Microsoft Office SharePoint Server vs Office 365 comparison

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server vs. Office 365

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Office SharePoint...

Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms

5th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Office 365

Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

153

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is 3.4%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Office 365 is 9.0%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Content Collaboration Platforms Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Office 365	9.0%
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server	3.4%
Other	87.6%

Content Collaboration Platforms

Featured Reviews

Daniel Giacomelli

Security and Compliance at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has transformed how I manage documents through metadata and automation while enabling structured collaboration

Microsoft should restore some functionalities from older versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2003 and 2010. Specifically, bringing back something similar to SharePoint Designer would be beneficial. SharePoint Designer was both advantageous and challenging - developers found it limiting and preferred Visual Studio, while non-developers struggled to use it effectively. A new tool for configuring webpage design and development for content pages would be valuable. The current system is too basic. While integration of filtered lists and libraries is possible, it requires knowledge of Python or jQuery. A WYSIWYG editor would be preferable to requiring programming knowledge or Visual Studio.

Read full review

Anubrata Ghosh

Technical Manager at Landmark Group

Teams streamlines collaboration but Outlook experiences occasional slowness on Mac

Teams is a really good collaboration tool. You can work basically at any part of the world and communicate and collaborate with anybody, as long as they are connected to the internet. It helps with remote work, and although I don't work remotely, I have offices in Dubai and different geographical locations. It helps me connect with my colleagues and team who are not in the same geography as I am in Bangalore. Teams can facilitate team meetings, screen sharing, and organizing meetings.Regarding security, we have two-factor authentication governed by organizational policy. When trying to login to Office 365, Teams, or any Office 365 app, we are required to provide a password and use Microsoft Authenticator to sign in using a code. This is how two-factor authentication is implemented in our organization. Office 365 offers a suite of apps including OneNote, though I don't use it very often. In terms of integration with Microsoft ecosystem, it offers everything needed to get work done without any hassle.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"This product is useful because when I go to the client place I can use my credentials, I can log in and I can share whatever I want to share from SharePoint Server."

"The most valuable feature is the "Alert Me", which provides the ability to set an alert when content is either added or changed and that the alerts can be either real-time or aggregated for the day or the week."

"The solution is pretty easy to use for the most part."

"It's a very robust product."

"I think SharePoint is a good tool, especially if you are in the Microsoft ecosystem — as in being an Office 365 user — then SharePoint is definitely something you should look at as a solution for collaboration and file sharing."

"From my partner perspective, the best advantages of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server are that it's easy to use, and we can easily communicate, share documents, and assign permissions to specific people."

"I like the collaboration, the ability for multiple users to work on a single document and be able to firstly collaborate and share notes about the document, as well as being able to work on the document without losing the information."

"The collaboration, the ability for multiple users to work on a single document."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server pros

"Office 365 has positively impacted my organization by making the salespeople more accurate because they've been able to use the features in Excel instead of relying on the calculator or adding machine, and some of the AI with writing and things with Word has helped improve things with that, too."

"The Teams integration and SharePoint functionality have helped with project management in work and school environments."

"The cloud storage and real-time collaboration features are incredibly valuable."

"AI with Office 365 is useful for programming, and sometimes for reporting and creating emails, which is easier."

"It is excellent for any organization's business productivity."

"The product helps us be more efficient. It helps us to have a standardized way of doing things."

"Overall, Office 365 brings organization efficiency, as these tools are very helpful for every organization to maintain their records, organization data, compliance, and collaborations."

"There's a lot there in terms of apps and features."

More Office 365 pros

Cons

"The user interface needs improvement because there is a lot of stuff in there."

"The product is behind in development and lacks some features."

"I would like to see the integration with Teams reinforced."

"One of the reasons why we don't recommend the cloud version of SharePoint is the cost."

"The only complaint we have is about the lack of OCR capability."

"The workflow is very rudimentary."

"I think that it can be improved in terms of security, to manage roles and better performance."

"The Branding and User Interface Design and CK Editor should be improved, as well as the upgrade process."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server cons

"The product could be improved if there was integration with other single sign-on solutions that are available on the market."

"Once issue occurred when we moved large mailboxes (greater than 20 GB). That took a considerable amount of time to finalize."

"Sometimes there are simple bugs. For example, I create an appointment, and it disappears or is differently showcased in Microsoft Teams because Teams also has a meeting section as opposed to Outlook, but these are just temporary bugs."

"In terms of disadvantages in Office 365, the cost is something some people complain about because I live in South Africa and it is quoted in dollars."

"I haven't used Copilot too much because I don't have a license for that at the moment."

"Using Office 365 is not that flexible on some mobile devices, like Android."

"There should be RAM optimization related to Teams and desktop applications since they are very RAM hungry."

"Microsoft Excel for Mac (version 15.30) is very slow with a large Excel document."

More Office 365 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing plans may be flexible depending on volume usage and your corporate relationship with Microsoft."

"It can be expensive for on-premises deployments, especially when you have to support SQL Server as your backend database. That's where the cost comes into play. SQL Server has its own licensing, which Microsoft keeps on changing. Therefore, it can become costly. In the earlier versions of SharePoint, version 2007 or 2010, they had an express version where the SQL Server licensing was free. It wasn't like a full-blown SharePoint. It was only a slimmed-down version. It used to be whatever your hardware costs. You would install the free software and work with it, but you were very limited in what you could do in SharePoint. If you wanted the SharePoint Enterprise Server with all the bells and whistles, then you had to pay more to get the SQL Server license based on the number of users or servers. The subscription model is different for cloud deployments. Licensing is per user and per month. The cost also depends on the storage required. If you have a lot of sites or documents, then you need to expand it based on your needs."

"One of the reasons why we don't recommend the cloud version of SharePoint is the cost. With the on premise version, you pay for the license once. For the cloud version, there is a recurring fee. It is very expensive. They expect everyone to pay $20 or $30 per user per month."

"There are some aggressive discounts offered by Microsoft for organizations that are not for profit, which we are, and it makes it quite attractive to consider."

"For the moment, we are paying on a monthly basis because we are still adapting the support and how we want to proceed. I think we will move to paying for the annual license."

"The pricing/licensing is easy to manage."

"The pricing is not really high, but one can get the software with the license key for free."

"The pricing is good for all the features that we receive, e.g., Skype for Business."

"The pricing is high and has actually caused us to limit the number of licenses we purchase due to budgeting."

"Good reporting and good value subscriptions for international calls."

"Licensing, billing, and accounting are available from the management interface."

"I would rate the solution 3 out of 5 for the price. I think Microsoft presents a good solution concerning the price."

More Office 365 pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Marketing Services Firm

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	62
Midsize Enterprise	30
Large Enterprise	70

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I am not aware of the pricing, so I cannot say if the solution is expensive or quite affordable.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

My expectation when I start using a Microsoft product is that it would be easy to incorporate diagrams and such from other Microsoft Office products. Incorporating a diagram I've embedded in a slid...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I produce content about the work I'm doing inside the company, making information about IT architecture, work processes within IT architecture, and security reviews of applications or infrastructur...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Office 365?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Office 365 is that it is moderate.

What needs improvement with Office 365?

Office 365 can be improved by increasing support, which currently is not efficient and takes a lot of time to resolve issues. It has been observed that support personnel often lack hands-on experie...

What is your primary use case for Office 365?

Email and collaboration are the main use cases for Office 365 at Omagi Media Labs. It is used for internal and external communication in daily work. Groups and Teams groups are created and used in ...

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Product Reports

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server report

Office 365

Download Office 365 product report

Also Known As

Office SharePoint Server, MS Office SharePoint Server

Microsoft Office 365, Office 365 Enterprise, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 F1

Overview

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server enhances collaboration, document management, and version control while integrating seamlessly with Office apps, Teams, and OneDrive for efficient communication and content sharing.

Offering automation, workflow management, and effective metadata usage, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server improves operational efficiency. It's user-friendly with low-code and no-code capabilities, ensuring accessibility for organizations. Robust security measures and access control with Active Directory integration provide secure data handling, while real-time editing allows multiple users to collaborate productively. Its search functionality streamlines information retrieval, although enhancing this feature could further improve usability. Addressing the need for a more intuitive interface, distinct integration between Team and SharePoint sites, workflow simplification, as well as improved performance with large data handling, would add to its practicality. Better third-party application integration, enhanced document sharing, and increased licensing flexibility are areas for potential development.

What are the key features?

Collaboration: Enables seamless team collaboration with integrated Office apps and Teams.
Document Management: Advanced version control and document sharing capabilities.
Automation: Streamlines processes with workflow management and metadata usage.
Security: Robust access control with Active Directory integration.
Real-Time Editing: Allows multiple users to edit documents simultaneously.
Search Functionality: Assists in swift information retrieval.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Improved Productivity: Real-time editing and seamless integration enhance work efficiency.
Security Assurance: Strong access control supports safe data management.
User Accessibility: Low-code and no-code features increase ease of use.
Operational Efficiency: Automates workflows and optimizes document handling.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is utilized in industries such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing for document sharing, collaboration, and internal communications. It supports project management, custom application development, and acts as an enterprise content management system. Organizations leverage its integration with Microsoft Teams for coordination and use it as a corporate portal. It facilitates data management, serves as a document library, and supports workflows with advanced capabilities like integration with Power Apps and Power BI for enhanced data visualization and interaction.

Microsoft

Office 365 integrates cloud services for efficient collaboration, offering a set of tools like Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook. Designed for productivity with multi-device access, it supports automation and remote work through its cloud-based features.

Office 365 enhances business efficiency by providing a comprehensive suite of applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, crucial for document creation and management. It offers seamless communication and collaboration via Outlook for email and Teams for meetings. The integration with SharePoint and OneDrive ensures robust document management and storage, facilitating remote access while supporting advanced security and automation features like Power Apps and Copilot. Despite its extensive capabilities, users note room for improvement in areas like cost, external connectivity, and upgrade disruptions. There's a need for better integration with third-party apps, enhanced Excel performance on Mac, and improved AI functionalities to simplify usage.

What are the most valuable Office 365 features?

Integration: Connects various Microsoft services for improved workflows.
Cloud Collaboration: Facilitates teamwork through Teams and SharePoint.
Advanced Security: Includes features ensuring data protection.
Real-time Editing: Allows simultaneous document work.
Automatic Updates: Ensures up-to-date software without manual intervention.
Multi-device Access: Supports various devices for versatility.
OneDrive Storage: Offers scalable cloud storage solutions.
Automation Tools: Power Apps and Copilot increase efficiency.

What benefits and ROI should organizations consider?

Productivity Boost: Streamlined tools for efficient task completion.
Global Accessibility: Work can be conducted from any location.
Cost Management: Flexible licensing aligns with business needs.
Security Assurance: Mitigates risks and protects data integrity.
Support for Remote Work: Enhances collaboration across distances.

In industries such as healthcare, finance, and education, Office 365 is used to manage documents securely, facilitate meetings through Teams, and store sensitive information on OneDrive. Its user-friendly tools support teaching and learning, enhancing productivity and providing robust solutions for document sharing and communication.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Del Monte Foods, Unicredit Leasing, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Nokia Czech Republic, Perkins Eastman, JLL, ICA, óxito Software, Dorset Software, PKP Cargo, Arcapita Bank B.S.C., AVE CZ, Chesapeake Energy

Me & the Bees Lemonade

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server vs. Office 365