Microsoft SharePoint is a giant software solution with a vast range of features and capabilities. It can be used for document storage, process management, projects, and a bunch of other things.
The thing is, though, having tons of features doesn’t mean that the software is what you need. Unless you’re planning on using SharePoint’s every single functionality, you might be incurring a lot of expenses for no real reason.
And to make things even worse, this also makes the software harder to both learn and use for your employees. There are, however, a lot of SharePoint alternatives that help solve this problem.
SharePoint Alternatives by Business Function
While SharePoint is more of a Jack-of-all-Features, these SharePoint alternatives focus on just a handful. As a given, these tools are more cost-effective and easier to use.
You could, for example, just need SharePoint’s document storage without all the project or workflow management features. In that case, you could use Google Drive for the fraction of the cost.
To make it easier for you to pick the right tool, we’re going to go through each SharePoint alternative and figure out which one’s right for your business.
Google Drive
Main Features: Document Storage + Sharing
Pricing: Google Drive is free to use for up to 15 GB in storage. After that, it’s…
- 100 GB – $1.99 / Month
- 1 TB – $9.99 / Month
- 10 TB – $99.99 / Month
Chances are, you’ve already heard of Google Drive. Most of Google’s products are so popular that it’s really hard to miss out.
Google Drive is a document storage tool that lets you safely back up all of our information in the cloud. As a given, all of your employees can access it wherever they’re located (as long as they have the clearance, of course).
Tallyfy
Main Features: Workflow & Approval Management
Pricing: Free to start for up to 5 users. After that, it’s…
- Basic – $15 / User / Month. Comes with all the basic functionalities.
- Pro – $30 / User / Month. Higher storage, more integrations, etc.
If you’re using SharePoint to manage your workflows, Tallyfy would be your best alternative.
The main downside with older process management software (SharePoint included) is that they’re hard to…
- Setup – You’d need a specialist to start working with the platform & create your first processes.
- Edit – Making changes to the existing processes can be hard and time-consuming.
- Use – As is the case with most of the older software solutions, SharePoint is hard to master for your average employee.
The idea behind Tallyfy was to fix all that. Meaning, the software doesn’t need much setup. You simply pick one of our pre-made processes and go from there.
It’s also very user-friendly, in a way that most of your employees can make changes to the processes, as well as work with them.
Asana
Main Features: Task Management
Pricing: Varies depending on team size
- Free – Up to 15 team members. Comes with all the basic features
- Premium – $9.99 / User / Month – No team member limit + advances functionalities
- Enterprise – Quote-Based – Custom branding & premium support
If your company isn’t based on processes or workflows, you’re probably more interested in task & project management.
Asana allows you to delegate tasks, assign deadlines, deliverables, and so on – just about every feature you’d need to manage your team(s).
It also has several more advanced project management features, such as timeline planning, budgeting, tracking time, and so on.
Trello
Main Features: Task Management
Pricing: 3 pricing options
- Free – Unlimited users but limited file storage (10 MB max file size)
- Business Class – $9.99 / User / Month – Integrations with most other 3rd party software, more file storage (250 MB),
- Enterprise – $20.83 / User / Month – All the above + onboarding & migration support
If you’re looking for software that’s not full-blown project management software, Trello might fit the bill.
Trello is essentially a digital Kanban board – you move your tasks between different statuses (to-do, in-progress & done).
Out of all the SharePoint alternatives, it’s one of the easiest ones to start off with. Your employees don’t have to learn how to use it since the entire concept is pretty straightforward.
Slack
Main Features: Communication
Pricing: 4 pricing options
- Free – Limited features & only 10k team messages archived
- Standard – $8 Flat Fee + $6.67 / User / Month – More capabilities, including unlimited messages, external access, more storage, etc.
- Plus – $15 Flat Fee + $15 / User / Month – More storage, better support, compliance exports, etc.
- Grid – Quote-Based – Enterprise system integration
One very major flaw with SharePoint is that it doesn’t have a direct messaging (DM) function.
This really cripples the communication within your organization. You end up relying on E-mail (which is out-dated) or face-to-face communication (which is not that fast or efficient).
To make up for that, you can use Slack. The software company is known for being one of the fastest-growing companies in history, reaching a unicorn evaluation within less than 1.5 years.
While there are a ton of different DM tools out there, Slack is considered to be one of the very best. That’s mainly due to its ease of use & fluid user experience. And you know what’s the best part? It’s completely free to try, so you can just jump right in and figure out whether the tool works for your organization.
Confluence
Main Features: Knowledge Documentation + Task Management
Pricing: Varies depending on team size
- $10 / Month for up to 10 users
- $5 / User / Month from 11 to 100 users
What really sets your company apart from anyone else is your knowledge base.
Without documentation, though, all the know-how your company has will turn into tribal knowledge. The knowledge in such a case is implicit. While your employees know all the right things, none of it can be shared. So, if someone decides to quit out of nowhere, the company might really take a hit.
Having a knowledge wiki can prevent this from happening – and it’s just about essential for any growing organization.
Confluence is a must-have tool for creating and maintaining your company’s know-how. For that exact use-case, it’s both cheaper and easier to use in comparison to SharePoint.
For 10 employees, SharePoint would cost around $50 / month, as opposed to Confluence’s $10.
And to put the icing on the cake, Confluence can also be used for task & project management.
Igloo
Main Features: Knowledge Documentation + Task Management + Social
Pricing: Igloo has 3 different pricing options
- $8 / User / Month for Basic – All the must-have functionalities
- $12 / User / Month for Professional – Additional storage, workplaces, etc.
- Quote-based for Enterprise – Enterprise integrations
Igloo has just about the same features as Confluence, with some additional functionality on top.
You can create a knowledge base, as well as manage your employee’s tasks. What really puts Igloo apart, though, is that it acts as a central hub for everything work-related.
Your employees can communicate through an internal social network, sharing their thoughts, opinions, etc.
This keeps your digital workplace more “people-friendly.” It’s not all about work – the employees get to chit-chat exactly the same way as they would in a real office environment.
The added features, of course, make Igloo noticeably more expensive than Confluence. If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop solution for team management, though, it might be worth a shot.
To get the most out of the tool (and get close to 100% of SharePoint capabilities), you’d use it in combination with any software that helps manage approvals or workflows.
WorkZone
Features: Approval Management + Task Management
Pricing: WorkZone comes in 3 packages
- $24 / Month for the Team Package – Must-have features
- $34 / Month for the Professional Package – More storage + custom project intake forms
- $44 / Month for Enterprise – integrations, more storage, etc.
Document approval can be pretty annoying and tedious for everyone. Whoever’s in charge of a given project has to keep track of whoever’s supposed to sign a given document, whether everyone’s done with it or not, etc.
In addition to the basic task management capabilities (as with all the other SharePoint alternatives), WorkZone also allows for document approvals.
Meaning, approvals go in a workflow. The software keeps track of who’s supposed to do what & notifies the next person whenever the individual in charge of the current step is done.
Getting Started With SharePoint Alternatives
If you’ve already identified the specific functions you’re going to use, it’s super easy to get started.
Simply register for one or all the tools you need, notify your team members about it and you’re all set! You’ve got yourself the same (or more!) functionalities as SharePoint with a much lower price tag.
