best intranet platforms that you can customize to your own needs, read on!

Intranet Software Platforms and Their Core Benefits

Why does a business need an intranet solution?

Over the past years, the workspace has changed greatly. COVID-19 became the key factor, and the world crisis altered the working environment. Now, business owners are looking into one-stop solutions that can make work more effective, thus improving the business revenue.

So this is basically what the best intranet software solutions guarantee.

1. Improved Internal Communications

This software type increases the level of participation in employee communications, reduces response time, and boosts employee productivity. Altogether, this adds to a more informed decision-making process. An Integrated intranet solution offers multilevel communication where both employees and C-level can connect, communicate, and contribute.

2. Quick Access to All Files

The intranet provides a unified storage place for all the tools, files, folders, documents, and other key information. Now, everything is not simply stored in one place, but it's also kept safe and is easy to transfer between employees and departments. Intranet software plays the role of a document management system with advanced filters to store, manage, and classify documentation systematically.

3. Third-party Tools Integration

Many reliable intranet systems integrate with 3rd-party tools like Teams, Outlook, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and more, thus contributing to inter-employees effective communication. With these integrations, the intranet system turns into a robust solution able to fix most operations issues.

4. Task and Workflow Automation

The setup of a modern digital workspace helps a business to save organizational costs and reduce time wasted on routine or redundant tasks. The best intranet software offers automated form approvals, auto-generated tickets, diverse templates, and more to facilitate troubled and bumpy processes.

5. Increased Employee Engagement & Frequent Rewards

The employee experience of sharing ideas and strategies through a unified digital space - employee intranet software - is fantastic. But it also adds to employee recognition and rewards. Through intranet platforms, C-level engages with employees, notices and appreciates their achievements, remembers about their anniversaries, shares feedback, and, altogether, builds employee engagement and progressiveness.

6. Stimulated Knowledge Management and Sharing

With time, the digital workspace becomes the area where teams gather, store, and organize all data, company strategies and achievements, tactics, and employee experience. Through this data, the process of onboarding new employees is faster and more effective. Especially, if newcomers choose to work in a remote space rather than go to an office daily.

What Industries and Companies Choose Intranet Software Solutions?

The range of industries and companies is diverse. However, they all are united by one aim - that is to streamline their internal process as well as foster the work environment and employee experience.

Company Size

Corporations and large enterprises are among those looking for the best intranet platforms. Their motifs are loud and clear: Most of their teams and departments are spread across geographies and time zones, making implementation of the engagement tools a necessity.

The use of the right intranet software assists them in staying united and connected. This is where and how they share knowledge and updates.

Common Industries

• Healthcare - for secure communication, easy scheduling, fast updates, training materials, and swift access to patient or employee data.

• Education - for course material distribution, students-faculty transparent communication, administrative tasks management.

• Public sector - for assisting government agencies in improving internal communications and ensuring a central point for teams to access important data.

• Banking - for a financial institution to ensure secure communication and compliance with regulatory requirements and norms.

• Retail - for staff training, inventory management, across-store communication, and sharing new sales strategies.

• Supply chain - for monitoring manufacturing processes, sharing safety protocols, and managing inventory.

• IT agencies - for sharing technical documents, project management, and improvement of transparent communication between non-technical and technical parts of a team.

• Non-profit organizations - for fundraising, spreading messages for volunteers, and volunteer management.

Top Important Intranet Software Features

Before we approach the best intranet software options and let you evaluate each of them, let's clarify what features that are a must-have. The list you'll see below plays a core role in improving communication, employee experience, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

1. Robust Analytics

This is the source of core insights into actual usage statistics compared to your believed needs and assumptions. Regular use of reporting tools allows a business owner to fine-tune the software with time, choose the most needed collaboration tools and functionality, as well as ensure uninterrupted use across teams, departments, and locations.

2. Access Controls

This feature is of top importance to guarantee the security of the shared data in one digital workplace. One of the examples is the HR department documentation. It should be accessed by HR managers and C-level only, since this is rather sensitive information that should be available to a limited group of people, who work directly with it.

3. Customizable Homepage

Your homepage is a landing page for your staff to have access to important corporate world and company news and other key resources. The admin users should be able not only to customize the layout of the home page but also to send notifications and announcements to an entire organization, thus delivering important to sensitive information to all employees.

4. Integrations

Company staff typically use a wide range of different tools, and they are not so reluctant about refusing some of their favorite instruments. A good intranet platform allows businesses to have everyday business apps (G Suite, Office 365, Dropbox, Salesforce, project management tools, etc.) embedded for better employee engagement.

5. Document Storage

Document libraries, a central repository for documents and files storing, their organization, and sharing are the reasons why businesses choose to invest in top intranet platforms. This knowledge repository allows businesses to make data more accessible without making a user open multiple tabs or log into different collaboration tools.

6. Knowledge Sharing and Management

Knowledge sharing through diverse bases and libraries allows businesses to preserve the most important institutional knowledge that, in other circumstances, can be lost or overlooked. This is a great tool for employee onboarding and employee engagement rates.

How to Pick the Best Intranet Software

Modern intranet software is different and diverse. To decide what intranet platform is right for your business, perform the following steps.

Check for the Features

The Best intranet software solutions offer features for employee recognition, visible company culture, transparent communication, documents and files storage, interactive events, and social feeds.

Check for Workspace Integrations

Be sure that the intranet solution you are about to choose integrates well with calendar and email tools as well as project management platforms. The list includes but is not limited to Asana, Trello, Teamwork, Google Workspace, and Office 365.

Check for Mobile Accessibility

Around 93% of employees under 50 use their mobile devices for work-related tasks. So you need to consider only those intranet platforms that have mobile apps or are mobile-friendly and offer a user-friendly interface.

Check for a User Interface and Feed

Make sure the chosen employee intranet software offers a personalized and scrollable experience that can adapt to employees' personal needs and preferences. Because this is something your teams would love to use.

1. Bitrix24 — Employee 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 internal social media.

Alongside your content management is an endless list of other features and advanced analytics 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.

You can also store your client's information for lead generation and great customer support. With so many key features all in one and a friendly user interface, it's a world-class employee experience platform.

• Basic - €45 per month, includes 5 users

• Standard - €99 per month, includes 50 users

• Professional - €199 per month, includes 100 users

• Enterprise - €399 per month, includes 250 users

2. Zoho Connect — Doing Communication Right

Zoho Connect is one of those intranet software 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 as a communication platform, it doesn't extend much further than that. However, you can integrate it with project management tools, and document management tools like Google Drive.

• Starter - €0.34 per user, per month, for 25 users

• Enterprise - €0.84 per user, per month, starting at 10 users

• Ultimate (new) - €2.50 per user, per month, starting at 10 users

3. Microsoft Sharepoint — Intranet with a Great Mobile App

Anything under the Microsoft Office 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 Teams and Sharepoint stands out for its slick mobile app and 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.

• SharePoint (Plan 1) - $5.00 per user, per month

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard - $12.50 per user, per month

4. Blink — The Go-to Tool for Many Companies

Blink may not be as well-known as Microsoft Teams or Sharepoint, but it has an impressive range of features. 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.

• Free trial available

• Starting price - $3.4 per user, per month

5. Jostle — Polls and Shout-Outs

Jostle shares plenty 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 shout out when someone really stands out from the crowd.

(Changes depending on the number of employees)

• 10 employees - $7.50 (Bronze), $13.50 (Silver), or $18.00 (Gold) per user per month

• 50 employees - $5.00 (Bronze), $9.00 (Silver), or $12.00 (Gold) per user per month

• 100 employees - $4.56 (Bronze), $8.21 (Silver), or $10.95 (Gold) per user per month

• 200 employees - $3.91 (Bronze), $7.03 (Silver), or $9.38 (Gold) per user per month

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.

• Nor provided, each case is calculated individually

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.

• The Core plan - $4 per user, per month

• The Workplace Enterprise Plan - $8 per person, per month

• The Frontline add-on plan - $1.50 per person, per month

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 the most popular communication tools.

• Standard Tier - $4-6 per user, per month

• Professional Tier - $8-10 per user, per month

• Enterprise Tier - Nor provided, each case is calculated individually

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.

• Free trial available

• Offers flexible pricing plans based on the company's size and required features

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 does 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.

• Free trial available

• Starting price - $0.01 per user, per month

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 and implement a new intranet software?