Name: SharePoint
Brand: Microsoft
Rating: 3.9 (165 reviews)

President at Prescient Digital Media

Nov 18, 2025

Plan, plan, plan. Over-budget.

First and foremost, SharePoint is an intranet platform. Though Microsoft states that SharePoint is "primarily sold as a document management and storage system" it is an information sharing platform and for "implementing internal applications, and for implementing business processes."

SharePoint is the know market leader for powering intranets: about 90% of the Fortune 1000 use SharePoint in some shape or form (with many using it to power their Intranet home page).

There are in fact two versions of SharePoint: the on-premises version, SharePoint Server, and SharePoint Online, which comes bundled in Microsoft 365 (the Cloud). Though those with Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) automatically have the latest features in SharePoint Online; those with on-premises SharePoint, have to wait for the next release to get the latest and greatest.

SharePoint’s greatest strength is it’s an all-in-one approach – it’s a portal, a content management system, a search engine, a social collaboration platform, a web development platform, and so much more. Its greatest weakness is that it’s an all-in-one solution – everything and the kitchen sink; a jack-of-all-trades, a master of none. Some argue that SharePoint is a “mile wide, but a foot deep.” It offers so much, but some features are seen as still ‘developing’ or even sub-par. But there are a lot of tools and features, and with each release, it gets better and better (though more complex).

It’s important to note that SharePoint is still a technology. It doesn’t include all of the people, process and planning that is required to make any intranet technology work. Intranet technology will fail without careful planning, process and committed people. Most of the key ingredients of a successful intranet in the digital workplace are based on people, and process; technology is merely an enabler.

Features include:

Cloud / Hybrid - Hybrid enables you to integrate your on-premises farm with the cloud, at your own pace.
Durable Links - Resource-based URLs now retain links when documents are renamed or moved in SharePoint.
Video recording, storage, and screen recording - an all-in-one video solution using Stream, including video editing.
Large files - now supports uploading and downloading files larger than 2,047 MBs
Mobile - an improved mobile navigation experience, including a very fast and easy to use app.
Search - SharePoint Search integrated the FAST Search engine, with more features, and indexes up to 500 million documents (per app).
Sharing - better user sharing options, including a Shared folder, and invitation email notifications.
Microsoft Teams - full integration with Microsoft Teams (all Teams files are stored in SharePoint).

We are Intranet consultants (www.PrescientDigital.com) and and principally use Microsoft 365 - SharePoint Online for Enterprise Content Management; improving the way our organization functions in terms of employee collaboration and knowledge sharing specifically via document management, and social collaboration (discussion groups, profiles and blogging being the most used social tools). Increasingly we use Teams, and use it with external clients that can be invited to a specific Team (project site).

Web content management and social media tools (e.g. wikis) are not best-of-breed, and usability is an issue with many features. We also encountered many, many problems with deployment -- customization and implementation requires more work than you expect. Additionally, like most organizations, a customized user experience can break (particularly specific webparts) with every SharePoint patch and upgrade. However, we found no issues with stability or scalability.

80% of our clients use SharePoint, and probably some 90% of the Fortune 1000 use SharePoint in some shape or form. We are first and foremost SharePoint intranet consultants, so we build and design other intranets, and need to deeply understand the ins and outs of SharePoint.

The initial setup of SharePoint is very easy - out-of-the-box deployment is simple, fast and a novice could manage a deployment. Customization requires a lot of work, particularly using SPFx (hiring an outside expert is strongly recommended).

A note of caution: planning is everything. The intranet is more about people and process, and any intranet requires a through plan -- for information architecture, content management, design, and change management -- plan, plan, plan. And plan to run over-budget (unless you hire very strong outside experts to develop and run your plan and budget) for customization activities.

SharePoint features major upgrades to the user experience design and mobile access, including a new dedicated SharePoint app. It’s very clean and modern, with a major emphasis on images, and video. The new "modern UX" is fully responsive, and has it's own dedicated mobile app.

Among the new UX features, particularly noticeable in the new SharePoint Communications Sites, are drag-and-drop web parts for image galleries, slideshows, hero slideshow, and video.

Continue reading: The New SharePoint

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Last updated: Nov 18, 2025

it_user635955Project Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

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Mar 29, 2017

Err...what's Centralpoint? :D Is that an actual enterprise solution?

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reviewer1142955

Senior Analyst at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 23, 2024

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Used for the creation and sharing of documents

Pros and Cons

"SharePoint is easy to collaborate with."

"The solution's support services and GenAI could be improved and made faster and more knowledgeable."

What is our primary use case?

I mostly use the solution for the creation and sharing of documents.

What is most valuable?

SharePoint is easy to collaborate with.

What needs improvement?

The solution's support services and GenAI could be improved and made faster and more knowledgeable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SharePoint for more than two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability eight and a half out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SharePoint is a scalable solution.

I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten for scalability.

How was the initial setup?

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward and doesn't take much time.

What about the implementation team?

Our IT team deploys the solution.

What other advice do I have?

The solution has good integration capabilities. SharePoint supports remote work and team collaboration within our company. The solution's workflow data analysis and AI-driven content organization are good. I would recommend the solution to other users because of its reliability and AI features. SharePoint has helped our organization save time and money.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Cesar Danecke

IT Supervisor at HORSCH BRASIL

Jan 23, 2023

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Enables us to share information more securely

Pros and Cons

"The online editing capabilities, file sharing, auditing, information security, ease of solution management, and the easy user adaptation to the platform are the most valuable features."

"The way to change the version of the files in SharePoint should be improved. The method of synchronizing files from local to the cloud can also use improvement."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for file sharing. SharePoint is implemented in our environment for files and user sharing. We also use it for simultaneous editions.

How has it helped my organization?

We had all the group files registered in SharePoint, including all local files. It was possible to share the information more securely.

What is most valuable?

The online editing capabilities, file sharing, auditing, information security, ease of solution management, and the easy user adaptation to the platform are the most valuable features.

What needs improvement?

The way to change the version of the files in SharePoint should be improved. The method of synchronizing files from local to the cloud can also use improvement.

I would also like to see improvements in the interface, speed to load the page, mark favorite directories, synchronize the most recent, and the least accessed files automatically do the archiving. I would like to have an option at the first sync to choose more locations on your computer.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of SharePoint is very good, amazing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SharePoint is easy and has new features now. Scalability with SharePoint is good and easy for us at work. To maintain the product, we do not need a large amount of professionals, we currently have three professionals to administer the platform.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support with SharePoint is very good, very easy and includes support for multiple languages. It can be opened by several channels.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

What motivated us to switch solutions was the easy solution management, space scalability, additional features, easy synchronization, data security, and sharing control.

How was the initial setup?

The initial configuration of SharePoint was very easy. The configuration, training, and communication with the users took less than two months.

What about the implementation team?

Internal deployment of the system was conducted through a Microsoft partner and was very easy. We had our internal professionals deploy the system together.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

With regards to licensing, it depends a lot on what you need to do, there are many plans, and options to choose from, you need to plan and enjoy 100% of what the product offers, so you can decide if the value is right.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I used several products, but sharepoint brought them all together. I used windows file server, linux, file versioners, website to share documents.

What other advice do I have?

Compared with other products, SharePoint is very good. We do not have other products that are as good as SharePoint.

SharePoint is definitely richer in features with functionality which helps us to get our work done. I would rate SharePoint a 10 out of 10.

The solution is integrated with the entire Microsoft platform, from e-mail to Azure computing, so the solution as a whole is easy to manage and has a central administration that facilitates the view of the entire environment.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Toby Ward

President at Prescient Digital Media

Aug 3, 2022

SharePoint for Intranets

SharePoint is appreciated for its simplicity of use out-of-the-box, though derided for problems (and the expenses) customizing the user experience (design, navigation and information architecture).

SharePoint is replete with functionality and applications, and is the most comprehensive intranet development platform on the market. It is, unfortunately, expensive, and most of the feature set that we use, and that our clients use, fall short of expectations, and often below best-of-breed. SharePoint isn’t a niche product that is supposed to be superb at web content management, or social networking; it’s a broad solution, one that has something for everybody; a solution that can please some, but not all.

SharePoint’s greatest strength is that it’s an all-in-one solution – it’s a portal, a content management system, a search engine, a social collaboration platform, a web development platform, and so much more. Its greatest weakness is that it’s an all-in-one solution – everything and the kitchen sink; a jack-of-all-trades, a master of none. Some argue that SharePoint is a “mile wide, but a foot deep.” It offers so much, but many features are seen as sub-par.

SharePoint is part enterprise content management (ECM) solution, part portal solution, part web development platform, part social media platform. It offers many, many solutions and functions – often too much for most organizations – but it is Microsoft’s hope that it will become everything to everybody including the de facto platform for the company intranet, website(s) and extranet(s). In sum total, it is an amazingly powerful solution, but often fails to live up to expectations.

SharePoint 2013 was a fair solution, with an abundance of time, patience… and money, it could work; SharePoint 2016, is even better, but still requires a lot of care, and investment.

The latest, SharePoint 2019 (and SharePoint Online in Office 365), further improves upon previous versions, notably the mobile experience and the user experience.

SharePoint has a new mobile app, so you can access your intranet using a phone app, instead of using the browser. Outside of the app, SharePoint has a new, clean mobile experience – greatly enhanced over the mobile experience in SharePoint 2016.

Another big, major improvement to SharePoint is the new user experience (UX) design and general usability of SharePoint. It is noticeably superior to previous versions of SP. It’s very clean and modern, with a major emphasis on images, and video.

“SharePoint 2019 has the most UX (improvements) than we’ve ever delivered before in a SharePoint release,” Hani Loza, of the Microsoft SharePoint team.

Among the new UX features, particularly noticeable in the new SharePoint Communications Sites, are drag-and-drop web parts for image galleries, slideshows, hero slideshow, and video.

Microsoft has released a new video function and portal, called Stream. Using Microsoft Stream, videos will play automatically in a page, and it includes auto transcription, face detection, and enhanced sharing and tagging. The Stream team say “audio transcriptions and face detection make finding relevant content easy—even for specific words or people shown on screen, whether in a single video or across all your company’s videos.”

From a governance perspective, SharePoint is good, when compared to other platforms. It is not perfect, but no solution is.

Like the content of your website or intranet, planning and governance is technology agnostic; whether it’s SharePoint or another portal or content management platform, the necessity for and the approach to governance is the same. In short, governance lives and dies with its owners, and the rules they put in place, regardless of the technology. Governance is largely applicable to any technology platform and as such is generic to start.

When building a governance model for SharePoint, the major components should include:

The umbrella ownership model – Centralized? Decentralized? Collaborative?
Defined ownership structure (names and titles)
Roles and responsibilities (jobs and duties)
Decision making process (who is responsible for what and when)
Authorization (who is responsible for what and when)
Policy (what is allowed, and what is not allowed)

While governance is generic in nature, regardless of the software and hardware, there are some components of SharePoint that require specific consideration. Site Collections and Team Sites are so easy to deploy, and it is so easy for even the most neophyte web users to create a site (e.g. Team Sites, My Sites, Publishing Sites, etc.), SharePoint sites can easily grow at exponential rates and amount to tens-of-thousands in a short period of time. ‘Baking’ in rules and inheritance to site collections is critical to ensuring a consistent, uniform user experience.

These issues and others are discussed in-depth including, SharePoint governance, and some of the specific, requisite steps and policies for implementing intranet and in the SharePoint Governance white paper.

To learn about the specifics of intranet design with SharePoint, see the Intranet Design white paper.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user9216Head of Consulting & Solutions EMEA at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees

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Oct 17, 2013

I would add education about what is governance and what needs to be governed.

reviewer1451235

IT business analysis, development and governance at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Apr 16, 2022

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Stable and scalable collaboration system; good for document and file sharing, and offers fast issue resolution from its support team

Pros and Cons

"No code and low code, scalable, and stable collaboration platform. Straightforward to set up. Its support system is good and offers fast issue resolution."
"The initial setup of SharePoint is very straightforward."

"Integration needs to be more straightforward, particularly with Azure. SharePoint also needs a more comprehensive introductory course for users."
"I'm trying to get the knowledge bit by bit, so I'm losing the idea of the whole product, e.g. SharePoint is losing its essence."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for SharePoint is for document sharing and file sharing in projects where participants are from different organizations. It is a very good tool for users or participants of teams from different tenants inside the organization.

What is most valuable?

What I like most about SharePoint would depend on what the task is, e.g. if it's just simple document sharing then the document library is fine. The most exciting feature of the platform is that it's a no code or low code development platform. There's also Power Apps and Power Automate.

What needs improvement?

Despite the enthusiasm and very good promises offered by SharePoint, the usage of the power platform is limited, so that's an area for improvement, but I would suggest this just as a team feature.

It's hard to highlight other areas for improvement, but a better approach towards licensing power platform components for guest users would be great. SharePoint licensing costs could be lowered to introduce it to the outside guests of a tenant, then to supply them with power apps and power automate features.

A more straightforward integration with Azure, including better licensing in terms of using Azure components and functions, is also another area for improvement in SharePoint.

My advice for Microsoft, and this is something I'd like to see in the next release of SharePoint, is for them to constantly improve training material. Currently, the training material is organized in a way where a new feature appears and is enforced, then they develop the training material for that new feature. What happens is that the total product or solution, e.g. SharePoint, then lacks overall introduction in terms of training. There should be a balance between the introduction of the tool and the introduction of the new feature. They should have comprehensive introductory courses for both Office 365 and SharePoint, instead of needing to Google for particular situations. I'm trying to get the knowledge bit by bit, so I'm losing the idea of the whole product, e.g. SharePoint is losing its essence. To get onboarded to any new product, it's important to get a good introduction into that product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using SharePoint since 2006, so I've seen its "many flavors".

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I find SharePoint to be stable. No complaints there.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have no complaints about the scalability of SharePoint.

How are customer service and support?

The support system for SharePoint works pretty well. We had a complicated situation about the reasoning why tenants and users are limited in terms of functionality, and the escalation and resolving of that issue, of that situation, went pretty fast, even for experimental features. It was quite straightforward to get access to experimental features, or find out why this access is limited, then fix it. I'm happy with the technical support for SharePoint.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of SharePoint is very straightforward. Microsoft did a very good job with onboarding new users of their platform, e.g. the Office 365 platform. There were a lot of good improvements for administrators of tenants of different parts of Office 365, including SharePoint.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented SharePoint through our in-house team, because we are a technology company, so we didn't need to use external experts or specialists for the deployment of the platform.

What other advice do I have?

I'm using SharePoint as part of Office 365, using it as a part of Teams and under the hood of Teams, so yes, I'm still using SharePoint.

SharePoint is deployed on public cloud. We have some projects where SharePoint 2019 is deployed as a server, but those are based on an integrations app, but mostly it's on Office 365, e.g. SharePoint Online. Microsoft is the cloud provider we're using for the platform.

I want to highlight that some organic growth was missed with Teams, because there's still complicated switching between tenants, e.g. Teams and SharePoint users. In this case, Teams users may work in different organizations, or are guests of different tenants and different organizations. Switching between tenants, or the ability to streamline and organize identity management logging into the system, e.g. to the cloud, to Office 365 with one ID or organization ID should provide options to do work with many organizations at the same time.

Currently, there is still the need to switch from one organization to another, to get the full toolsets of a particular tenant, so for users, that's quite annoying. For one organization that fits, and that works fine for an organization with guest users, but when we have multi-tenant situations, when people are collaborating on different projects, and when initiated or hosted by different organizations, switching from one organization to another should be improved.

We have 40 to 50 users of SharePoint, and they are involved in various projects run by customers. We also add users from other organizations, so the total collaboration space may include 200 to 300 users.

My advice to people thinking about using SharePoint, the very important lessons I learned during years of using the tool, is for them not to fight with it, e.g. they should not start to use it based on what they initially wished to use it for. It's best to first spend more time in getting a better understanding of the tool and its relevant capabilities. Learn SharePoint first. Spend time learning it.

I would give SharePoint a rating of nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Mordhi Alenazi

Business Application Development Manager at NWC

Jun 8, 2020

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Good collaboration and sharing but the workflow engine cannot support business needs

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable features are the collaboration and sharing."
"The most valuable features are collaboration and sharing."

"The workflow engine cannot support the business needs."
"The workflow engine cannot support business needs."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use cases are for

Central repository for document integrated with a core application.
The integration through web service with Oracle ERP and Oracle CCB
In addition, we use SharePoint two build a library for different projects for collaboration and sharing propose.

How has it helped my organization?

It has improved my organization in the following ways:

Gave us the ability to integrate with other systems that need a lot of customization.
Offers alignment between user permissions in SharePoint and other systems is not exist.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are collaboration and sharing.

What needs improvement?

Workflow engine
Video streaming and huge file retrieving and uploading
It does not support video streaming and huge file retrieving and uploading
The workflow engine cannot support business needs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used SharePoint for six years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's not expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Eric Wyatt

IT Director / CIO at Matanuska-Sustina Borough

Oct 3, 2019

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Integrates well to improve access, coordination, and collaboration

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable features are the Integrations, web site, and search."
"This solution has given us better access, coordination, collaboration, and visibility."

"The areas of this solution that need improvement are the relationships between lists, cross-site web parts, and page-building tools."
"The areas of this solution that need improvement are the relationships between lists, cross-site web parts, and page-building tools."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for intranet, extranet, web site, content management, collaboration, integrations, eCommerce, inventory, portfolio, project, and process management.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has given us better access, coordination, collaboration, and visibility. It is an enterprise system for many functions instead of multiple systems to support. Interactive intranet instead of static web pages, integration of other systems to include GIS. We also have better search capability.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the Integrations, web site, and search.

What needs improvement?

The areas of this solution that need improvement are the relationships between lists, cross-site web parts, and page-building tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for nineteen years.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Cecil Rupp

Works at Command Results, LLC.

Aug 10, 2019

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Supports us in software development projects and integrates well with Microsoft Project

Pros and Cons

"This solution has helped us with the categorization, organization, management, discovery, and delivery of program and project related information."
"This solution has helped us with the categorization, organization, management, discovery, and delivery of program and project related information."

"This solution would benefit from the implementation of enhanced online forms and template development capabilities."
"This solution would benefit from the implementation of enhanced online forms and template development capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for supporting software development programs and projects.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has helped us with the categorization, organization, management, discovery, and delivery of program and project related information.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is the integration with MS Project.

What needs improvement?

This solution would benefit from the implementation of enhanced online forms and template development capabilities.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for fifteen years, off and on.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Again, no problems on our applications.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have never seen it hit a wall in terms of supporting our programs, and I have been the senior contractor program and project manager overseeing two large Health IT projects, both with more than 100 team members and as many as 11,000 assigned tasks.

How are customer service and technical support?

he Microsoft reps were always helpful; although they were not always up to speed with the latest offerings and capabilities from Microsoft. Persistence pays off thought. I usually eventually got the answers to my questions.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

NO, client requires use of SharePoint for content management on IT programs and projects.

How was the initial setup?

It seemed easy enough. The one issue I had was setting up a project portal where we wanted to implement a number of SDLC Templates via SharePoint. This was a couple of years ago, but the integration of a legacy Microsoft forms product was not very clean or adequate. It looks like the previous tool has been replaced with Microsoft Forms. I haven't had a chance to use this product yet.