You’re paying for SharePoint. Your team needs an intranet. So you search “SharePoint intranet templates” and find a wall of vendors showing off their own products. Every result is a gallery pushing you toward a purchase before you’ve figured out what you actually need.
Here’s what those articles skip: for most mid-sized teams, the best starting point isn’t a template gallery. It’s understanding the three real paths to a SharePoint intranet — what each costs, how long each takes, and which one fits your team’s size, budget, and goals.
This guide breaks that down. No product demos. No upsells. Just a clear, practical framework so you can choose the right SharePoint intranet template approach before spending a dollar you don’t need to.
What Are SharePoint Intranet Templates?
SharePoint intranet templates are pre-built layouts and configurations that give you a starting structure for your company’s internal site. They range from Microsoft’s free built-in options to third-party design packages, and they typically include page layouts, navigation structures, web parts, and sample content you can customize to fit your organization.
But that definition hides an important distinction most articles blur. There are actually three different things people mean when they say “SharePoint intranet templates”:
Site templates define the structure of an entire SharePoint site — homepage layout, document libraries, lists, navigation, and permissions. Think of these as the blueprint for a whole building. Microsoft’s communication site and team site templates fall here.
Page templates control the layout of a single page within a site. A “project update” page template or an “announcement” page template gives content creators a consistent format without rebuilding from scratch every time.
Third-party template packages are add-on products from vendors like ShortPoint, Origami, or Lightspeed365. These install on top of SharePoint and provide enhanced design components, custom web parts, and pre-configured intranet layouts that go well beyond what Microsoft offers natively.
Knowing which type you’re looking at changes the conversation entirely. A site template is free and takes minutes to apply. A third-party package might cost thousands per year but gives you design flexibility that native SharePoint can’t match. The right choice depends on your goals — not on which vendor wrote the article you’re reading.
What Microsoft Gives You Out of the Box
Before you evaluate any paid option, know what you already have. If your organization is licensed for Microsoft 365, you have access to SharePoint’s built-in template library at no extra cost.
The SharePoint Look Book (adoption.microsoft.com) is Microsoft’s official gallery of site designs. It includes templates for team sites, communication sites, department hubs, crisis management portals, and more. Each one comes with a pre-configured layout, sample web parts, and placeholder content. Any site owner can apply them in a few clicks.
Communication site templates are the most relevant for intranet use. They’re designed for one-to-many broadcasting — company news, department updates, leadership communications, event calendars. Microsoft has steadily improved these over the past two years, adding modern web parts like the Hero banner, Quick Links, People cards, and the News feed component.
What works well with OOTB templates:
- Fast deployment — you can have a functional intranet homepage in a single afternoon
- Zero additional licensing cost
- Native integration with Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and the rest of your Microsoft 365 environment
- Automatic updates from Microsoft — no vendor dependency for maintenance
- Built-in SharePoint web parts cover most standard intranet needs (news, events, documents, people directory)
What doesn’t work well:
- Limited branding control — you can change colors, logos, and fonts, but the structural layout options are constrained
- No advanced design components (mega menus, custom card layouts, interactive dashboards) without development work
- Page designs can feel generic across departments if you don’t invest time in customization
- Governance and permissions still require manual setup — templates don’t solve information architecture for you
For teams with straightforward needs — centralized news, document access, a company directory, and department pages — the OOTB path is a strong starting point. The issue we keep running into with clients, though, is that teams apply a template, skip the planning step, and end up with a site nobody uses three months later. The template isn’t the problem. The lack of structure behind it is.
OOTB vs. Custom vs. Third-Party Templates
This is where most articles fall short. They show you templates. They don’t help you decide which path actually fits your situation.
After working with dozens of Microsoft 365 environments, we’ve found the decision comes down to five factors. Here’s how each approach stacks up:
| Factor | OOTB (Microsoft Built-In) | Third-Party Templates | Custom-Built |
| Cost | $0 (included in M365 license) | $2,000–$15,000+/yr depending on vendor and seats | $10,000–$50,000+ initial build, plus ongoing maintenance |
| Time to Launch | 1–2 weeks for basic setup | 2–6 weeks with configuration | 2–6 months depending on complexity |
| Design Flexibility | Limited — constrained to Microsoft’s layout options | Moderate to high — enhanced web parts and design tools | Full control — anything is buildable |
| Maintenance Burden | Low — Microsoft handles updates | Medium — dependent on vendor for compatibility updates | High — requires internal dev resources or ongoing consulting |
| Governance Complexity | You manage permissions, structure, and content ownership | Same as OOTB, plus vendor tool governance | Highest — custom code adds security review and update cycles |
The honest take: Most mid-sized organizations (100–500 employees) don’t need third-party templates or custom builds on day one. The OOTB path, combined with thoughtful planning and information architecture, handles 70–80% of intranet needs. The remaining 20–30% — advanced branding, custom dashboards, interactive elements — can be layered on later once you know what your team actually uses.
Where third-party templates earn their cost is when your organization has specific design requirements that OOTB can’t meet: heavily branded employee experiences, department-specific portals with unique layouts, or intranet designs that need to feel like a polished external website. If employee engagement is a top priority and your intranet competes with consumer-grade apps for attention, the visual upgrade matters.
Where custom development earns its cost is when you need functionality that doesn’t exist in any template — integration with line-of-business applications, custom workflows tied to your ERP, or regulatory compliance features that require bespoke logic. That’s a different project entirely, and it should be scoped as one.
How to Plan Your Intranet Before Picking a Template
Templates are the last step. Not the first. This is the part that separates intranets people actually use from expensive digital graveyards.
Start with three questions:
- What are the top 5 tasks employees should be able to do from the intranet? Not 50. Five. If you can’t name them, your intranet will try to do everything and succeed at nothing. Common answers: find company policies, submit time-off requests, read department news, access project documents, look up a colleague’s contact info.
- Who owns the content? Every section of your intranet needs an assigned content owner — the person responsible for keeping it current. The number-one reason Microsoft 365 intranets fail isn’t the technology. It’s that nobody is accountable for updating the content after launch.
- What’s your governance model? Governance doesn’t mean bureaucracy. It means answering: Who can create new pages? Who approves published content? How are permissions structured across departments? What’s the review cadence?
Once you’ve answered those, map your content architecture. A basic structure for most mid-sized teams looks like this: one hub site (your intranet homepage) connected to department communication sites (HR, IT, Operations, Finance) and team collaboration sites for project-specific work.
This is the hub-and-spoke model, and it works with any template approach — OOTB, third-party, or custom. The structure stays the same. The template is just the coat of paint.
If you need a deeper walkthrough of intranet planning for Microsoft 365, our guide on SharePoint intranet best practices for mid-size teams covers governance, content architecture, and rollout sequencing in detail. For real-world layout inspiration, see our SharePoint intranet examples collection.
5 SharePoint Intranet Template Mistakes That Kill Adoption
You can pick the perfect SharePoint intranet template and still end up with a site nobody visits. Research from Nielsen Norman Group and Prescient Digital Media suggests that 50–70% of intranets fail to achieve meaningful adoption — primarily due to poor navigation and irrelevant content, not bad technology. These are the failures we see most often, and they have nothing to do with which template you chose.
1. Launching Without a Content Plan
The template looks beautiful on day one. By month three, half the pages show placeholder text and the other half haven’t been updated since launch. Templates give you structure. They don’t give you content. If you don’t have a content calendar and assigned owners before you go live, your intranet will stale out fast.
2. Ignoring Mobile
A growing share of employees access SharePoint from tablets, phones, and laptops outside the office — especially in hybrid and field-based teams. If your intranet design looks great on a 27-inch monitor and breaks on a phone, you’ve lost a significant chunk of your audience. Always preview templates on mobile before committing.
3. Over-Engineering Permissions
Locking down every page and library with unique permissions creates a maintenance nightmare. It also creates a frustrating user experience — employees hit “access denied” walls and stop trying. Start with broad read access and restrict only what’s genuinely sensitive.
4. Skipping the Pilot
Rolling out a company-wide intranet on launch day is a recipe for overwhelm. Start with one department. Gather feedback. Fix what’s broken. Then scale. A 30-day pilot with a single team catches 80% of the issues a planning document can’t.
5. Treating the Intranet Like a Project, Not a Product
Projects have end dates. Intranets don’t. The organizations that get real value from their SharePoint intranet treat it like a living product — with an owner, a feedback loop, regular updates, and measurable goals. If your plan ends at “launch,” the intranet’s shelf life is about six months.
When to Build Custom vs. Start With Templates
The decision isn’t binary. Most successful SharePoint intranets are hybrids — they start with templates and add custom elements where the templates fall short.
Here’s the framework we use with clients:
Start with OOTB if: You’re building your first intranet, your team is under 500 people, your primary needs are news distribution and document access, and your budget prioritizes speed over polish. You can always upgrade later.
Add third-party templates if: You need stronger branding than OOTB allows, your organization values employee experience design, or you want design capabilities without hiring SharePoint developers. The ongoing license cost is worth it when design quality directly impacts adoption.
Go custom if: You need deep integration with business systems (ERP, HRIS, CRM), your regulatory environment requires bespoke compliance features, or your intranet needs to support complex workflows that no template can handle. Budget accordingly — this is a build project, not a template deployment.
The mistake most teams make? Jumping straight to custom because they think templates can’t handle their needs. In our experience, templates handle the first 80% beautifully. The remaining 20% is where targeted customization adds real value. For a detailed look at how this plays out in practice, explore Nexinite’s modern intranet solutions and our approach to modern intranet best practices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are SharePoint intranet templates free?
Microsoft’s built-in site and page templates are included with any Microsoft 365 license at no additional cost. You can access them through the SharePoint Look Book or by applying templates directly within your SharePoint admin center. Third-party template packages from vendors like ShortPoint or Origami typically cost between $2,000 and $15,000+ per year depending on the number of users and features.
What’s the difference between a SharePoint site template and a page template?
A site template defines the entire structure of a SharePoint site — its homepage, navigation, document libraries, lists, and permissions. A page template controls the layout of a single page within that site. You need both: site templates for the overall architecture and page templates for content consistency across individual pages like news articles or department updates.
Can I customize SharePoint’s built-in templates?
Yes. After applying an OOTB template, you can modify layouts, swap web parts, update branding elements (colors, logos, fonts), and restructure navigation. The limitations are primarily in design flexibility — you’re working within SharePoint’s native layout engine, which doesn’t support fully custom CSS or advanced interactive components without development work.
How long does it take to set up a SharePoint intranet from a template?
For a basic intranet using Microsoft’s built-in templates, expect one to two weeks for initial setup and configuration. Third-party template deployments typically take two to six weeks including customization. Fully custom-built intranets range from two to six months depending on scope, integrations, and governance requirements.
A SharePoint intranet template is a starting point — not a strategy. The right template matters less than the planning behind it: clear goals, defined content ownership, a governance model, and a rollout plan that treats your intranet as a living product.
If your organization is already on Microsoft 365 and needs help evaluating which path fits, that’s what we do. Reach out for a free consultation — we’ll walk through your current setup and recommend the approach that fits your team, your budget, and your goals.
Written by the Nexinite Team This article was written by the consulting and development team at Nexinite — a Microsoft Solutions Partner that has delivered over 75 SharePoint and Microsoft 365 projects since 2008. Our team includes certified Microsoft consultants, SharePoint developers, and project managers who build and optimize intranets for mid-sized organizations across the U.S. Learn more about our team.