What Does an Intranet Cost for a Small Company?

What you actually need an intranet for

Before comparing products, list the jobs. Typical ones for a small company: find the current version of routines and policies, onboard new staff, share news, find a colleague's contact details and role, and reach common documents such as templates and price lists. Some companies also need forms, such as expense claims or holiday requests, or information for staff who never sit at a computer, such as drivers, technicians or shop staff.

1. Write down the five questions staff ask most often that the intranet should answer.
2. Note who needs access and from which devices.
3. Note what must be private, such as HR documents.
4. Decide who will own the content and keep it current.

Using tools you already pay for

Microsoft 365 business plans include SharePoint, which can host an intranet site with news, pages and document libraries, and Teams, where it can be pinned as a tab. Google Workspace includes Google Sites and shared drives, which work well for a simple intranet. The software cost is already in your licences; the cost is the time to set it up well.

For many companies of up to a few dozen people, a well-structured SharePoint or Google Site with a clear owner is all the intranet they need.

Dedicated intranet products

Dedicated intranet products, such as Staffbase, Happeo or Simpplr, and Nordic alternatives that build on top of Microsoft 365, add polished news feeds, staff directories, mobile apps for frontline staff, read confirmations and engagement analytics. They are usually priced per user per month, sometimes with a minimum number of users or a setup fee. They make most sense for organisations with many staff who do not work at a desk, or where internal communication is a formal function.

• Check minimum user counts; some products are built for larger organisations.
• Check how they integrate with the Microsoft or Google accounts you already have.
• Check data location and the data processing agreement.
• Ask what happens to your content if you leave.

Custom builds

A custom intranet rarely makes sense for documents and news alone; standard tools do that well. It makes sense when the intranet has to do work: book shared resources, run approval flows, show data from your ERP, CRM or production systems, or serve as a portal for partners and franchisees. At that point it is really an internal application, and the decision is the one covered in build an internal tool or buy SaaS.

Build it in stages: start with the one workflow that saves the most time, launch it to real users, then add more. The starting price for our MVP development is on the pricing page; a first internal tool often falls in that range when scope is kept tight.

Adoption costs

The most expensive intranet is the one nobody uses. Adoption costs time rather than licences: moving and cleaning up content, training, and above all someone who keeps it current week after week. If the holiday routine on the intranet is from two years ago, staff go back to asking colleagues, and the intranet dies.

1. Name one owner and a few content editors, with time set aside.
2. Move only current content; archive the rest.
3. Make the intranet the only place for key information, and link to it instead of attaching files.
4. Review content on a schedule, with a date shown on each page.

When not to buy anything: if you are under a dozen people in one office, a tidy shared drive and a pinned document may be enough. If you need workflows, not just documents, book a short call and we will tell you whether your existing tools can do it before suggesting anything custom.

Frequently asked questions