HCL Connections vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server comparison

The compared HCLSoftware and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. HCLSoftware is ranked #6 in CP , and holds a 5.0% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #4 in CCP , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

HCL Connections

Read 55 HCL Connections reviews

1,088 Views
392 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Microsoft Office SharePoint...

Read 40 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server reviews

1,464 Views
1,244 Comparison Views

82% willing to recommend

HCL Connections

Microsoft Office SharePoint...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HCL Connections and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Atlassian, Liferay and others in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals).

To learn more, read our detailed Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

HCL Connections

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) (6th), Enterprise Social Software (16th)

Microsoft Office SharePoint...

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Content Collaboration Platforms (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. HCL Connections is designed for Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) and holds a mindshare of 5.0%, up 2.9% compared to last year.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, on the other hand, focuses on Content Collaboration Platforms, holds 3.7% mindshare, down 9.1% since last year.

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
HCL Connections	5.0%
SharePoint	24.3%
Liferay Digital Experience Platform	16.8%
Other	53.9%

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

Content Collaboration Platforms Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server	3.7%
Office 365	10.2%
Google Workspace	9.3%
Other	76.8%

Content Collaboration Platforms

Featured Reviews

Hasnain Zahid

Talent acquisition & development specialist at Software Productivity Strategists, Inc. (SPS)

A stable tool useful to manage marketing-related activities

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Sometimes, the portal hangs because I find that if I am on a web page, I have to log out, and then I have to log in to the portal again. Since I see that the portal hangs at times, I have to move from one side of the portal to the next, making me feel that some things are scattered in the product. I attended a meeting with IBM recently, and they are improving a few of the things, in my opinion. The concerns that I have related to the product are being improved since I think many other users have reported issues similar to the ones I faced.

Read full review

Daniel Giacomelli

Security and Compliance at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has transformed how I manage documents through metadata and automation while enabling structured collaboration

Microsoft should restore some functionalities from older versions of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2003 and 2010. Specifically, bringing back something similar to SharePoint Designer would be beneficial. SharePoint Designer was both advantageous and challenging - developers found it limiting and preferred Visual Studio, while non-developers struggled to use it effectively. A new tool for configuring webpage design and development for content pages would be valuable. The current system is too basic. While integration of filtered lists and libraries is possible, it requires knowledge of Python or jQuery. A WYSIWYG editor would be preferable to requiring programming knowledge or Visual Studio.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the Activity flow that is used to catch new activities."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The ability to create simple web pages with diagrams and links is valuable, particularly for intranet work and creating wiki pages for a team to show how we do certain things."

"The forms aspect of the solution, for example, the creation of surveys, is its most valuable aspect."

"The Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is a main feature of Microsoft, and I use it for everything I share inside the organization and outside the organization; it's easy to use, easy to share, and easy to manage all SharePoint services."

"The most valuable features for us are their document management list and hybrid forms. and We also use third party ad-dons to achieve workflows and other recent apps."

"The feature that I value the most about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is the ability to have multiple persons in a file at the same time, which was not possible when we started using computers."

"The support from Microsoft is very quick and they are very proactive."

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Server helps with return on investment as it saves a lot of time and helps clients improve their processes."

"I believe the control and the restrictions, accesses that we can have once we decide to share any document through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, are the most beneficial aspects for me."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server pros

Cons

"The support is an area where the product can improve...If you are having an issue on a Monday, the support personnel will contact you next Monday."

"The inclusion of a file plugin for Windows Explorer would make it easier to use."

"Sharepoint doesn't integrate well with Oracle, and we use a lot of Oracle products at our company. Therefore, it makes more sense for us to go to Oracle instead of continuing to use Sharepoint."

"I would rate my experience with Microsoft technical support as sometimes frustrating because of the time it takes for the Microsoft team to react to their particular case."

"The product could be improved by accommodating different technologies, particularly integration."

"This solution is not very stable. It is useful to arrange data but it's not the best for big data. Sometimes we have issues with our reports as a result."

"The user interface needs improvement because there is a lot of stuff in there. I use five to eight navigation buttons. It should be more user-friendly. Frequently used menu items should be arranged in a proper way. That would be helpful."

"I would like to see the integration with Teams reinforced."

"The search feature needs improvement. I can never find the information I need when I use it."

"The solution needs to have more flexibility. The classic version had more flexibility, however, the modern version has many more limitations."

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Pricing plans may be flexible depending on volume usage and your corporate relationship with Microsoft."

"There are some aggressive discounts offered by Microsoft for organizations that are not for profit, which we are, and it makes it quite attractive to consider."

"One of the reasons why we don't recommend the cloud version of SharePoint is the cost. With the on premise version, you pay for the license once. For the cloud version, there is a recurring fee. It is very expensive. They expect everyone to pay $20 or $30 per user per month."

"It can be expensive for on-premises deployments, especially when you have to support SQL Server as your backend database. That's where the cost comes into play. SQL Server has its own licensing, which Microsoft keeps on changing. Therefore, it can become costly. In the earlier versions of SharePoint, version 2007 or 2010, they had an express version where the SQL Server licensing was free. It wasn't like a full-blown SharePoint. It was only a slimmed-down version. It used to be whatever your hardware costs. You would install the free software and work with it, but you were very limited in what you could do in SharePoint. If you wanted the SharePoint Enterprise Server with all the bells and whistles, then you had to pay more to get the SQL Server license based on the number of users or servers. The subscription model is different for cloud deployments. Licensing is per user and per month. The cost also depends on the storage required. If you have a lot of sites or documents, then you need to expand it based on your needs."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Performing Arts

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Wholesaler/Distributor

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	17

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HCL Connections?

The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HCL Connections?

I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I am not aware of the pricing, so I cannot say if the solution is expensive or quite affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

My expectation when I start using a Microsoft product is that it would be easy to incorporate diagrams and such from other Microsoft Office products. Incorporating a diagram I've embedded in a slid...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server?

I produce content about the work I'm doing inside the company, making information about IT architecture, work processes within IT architecture, and security reviews of applications or infrastructur...

See all answers

Comparisons

Drupal vs HCL Connections

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Teams vs HCL Connections

Compared 25% of the time

SharePoint vs HCL Connections

Compared 19% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs HCL Connections

Compared 15% of the time

Liferay Digital Experience Platform vs HCL Connections

Compared 13% of the time

More HCL Connections Competitors

Amazon WorkDocs vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 23% of the time

Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 11% of the time

LucidLink vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 9% of the time

Datto Workplace vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive for Business vs Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Compared 8% of the time

More Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

HCL Connections

January 2026

Download HCL Connections product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

January 2026

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server report

Download Microsoft Office SharePoint Server product report

Also Known As

IBM Connections, Lotus Connections

Office SharePoint Server, MS Office SharePoint Server

Overview

IBM Connections™ is a leading unified collaboration and social networking solution that helps you filter out the noise to get work done. Connections empowers your teams and organization to engage with the right experts, accelerate innovation, and deliver results. All the collaboration tools you need to be productive are united under a single sign-on so you can reduce time spent switching between disparate tools and focus on the people and work that matters most. Experience a security-rich and business-compliant environment sanctioned by IT. Confidently share knowledge within your teams and your organization, and extend collaboration beyond traditional boundaries. Connections can enable you to improve decision-making, increase productivity, and accelerate time-to-market. Shift from being merely productive, to truly effective with Connections today.

IBM Connections can help you: Engage experts. People-centric platform enables you to easily locate the expertise you need, right now. Accelerate innovation. Illuminate and promote new ideas within a thriving social network of teams and communities. Empower teams. Get work done together and take action; anywhere—from any device. Deliver results. Leverage cognitive insights to prioritize results and arrive at better outcomes. Extend collaboration. Safely collaborate with customers and partners, bringing them into the conversation.

HCLSoftware

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) is a Microsoft software portal based on the ASP.NET framework. MOSS facilitates file sharing and collaboration, social networking, Web databases and Web publishing. It is hosted by Microsoft Windows Server and is accessible through Microsoft Office or the Web.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Yamato Financial Co. Ltd., University of Zurich, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., Telus, Rabobank, Christian Brothers Services, Grupo Financiero Banorte, The Loft Group, Dow Water & Process Solutions, JGC Corporation, College of Medicine, Swansea University, solvito GmbH, Loft Group, Hamm-Reno Group GmbH, Geno SA

Del Monte Foods, Unicredit Leasing, Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Nokia Czech Republic, Perkins Eastman, JLL, ICA, óxito Software, Dorset Software, PKP Cargo, Arcapita Bank B.S.C., AVE CZ, Chesapeake Energy

Buyer's Guide

Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals)

February 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Atlassian, Liferay and others in Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals). Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Corporate Portals (Enterprise Information Portals) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.