5 Top-Rated Affordable Intranet Software
Growing businesses, especially with a globally dispersed workforce, need a centralized platform for quick information sharing and enhanced employee collaboration. Intranet software fulfills this need by allowing human resources (HR), leadership, and communications teams to share business updates, announcements, and news with employees and promote engagement within the business.
As there are multiple intranet tools available in the market, it can be challenging to find the tool that can bring the most value to you. Hence, we suggest you start with an affordable option.
To help you find the right tool, we have highlighted the five top-rated affordable intranet software based on their pricing, as found on vendor websites and verified software reviews. Based on our research, we've considered products priced less than $14 per month as affordable software and have arranged them in ascending order. Read more.
The tools listed in this article are either dedicated data intranet tools or employee engagement and communications tools. Nonetheless, they all offer knowledge base management and private networks as core features.
1. Empuls
Empuls is an employee engagement platform that helps you centralize internal communications. You can create a social media-style network for your employees where you can share important business news, celebrate milestones, conduct surveys, and play games. Empuls has an artificial intelligence bot ‘Em’, that interacts with employees and encourages them to engage with surveys, send out birthday wishes, and participate in discussions.
Product features of interest*:
Appreciation feed: Create a public feed to acknowledge and appreciate employees’ contributions and achievements. This feed creates a positive and supportive work environment by highlighting individual or team accomplishments.
Employee pulse survey: Capture quick employee feedback on various aspects of their work life, such as job satisfaction, engagement levels, and workplace concerns. These surveys are brief and frequent, designed to gauge the real-time ‘pulse’ of employee sentiments.
Employee directory: Create a centralized database where you can easily find and access information about your colleagues. This directory typically includes contact details, job titles, departments, photos, and brief biographies.
Starting price: $1 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Knowledge base, chats, emails, and support ticket
Who should consider Empuls?
Small businesses looking for an Intranet tool to enhance employee communication and engagement can benefit from Empuls. The tool can help centralize internal communications and also nudge employees to interact and engage. The Em bot notifies employees about any activities they might otherwise miss out on. Additionally, it also helps HRs automate mundane tasks, such as posting employee birthday and anniversary wishes.
Analysis performed January 2024**
2. Assembly
Assembly is an artificial intelligence-powered intranet software that allows you to centralize important documents and policies for quick access. It has 40+ templates to design a knowledge base that you can modify with your branding elements. Assembly also comes with an AI bot called Dora, which helps speed up the search for a required document in the knowledge base. Besides, it can summarize the documents’ contents for a quick read, helping you save time in going through lengthy documents.
Product features of interest*:
Browser extension: Integrate the tool with your tech stack, including communication and project management tools, and use the browser extension to find documents spread across tools quickly. It simplifies your search experience and helps find relevant documents quickly.
Smart reminders: Get automatic reminders for important tasks, meetings, or deadlines. This feature helps you stay organized and ensures you don't miss critical activities or commitments.
Document storage: Store and manage work-related documents in a centralized location. This feature offers easy access and organization of files, such as reports, presentations, and spreadsheets.
Starting price: $2 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Knowledge base, chats, emails, and phone calls
Who should consider Assembly?
Assembly is a viable option for human resource professionals seeking an intranet platform to centralize document management. The tool enables the creation of a comprehensive knowledge base where employees can easily access important policies and work-related documents. Additionally, its browser extension simplifies searching for project-related information across various applications, including Gmail, Asana, Microsoft Teams, and LinkedIn, enhancing efficiency and productivity in accessing necessary data.
Analysis performed January 2024**
Pro tip
Prioritize a customizable intranet solution that allows you to use your brand colors and logo to tailor the experience to your business’s unique culture. This customization ensures that the intranet is functional and aligns with your business’s brand identity, enhancing employee engagement.
3. Yammer
Yammer, now Microsoft Viva Engage, is an employee communication platform that integrates with Microsoft Teams. You can create communities around job departments, interests, and job types within the tool. These communities will help promote employee engagement, post announcements or conduct virtual events, such as webinars or Q&A sessions. As communities’ access is restricted to internal employees, you can encourage open knowledge sharing by posting questions and highlighting the best answers.
Product features of interest*:
Leadership corner: Facilitate open dialog within the business by encouraging leaders to share insights and engage in conversations with the employees. Leaders can start discussions, conduct surveys, or ask-me-anything sessions, inviting employees to post questions for them to answer.
Analytics: Measure the impact of communication and engagement within the communities to get insights into employee engagement trends. These analytics help make data-driven decisions to enhance internal communication strategies.
Conversations: Engage in meaningful dialogues within your business by joining ongoing discussions and bringing a coworker to the conversation by tagging them. You can pin important conversations so they stay at the top of every user’s feed.
Starting price: $2 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Knowledge base, community forums, emails, and chats
Who should consider Yammer?
Businesses using Microsoft Teams for team communication can enhance employee engagement by investing in Viva Engage and integrating the two tools. This integration enables business leaders and HR professionals to efficiently distribute company news, gather employee feedback, and engage various departments. Additionally, leaders can monitor community interactions and analyze engagement levels, gaining insights to boost employee involvement and communication effectiveness.
Analysis performed January 2024**
4. Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint is a collaboration software that allows you to create a website accessible only to your internal staff. You can create individual sites for every project team, department, or division. The staff can leverage these centralized sites to share news, files, data, and resources with other team members or other departments within the business. SharePoint intranet helps you design, implement, and manage workflows to coordinate tasks across individuals and groups. These workflows can range from simple approvals to complex operational sequences, enhancing productivity by automating repetitive tasks.
Product features of interest*:
File sharing: Share files and folders with other users of the business’s private website. This feature facilitates collaboration by allowing you to upload, store, and send files within your organization, ensuring the right people can access the necessary information.
Document library: Store, manage, and organize business documents in a centralized repository. This virtual library makes it easy to access various documents, such as reports, policies, and procedures.
Encryption: Ensure the security of your data by converting the files into unreadable format. This process protects your information from unauthorized access or breaches and maintains confidentiality and integrity.
Starting price: $5 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Knowledge base, community forums, emails, and chats
Who should consider Microsoft SharePoint?
Project managers can benefit from using Microsoft SharePoint intranet to create dedicated sites for their teams. Team members can utilize these sites to access and exchange information. SharePoint's encryption feature ensures data security by protecting files from unauthorized access. Additionally, project managers can monitor and control access, guaranteeing that only authorized individuals can view and use project-specific resources. This approach enhances both collaboration and data security in project management.
Analysis performed January 2024**
Pro tip
Opt for a scalable intranet tool that adapts to your changing needs, making it easy to add features, onboard new employees, and expand functionality. This will help you avoid the hassle of replacing your intranet as your company grows, saving time and resources.
5. Guru
Guru is a dedicated intranet software solution that supports AI-powered knowledge base creation. It allows you to draft documents while collaborating with other stakeholders in real time, automatically removes jargon, and condenses long articles. The tool uses generative AI capabilities to improve the content. Moreover, Guru facilitates quick access to relevant information across various business resources. It integrates with many productivity, human resources, project management, and communication tools and allows you to find necessary data without switching between applications.
Product features of interest*:
Org chart: Create and manage a visual representation of your business’s structure. It displays the hierarchy and relationships between different departments and team members and helps understand reporting lines and the roles of colleagues.
Employee profiles: Create personal space for each employee to showcase their professional details. It typically includes a job title, department, contact information, skills, and a photo. This feature helps build a more connected workplace, as it allows you and your colleagues to find and learn about each other's roles and expertise easily.
Content recommendation: Suggest relevant articles, documents, or posts to employees based on their interests and past interactions. This tool uses their browsing history, job role, and activity within the intranet to curate content that aligns with their professional needs and preferences.
Starting price: $10 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Knowledge base, community forum, and inquiry via a web form
Who should consider Guru?
Guru can be an ideal choice for businesses that are still in the process of creating documents for their knowledge base. It allows multiple users to work on the documents in real time and use generative AI capabilities to improve their work. These AI features allow for quick, high-quality document creation. It further enables users to set access permissions and monitor version history to track changes and prevent unauthorized access.
Analysis performed January 2024**
How much does intranet software cost?
An intranet tool can cost as low as $1 per user per month or all the way up to $180+ per user per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, infrastructure requirements, business size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most intranet solutions typically include the following pricing plans:
Free trial: No-cost trial plans of up to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited features of the software. These are ideal for businesses that wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free version: Free software plans offer basic features and limited premium feature access. These are ideal for small business owners with a limited budget.
Entry-level: Starts at $1 per user per month and offers limited features, such as document sharing and user access control. These are ideal for small businesses with basic internal communication needs.
Mid-tier: Ranges from $6 to $135 per user per month and offers advanced features such as task tracking and data protection. These are ideal for businesses that have outgrown basic intranet solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.
High-end: Advanced plans going up to $180 per user per month offer customization, unlimited storage, and priority support. These are ideal for large enterprises.
Hidden costs associated with the best intranet software
Besides the software license itself, there may be additional costs associated with affordable intranet software, including:
Training cost: Training employees to use the new system effectively may increase the total cost.
Customization costs: Tailoring the software to specific business needs can incur additional expenses.
Data migration costs: Transferring data from old systems to the new intranet platform can cost extra.
Frequently asked questions when selecting affordable intranet software
Does the tool have communication features such as live chat or messaging?
An intranet tool with communication features such as live chat or messaging centralizes all your communications in one place, ensuring smooth connectivity between office-based and remote workers. Inquire about the availability of such features as they enhance internal communication, boost employee engagement, and strengthen company culture.
Does the tool support multiple languages?
Check in advance if the intranet tool you’re considering supports multiple languages, especially if you have a diverse and global workforce. It ensures inclusivity, understanding, and effective global communication by allowing employees to access information in their preferred languages. This approach fosters a sense of belonging and enhances employee experience.
Does the tool come with an intranet mobile application?
An intranet mobile app offers flexibility, allowing you to stay connected and informed regardless of your location. Confirm the availability of the app beforehand so that whether you're working remotely, traveling, or simply away from your desk in the office, you can access vital company information and tools.
Methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Software Advice within the past two years, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher (as of Jan. 5, 2024).
Include the core features of intranet software: knowledge base management and private network.
Meet our market definition for intranet software: “Intranet software is an internal corporate portal where important information is posted for employees to review.”
For products that met the first three criteria, we assessed the monthly subscription price and found the average price to be $14—we considered only products with publicly available pricing information. Based on our assessment, we then shortlisted products with a monthly subscription price lower than $14 for this article.
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of Jan. 05, 2024) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from intranet software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor's website.
**We selected products for this article based on their average ratings as of January 2024; however, the article displays each product’s current average rating, which may differ if more reviews have been left since our analysis.
We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s intranet software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them.