Build vs Buy an Intranet or Employee App: How to Decide

In the build vs buy intranet decision, buying wins for most companies. News feeds, announcements, document libraries, staff directories and push notifications are solved problems, and vendors have spent years refining them. Building your own only starts to pay off when the "intranet" is really a daily work tool that has to fit your own processes and systems.

I build custom web apps for a living, so factor that in. I've also worked as a developer on projects for an employee app vendor, so I've seen this problem from the vendor's side as well.

The short answer

My rule of thumb: if you can describe what you need with words like news, announcements, documents and staff directory, buy. If the description drifts towards reports, approvals, shift schedules or data from your own systems, what you're missing is an internal tool, and the hybrid route or a custom build deserves a closer look. An intranet is just one type of platform, and my guide to building your own platform walks through the others.

What off-the-shelf intranet software covers

The market splits roughly in two. Classic intranets are built for desk workers with a laptop and a company email address: document libraries, department pages, search and news. Employee apps, often sold as frontline or deskless communication tools, are built for people who don't sit at a screen all day: retail staff, warehouse teams, cleaners, care workers and drivers. They're mobile first, and many users have no company email to sign in with.

Both share the same core: a news feed with comments, read receipts, documents, a staff directory, groups by team or location, chat, surveys and push notifications. It looks simple in a demo, but every piece hides edge cases the vendor has already worked through.

The price is modest compared to building. If you're on Microsoft 365, SharePoint is part of most business plans, and the SharePoint app in Teams (formerly Viva Connections) pulls news, a dashboard and key links into Teams on desktop and mobile. Google Workspace customers can get a basic intranet running with Google Sites. For small teams without either, tools like Connecteam are free for up to 10 users, with paid communication plans from roughly $30 a month for the first 30 users. Most intranet vendors aimed at mid-sized companies only share pricing after a sales call.

That fee also buys everything you don't see: native apps, security patches, uptime, support and a product roadmap. As long as a product does what you need, building your own is hard to justify.

Why building your own is harder than it looks

An experienced developer can build a news feed with posts and comments in a few weeks, so building your own often looks cheap on paper. The cost sits in everything around the feed, which a vendor spreads across all its customers and you'd pay for alone.

Joiners and leavers

New hires need access on day one, and leavers need to lose it the same day. If everyone has a Microsoft or Google account, sign-in can go through that (single sign-on, one login for several systems). Staff without company email need one-time code logins, invitations and a reliable way to cut access when HR records a leaver. This is where home-built intranets typically spring leaks.

Native apps and push notifications

An employee app lives or dies by its notifications. A real app in the App Store and Google Play means two platforms, developer accounts, store review for every release and updates whenever iOS or Android changes. A web app added to the home screen is cheaper and can send push notifications too, on iPhone only once it has been added. I compare the options in web app vs native app vs PWA.

Adoption is product work

An intranet is only worth something if people open it. That takes good content, but also product decisions about notifications people don't mute, a personal home screen and read analytics. Vendors have refined this across many customers. Build your own and you start from zero.

Security, hosting and GDPR

An intranet holds names, phone numbers, internal documents and sometimes shift and absence data. It needs updates, backups and monitoring all year, even when your developer is on holiday. Under GDPR you're the data controller either way, and if the data must stay in the EU, that's a question for every vendor on your shortlist.

When your "intranet" is really an internal tool

Plenty of "we need a new intranet" projects turn out to be about something else. A facilities company wants cleaning checklists completed on a phone. A retail chain wants stores to report stock issues and tick off tasks. A construction firm wants safety inspections and job sheets out of paper folders. These are internal tools, and they fit badly inside an intranet product because the product is built for communication, not for your workflow.

The signs tend to repeat: information lives in spreadsheets, on paper or in email attachments, the same numbers get typed in twice, and managers spend hours every week pulling it together. I've listed the typical signals in signs it's time to replace Excel with custom software.

This is where custom development pays off most often. Not as a full intranet, but as a focused tool for that one workflow, while news and announcements stay in Teams or a bought intranet.

What each option costs over three years

Off-the-shelf costs little upfront and more with every hire. A custom build costs a lot upfront but doesn't get pricier as headcount grows.

A worked example with a made-up price: 150 employees on an employee app at €4 per user per month comes to €600 a month, or €21,600 over three years excluding VAT. Your figure depends on vendor, headcount and modules.

A custom intranet is a web app, and its price follows the hours. LønRadar puts senior freelance IT consultants in Denmark at 800-1,200 DKK an hour excluding VAT in 2026, roughly €110-160. Adjust for where your developer is based, since Danish rates tend to sit on the higher side in Europe. As a rough estimate, a first version as a web app with sign-in through your existing accounts, a news feed, documents, notifications and an admin area often takes 250-500 hours. That puts a rough range at €27,000-80,000 excluding VAT, before native iOS and Android apps, which add more. Then there's upkeep: a common rule of thumb is to budget 15-20% of the build cost per year for maintenance and small improvements.

On price alone, off-the-shelf almost always wins, even over three years. A custom build has to earn its keep somewhere other than the license line:

• It removes manual work you can put hours on, like double entry between the intranet and the shift planner.
• It puts the work tool and internal comms in one place, so staff don't juggle three apps.
• It supports a workflow no product covers, because the workflow is yours.

If you can't point to at least one of these, buy.

The hybrid route: buy the intranet, build the missing piece

Many intranet products have an API (a documented way for other software to read and write data), and some can show links or small cards from other systems. The SharePoint app in Teams, for example, has a dashboard of cards that a developer can extend. So you can keep an off-the-shelf intranet for communication and only build what's specific to you:

• automatic creation and removal of users based on your HR or payroll system
• a small internal tool for reports, checklists or shift swaps that staff open from the intranet with the same login
• an integration that posts updates or notifications from your own systems, for example when a site has an outage

This is often the best option because you never have to own the feed, the apps or the push notifications. The same logic applies to booking software, where an off-the-shelf system with integrations often beats a full custom build.

Before you commit, get three answers. Is the API documented and available on the plan you pay for, not just a pricier tier? Can staff use the same login for the intranet and your own tool? And can you export all content and users if you switch vendors?

When each option is the wrong choice

Off-the-shelf is the wrong choice when

• staff need the app to do their actual work, and the product can only send messages and share files
• you have requirements on data location or access control that the vendor can't meet
• your people already live in a line-of-business system, and an intranet becomes one more app nobody opens

A custom build is the wrong choice when

• what you need is mostly news, announcements and documents. Then don't spend money on a developer like me
• nobody will own it after launch, or there's no budget for upkeep year after year. A custom intranet without an owner stalls faster than a bought one
• you're on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and haven't yet tried what's included

The hybrid route is the wrong choice when

• the product has no API, or only a read-only one
• the missing piece is the core of the app. Then you pay for two systems and use one

Customer-facing portals raise the same trade-off, and I've compared the options in customer portal: custom vs white-label.

Next steps: how to make the call

1. List what staff need to do, split into communication (news, announcements, documents) and work (reports, approvals, shifts).
2. Check what you already pay for, and try what's included in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace first.
3. Trial two or three products with your hardest real scenario, such as a new hire with no company email on their first day.
4. Check API access, single sign-on and data export on the ones that come closest.
5. Compare three years for each route, including hosting, maintenance and your own team's time.

If a product covers it, you're done, and that's a good outcome. If you land on the hybrid route or an internal tool, the next step is scoping a first version. Larger projects with me start with a paid, fixed-price discovery phase, and you can see how that works on my web app and platform development page. You work directly with me as the developer, and you own the code from day one.

Frequently asked questions

Can we migrate our content if we switch intranet vendors later?+

Partly, in most cases. Users and documents are usually easy to move, while posts, comments, read receipts and history are harder. Ask the vendor what can be exported and in which format before you sign, and take a full export at regular intervals. With a custom intranet you own the database, but a migration still takes development work.

Who is responsible for GDPR on a company intranet?+

You are, as the employer and data controller, for a bought and a custom-built intranet alike. The vendor, your hosting provider and any external developer with data access are processors, and you need data processing agreements with each of them. Take extra care with absence or health data and transfers outside the EU. In some countries, such as Germany, employee representatives may need a say before rollout. This isn't legal advice, so check with an advisor.

Should we customize SharePoint instead of building from scratch?+

Often yes, if you're already on Microsoft 365. Pages, news, lists and navigation can be set up without code, and a developer can add custom components with the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Microsoft's extension model. That calls for someone with hands-on experience of Microsoft's platform. It isn't my specialty, so look for a SharePoint specialist if you go that route.