Migrating from Workplace? Don’t forget these 3 key steps

Meet Isobel Sanders (fondly known in the office as Izzy), our business intelligence lead in the London office. After being a frontline employee in previous roles, such as retail and hospitality, Isobel was extremely interested in the work that Blink was doing and knew she wanted to be along for the ride!

Izzy has been with Blink for a year and a half where she helped launch Advanced Employee Intelligence, and has also worked on internal business analysis across various topics across the business. This includes marketing analytics, creating a customer health score, sales pipeline coverage, implementation tracking, and more. 

“Blink is a collaborative, challenging and fun work environment, where there is not just one direction to go in, but many different ones” says Izzy.  

We sat down and asked her some burning questions about what it's like working at Blink, what she's proud of, and things she's looking forward to most during her time at Blink.

So…over to the interview…

What's a project you are proud of from your time at Blink?

One project that stands out during my time at Blink is the development of customer-facing analytics. I helped create a dashboard that is seamlessly integrated into Blink's platform. What started as an internal tool quickly evolved into a product in its own right, showcasing how our work directly enhances the company's value proposition. I am excited to transform the frontline worker experience, an area that's often ignored.

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Can you tell us about a recent initiative or program launched at Blink that you found particularly exciting?

Recently, I helped Blink launch an initiative called Advanced Employee Intelligence. Advanced Employee Intelligence allows us to influence all levels of the business, whether it's helping the internal comms team optimize the feed experience, connecting employees with their colleagues through channels or allowing employees to easily find what they need through hub analytics. We can also go above and beyond Blink usage and provide AI driven sentiment insights and turnover statistics, while retaining anonymity to create a culture of trust.This initiative promises to leverage data in unprecedented ways, offering insights that not only benefit our customers but also enhance their overall organizational effectiveness.

What are you excited about for the future of Blink?

Looking ahead, I'm enthusiastic about Blink's potential to revolutionize the frontline worker experience. By harnessing data insights, I aim to reduce turnover and foster a sense of belonging among employees, making an impact on workplace dynamics.

Why Blink?

Blink is not just the product itself, but the endless possibilities it presents. As a data person, I enjoy having access to a wide-ranging product. Blink doesn't offer a single path; instead, it encourages exploration and innovation across multiple fronts.

Working at Blink is about being part of a transformative journey. Every day, I strive to redefine how technology can enrich the lives of frontline workers, making work not only efficient but also meaningful.

You can join Isobel at Blink, where data meets purpose, and together, we shape the future of the frontline. Search for opportunities on our careers page: https://www.joinblink.com/careers

The digital revolution has reinvented how workers interact with their colleagues, customers, and their employers. But not all workers have felt the impact equally. Most office workers today have access to more digital platforms and tools than they can manage. But for the millions of deskless, frontline workers in industries like healthcare, transit, logistics, and retail, they have the opposite problem, often lacking access to basic corporate tools like email. 

Many employers find themselves in a Goldilocks situation—some workers have too many digital tools to manage while some workers have access to too few. In both cases, the impact can mean employees are more frustrated and less engaged with work. 

In this article, we’ll break down the challenge office workers face with so many tools available to them. Then, we’ll talk about how Blink is helping frontline organizations avoid the same challenges with our “digital front door” approach to our employee app. 

More tools doesn’t always make for a better employee experience

If you ask an economist, they’ll tell you that, thanks in large part to advances in technology, productivity in countries like the U.S. has increased steadily this century. In the U.S., for example, labor productivity is up 1.5% per year since 2000—meaning that workers “produced 60 percent more ‘stuff’ and only increased their hours worked by 10 percent” during that period. As more employees in the workforce come to rely on computers, mobile phones, and applications to get their jobs done, productivity will continue to climb.

But when you ask office workers how the proliferation of technology is impacting their jobs, you’ll likely find a slightly different story. According to research, employees feel overwhelmed by new technology as much as they find it helping them. In fact, 96% say workplace tools aren’t helping them to keep up in their jobs because the “workplace tools are not addressing the root cause of the problems, and employees want tools that help them work smarter, not harder.” 

According to that same research, one of the biggest issues (for 26% of workers) comes from “app switching,” with workers saying that they would prefer to have access to everything they need within one solution. A similar survey from Asana found that “21% of respondents agreed that flicking between apps had made them less efficient at their job.” 

What, exactly, is behind the frustration with app switching, though? Why is productivity up for businesses but office workers themselves feel less productive? Let’s take a look at some of the factors.

1. There are more tools than ever that workers need to manage 

Gartner found that, between 2019 and 2023, the average number of applications that knowledge workers need to do their jobs has nearly doubled, from 6 to 11, with some using 26 or more. That number doesn’t include the HR, scheduling, payroll, survey, and learning tools that workers need to manage as well. All of that adds up to a lot of needless switching between apps and a multitude of passwords to keep track of. 

2. More tools means more notifications

Every tool and application is sending a constant stream of notifications to workers’ phones and email inboxes. Despite—or sometimes because of—the large number of notifications, 36% of workers are still missing or failing to notice important updates because of the number of applications used and the amount of information they’re being exposed to. 

3. Tools don’t work together as seamlessly as workers would like

Whether it’s constantly having to login to different platforms or having to put the same information into multiple tools, workers are feeling frustrated by the challenges of managing so many tools. Sure, there are technological solutions such as API integrations and single sign-on that make juggling so many tools easier for workers. But, it can still feel like the incompatibility across different tools and the constant app switching is negating the productivity benefits of the tools themselves.  

4. Burnout is bringing down engagement and productivity

Despite technology making employees’ jobs easier, the employee experience hasn’t necessarily improved alongside. When workers feel overworked and don’t get personal satisfaction out of their jobs, the end result for many is burnout. In 2023, 65% of employees reported suffering from burnout, which is impacting employee performance and retention for many employers. 

How the “digital front door” makes for a better experience

Blink’s employee app was developed for the frontline organization. We know how challenging it can be to bring a deskless, email-less workforce into the digital age. Rather than developing Blink as a standalone app for frontline workers, we’ve built Blink to be the digital front door for the entire workforce.

What does a digital front door do and why does it matter? 

Think of every app your employees use as a house. When knowledge workers get frustrated with app switching, it’s because they have to travel to a new house, unlock that house, and move stuff between houses. 

Blink takes all of those detached homes and makes them rooms in the same house. Workers only have to walk through one front door to access all of the critical tools and systems they need—from scheduling and pay stubs, to HRIS and benefits, to internal communications and training modules.

That’s why we like to call Blink the employee super-app. It’s not just a place for workers to communicate. It’s not just an intranet. It’s not just a feed for important updates. It puts all of this and more into one personalized app experience that is accessible through any mobile device.  

How Blink makes the digital front door work for frontline organizations

In today’s world, security concerns mean that a lack of a corporate email would typically keep frontline workers from using many corporate tools. Another concern is the added cost: whether it’s the cost of  managing thousands of extra email accounts for frontline workers or the risk of low adoption rates for expensive tools. 

Blink’s solution to these challenges is what creates our digital front door approach and helps elevate Blink from employee app to employee super app. Here are the three things Blink does differently to help bring frontline organizations into the digital workplace:

1. Solving the identity challenge

Identity and access management is critical for a secure technology stack, and it usually revolves around a work email address. No email is no problem for us, however: Blink can act as an Identity Provider. 

By providing an identity to frontline workers, Blink can integrate with any third-party application that supports the SAML 2.0 authentication standard. 

This allows deskless workers to effortlessly authenticate and have their accounts automatically provisioned on third-party applications—without asking workers to juggle multiple usernames, passwords, and applications.

Extra security can be added to Blink through biometric verification and enforcing minimum OS requirements for access to tools via the Blink Hub.

2. Leveraging existing IAM solutions

For companies who have existing identity access management systems like Okta or Azure, employees can still access third-party tools and systems via Blink while using the existing IAM tools to authenticate. 

By linking directly into relevant sections of the workplace tools that are already part of your identity infrastructure, Blink can create a secure and cohesive experience for your entire workforce.

3. Solving the third-party app access challenge

With Blink Hub acting as the digital front door for third-party tools, employees have a consistent, familiar user interface, even as tools come and go. 

Thanks to deep links between Blink and the third-party tools, workers can focus on their task at hand, such as “Request time off” or “View payslip,” without worrying what application they need to open. Blink handles it all and takes them directly to the action in the third-party app. 

See how the digital front door could benefit your frontline workforce

The goal of the digital front door approach is to make a seamless and efficient experience for workers to interact with the digital workspace. For frontline workers who have historically lacked access to many tools and platforms, Blink flattens the learning curve and helps avoid the frustration and burnout that many of their office-based colleagues have experienced.

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If you’re looking to bring the benefits of the digital workplace to your frontline workforce, sign up for a personalized demo of Blink’s employee super app today. 

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Great frontline leaders are the unsung heroes of any organization. 

They’re responsible for leading deskless teams, managing resources, and critical processes that can impact health and safety—all while often working long hours and under tight deadlines. 

But they’re also responsible for something just as important: employee engagement. This is mission-critical for frontline organizations in particular, as poor relationships with managers is the fourth-biggest reason for frontline workers quitting (the other three were either related to pay or COVID). 

To compound the challenge, employee engagement is where frontline organizations face even more difficulties than desk-based companies. When workers are dispersed, rarely engaging with email (let alone surveys) and sometimes even with each other, how would you know if they’re engaged or not?

This is why employee engagement KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are so important for frontline leaders, and need to be carefully thought-out for feasibility within the constraints of frontline life. 

In this guide, we'll explore what employee engagement KPIs are, why they’re important, and which ones you should be tracking as a frontline leader.

We'll also show you some easy-to-implement strategies to help boost productivity and morale among your team members - so let’s get started… 

What Is an Employee Engagement KPI?

First, the basics. Employee engagement KPIs are metrics that measure how often and effectively employees are engaging with their organization. 

They provide insight into how teams and departments are working together, how motivated and productive team members are, and what factors contribute to better employee engagement.

Do you need Employee Engagement KPIs?

If you’re leading a frontline team, the short answer is yes.

Workday Peakon Employee Voice data shows that an employee’s engagement metrics will typically reveal warning signs nine months before they actually leave an organization.

Measuring employee engagement allows you to pinpoint when and where problems originate, and gain specific insights into your team’s current strengths and weaknesses, so you can implement employee engagement strategies to increase retention, drive productivity and motivate employees to stay with you for longer.

In other words, tracking this data regularly and consistently lets you spot patterns - and those patterns unlock the ability to be proactive, rather than reactive, on employee issues. 

7 Of The Most Important Frontline Employee Engagement KPIs

1. Absenteeism 

Absenteeism is an important KPI for frontline leaders because it reflects how often team members are taking time off, which can be costly. In fact, in just one large organization almost 11,000 hours are spent by line managers dealing with absence annually, which costs the company £98,458. 

Within this amount, conducting disciplinaries costs £41,149 alone. HR administration time concerned with absence represents £44,882, and £93,193 is spent on Occupational Health Services. The remaining £1,815 is spent on line manager training.

Absence rates are vital when assessing engagement, as high rates could be indicative of a lack of motivation, engagement or even employee wellbeing, while low absence rates can mean that employees feel more connected to their work and colleagues.

For example, 70% of frontline workers have either suffered from burnout or felt at risk of burning out. So if, as a frontline manager, you notice that your dispersed team members are frequently taking sick days, it could be a good sign that they are feeling overworked or disengaged. You can then take the necessary steps such as introducing Intuitive Scheduling policies to help improve morale, boost engagement and reduce absenteeism.

2. Turnover rate

In short: an engaged workforce has higher employee retention rates and lower employee turnover rates.

Measuring annual employee turnover rates across departments can help you identify any patterns that could indicate a lack of engagement. For example, if one particular department has a higher turnover rate than the rest, it could be a sign that those employees are feeling undervalued or disengaged in their role.

In this case, leaders can take action to address the issue by introducing team-building and employee engagement activities, investing in more professional development opportunities, and creating better employee support systems, such as easy-to-access employee apps.

3. Employee net promoter score (eNPS)

Evaluating employee sentiment is a great way to measure engagement: employee net promoter score (eNPS) can help as a metric that measures how likely employees are to recommend their company as a place to work.

By using eNPS, leaders can receive direct feedback from both current and previous employees and use this to take the necessary steps to improve engagement. 

By collecting eNPS data across departments and tracking how it changes over time (doing this at regular, consistent intervals is critical), frontline managers can get a better sense of the overall sentiment in their workforce, as well as any areas of improvement. 

4. Employee survey results

Frontline leaders can use regular Employee Surveys to identify what creates satisfied employees, and how to increase job satisfaction among their team members. 

Those managers who are particularly ambitious can even use these surveys to collect data on employee engagement levels and calculate an ‘Employee Satisfaction Index’ across different departments in the organization. Having this metric at your fingertips can help you identify any areas of improvement, as well as keep tabs on the overall level of engagement in your organization.

This is another area where things are much tougher for frontline organizations in comparison to desk-based teams. Employee survey response rates for frontline workers are notoriously low, because accessing a desktop computer during the work day is rare (and paper surveys are often lost). It’s therefore critical to adapt the experience to frontline life through ensuring a mobile-first survey experience. 

5. Successful hires

On the frontline, the first few months of employment are critical - ‘year one attrition’ being a common and costly problem in hourly roles. 

By measuring the number of successful hires versus unsuccessful ones, frontline leaders can track the success of their onboarding process and identify areas for improvement.

Frontline managers should also pay close attention to employee feedback during exit interviews, which can provide insight into why employees are leaving the organization. This information can be used to make tweaks in the recruitment process to ensure that future hires are more successful.

6. Internal promotion rate

By tracking internal promotion rates, leaders can identify how many employees have been successful in their current roles and have moved up within the organization.

This metric gives insight into areas of success among your team members and demonstrates that employees are being recognized for their hard work and achievements. It also highlights any areas of improvement, such as lack of opportunity for career development or limited resources available to employees.  Providing management training, upskilling staff or putting managers on even employee engagement training programs can support in this area.

Promotion (or lack thereof) plays a key role in frontline employee turnover, so tracking this data can be extremely useful for retention efforts.

7. Active users

Frontline managers can use active users of employee engagement tools as a quantitative measure of engagement. By tracking these numbers, you can determine how many employees feel motivated to engage with their manager, HQ - and each other.

By having access to these Employee Analytics, frontline managers can also gain insight into which types of engagement content are most effective, and make adjustments in order to ensure that all teams are on track.

How To Use Employee Engagement KPIs

Benchmarking

Benchmarking employee engagement KPIs is essential for any frontline manager looking to make improvements in the workplace. By benchmarking your team against other similar teams, you can identify areas for improvement and set goals for future development.

For example, by looking at the internal promotion rate of your team versus another similar team within your organization, you can see how successful each team has been in terms of developing employees and creating opportunities for career progression. This type of benchmarking helps frontline managers identify areas of strength as well as weakness and make informed decisions about how to improve employee engagement in the long-run.

Track metrics over time

To gain the most value from employee engagement KPIs, it’s important to track them over time. This will help frontline leaders identify trends in their team and put plans into place to tackle them.

For example, tracking active users over time can give insight into which communication types are the most popular among employees, enabling frontline managers to make informed decisions about what inspires the most engagement.

By tracking employee engagement KPIs on a regular basis, frontline managers can not only identify areas of improvement but put plans into place to ensure that employees stay engaged and motivated in the long-term, too.

Focus

Employee engagement KPIs can help frontline managers identify areas of focus - particularly key when there might be numerous challenges to tackle at once. By looking at internal promotion rate, active users and other data points, frontline managers can get an accurate picture of which areas they need to focus on in order to provide employees with the best opportunity for progression and retention.

Hiring process

Employee engagement KPIs can also be used to inform the hiring process. By looking closely at active users, internal promotion rate and other metrics, frontline managers can get an accurate picture of which traits or skills have been most successful within their team in the past.

This information can then be used to assess new candidates during the hiring process, and to attract the right type of talent to the team. This ensures that employees are being hired with the same values in mind, further supporting employee engagement and collaboration within teams.

By making informed changes to your recruitment processes and using employee engagement KPIs to guide decisions, frontline managers can ensure that their teams are made up of the most productive and engaged individuals possible.

Final Thoughts

With this guide, you now have a better understanding of how employee engagement KPIs can be used to measure the success of your team and identify areas for improvement.

By tracking these metrics over time and using them to inform decisions related to recruitment, development and more, frontline managers can ensure that their teams remain motivated, productive and engaged in the long-term.

How can Blink help?

Blink’s Frontline App helps frontline managers track and measure employee engagement KPIs in real-time, enabling them to make informed decisions about recruitment, development, communication and more. Our interactive Frontline Intelligence dashboard allows you to quickly assess active users and other engagement metrics all at once.

And for your frontline workforce, our app provides everything in one easy-to-use platform. From Secure Chats and Employee Recognition to a Hub for critical documents and the Blink Feed for company or team updates, Blink ensures that your frontline teams have everything they need to stay engaged and collaborative in the long-term.

Get started today and see how easy it is to start tracking and improving employee engagement with Blink!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV1_4ZdjPQ4&ab_channel=Blink

Most intranet comparisons are written by people who've never had to get a nurse, a warehouse picker, or a hotel housekeeper to download an app. Blink. has. We've onboarded 87% of a 10,000-person workforce in 10 days, and we've watched the platforms that look great in a demo fall apart the moment they meet someone without a corporate email address. That's the lens this guide is written through.

Most intranet software was built for people who sit at desks all day. That's a problem when roughly 80% of the global workforce doesn't have a desk, a laptop, or a corporate email address (Emergence Capital, The Rise of the Deskless Workforce). This guide compares 15 intranet software providers for 2026, covering features, pricing, strengths, and where each platform falls short. Whether you're replacing SharePoint, consolidating tools, or reaching workers who've never had an intranet before, you'll find your shortlist here.

Last updated: May 2026.

The short answer

For organizations with significant frontline or deskless populations, the realistic shortlist is Blink., Staffbase, or Firstup, with Simpplr a strong choice if your workforce is mostly desk-based and you want AI-native search. SharePoint and Microsoft Viva remain the default if you're deeply standardized on Microsoft 365 and have IT capacity to configure them. Everything else fits a more specific use case.

Quick comparison: top intranet software at a glance

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What is intranet software?

Intranet software is a private digital platform that connects employees within an organization to company news, documents, tools, and each other. Unlike the public internet, an intranet is accessible only to authorized workers and serves as a central hub for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and day-to-day workflows.

Modern intranet platforms have moved far beyond the static page repositories of the early 2000s. Today's best intranet software includes AI-powered search, personalized content feeds, mobile apps, employee recognition, surveys, and integrations with tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and HR systems. For a deeper look at what these platforms should do for distributed teams, see our guide to internal communication tools.

For organizations with frontline and deskless workers, mobile-first intranet software has become essential. See our complete guide to team communication tools for deskless teams for the wider category.

Which intranet platforms actually work for your team?

Not all intranet software serves the same audience. The biggest split in this market is between desk-first platforms (built for knowledge workers with laptops and corporate email) and whole-workforce platforms (built to reach every employee, including those on the shop floor, behind the wheel, or on a ward).

If your organization has a significant frontline or deskless population, this distinction matters more than any feature checklist. A platform that scores perfectly on Gartner's criteria but requires a corporate email to log in will fail for the workers who don't have one. For more on closing that gap, see frontline digital inclusion.

Here's how each platform stacks up.

1. Blink.

Best for: Organizations with frontline and deskless workers who need a mobile-first intranet. Works across SMB and enterprise.

Blink. was built from the ground up for workers who don't sit at desks. The mobile app is the primary experience, not an afterthought, and employees can join via phone number or QR code with no corporate email required. The platform combines a news feed, team chat, a searchable Hub, surveys, recognition, and digital forms in a single app.

Key strengths:

• Mobile-first architecture with offline access
• No email or IT setup needed for workers to join
• 87% adoption at JD Sports in 10 days, 20,000+ active employees at easyJet (Blink. customer stories)
• Native integrations with Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and major scheduling and HR systems (Blink. integrations)
• AI assistant on the Pro tier
• Recognized in Gartner's Market Guide for Employee Communications Applications

Where it's limited:

• Less suited for organizations that want a traditional document-heavy desktop intranet
• Pure knowledge management is not the lead use case

Pricing: Core at $3.75 per user per month (annual), Pro at $5.00 per user per month, Enterprise custom. Free trial across all tiers (Blink. pricing).

For head-to-head comparisons, see Blink. vs Microsoft Teams and Beekeeper vs Blink..

2. Simpplr

Best for: Desk-based organizations wanting an AI-powered intranet.

Simpplr has positioned itself as the AI-native intranet, earning Leader status across Gartner, Forrester, G2, and IDC reports. The platform focuses on personalized content delivery and automated governance for knowledge workers. Strong search capabilities and clean design make it popular with IT and comms teams at mid-to-large enterprises.

Key strengths:

• Leader across all four major analyst reports
• AI-powered search and content recommendations
• Clean, consumer-grade interface
• Strong governance and content lifecycle management

Where it's limited:

• Primarily designed for desk-based workers with corporate email
• Limited frontline-specific features (no QR-code sign-up, no offline mode)
• Rising fast in AI search visibility, which is making them more visible in buyer research

Pricing: Custom.

See Simpplr alternatives for competitive context.

3. Staffbase

Best for: Enterprise internal communications teams.

Staffbase is built for internal comms professionals who need to create, publish, and measure content across channels. The platform includes a branded mobile app, email newsletters, digital signage integration, and detailed analytics. Strong adoption in large European enterprises.

Key strengths:

• Purpose-built for IC teams with editorial workflows
• Branded mobile app with push notifications
• Email newsletter builder (no separate ESP needed)
• Detailed content performance analytics

Where it's limited:

• High complexity for smaller organizations
• Frontline features require additional configuration
• Pricing can be steep for mid-market

Pricing: Custom.

See Staffbase alternatives.

4. Workvivo (by Zoom)

Best for: Building company culture and social engagement.

Acquired by Zoom in 2023, Workvivo uses a social-media-style feed to drive engagement. The platform is strong on peer recognition, social features, and community building. Popular with organizations that prioritize culture and employee voice.

Key strengths:

• Social feed that feels familiar
• Strong recognition and shout-out features
• Zoom integration for video
• Mobile experience available for desk and frontline workers

Where it's limited:

• Mobile reviews on Google Play have flagged frontline usability issues
• Less focused on operational comms (shift scheduling, forms, workflows)
• Post-acquisition integration with Zoom's broader suite is still evolving

Pricing: Custom.

See top Workvivo alternatives.

5. Unily

Best for: Complex global enterprises with sophisticated requirements.

Unily serves some of the world's largest organizations. The platform offers deep customization, multi-language support, and enterprise-grade security. Strong on governance and compliance for regulated industries.

Key strengths:

• Handles complex, multi-region deployments
• Deep Microsoft 365 integration
• Advanced personalization and targeting
• Strong governance and compliance features

Where it's limited:

• Expensive and complex to implement
• Primarily desktop-oriented, mobile is a secondary experience
• Overkill for mid-market organizations

Pricing: Custom.

See Unily alternatives.

6. LumApps (with Beekeeper)

Best for: Organizations deeply embedded in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 that also want frontline reach.

LumApps integrates natively with both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. In July 2025, LumApps acquired Beekeeper in a deal valuing the combined company at more than $1 billion, backed by Bridgepoint, with a 12 to 24 month integration roadmap to deliver a combined "AI Employee Hub" (LumApps press release).

Key strengths:

• Deep Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integration
• AI-powered content targeting
• Added Beekeeper's frontline features post-acquisition
• Strong in knowledge management and document search

Where it's limited:

• Beekeeper integration is still maturing, two-product complexity remains
• Less intuitive for non-technical users
• Frontline features are inherited, not native

Pricing: Custom.

See LumApps alternatives and Beekeeper vs Blink. for the post-acquisition buyer view.

7. Microsoft SharePoint and Viva

Best for: Organizations already committed to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

SharePoint remains the most widely deployed intranet platform globally, largely because it's bundled with Microsoft 365 licenses. Viva adds employee experience features (engagement surveys, learning, insights) on top. The combination is powerful for desk-based teams but requires significant IT investment to configure and maintain.

Key strengths:

• Included with existing Microsoft 365 licenses (no additional cost for basic functionality)
• Deep integration with Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft ecosystem
• Massive partner ecosystem for customization
• Viva adds engagement, learning, and analytics layers

Where it's limited:

• Not designed for frontline workers, requires corporate email and Microsoft 365 license
• Heavy IT administration and governance overhead
• Mobile experience is functional but not mobile-first
• Configuration complexity means most deployments take 6 to 12 months

Pricing: Included with Microsoft 365 Business plans (from $6 per user per month). Viva suite is additional (Microsoft 365 pricing).

See SharePoint alternatives.

8. Interact

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting an enterprise-grade intranet.

Interact offers a well-rounded intranet platform with strong content management, people directories, and analytics. Popular with mid-market organizations that want enterprise features without enterprise complexity.

Key strengths:

• Good balance of features and usability
• Strong people directory and org chart
• Content targeting and personalization
• Integrates with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Where it's limited:

• Mobile app is secondary to the desktop experience
• Less suited for large frontline populations
• Fewer AI features than newer competitors

Pricing: Custom.

See Interact alternatives.

9. Igloo

Best for: Knowledge management and document collaboration.

Igloo focuses on bringing together knowledge, documents, and conversations in a single platform. Strong for organizations where information findability is the primary challenge.

Key strengths:

• Document management and search
• Customizable digital workplace channels
• Good integration with existing file storage (SharePoint, Google Drive)

Where it's limited:

• UI feels dated compared to newer platforms
• Limited frontline and mobile capabilities
• Smaller market presence means fewer third-party integrations

Pricing: Custom.

10. Haiilo

Best for: Employee advocacy and social amplification.

Haiilo (formerly Smarp) combines an internal intranet with employee advocacy tools, enabling workers to share approved content on their personal social media channels. Strong with marketing and employer branding teams.

Key strengths:

• Built-in employee advocacy platform
• Content creation and curation tools
• Analytics for both internal engagement and social reach
• Multi-language support

Where it's limited:

• Advocacy features may be unnecessary for organizations focused purely on internal comms
• Less robust for operational workflows and frontline use cases

Pricing: Custom.

See Haiilo alternatives.

11. Firstup

Best for: Intelligent, personalized content delivery at scale across desk and frontline.

Firstup (formerly SocialChorus + Dynamic Signal) uses AI to deliver the right content to the right employee at the right time. The platform supports email, mobile app, SMS, and digital signage channels, making it viable for reaching workers across multiple touchpoints.

Key strengths:

• AI-powered content delivery and personalization
• Multi-channel reach (app, email, SMS, signage)
• Analytics and engagement measurement
• Designed to reach both desk and frontline workers

Where it's limited:

• More of a content delivery platform than a full intranet
• Less strong on two-way communication and collaboration

Pricing: Custom.

See Firstup alternatives.

12. Happeo

Best for: Google Workspace users wanting a social intranet.

Happeo is built specifically for organizations using Google Workspace. It adds an intranet, social feed, and knowledge base on top of Google's productivity tools.

Key strengths:

• Native Google Workspace integration
• Social channels for team and topic-based communication
• Clean, modern interface
• Pages and knowledge base features

Where it's limited:

• Google Workspace only (no Microsoft support)
• Desktop-first experience
• Smaller feature set than enterprise alternatives

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $5 per user per month range. See Happeo alternatives.

13. Jostle

Best for: Simple, clean internal communications.

Jostle focuses on simplicity, offering a clean intranet experience for organizations that want to communicate without complexity. Refreshingly straightforward in a market full of feature bloat.

Key strengths:

• Very easy to set up and use
• Clean interface with low learning curve
• Good for organizations under 1,000 employees
• Transparent published pricing

Where it's limited:

• Limited customization and advanced features
• Not suited for complex enterprise requirements
• Basic mobile experience

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $5 per user per month range. See Jostle alternatives.

14. MangoApps

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting an all-in-one digital workplace.

MangoApps combines intranet, messaging, training, and workflow features in a single platform. Good value for organizations that want multiple capabilities without buying separate tools.

Key strengths:

• All-in-one platform (intranet + chat + training + workflows)
• Competitive pricing for mid-market
• Customizable modules
• Basic frontline features included

Where it's limited:

• Jack-of-all-trades means no single feature is best-in-class
• UI can feel cluttered with all modules activated
• Less polished than specialist platforms

Pricing: Public pricing typically starts in the $4 per user per month range. See MangoApps alternatives.

15. Axero

Best for: Knowledge sharing and community-driven organizations.

Axero focuses on creating internal communities and knowledge-sharing spaces. Good for organizations where peer-to-peer knowledge transfer is the primary goal.

Key strengths:

• Community and forum features
• Knowledge base and wiki capabilities
• Customizable spaces for teams and projects
• Competitive pricing

Where it's limited:

• Primarily desktop-oriented
• Less focused on news delivery and top-down communications
• Limited frontline and mobile capabilities

Pricing: Custom.

Why intranet software matters for frontline workers

Roughly 80% of the global workforce is deskless (Emergence Capital), yet most enterprise communication technology still targets the desk-based minority. That gap is why most intranet deployments fail to reach the people who need them most: the warehouse workers, nurses, retail associates, drivers, and hotel staff who keep organizations running but rarely touch a laptop.

Frontline disengagement has a measurable cost. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace consistently finds that disengaged workers leave at materially higher rates than engaged ones (Gallup State of the Global Workplace).

Modern mobile-first intranet platforms are closing this gap. At JD Sports, 87% of frontline workers adopted Blink. within 10 days. At easyJet, 20,000+ employees are active users. Stagecoach reported a 26% reduction in driver turnover after giving frontline staff access to a mobile intranet (Blink. customer stories). For more on the engagement levers, see our guide to deskless worker communication.

How to evaluate intranet software for your organization

Start with your workforce profile. What percentage of your employees are desk-based vs. frontline? If more than 30% of your workforce doesn't have a corporate email address, eliminate any platform that requires one.

Define your primary use case. Are you solving for internal communications, knowledge management, employee engagement, or all three? Platforms like Staffbase excel at comms, Igloo at knowledge, Workvivo at engagement. Blink. combines comms, engagement, and operational tools for frontline-heavy teams.

Test the mobile experience yourself. Download the app. Try to complete common tasks (read a news post, find a document, submit a form) on your phone. If it feels clunky, your frontline workers won't use it. Look for platforms where mobile is the primary experience, not a scaled-down desktop version.

Ask about time-to-value. Enterprise intranet deployments can take 6 to 12 months. Some mobile-first platforms can onboard teams in days.

Calculate total cost of ownership. The license fee is just the start. Factor in implementation costs, IT administration time, training, and the opportunity cost of low adoption. A cheaper platform with 20% adoption costs more per engaged user than an expensive one with 90%.

Migration can mean more than just maintaining the status quo

If you’re one of the many organizations preparing to transition from Workplace from Meta, you may be looking for platform alternatives that help you keep business as usual.

But what if you could achieve business as better?

This worldwide shift away from Workplace is a rare opportunity to reimagine how your internal communications operate altogether. Rather than focusing solely on like-for-like functionality, you can use this transition to raise the bar.

A great alternative doesn’t just ensure business continuity with the Workplace features you know and love — it also empowers your teams, streamlines communication, and can help take your internal communications strategy from good to great.

Before you pick a platform and migrate from Workplace, consider not just what you need in your new platform — but which new features you want.

Here are the three of the biggest ways to raise your internal comms game.

3 ways to upgrade your post-Workplace internal communications

#1. Calm potential comms chaos with chat controls

Two-way communication brings employees into the company conversation. As opposed to top-down comms, two-way engagement turns your employees from recipients into participants, giving them a voice in your digital workspace.

But two-way communication isn’t always easy to get right. Too much of a good thing can still be too much. Without the right guardrails in place, excess communications can lead to content overload and a noisy news feed. It’s harder to ensure critical messages cut through. And comms leaders can struggle to bring order to the wild west of workplace messaging.

When choosing a new internal communications platform, look for solutions that support two-way communication with the balance you need.

The best Workplace from Meta alternatives allow you to manage the types of content employees can post — and the audience they’re able to post it to — with the help of controls and segmentation.

For example, perhaps senior leaders have free rein to publish company-wide posts, but team manager posts are visible to only their team members. Maybe employees have the freedom to comment on posts or contribute to their group chats, or maybe it suits your organization more to have a pre-approval process with posts from specific titles or levels.

By selecting a tool that includes easy controls and audience segmentation, you can encourage interaction and engagement while preventing comms overload. This doesn’t just keep your platform useful and relevant — it creates a better employee experience.

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#2. Take your intranet from outdated to outstanding

An effective intranet is an important pillar of your internal communications. It’s a place to share company policies, support staff training, and ensure compliance.

But intranets often feel like a relic of the past — and, sometimes, entirely irrelevant.

With complicated storage systems and poor search functions, it can be hard for employees to find the information they’re looking for. And even when they do find it, they can’t be sure they have access to the latest version of that particular resource.

A curated and interactive content hub makes a welcome alternative. If your intranet is a sore spot you’re looking to improve, this is a great chance to prioritize it. A modern resource library supports a variety of engaging content types, including documents, videos, images, and interactive media. It should also be able to house forms, making it easy for employees to report incidents, request time off, and more.

For comms teams, a modern content hub doesn’t just make it easy to publish and update content — it shows how this content performs. Powerful analytics provide you the insight you need to achieve long-term intranet success and improvement.

Personalization can go a long way here, too: Employees can easily hyper-relevant content to them in a user-friendly, highly personalized interface.

#3. Include frontline workers from the get go

If you’ve struggled to get frontline workers onto your employee communications platform, this transition is the perfect moment in time to right that wrong.

Many workplace comms tools overlook deskless, hourly, and temporary workers, with a one-platform-fits-all approach that leaves behind those without a company email address.

In an attempt to reach their frontline, most organizations either 1) use paper memos or shadow IT to try to fill the gaps or 2) spend extra time and money on a third-party vendor to add frontline-friendly functionality onto their primary intranet tool.

Neither solution is ideal. And with more than half of frontline workers feeling overlooked and undervalued, it’s an issue that any organization with a deskless workforce should be keen to rectify.

As you search for the right Workplace alternative, keep the frontline in mind. For starters, look at solutions that offer a mobile-first user experience, use single sign-on technology, and don’t require an employee email address.

Frontline workers may have been notoriously difficult to reach with Workplace. But with your new platform, you can show these employees that they’re just as important to your organization as your desk-based staff.

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Winning your Workplace migration

We know that finding an alternative to Workplace from Meta is a hassle. But with migration comes a pivotal opportunity for your employee communications.

Finding like-for-like functionalities is important — but this is a chance for you to think bigger. How can you go from like-to-love with your internal comms platform?

Look for a solution that improves on what you’ve already got, including:

• Appropriate controls for posting rights and audience segmentation
• A curated content hub with a personalized dashboard
• Equal engagement and access for both desk-based and deskless workers

If your new platform can tick these boxes, your employees will still have access to the resources, tools, and colleagues they need — plus a more compelling employee experience.

Collaboration starts at the top

Picture an orchestra. The musicians are world-class. The music is tried and tested. The venue is sold out. But the conductor?

If the conductor doesn’t show up and lead the way, each musician does their own thing. The strings speed up. The brass drags. Percussion is having its own little party in the back.

The same thing happens in the workplace.

You can hire the best people, invest in the smartest collaboration tools, and launch a jam-packed schedule of team-building activities. But without a leader actively bringing people together — and modelling the kind of team collaboration you want to see — you fail to see the desired results.

Collaboration is a by-product of consistent leadership behaviors — along with the right systems and practices. Find out what you can do to encourage your people to work together and stop going it alone.

Leaders are a catalyst for collaboration

There’s a strong link between internal communication and collaboration. When workplace communication is open and effective, collaboration comes much easier.

The right comms tools take you part of the way. But it’s leaders who decide the style and tone of communication. They set the stage for how information is shared, decisions made, and conflicts resolved.

Most importantly, they shape psychological safety within your organization. This is the belief that it’s safe to speak up, challenge ideas, and share new perspectives — all of which are vital to effective collaboration.

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Common collaboration blockers: Where leaders are going wrong

Collaboration brings many benefits — including increased efficiency, productivity, and employee engagement. But you may be missing out on all the above if leadership is displaying the following collaboration-blocking behaviors.

Playing favorites

When leaders give certain people or teams special treatment, everyone sees it. Opportunities, information, and recognition flow toward the chosen few. Other employees stop bothering to contribute. Over time, trust erodes and people assume collaboration is shorthand for helping someone else to shine. 

A closed leadership style

When leaders are reluctant to share information or delegate tasks, when they struggle to admit mistakes or ask for help, they model a non-collaborative style of leadership and communication. Employees are likely to follow suit, gatekeeping workplace knowledge and keeping their guard up.

Siloing teams

Failing to encourage cross-department collaboration creates silos. Projects are contained within one team. This limits the sharing of ideas, causes duplicate work, and prevents teams from seeing the bigger picture. Collaboration becomes the exception, not the rule.

Leading only through email or announcements

Relying solely on email or one-way announcements leads to poor comms engagement. It’s then hard for leaders to convey information — on corporate strategy, common goals, and company culture — and to encourage the two-way communication you need for effective collaboration.  

Not inviting feedback from all levels

Leaders who only hear from their inner circle miss out on well-rounded insights. If you don’t proactively seek perspectives from every level, you risk building strategies in an echo chamber — and making it clear to certain groups of workers that their contribution isn’t valued.

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Leadership behaviors that encourage collaboration

We’ve looked at what could be going wrong. Now, let’s look at what leaders can do to get it right. To improve teamwork in the workplace, good leaders consistently demonstrate these collaborative behaviors.

Modelling open communication

Collaboration thrives when leaders share information openly and honestly — and when they create opportunities for employees to respond, ask questions, and contribute ideas. Acting on feedback is also important. It shows that employee input is valued. And that leadership isn’t afraid to adapt and admit mistakes.

Consistently demonstrate this style of communication and employees will adopt these behaviors as their own, helping you pave the way for effective collaboration across the organization.

Recognizing and celebrating cross-team wins

If a joint project succeeds, shout about it. Not just in the quarterly meeting, but in the moment. Share teamwork achievements in real time, and allow employees to add their congratulations, too.

When praise comes from the highest levels of your organization and is amplified across the organization, employees see that working together is valued and celebrated.

Showing up regularly and authentically

Only picking up the microphone when there’s big news to share? Then you’re missing out on opportunities to engage and align your workforce.

Show up regularly on the communication channels your employees like to use and — once you’re there — be yourself. Share an unpolished video message. Tell stories about real people.

By going beyond formal emails and announcements, you make yourself visible, approachable, and aligned with the day-to-day work of employees. Again, this is great for building psychological safety and setting norms around workplace communication.

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Embedding collaboration into company culture: 6 practical tips

Beyond individual leader behavior, the right systems, policies, and practices can bake collaboration into company culture. Here’s what leaders can do to make teamworking an expected and celebrated part of the workplace.

#1. Make cross-functional projects the norm

Cross-functional collaboration helps you solve problems faster and more effectively. When launching a new project, consider which teams should get a seat at the table. Then, give these teams the time, support, and tools they need to work together.  

#2. Providing tools and spaces (digital + physical) for collaboration

The right supportive environment makes all the difference. Breakout spaces encourage collaboration within your physical workplace. But you need digital collaboration tools too. That might mean creating a central hub of resources and information — where everyone, from remote teams to frontline crews, is kept in the loop.

#3. Set collaboration as a performance metric for managers

What gets measured gets managed. You can encourage managers to develop teamwork skills by evaluating them on collaboration outcomes. Recognize the joint projects and information sharing that goes on under their watch, and they’re more likely to encourage collaborative behaviors.

#4. Provide training

Collaboration relies on soft skills, like open communication, active listening, empathy, and negotiation. These skills don’t always come naturally, so it pays to provide training. With the right support, employees have a better understanding of collaborative behaviors, and managers know how to encourage them.

#5. Ask for employee feedback

Regularly seek feedback from employees and you show them that their opinions and ideas matter. To build trust and psychological safety even further, close the feedback loop. Whether you’re surveying employees on the state of internal communication, their engagement levels, or the latest shift swap policy, share survey results and the action you plan to take.

#6. Regularly revisit and refine collaboration rituals

The needs of your teams are liable to change. The collaboration tools that worked two years ago might feel clunky now. The teamwork strategies you put into play may no longer feel relevant to the makeup of your teams. Leaders should make it a habit to review and refresh the collaboration rituals they’ve established to ensure that teamwork remains effective.

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How the right collaboration tools can help

Leaders have a huge impact on workplace collaboration. They set the tone. But with all the will in the world, dispersed teams will find it hard to collaborate without the right digital communication tools. You need collaboration software for remote teams, frontline workers, and office-based staff to facilitate knowledge sharing and project management. Here’s what to look for.   

Centralized communication platforms

Updates, files, and conversations scattered across multiple apps? Then you’re creating friction and encouraging siloed working. A tool like Blink puts all internal communications and essential files in one centralized hub. As a mobile-first tool, these resources are available to any employee with a smartphone. So everyone is kept in the loop.

Real-time feeds, stories, and live updates

Leaders can use digital channels to reinforce collaborative behaviors daily, not just at once-in-a-blue-moon meetings. You can use a Story, a live update, or a recognition post to highlight teamwork lessons and wins. In doing so, you show that collaboration is happening — and that it’s valued.

Integration with existing systems

The best collaboration tools don’t expect people to drop what’s working. Instead, they connect the dots. Blink integrates with your other workplace software — so employee communications, collaboration, and project management can all live in one place. Teams don’t have to hop between apps — instead, they can focus on tackling the task at hand together.

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Lead the way: Make collaboration part of your day-to-day

If you’re committed to improving collaboration in the workplace, you can’t be the conductor who hides in the wings.

Leaders have to be visible and present. They need to use every update, recognition post, and meeting as a chance to model the teamwork strategies they want their workforce to follow.

Because collaboration is built by leaders who demonstrate collaborative behaviors themselves. By leaders who listen as much as they speak, who establish a culture of psychological safety, and who welcome the input of employees from all levels of the organization.

Combine a collaborative leadership style and the right teamworking tools and you give employees everything they need to achieve more, together.  

‍Blink. And use leadership comms to supercharge collaboration.