A SharePoint intranet software review should start with the problems your intranet needs to solve, not a gallery of attractive homepages. If staff cannot find policies, news disappears after one day, colleagues do not know who does what, or teams still circulate documents by email, the issue is practical. The right software should remove that friction without creating another platform to manage.

For small and mid-sized organisations already paying for Microsoft 365, the central question is usually not whether SharePoint can support an intranet. It can. The question is where standard SharePoint is enough, where a ready-made app is the sensible addition, and where tailored work is genuinely justified.

Start with the intranet your people will actually use

A good review is based on a short list of everyday tasks. Ask how an employee finds the latest company announcement, locates an HR form, checks a colleague’s role, recognises a team member, or gets to a frequently used system. Then test how many steps each task takes on the proposed intranet.

This sounds obvious, but many intranet projects still begin with a sitemap and a visual concept. Both matter, yet they are secondary to usefulness. A polished landing page cannot compensate for stale content, confusing navigation or search results that leave people opening five documents to find one answer.

For most organisations, the essentials are familiar: clear news publishing, prominent navigation, a useful people directory, dependable search and a home page that gives different groups relevant information. If a supplier demonstrates features that do not map to a recognised task, treat them as optional until there is a clear business case.

Do not confuse more features with a better intranet

A large catalogue can be helpful, but it can also encourage overbuying. Every additional component needs an owner, content and a reason to exist. A recognition tool may suit a dispersed business trying to improve visibility between teams. A poll may help internal communications measure response. Neither will fix poor document management or an unclear information architecture.

Review the intranet in phases. Start with the features that improve daily access to information, then add engagement tools where there is a defined audience and someone responsible for using the results. This keeps the first release focused and avoids an expensive launch that becomes difficult to maintain.

What to assess in SharePoint intranet software

A SharePoint intranet software review is not complete if it focuses only on what appears on the page. The less visible questions – where data sits, how the software is installed, what it costs to maintain and how easily it can be removed – tend to determine whether a solution remains a sensible choice after launch.

Native Microsoft 365 fit and tenant security

Start by establishing whether the software runs natively in your Microsoft 365 tenant. A SharePoint Framework, or SPFx, web part runs within the SharePoint experience and can use the permissions, identity and branding already in place. That normally means less duplication of data and a simpler experience for staff.

Be cautious where an intranet component relies on external hosting or sends employee information to a separate system. That model is not automatically wrong, but it introduces further questions around data processing, access controls, support and what happens if the service changes. For an organisation that wants to keep its intranet close to its existing Microsoft 365 environment, native deployment is often the lower-friction option.

Ask for a straightforward explanation of where data is stored, which permissions the app requires and how updates are managed. A good answer should be understandable by an IT manager and reassuring to the person responsible for governance.

Installation, branding and admin effort

There is a material difference between software that installs in minutes and software that needs a project to configure. Both may have a place, but they should not be priced or planned as if they are the same thing.

Check whether the app inherits your tenant theme and works with your existing SharePoint pages. Review the setup steps as well as the finished demonstration. If every department requires specialist configuration to publish a news item or update a directory, adoption will suffer after the launch team moves on.

Also ask what is included in the licence. Tenant installation and initial configuration can save a busy internal team considerable time, particularly where the intranet owner is also responsible for day-to-day IT or communications.

Content ownership and governance

Software cannot supply governance for you. Decide who owns each area of the intranet, how often content is reviewed and who can publish organisation-wide information. These decisions are more valuable than a lengthy policy document that nobody reads.

The software should support sensible controls rather than force a rigid process. For example, news needs an easy publishing route and clear ownership; a people directory needs reliable source information; navigation needs a named person who can make changes promptly. If no one can answer who maintains a feature, do not launch it yet.

User experience on a busy working day

Test the intranet with representative users, not only the project group. Include someone who works mainly on a laptop, someone who uses a mobile device regularly and someone who is not a confident SharePoint user. Give them real tasks and watch where they hesitate.

Look for speed, clarity and consistency. Can users understand labels without a briefing? Can they return to the home page easily? Does a personalised view show useful information, or simply create another panel to scan? The best components feel like a natural extension of SharePoint rather than a separate product embedded inside it.

Commercial value: buy, build or leave it standard

This is where a review needs real numbers. Standard SharePoint web parts are the right answer when they meet the need without compromise. There is no value in buying a replacement for a feature that your team already uses successfully.

Custom development is justified where the requirement is genuinely specific, such as a process tied closely to your business rules or a design element that must integrate with several internal systems. But it should not be the default for common intranet functions. A branded banner, news carousel, directory, organisation chart or recognition feature is rarely a good candidate for a bespoke build.

Compare the full cost, not just the initial quote. A custom SPFx web part can cost £8,000 or more once design, development, testing and revisions are included. It then needs ongoing support when requirements change. A production-ready app licensed at £249 per year may deliver the same visible outcome in days. That does not make every app the right choice, but it makes the buy-versus-build decision much clearer.

Published pricing also matters. If a supplier cannot explain the annual licence, user allowance, setup and likely support costs early, it is difficult to assess value properly. For reference, ThePoint’s individual SharePoint web parts start at £249 per year, while bundles cover common intranet requirements for organisations with up to 500 users. A free trial is useful here because it lets your team test fit in your own tenant rather than relying on a sales demonstration.

A practical review process before you commit

Keep the evaluation short and evidence-based. First, document the five to eight staff tasks that the intranet must improve. Next, identify which of those standard SharePoint already handles well. Then trial only the additional components that address a clear gap.

During the trial, involve IT, internal communications and a small group of end users. IT can assess permissions and deployment; communications can judge publishing and presentation; users can tell you whether the feature is genuinely easier than the current route. Those perspectives prevent a decision being made solely on technical detail or visual appeal.

Set simple acceptance measures before testing. You might expect staff to find a key policy within two minutes, publish a news item without administrator help, locate a colleague by role or department, and reach regularly used resources from a single consistent navigation area. Measures like these expose whether a feature is useful far better than a generic question about whether people like it.

Finally, distinguish between implementation and improvement. Installing web parts may take a day or two. Improving content, permissions, governance and adoption takes ongoing attention. A supplier can accelerate the first part, but the organisation still needs owners for the second.

The decision should be proportionate

The best intranet is not the one with the most components. It is the one that helps people find information, communicate clearly and complete routine tasks with less effort, while staying manageable for the team that owns it.

Choose standard SharePoint where it does the job. Add native, production-ready software where it removes a proven gap faster and more cheaply than custom development. Reserve bespoke work for requirements that are truly distinctive. That approach gives you a useful intranet sooner and leaves budget available for the improvements that staff will notice next month, not just on launch day.