Microsoft SharePoint
TL;DR
Microsoft SharePoint is the document management and intranet backbone of Microsoft 365 — share and manage files with granular permissions, build internal team sites and portals, and automate workflows at enterprise scale.
Pricing
Starting at $6/user/mo
SharePoint (Plan 1)
SharePoint (Plan 2)
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Microsoft 365 E3
Details
What is Microsoft SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint is the document management, intranet, and enterprise content management platform at the heart of Microsoft 365. It does three big jobs: secure file storage and sharing with granular permissions and version control; internal team sites, portals, and intranets where organizations publish news and knowledge; and workflow automation that turns paper processes into approvals and notifications. Because it ships with virtually every Microsoft 365 plan, SharePoint is one of the most widely deployed business platforms on earth — over a billion users, per Microsoft — and reviewers consistently praise its document management, permissions model, scale, and native integration with Teams, Office, and Power BI. The complaints are equally consistent: search and navigation are unintuitive, the interface has a real learning curve, customization demands specialist skills, and there is genuine admin overhead. TrustRadius rates it around 4 stars across more than 2,700 reviews, and it has earned Top Rated badges for years. SharePoint is the obvious choice for organizations already on Microsoft 365 — the cost is effectively sunk and the integration is unmatched. The alternative conversation (Confluence for knowledge, Box for compliance, Google Workspace for Google shops) only makes sense when SharePoint's complexity or search frustrations outweigh the convenience of staying in the Microsoft stack.
Key Features
- Document libraries — Store, version, and share files securely
- Granular permissions — Control access at site, folder, and file level
- Team sites & intranet — Build internal portals for news, knowledge, and tools
- Co-authoring — Real-time document collaboration with Office apps
- Search — Enterprise search across sites, files, and people
- Workflows — Approvals and automation with Power Automate
- Lists — Structured data tracking without a database
- Integration — Native links to Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and Power BI
- Compliance — Retention, eDiscovery, and legal hold (higher plans)
- External sharing — Collaborate safely with outside partners
Who is it for?
- Organizations already on Microsoft 365 — SharePoint comes included
- Enterprises needing document management at serious scale
- Teams that need granular permission and version control
- Companies building an internal intranet or knowledge portal
- IT departments that can staff SharePoint administration
Who is it NOT for?
- Small teams wanting simple file sharing — Google Drive or Dropbox win
- Anyone who hates complexity — SharePoint demands an admin
- Knowledge-first teams that live on great search — Confluence is better
- Non-Microsoft shops — the ecosystem only pays off inside M365
- Budget buyers paying for M365 just for SharePoint
The Bottom Line
SharePoint is the workhorse of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, and if your company already pays for Microsoft, it is almost always the right document backbone — free (included), secure, and deeply integrated. The catch is that "powerful" and "complicated" are the same sentence here: search disappoints, the learning curve is steep, and a system left without a dedicated admin turns into digital junk. My advice: use SharePoint for file storage and intranet because it is there, budget for someone to govern it, and do not pretend it will be easy for your team. If you are building knowledge-heavy documentation and search is your priority, or you are not a Microsoft shop at all, Confluence or Google Workspace are the smarter conversation.
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