SharePoint Online 🆚 SharePoint On Premise - What's the difference [2024] (2024)

According to Microsoft, more than 200,000 organisations and 190 million people have SharePoint for intranets, team sites and content management.

With SharePoint, you can create a central information hub for your business, so everyone can tap into the same documents and resources.

Anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

Today, we’re going to be comparing two setup variations of SharePoint:

SharePoint Online vs On Premises

So, how do you choose the right platform for your business?

First, let’s find out what they are:

Contents

  • What is SharePoint?
  • Why should I use SharePoint?
  • What are the main differences between SharePoint Online and On Premises?
  • What is a SharePoint hybrid?
  • When should I choose SharePoint Online?
  • When should I choose SharePoint On Premises?
  • Final thoughts
  • Did you know?

What are the main differences between SharePoint Online and On Premise?

Dedicated Hardware

  • SharePoint Online:Uses Microsoft Cloud data centres. Does not need dedicated onsite hardware.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Requires purchase of onsite dedicated hardware.

Updates & Infrastructure

  • SharePoint Online:Automatic updates and patches are carried out by Microsoft.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Maintained by your internal IT team and kept up to date with patches and other updates.

Data Backups

  • SharePoint Online: Backups are managed by Microsoft, with limitations. Read about Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model when backing up Office/Microsoft 365.
  • SharePoint On Premise: Backups will need to be created, tested, and managed by your IT support team within your local environment.

Data Storage

  • SharePoint Online:Data is cloud based.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Data is stored on your local network.

Data Security

  • SharePoint Online:Data is maintained according to industry-specific security standards.
  • SharePoint On Premise:You will be responsible for the security of your data.

Costs

  • SharePoint Online:Part of your Microsoft 365 plan. Billed monthly per user.
  • SharePoint On Premise:You’re looking at the purchase and upkeep of hardware, along with the cost of licenses, etc.

Customisations

  • SharePoint Online:Limited customisations.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Unlimited customisations.

External Users

  • SharePoint Online:Can be easily expanded with a variety of Azure services, to connect external users.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Infrastructure for connecting external users must be built and adjusted manually.

Scalability

  • SharePoint Online:Microsoft takes care of scalability.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Scalability is your responsibility.

New Tools

  • SharePoint Online:Tools and functions are continuously introduced and updated by Microsoft.
  • SharePoint On Premise:Tools and functions are made available by your IT support team when available.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, your decision will depend on your business requirements for business continuity, compliance standards, information security, and digital transformation.

Online and On Premises are similar in terms of basic functional coverage.

SharePoint On Premise is dependent on your internal capabilities and regulatory requirements.

It allows more direct control over your information and compliance standards.

However, it brings with itgreater complexity.

SharePoint Online issimplerto setup and manage.

We really hope you enjoyed our comparison to SharePoint Online vs On Premise.

Now we’d like to hear from you:

Do you have any further questions about SharePoint?

Perhaps you are considering it at the moment?

Either way, let us know your thoughts.

Did you know?💡

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we specialise in SharePoint development.

We can help with SharePoint advice, installations, migrations, support, backup solutions and anything else in between.

Get in touch today or give us a call on +44 (0)1603 431200.

Back to the blog.

SharePoint Online 🆚 SharePoint On Premise - What's the difference [2024] (2024)

FAQs

SharePoint Online 🆚 SharePoint On Premise - What's the difference [2024]? ›

With SharePoint Online, you can conveniently store your data in the cloud, while SharePoint On-Premise requires you to maintain your own server infrastructure for data storage. In terms of data storage, SharePoint Online offers a scalable storage capacity that grows with your organization's needs.

What is the difference between SharePoint online and SharePoint on Prem? ›

SharePoint Online, a cloud-based application, provides a modern and scalable digital communication and collaboration platform. On the other hand, SharePoint On-Premises offers localized deployment options that grant businesses greater control and customization capabilities.

What's new in SharePoint 2024? ›

May 2024 brought some great new offerings and insights on future ones: OneDrive file cards for Viva Connections dashboard, Updated file viewer for non-office file, Link files from SharePoint in Teams mobile, SharePoint: Advanced tenant rename, SharePoint + Stream: Video page templates, Teams + Loop workspaces in ...

What are the 2 main versions of SharePoint? ›

SharePoint Server

The standard edition provides basic features for document management, collaboration, and content management. The Enterprise edition provides advanced features for business intelligence, enterprise content management, and search capabilities.

What's the future of on-premises SharePoint? ›

The future of SharePoint embraces hybrid deployments, allowing organizations to seamlessly transition between on-premises and cloud environments. This flexibility offers scalability, disaster recovery options, and ensures that organizations can choose the deployment model that best suits their needs.

Why SharePoint Online is better? ›

Reason #1 – Microsoft SharePoint Online is Cloud-Based

As an organization grows and expands, cloud-based sharing, collaboration, and storage becomes necessary, especially if your company has multiple stores, offices, or team members who work from a variety of locations.

What is the difference between on-premise and online? ›

SharePoint On-Premise: Your local network houses the data. SharePoint Online: Data is kept up to date in accordance with industry-specific security requirements. SharePoint On-Premise: Your data security will be your responsibility. SharePoint Online: Component of your Microsoft 365 package.

Is SharePoint going to be phased out? ›

SharePoint Add-Ins will stop working for new tenants as of November 1st, 2024 and they will stop working for existing tenants and will be fully retired as of April 2nd, 2026.

What is going to replace SharePoint? ›

Potential alternatives to SharePoint include ClickUp, Glasscubes, Huddle, Samepage, Liferay, Nuxeo, Confluence, Source by IC Thrive, Jostle, G Suite, ClearPoint, Redbooth, and Slack. Each of these applications provide similar capabilities to SharePoint while providing some more unique features.

Is Microsoft no longer supporting SharePoint? ›

SharePoint Server 2016 reached its extended support in 2021, and SharePoint 2019 hit this milestone in 2021. Both versions now only offer paid support and some security updates. They will reach their full end-of-life in July 2026. All versions of SharePoint Server will be taken off the support lifeline as of July 2026.

What is the best version of SharePoint? ›

SharePoint Online or Office 365, also known as Microsoft 365 is the most preferred and latest SharePoint version. With some advanced and unparalleled features, it has set a benchmark for itself.

What are the 3 building blocks of SharePoint? ›

To put everything in simple terms, SharePoint consists of 3 major building blocks: Sites – used to organize various types of content (web parts) Pages – used to display content (web parts) on a site. Web Part – used to store particular content/information (i.e. documents, events, contacts).

How many types of SharePoint are there? ›

Foundationally, SharePoint has two different types of sites in the modern experience - communication sites and team sites. Each type of site has it's own set of templates that contain pre-populated content, pages, and web parts that can be customized to fit the needs of your organization.

Is SharePoint going away in 2024? ›

FYI | SharePoint Add-In retirement in Microsoft 365

Installation from a private tenant catalogue remains possible. Starting November 1st, 2024, new tenants will not be able use SharePoint Add-Ins, regardless of their origin (public marketplace, private tenant catalog).

Is SharePoint on-premise obsolete? ›

So we know SharePoint isn't obsolete, but on-premise versions are reaching their end of life. However, there is still confusion about whether Microsoft plans to retire SharePoint completely and replace it with Microsoft Teams or Microsoft Viva.

Is Microsoft retiring SharePoint? ›

November 2023: Microsoft announced the retirement of SharePoint Add-ins. July 2024: Users will no longer be able to install SharePoint Add-ins from the store. Existing add-ins will continue to function. November 2024: SharePoint Add-Ins will not be activated for newly created tenants.

What is the difference between SharePoint and on Prem file server? ›

With SharePoint, files are stored in libraries, and users access them using a web-based interface or from within apps only. With a file server, users access their files quickly and easily from a mapped drive. File access can be slow because SharePoint relies on an internet connection to access files.

Is SharePoint in Microsoft 365 the same as SharePoint Online? ›

While SharePoint Online is a component of the cloud-based Office 365, it is available as a standalone product (the on-premise platform still offers a few capabilities not found in the online version). SharePoint Online and Office 365 do possess some of the same features — such as the ability to store documents.

What are the two types of SharePoint sites? ›

Foundationally, SharePoint has two different types of sites in the modern experience - communication sites and team sites. Each type of site has it's own set of templates that contain pre-populated content, pages, and web parts that can be customized to fit the needs of your organization.

What is the difference between SharePoint online and SharePoint list? ›

SharePoint List is created and stored in SharePoint On-premises Server while SharePoint Online List is hosted in SharePoint Online Service. If this post helps, please Accept it as Solution to help other members find it.

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