A Simple Cloud Intranet for Small Teams
For a team of 10 to 200 people, an intranet mostly needs to do one thing well: give every employee one page with the company's tools, links and the know-how to use them. Poweroom is that page, in the cloud, ready in an afternoon.
What is a cloud-based intranet?
An intranet is a private website for a company's employees: the place they go to find internal tools, information and how-tos. A cloud-based intranet (also called a SaaS intranet or an intranet in the cloud) is one that a vendor hosts for you. People open it in their browser and sign in; there are no servers to buy, patch or back up.
The alternative is an on-premises intranet, installed on servers your company runs. That gives you full control, but it also means someone has to look after hosting, updates and security. For most small teams without a dedicated IT department, a cloud intranet is simply the practical choice.
"Intranet" covers a wide range of products, though: from a simple homepage of links to large platforms with news feeds, document libraries and workflows. Before comparing vendors, it helps to know which of those you actually need.
What small teams actually need from an intranet
A 30-person company rarely needs an internal social network. What slows people down is more basic: finding the right tool, the right login page, and knowing which tool to use for what.
A full intranet suite typically offers
- —A news feed or announcements, with comments and reactions
- —Document libraries with versioning and approval workflows
- —An employee directory, org chart and profiles
- —Page builders, forms and wiki-style editing
- —Usually some setup by IT or an admin before launch
Useful for larger organizations with a communications team to run it.
An intranet homepage gives you
- One page with every tool the company uses, one click away
- A short note on each tool: what it's for and when to use it
- Different tools for different teams, so nobody wades through everything
- Your company's name, logo and colors, so it feels like yours
- Something a manager can set up in an afternoon and keep up to date
Often all a small team needs, and what Poweroom is built for.
How to choose a cloud intranet: a short checklist
- 1
Start from the problem, not the feature list
If people mostly ask "where do I log in?" and "which tool do we use for this?", you need a homepage of tools and links. If they need to find and co-edit files, you need document management. If leadership wants to reach everyone with news, you need an employee-communication platform.
- 2
Check who will maintain it
An intranet nobody updates goes stale within months. Pick something the person who actually knows the tools can edit directly, without a ticket to IT.
- 3
Make sign-in effortless
If employees already sign in with Google or Microsoft at work, check that the intranet accepts it (Poweroom supports Google sign-in). Every extra password is a reason not to open it.
- 4
Show each team what it needs
Sales, HR and engineering don't use the same tools. A single page for everyone gets cluttered; look for a way to show each group its own set.
- 5
Look at the real price per person
Compare the per-user price, any seat minimum, and whether you are paying for a whole suite to use one part of it.
- 6
Try it with a real team for a week
Put your actual tools in, invite a few colleagues, and see whether they open it without being reminded.
Where Poweroom fits
The intranet homepage, without the intranet project
Poweroom is a lightweight cloud intranet focused on one job: one page where every employee finds the company's tools, links and the know-how to use them.
A private workspace for your company
Your team signs in to its own company workspace on app.poweroom.com. Nothing to host or install on a server.
Your tools, organized in categories
Add each tool with its link, logo and a short description, and sort them into categories. Setup starts from a library of common business tools, so you are not starting from a blank page.
Know-how next to each link
The description on each tool explains what it's for and when to use it, which is often all a new hire needs on day one.
The right tools for each team
Create groups (Sales, HR, IT...), put people in them, and choose which groups see each tool. Admins can preview the homepage as any group before sharing it.
Invite people, remove them when they leave
Admins invite colleagues by email and can block access for someone who has left. The homepage stays with the company, not in one person's browser bookmarks.
Search, branding and Google sign-in
Search across every tool from the homepage, add your logo and colors, and let people sign in with their Google account. There is also a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Where Poweroom is not the right fit
Poweroom is not a document-management system, a news feed or a wiki editor. If that is what you need, use a tool built for it, and keep Poweroom (or not) as the page that links to it.
| If you need... | Look at... |
|---|---|
| Storing, sharing and co-editing documents | A file and document platform such as Google Drive, SharePoint or OneDrive. |
| Long-form documentation, a wiki or a knowledge base you write in | A wiki or docs tool such as Confluence or Notion. |
| Company news, announcements, comments and an employee directory | A dedicated employee-communication intranet platform. |
Weighing these options? See SharePoint alternatives and Confluence alternatives, sorted by need.
Pricing
What a Poweroom intranet costs
Solo
Free
- 1 user
- 1 customizable board
- Up to 10 services bookmarked
Team
€5 per user/month, billed annually (€6 monthly)
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited boards
- Unlimited service bookmarks
- Team segments
- Custom branding (logo and colors)
No seat minimum. See full pricing.
Get Started for FreeCloud Intranet FAQ
What is a corporate intranet?
A corporate intranet is a private website that only a company's employees can open. It is where people go to find internal information: the tools the company uses, policies and how-tos, and sometimes company news and documents. Unlike the public website, it sits behind a login.
What is another name for an intranet?
Intranets are also called an employee portal, an internal portal, a company hub, an internal homepage or a staff portal. The names overlap: they all describe one private place where employees start their work day.
What is the difference between an intranet and an extranet?
An intranet is for the company's own employees. An extranet is a private site that also lets selected outside people in, such as clients, partners or suppliers, usually with access limited to what concerns them.
What is SharePoint vs an intranet?
An intranet is the concept: a private website for employees. SharePoint is a Microsoft product, part of Microsoft 365, that many companies use to build one, mostly around document libraries and team sites. You can have an intranet without SharePoint, and SharePoint is used for much more than intranets.
What is a cloud-based intranet?
A cloud-based intranet is an intranet that the vendor hosts and runs for you. Employees open it in a browser and sign in; you don't buy or maintain servers, and updates happen on the vendor's side. An on-premises intranet runs on servers your company manages itself.
Is there a free intranet app?
Some tools have free tiers, often with limits on users or features. Poweroom's Solo plan is free for one person, which is enough to try it. For a whole team you need the Team plan, from €5 per user/month billed annually.
Can Poweroom replace our whole intranet?
Only if what you need from it is a shared homepage of your tools and links, with a short explanation of each. Poweroom does not store documents, publish company news or host a wiki. Many teams keep those in the tools they already use and make Poweroom the page that points to them.
Related reading
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