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An intranet outside Microsoft 365: what happened in 2026, and what a small organization can do

In 2026 several European administrations paused, cancelled or replaced parts of their Microsoft 365 estate, and Microsoft raised its per-user prices on 1 July. This guide lists what actually happened, with the official sources, and draws the practical conclusion for an organization of fifty to a few thousand people that is not a ministry.

Last updated: October 30, 2026. Written by CUZY, which hosts HumHub; facts about other products are linked to their sources.

In shortMicrosoft raised most Microsoft 365 prices by 5 % to 33 % on 1 July 2026. The same year, the Dutch tax administration paused its rollout and wrote to Parliament about European alternatives, Schleswig-Holstein reported 80 % of its desktops migrated, Ireland cancelled a €1 billion framework tender, and the Commission proposed a sovereignty framework for public cloud. None of them is your size. What transfers to a smaller organization is the arithmetic: per-user licenses for people who are not employees, and the question of who controls the data. Facts dated October 2026, sources at the end.

The price rise of 1 July 2026

Announced on 4 December 2025 and applied at each customer's renewal from 1 July 2026. List prices in US dollars, per user and per month, annual billing; standalone Teams and Copilot licenses were not part of the change.

Plan	Before	From 1 July 2026	Change	250 users a year
Microsoft 365 Business Basic	$6.00	$7.00	+17%	$21,000
Microsoft 365 Business Standard	$12.50	$14.00	+12%	$42,000
Microsoft 365 Business Premium	$22.00	$22.00	unchanged	$66,000
Microsoft 365 E3	$36.00	$39.00	+8%	$117,000
Microsoft 365 E5	$57.00	$60.00	+5%	$180,000
Microsoft 365 F1 (frontline)	$2.25	$3.00	+33%	$9,000
Microsoft 365 F3 (frontline)	$8.00	$10.00	+25%	$30,000
Microsoft 365 E3, non-profit price	$9.00	$9.75	+8%	$29,250

The last column is the point: an intranet that is part of a per-user suite costs 250 times the plan price every month, and every volunteer, member, student or partner who needs to read it needs a license. A hosted HumHub community costs €900 a year on Team whatever the number of members. The cost guide does this arithmetic for 50, 250 and 1,000 people.

What public bodies did in 2026

13 October 2026, openDesk (Germany). The federal open-source workplace names its first approved integrators and sovereign service providers; since 12 October it is sold nationwide as SaaS through the govdigital marketplace, and a partner program for cloud providers opened on 23 September. (ZenDiS newsroom)
5 October 2026, The Netherlands, tax administration. A letter to Parliament (kamerstuk 31066-1579) sets the course after the Microsoft 365 rollout was paused on 10 July 2026 on the advice of the ICT review board: mail and calendar on servers it controls in 2027, European open-source tools for storage and collaboration in 2027 and 2028. No product is named. (Tweede Kamer)
8 July 2026, Bavaria. The planned Microsoft framework of about €1 billion is reported dropped while the digital ministry pursues a sovereign workplace. Press report; no official release. (The Register)
7 July 2026, Ireland. The Office of Government Procurement cancels the tender for a new Microsoft framework worth €750 million to €1 billion after "matters of concern were raised by an interested party"; the existing €350 million framework continues. A procurement decision, not a sovereignty one, whatever the press made of it. (Dáil Éireann, written answers)
3 June 2026, European Commission. The Technological Sovereignty Package proposes a Cloud and AI Development Act: a single EU assessment framework for cloud sovereignty with trust tiers for the cloud services public authorities use, judged on ownership and control, supply-chain dependencies, data processing and infrastructure location. A proposal, not yet law. (European Commission)
28 January 2026, France. A Prime Minister's circular charges the interministerial digital directorate with deploying La Suite numérique (Tchap, Visio, Docs, Fichiers…) and asks ministries to move away from non-sovereign tools; the suite reports over 500,000 users a month across 15 ministries. Reserved to the State, but published as open source anyone may host. (La Suite numérique)
4 December 2025, Schleswig-Holstein. The state reports nearly 80 % of its workplaces moved to LibreOffice, about 44,000 mailboxes moved to Open-Xchange, a re-licensing rate below 10 %, and more than €15 million saved in licenses so far. (Landesregierung Schleswig-Holstein)

Two things these stories do not say. None of them replaced Microsoft 365 overnight: Schleswig-Holstein started in 2021 and still keeps Office for a fifth of its workplaces; the Dutch letter plans 2027 and 2028. And the reasons differ: cost in Kiel, control in The Hague, procurement in Dublin. Anyone who tells you Europe "left Microsoft" in 2026 is selling something.

What it means for an organization that is not a ministry

Keep what only Microsoft does well. Word, Excel, Exchange mail and Teams meetings for the people who need them. Nothing on this page argues for taking Excel away from an accountant.
Move the intranet where the people are. News, discussions, events, the member directory, groups and the mobile app are what volunteers, members, students and partners need, and they are the people a per-user suite was never priced for. A platform priced per community puts them all in.
Decide who controls the data, not only where it sits. The public bodies above ask about the provider's jurisdiction, its sub-processors and the exit, the same three questions a small organization can ask any vendor. HumHub hosted by CUZY answers them on the data privacy page: an Irish business, servers in Germany (EU), the USA or Singapore (APAC) as you choose, a published sub-processor list, a complete export once a day.
Keep the sign-in. Members with a Microsoft Entra account sign in to HumHub with it; the others get an account. Nobody manages two passwords.
Prefer open source you can leave. The lesson of Kiel and The Hague is the cost of leaving, not the cost of staying. A platform whose code and export you hold can be moved to your own server, to CUZY or to another host in a day; the hosting options are compared on their own page.

A practical path

List the people who need Office documents and mail, and the larger number who only need the intranet: to read, discuss, register for events and find each other.
Price the second group under your current licensing, with the table above, against a flat price.
Try the platform for two weeks with real content and ten real people (a trial is ready in about two minutes), with Microsoft sign-in switched on from the start.
Move in stages, as the public bodies do: news and events first, then the groups that have no license today, then the files that belong to them. The migration guide gives the cut-over plan.

Sources

Microsoft, "2026 Microsoft 365 packaging and pricing updates", announced 4 December 2025, effective 1 July 2026; read in October 2026.
ZenDiS newsroom: openDesk (Germany), 13 October 2026.
Tweede Kamer: The Netherlands, tax administration, 5 October 2026.
The Register: Bavaria, 8 July 2026.
Dáil Éireann, written answers: Ireland, 7 July 2026.
European Commission: European Commission, 3 June 2026.
La Suite numérique: France, 28 January 2026.
Landesregierung Schleswig-Holstein: Schleswig-Holstein, 4 December 2025.
The Dutch pause of 10 July 2026 and the advice behind it: Binnenlands Bestuur, 10 July 2026. The letter of 5 October is listed on the Tweede Kamer site; its summary comes from the Dutch trade press of 6 and 7 October 2026.

Questions

Does HumHub replace Microsoft 365?

No. It replaces the intranet and community part: news, discussions, events, a member directory, groups, the mobile app. Word, Excel, Exchange and Teams meetings stay where they are, and members can sign in to HumHub with their Microsoft Entra account.

Is this only relevant for public bodies?

The news is about public bodies because they publish their decisions. The arithmetic is the same for any organization whose members are not all employees: per-user licensing for volunteers, members, students or partners is what a flat-priced, open-source platform avoids.

What does the US CLOUD Act mean for data hosted in Europe?

The CLOUD Act lets US authorities compel a provider under US jurisdiction to hand over data it holds, wherever the data is stored. It is one reason European bodies look at where their provider is incorporated, not only where the servers are. CUZY is an Irish business hosting on Hetzner servers in Germany; its sub-processors are listed on the data privacy page.

Where do I start?

List who needs what: which people need Office documents and mail (keep their licenses), and which people only need to read news, discuss, register for events and find each other (the intranet). The second group is usually larger and is where per-user prices hurt. Then try the platform with real content for two weeks.