SharePoint is the intranet of Microsoft 365: communication sites, news, document libraries and lists, licensed per user and read mostly by employees. HumHub hosted by CUZY is a social intranet people post in, open to members, volunteers and partners as well as staff, at a flat price, with software you can take anywhere.
Microsoft SharePoint is the document and intranet service of Microsoft 365: team and communication sites, news, pages, document libraries with version history, lists, and the SharePoint app in Teams (formerly Viva Connections) that brings a home site into Teams. It is licensed per user, as part of the Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, and is proprietary. For chat, meetings and Viva Engage, see the Microsoft Teams comparison at /compare/microsoft-teams.
Facts about SharePoint come from the vendor's own pages, checked in October 2026: Compare SharePoint plans, Microsoft 365 business plans, Microsoft 365 enterprise plans, SharePoint service description, Overview of external sharing in SharePoint, The SharePoint app in Teams, formerly Viva Connections, Microsoft 365 services data locations. Prices are those published by the vendor (US dollars, per user); they may have changed since. Tell us about an error on the contact page and we correct it.
An open-source social network and intranet platform (spaces, streams, wiki, files, calendar, tasks, polls, messaging, member directory, mobile app), extended by the HumHub marketplace and by every CUZY module, hosted by CUZY in the region you choose, with a flat price and unlimited members.
The questions a buyer, an IT reviewer or a data-protection officer asks both vendors.
| Criterion | Microsoft SharePoint | HumHub hosted by CUZY |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Per user per month, paid yearly: Microsoft 365 Business Basic $7.00, Business Standard with Copilot $23.50, Business Premium with Copilot $32.00 (up to 300 users; $5.40, $20.30 and $28.80 without Teams), E3 $39.00, E5 $60.00, E7 $99.00 on an annual commitment ($30.45, $51.45 and $90.45 without Teams). The plans page shows SharePoint Plan 1 inside the business plans and Plan 2 inside E3, E5 and E7; no standalone SharePoint plan is priced on it | Team €90/month or €900/year, Business €450/month or €4,500/year, unlimited members, 14-day free trial |
| Fees on payments | Every person who reads the intranet needs a license, except guests invited on a site, limited to basic tasks; the business plans stop at 300 users | None. Payments made with the eCommerce module go through your own Stripe account; CUZY takes no commission |
| Single sign-on | Microsoft Entra ID sign-in; other identity providers through federation | On every plan, trial included, through OpenID Connect and OAuth modules (Keycloak, Microsoft Entra, Google, LinkedIn, GitHub) and SAML-capable identity providers |
| API | Microsoft Graph and the SharePoint REST API; SharePoint Framework for custom web parts | HumHub REST API module on every plan |
| Open source | Proprietary | Yes. HumHub under the AGPL, every CUZY module under the AGPL or the CUZY license. 100% of the code a community runs can be browsed and downloaded through read-only SFTP (Team and Business) |
| Data ownership and exit | Files download from document libraries and sync with OneDrive; pages, news and lists are exported through eDiscovery or migration tools; no export that runs elsewhere | Complete export of the database and files from the dashboard, once a day, on every paid plan; recreate the same platform self-hosted or on HumHub's own hosting; stop at any time, the remaining days refunded pro rata |
| Hosting region and isolation | Microsoft data centers, the location set by the tenant's sign-up country; EU Data Boundary for tenants signed up in the EU and EFTA; Advanced Data Residency and Multi-Geo are paid add-ons for listed countries | Hosted in the region you choose, Germany (EU), the USA or Singapore (APAC); one isolated stack per community, its database encrypted at rest; encrypted backups with a second provider in the same region |
| Extensibility | SharePoint Framework web parts, Power Platform, Teams apps store; the SharePoint app in Teams takes SharePoint Framework extensions only | The whole HumHub marketplace plus every CUZY module on every plan; on Business, modules and themes written for your community by your developers or by CUZY, deployed after review |
| AI and your content | Copilot Chat included with Entra ID users; Microsoft 365 Copilot in the "with Copilot" business plans, as an add-on ($21.00 for business, $30.00 for enterprise, per user per month paid yearly) or in E7 | No AI service processes your community's data, as the privacy policy and the Data Processing Agreement state |
At $7.00 a user a month, 250 people on Business Basic cost $1,750 a month, and the business plans stop at 300 users. Team costs €90 and Business €450 a month with unlimited members: volunteers, members, parents, partners and alumni included.
SharePoint is built around documents and pages published by a few editors. HumHub spaces have a stream everyone writes in, comments, reactions, polls, a wiki, files, a calendar and tasks, with a mobile app that notifies members.
Germany (EU), the USA or Singapore (APAC), one isolated stack per community, its database encrypted at rest, encrypted backups with a second provider in the same region, a processor agreement. On Microsoft 365, the location follows the tenant's sign-up country and residency guarantees are add-ons.
HumHub runs on any server; the daily export takes the whole community, media included, to your own servers or to HumHub whenever you decide. SharePoint content leaves through migration or eDiscovery tools, into Microsoft formats.
Members join with an email address or with their Google, Keycloak or Microsoft Entra account through the sign-in modules; nobody needs a Microsoft 365 seat or a guest account in your directory. Employees keep SharePoint for documents if they like.
SharePoint is the better fit for an organization whose people all hold Microsoft 365 licenses and whose intranet is first a document system: libraries with version history, retention and sensitivity labels, eDiscovery, lists and Power Automate flows, with Copilot over it all. The intranet then comes with licenses the organization already pays for.
Start a free trial, import members and content with our help, connect your identity provider, and run both platforms side by side until you are ready. Subscribers can export everything from CUZY once a day, so the move is never a one-way door. Tell us about your current setup and we assess what can be carried over.
For the intranet part, yes: news, spaces per team or site, posts and comments, wiki, files, calendar, tasks and a mobile app, for everyone including people without a Microsoft 365 license, at a flat price. For a document management system with retention policies and eDiscovery, SharePoint remains the tool; the two can run side by side.
Yes. Members, volunteers and parents join with an email address or their Google account; staff can sign in with Microsoft Entra ID through the Keycloak Sign-In module. Documents live in the Files module of each space or in a connected Nextcloud.
On Microsoft's plans page of October 2026, Business Basic is $7.00 per user per month paid yearly, so $1,750 a month for 250 people, and the business plans stop at 300 users. HumHub hosted by CUZY costs €450/month or €4,500/year on Business, whatever the number of members.
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Customer community platform
All-in-one business suite (CRM, tasks, intranet)
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Two weeks with every module and single sign-on, no card asked. Keep everything when you subscribe, export everything if you leave.
