Microsoft SharePoint is by far the most widely used content management and team collaboration solution in the market with a user base of over 200 million users which also incorporates over 80% of fortune 500 companies. SharePoint started as a Content management system in 2003 but over time it has evolved to satisfy the ever-growing needs of enterprise users and has now become a one-stop mega shop to serve all the needs of a digital and modern workplace. Whether its document management or content management, Intranet portals, process automation, workplace digitization, team collaboration and even enterprise social networking SharePoint has got it all and some more and the best part is that it can be extended to build solutions for business problems making it an ideal platform. However, needless to say, Microsoft is not alone and there are plenty of solutions claiming to provide a cost-effective SharePoint alternative but most of them only compete on a specific feature segment or a niche functionality. In this article, we are going to look at some of the true SharePoint alternatives that exist in the market today and in which scenarios can they be considered an alternative to SharePoint.
What is not an Alternative to SharePoint
Before we begin, there are several SaaS systems which are considered or listed to be a SharePoint alternative. A simple google search will present long lists of SharePoint alternatives but in reality they are merely providing a niche feature-set of what is required in a modern workplace today for team collaboration and content/document management. For example, systems like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box provides great features for document storage and to some extent document management with some added workflow capabilities and if a company is only looking for that particular feature set then they are a good candidate for it but they are not alternatives to SharePoint and same goes for tools like Slack which is a great platform for team communication or Trello and Jira for work management but they are definitely not alternatives SharePoint.
What can be a worthy SharePoint Alternative
A good SharePoint alternative is the one that provides features which fulfills the requirements of team collaboration and content management in the modern workplace. It should be capable of providing a subset of the fundamental features provided by SharePoint including CMS, DMS, and team collaboration. With that said, here are the top 6 alternatives to SharePoint.
AxioWorks SQList continuously export SharePoint lists and libraries as normalised SQL Server tables with SQList by AxioWorks, making SharePoint data available to reporting tools like Power BI, Crystal Reports, or SSRS.
Google for Work (G-Suite)
Google has been the biggest direct Microsoft competitor in almost all of their products and has also beaten them in Market share in some instances like Google search over Bing or Gmail over outlook. A vast majority of population uses Google products personally or professionally and Google has taken all of their public offerings and converted it into an optimized enterprise-facing solution called G-Suite or google for Work which includes Gmail, Hangouts, Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Groups, Sites, and Vault. Google for Work has a huge user base and provides extensive productivity and collaboration tools across the enterprise.
G-Suite is a worthy alternative to SharePoint if
- Business is already using Google applications
- Real-time document management and Sharing
- Enterprise Social Networking
Confluence
Confluence is an Atlassian product providing document management capabilities and it is also tightly integrated with the Atlassian work management and team collaboration solution called Jira. The popularity of Jira among developers and in the agile space puts confluence in an advantageous position to be used as a document management solution and if a company is using Jira then they will certainly consider confluence if they only need document management capabilities. However, it does lack some features when it comes to content management like page styling and media attachments making it less attractive as a CMS.
Confluence is a worthy SharePoint alternative if company needs
- Centralized Document Management
- Spaces for team collaboration on projects
- Integration with Atlassian products like Jira
Nuxeo
Nuxeo is an open-source CMS, which allows their users to customize their CMS platform to fit their content management needs. It also includes some project management capabilities and some workflow capabilities for business process automation however they are limited when it comes to complex process automation.
Nuxeo can be a worthy SharePoint alternative if the company needs
- Open-source and highly customizable Content Management System
- Basic Workflows and process automation.
- Task management and project management for small projects
Glasscubes
Another CMS and Intranet portal solution which is gaining popularity among the small businesses is Glasscubes. The primary focus of Glasscubes is to help teams share knowledge via online workspaces i.e. intranet portal and it also comes with some basic document management and team collaboration features like task management and online chat.
Glasscubes can be a worthy SharePoint Alternative for a small-sized business looking for
- Intranet portal
- Light document management features.
- Task management feature
- Built-in Chat for team communication
SamePage
Samepage is a CMS that wants to keep the teams on the same page and I mean literally on one page. Their CMS model is based on the concept of having a Single page per team for team collaboration and content sharing. It comes with some fairly robust team collaboration features all bundled on one page allowing team members to share content, chat and even draw on the same page in real-time. It even allows team members to do voice and video calls from the page.
SamePage can be a worthy SharePoint Alternative for a small-sized business looking for
- Team collaboration and communication features for small teams
- Content sharing tool for teams to coordinate and brainstorm on ideas
- Integrating all other business applications to be used from SamePage
Bitrix24
Once upon a time, there was a free lightweight version of SharePoint available to enterprise users called SharePoint foundation which was essentially a gateway to start your journey in the SharePoint world and Bitrix24 is somewhat similar to that. It comes with a good set of features including video calls, group chat, document management, CRM, file sharing and project management but most of them lack advanced functionality. It is also an open-source tool so the source code for Bitrix24 is available, so you can modify it as necessary.
Bitrix24 is a worthy SharePoint alternative if you want:
- A free tool with basic CMS features;
- Group chat features;
- Project management and task management features.
Final Verdict
We have looked at some of the most popular and widely used team collaboration and content management systems and to some extent they do provide the features and capabilities which are the building blocks for a digital workspace and empowers employees to be more productive and efficient in their daily work. However, No one comes close to the massive functionality and extensive capabilities that SharePoint provides both Out of the Box and with the help of a huge network of partners building solutions on top of SharePoint to fulfill customer needs and therefore SharePoint will remain to be the top choice when it comes to building a digitized modern workspace.
AxioWorks SQList continuously export SharePoint lists and libraries as normalised SQL Server tables with SQList by AxioWorks, making SharePoint data available to reporting tools like Power BI, Crystal Reports, or SSRS.