A few years ago your company was 200 people. Now it's 1,600. The handbook still lives in a shared drive. The org chart is wrong because three disparate systems disagree about who reports to whom. And your People team has quietly become the company's search engine.
That's the moment HR leaders typically start shopping for an intranet. The trouble is that most comparison posts are written for comms teams at 20,000-person enterprises. They skip what HR actually owns: onboarding, policies, benefits, and a directory that stays accurate without anyone babysitting it.
In this post, you'll learn what HR teams at 500 to 5,000-employee companies should look for in an intranet, how Haystack compares with Staffbase, Simpplr, Workvivo, and the rest of the field, and how to run a selection in six steps. We are Team Haystack, so we'll be clear about where we fit and where another platform might suit you better.
Why do HR teams at 500 to 5,000 employees need a different intranet?
Companies in this range sit in an awkward middle. You're too big for a shared drive and an all-hands email, but too small to staff a digital workplace team that spends nine months configuring an enterprise platform. Pricing, implementation, and other add-on fees also need to be appropriate for your size and usage.
HR has become the company search engine
The content employees look for most is HR content: the handbook, PTO policy, benefits enrollment, holiday calendar, and org chart. When it's scattered across a drive, the HRIS, and old Slack/Teams threads, the questions ultimately land in your inbox. A one- to four-person People team can lose hours each week answering the same five questions.
Onboarding doesn't scale by hand
At 2,000 employees, you're onboarding new hires almost every week. If each one depends on someone remembering every group, list, and system to add them to, something gets missed. New hires start slow, and early-tenure attrition is the first number your CEO notices.
The org chart drifts
Growing companies often run more than one HR system, and managers change faster than anyone updates profiles. The result is a directory nobody trusts. Once employees find one wrong manager or one outdated policy, they stop believing the rest.
Frontline employees get left out
Depending on your industry, you may have various sites, shifts, or field teams, and those employees may not have a corporate email address or work from a desk. An intranet that only works on a computer quietly leaves them out of important updates, policy changes, and company news.
What should HR look for in an intranet?
On the surface, most intranets look alike: news, a directory, a knowledge base, events. The differences show up during implementation, and again six months after launch. These seven capabilities decide whether your intranet is still trusted in year two.
1. HRIS sync with automatic provisioning
Your intranet should read employee data from the system you already maintain. Ask each vendor which fields sync, how often, and whether accounts are created and removed automatically when your roster changes. If the answer involves a quarterly CSV upload, keep looking. That's going to be a nightmare to maintain.
In Haystack: Profiles, managers, and the org chart sync from Workday, Okta, and 50+ other HR and identity systems, and accounts are provisioned and deprovisioned automatically. As Maritza Bocks, Senior Manager of People Operations at BuzzFeed, put it: “Haystack integrates really well with Workday and Okta [...] so when there’s a new hire, everything just pulls over to Haystack. We don’t have to manually manage users, and that was a really cool transition.”
2. Content that stays current on its own
Stale content is the top reason intranet adoption collapses. Employees find one outdated PTO policy, and they go back to emailing HR. Look for page owners, review dates, and visible signals that tell employees a page is current.
In Haystack: The Freshness Engine adds verification badges and expiration dates to pages, alerts owners when content ages, and archives what's past its date. Employees can see at a glance that the benefits guide is current. Conflict detection proactively flags to admins when multiple pieces of content conflict with one another. For example, if the primary benefits guide lists 12 public holidays, but the latest update from HR lists 13, we'll flag that so you can align the two immediately.
3. A mobile app built for frontline employees
If part of your team works on a floor, in a clinic, or on the road, the mobile app decides whether your announcements get read. Ask whether the app has full feature parity with desktop and if custom branding costs extra. Many apps are lighter companion versions of the desktop site, and put frontline staff at a disadvantage if they still can't access everything a desk worker can.
In Haystack: Custom-branded iOS and Android apps run on the same codebase as desktop, so every feature works on a phone. Push notifications, emergency alerts, and delivery to personal email reach employees without a company inbox.
4. Publishing HR controls without IT
HR should be able to fix a typo in the PTO policy in five minutes, not five business days. Look for no-code editing and role-based permissions, so each department owns its own pages instead of routing everything through one admin.
In Haystack: Drag-and-drop pages and delegated, department-level permissions let HR, comms, and ops each run their own spaces. On G2, Haystack scores 9.4 for Ease of Admin and 9.2 for Ease of Setup.
5. AI answers employees can trust
AI search is only useful if it answers from current, approved sources. Ask whether answers cite their source and respect each employee's permissions, so nobody sees a confidential HR file by accident.
In Haystack: AI search answers questions from your verified content with citations, scoped to what each employee is allowed to see. It works across all connected content, not just content that's created within Haystack.
6. Security IT can approve quickly
IT usually signs off last, and a slow review can push your launch by a quarter. Check for SSO, SCIM provisioning, page-level permissions, and current compliance reports. If you handle health or benefits data, ask about HIPAA too. For a deeper checklist, see our guide to intranet security.
In Haystack: SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance, with SSO through Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin, and JumpCloud.
7. Pricing and support with no surprises
Ask for the per-employee per-month (PEPM) rate at your exact headcount, the contract term behind it, and the annual escalator. Then ask what's extra. Branded mobile apps, implementation, premium support, and analytics are common add-ons.
In Haystack: One all-inclusive per-seat price with unlimited support and no usage caps. Implementation and support are handled in-house by Haystack's own team for the life of your contract.
How does Haystack compare with other intranets for HR?
Most of the platforms below were built specifically for large, complex enterprises with a dedicated digital workplace team. Haystack was built to stay simple as you grow. It's designed for companies in the 500 to 5,000-employee range, and the platform doesn’t change as you grow past that.
Competitor details as of October 2026, drawn from vendor sites, G2, and ClearBox's 2026 report. Confirm current pricing and features with each vendor.
Haystack: built for HR teams at 500 to 5,000 employees
Haystack is one centralized platform for news, policies, your employee directory, and events. HR owns its pages without IT, the org chart syncs from your HRIS, and the Freshness Engine and conflict detection keep all content trustworthy. Desk and deskless employees get the same experience, because the mobile app runs on the same codebase as desktop.
The proof is in adoption, which is where most intranets fail:
- GoodRx saw more than 80% of employees using Haystack shortly after launch, with hardly any support queries. Read the story.
- Thumbtack reached 90% monthly usage against a 75% goal, and hit its pre-launch targets within the first week. Read the story.
- Russ Darrow Automotive Group reaches more than 1,200 employees across 24 locations, about 75% of whom aren't at a desk, through push notifications to their phones. Read the story.
For HR, onboarding is often where Haystack earns its keep. “Haystack is our one-stop shop, bringing in things like our employee handbook and other onboarding materials, so when a new Linker joins, they have everything they need from day one,” says Katie Burkhart, Director of Marketing and Communications at Life Link III.
Haystack holds a 4.7 out of 5 rating on G2. Teams that evaluate it alongside larger vendors tend to notice the difference. “We interviewed seven other vendors, but I kept finding myself comparing them to Haystack,” says Kalya Bonnin, Senior Manager of Brand and Internal Communications at Everbridge.
Where another platform may fit better: If you need deeply nested, multi-level navigation across dozens of business units, ask every vendor to demo it.
Staffbase
Staffbase is a comms-first platform with a strong branded app and reach across email, SMS, Teams, and digital signage. It's built for frontline-heavy organizations where a comms team runs the platform, and Staffbase itself acknowledges that its search depth trails knowledge-first tools. HR teams that need a deep, trustworthy policy library should test that closely.
Simpplr
Simpplr leans into AI, with natural-language search and HR and IT self-service. It suits desk-based enterprises where IT owns the intranet. G2 reviewers describe limited customization and a rigid page hierarchy, and Simpplr scores lower than Haystack on G2 for Ease of Setup (8.7 vs. 9.2) and Ease of Admin (8.9 vs. 9.4).
Workvivo by Zoom
Workvivo centers on a social feed, recognition, and peer shoutouts, and it scores well on community and mobile in ClearBox's 2026 report. Knowledge management and search are less developed, and a busy, feed-first home page can bury the policies HR needs people to find.
Unily
Unily offers deep search for desk-based organizations with a dedicated digital workplace team. Pricing is custom.
LumApps
LumApps offers enterprise search and more than 100 connectors for companies standardized on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. It acquired frontline app Beekeeper in 2025, and the two products are still converging. Expect to need technical resources on your side.
Blink
Blink is a mobile-first app for frontline teams, with chat, a social feed, and shift tools. It has no email channel, and its intranet and search are lighter than knowledge-first platforms, so it's a weaker fit if HR needs a deep policy library. Additional custom branding options cost extra.
SharePoint and Microsoft Viva
If you already pay for Microsoft 365, SharePoint costs nothing new to procure. It was built for document storage, though, not employee communication. SharePoint intranets often struggle to reach employees outside the office, especially frontline staff. For HR, that means a large share of your workforce may never see the policy update.
The good news: you don't have to choose. Haystack works alongside SharePoint rather than replacing it. It sits on top as the front door for news, policies, and people, embeds your SharePoint and OneDrive files live, and carries over their existing permissions. There's no need to migrate your documents. They stay right where they are, and any edit at the source shows up in Haystack automatically.
For more on deskless teams, see our roundup of the best frontline intranet platforms.
How to choose an intranet in 6 steps
A focused selection takes six to 10 weeks. Here's how to run one without stalling in procurement.
- Map your workforce. Count how many employees have a corporate email, a laptop, and a regular desk. If more than a quarter don't, mobile reach moves to the top of your list.
- List the top 20 questions HR answers. Pull them from your inbox, help desk, and Slack/Teams. These become your test cases: can an employee find each answer in under a minute?
- Bring IT in early. Share your shortlist with IT in week one, not week six. Ask them for SSO, provisioning, and compliance requirements up front so security review doesn't become the bottleneck.
- Get the whole buying committee on the same page. An intranet decision rarely sits with HR or internal comms alone. Finance, the executive team, IT, and sometimes legal or operations all have a say, and each one is weighing something different: cost against your Microsoft 365 license, security risk, or simply whether this is a priority this year. Name every stakeholder in week one, share the business case with each of them, and confirm budget and timing in writing before you get deep into demos. The last thing you want is to pick a platform, think budget is approved, and then watch the deal stall because someone outside your team was never on board.
- Shortlist three vendors. Use the comparison above to narrow by workforce mix and ownership model. More than three demos and the details start to blur.
- Price the full contract. Get the per employee per month rate at your headcount for one, two, and three-year terms. Confirm what's included, the annual escalator, and who runs implementation and support after launch: the vendor's own team or a partner.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an intranet cost per employee per month?
Most intranet vendors price per employee per month, billed annually, and most quote custom rates rather than publishing them. Branded mobile apps, implementation, and premium support are often extra. Haystack's pricing is all-inclusive and per seat, with unlimited support, mobile apps, and integrations included and no add-on fees.
How should an intranet connect to your HRIS?
The HRIS should be the source of truth, and the intranet should read from it automatically. Look for a sync that covers names, titles, managers, departments, and locations, plus automatic account creation and removal. Haystack syncs with Workday, Okta, and 50+ other HR and identity systems, so the directory and org chart stay current without CSV uploads.
What's the best no-code intranet for HR teams?
The best fit is one HR can run without IT or a dedicated admin. For companies with 500 to 5,000 employees, Haystack is built for exactly that: drag-and-drop pages, department-level permissions, and a Freshness Engine that reminds owners to review aging content. Most teams are live in weeks, not quarters.
Is SharePoint enough for an HR intranet?
SharePoint works for storing documents, especially at desk-based companies already on Microsoft 365. It wasn't built for employee communication or for reaching deskless staff, so policy updates often miss the people who need them most. Many HR teams keep files in SharePoint or OneDrive and use an intranet like Haystack, which embeds those files live, as the front door.
Give your people one place to find answers
The right intranet takes HR out of the role of human search engine. Policies stay current, new hires find everything on day one, and frontline employees get the same news as headquarters. For a broader view of what good looks like, see the five core components of a digital employee experience.
Ready to give every employee a single place for policies, benefits, and company news? See Haystack in action.
