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Collaboration
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SharePoint 2016 On Premise |
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SharePoint Online Office 365 Enterprise |
Document libraries
SharePoint Online modern interface for the libraries simplifies the user experience and adds cross browser capabilities. On premise, outside of OneDrive document library, libraries still use classic user interface with functions such as move or copy dependent on Open in Explorer function. Modern interface for SharePoint 2016, with come Feature Pack 2 release in the fall of 2017 |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
Co-authoring
Co-authoring of Word, PowerPoint, OneNote documents is possible using web user interface and desktop apps. On premise, Office Online Server is required. |
Works great |
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Works great |
OneDrive sync client
As of January 2017, Microsoft released a sync client that can compete with Dropbox and Google Drive. Users can sync any document library in SharePoint Online. |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
Custom lists
Small to medium lists function the same. As of May 2017, filtering and grouping finally works on large lists in SharePoint Online. Performance and control over large lists is better on premise. |
Works great |
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Works great |
Mobile apps
Mobile apps have become usable over the last few years and provide simple access to SharePoint functionality (there are a few limitations such inability to edit list items). |
Works great
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Works great
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Task management
On premise, tasks work well at single project level. Any type of portfolio management requires Project Web App. In SharePoint Online, simple task management moves to Planner in Groups; Project Web App provides portfolio management functionality. |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
Calendars
Microsoft moves the Calendar focus in Exchange. Group SharePoint sites have Calendar web part that displays calendar information from the Exchange Group Calendar. |
Works great |
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Works great |
Navigation
On premise, navigation is typically hierarchical due to large hierarchical site collection. SharePoint Online organization is flatter with users "following" or "bookmarking" sites or libraries that they care about; SharePoint app home servers as personalized starting point. Additionally, Outlook provides access to all Group sites, and OneDrive provides access to all followed document libraries. |
Works well for hierarchial structures |
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Works well for group/team collaboration. |
Office 365 Only Collaboration Features
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Teams
Chat-based workspace organized by teams and channels. Microsoft is adding features that will position Teams as a direct Slack competitor with all the compliance features of Office 365. Teams is built on top of Office 365 Groups. Unlike Slack, Teams work together with Outlook email functionality instead of trying to replace it. In hybrid mode, Teams exist in Office 365 tenant. |
Available in Hybrid only |
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Works great |
Office 365 Groups
Azure AD group + modern distribution list + calendar + modern SharePoint site + Planner + PowerBI workspace. Simplified team collaboration. Shared mailbox/distribution list functionality for email-centric organizations. In hybrid mode, Groups exist in Office 365 tenant. |
Available in Hybrid only |
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Works great |
Delve
Delve search experience is efficient and takes into account office graph relationships. Limited support of document management metadata. |
Available in Hybrid only |
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Works great |
Security and Permissions Management
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Multi factor authentication
Available in Azure AD Premium licenses only, adding extra cost. |
Requires Azure AD tenant |
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Needs to be included in Azure Basic |
Active directory, user reporting, retention, data loss prevention
Microsoft has invested heavily into audit capabilities of Azure Active Directory used by SharePoint Online and Office 365 services. On premise, feature pack 1 allows integrated Audit Trail - need 0365 tenant for this functionality. |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
SharePoint groups and permissions reports
No significant differences. To get good group and user reports, requires custom development or third party applications. |
Needs improvement |
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Needs improvement |
External sharing
Office 365 makes sharing content outside of organization seamless and controlled. External users can login using their Microsoft accounts or register their email addresses as Microsoft accounts. Control exists at tenant and site collection level. |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
Custom Forms and Workflows
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InfoPath 2013
On premise, InfoPath is the main option to build complex forms for data entry into lists or libraries. Microsoft plans to support InfoPath 2013 until 2026 with no feature additions or updates. InfoPath still works in SharePoint Online, although it's disabled by default on new tenants.
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Works great |
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Still works. Should be used only in cases where Forms or Power Apps does not work. |
2010 and 2013 Workflows
Availability of two workflow platforms confuses designers (as platforms are from previous releases of the product). As there are no out box 2013 workflow templates, only those proficient in SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio can build new workflows. Keep in mind that there is no SharePoint Designer 2016. |
Needs improvement |
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Should be used only in cases where Flow does not work. |
Forms
Forms is a lightweight forms and quizzes builder with anonymous capabilities. Integrates well with Flow and supports mobile and desktop layouts.
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Office 365 tenant required. |
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Works great |
Flow
Orchestration platform that replaces SharePoint Designer workflows. Easily connect to any Office 365 product or over a hundred external services such as Salesforce, Dropbox, and Github. The learning curve is shorter than SharePoint Designer. SharePoint integration is still work in progress. |
Possible to conntect to on premise data sources. Office 365 tenant required. |
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Works great |
Power Apps
Powers Apps is a long term InfoPath replacement in SharePoint Online In addition to mobile forms which have been available since 2017, the tool now supports web based forms in desktop layout. Power Apps has a higher learning curve than InfoPath and may be difficult for non developers to learn.
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Possible to conntect to on premise data sources. Office 365 tenant required. |
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Works great |
Enterprise Document Management and Search
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Site columns, managed metadata, and content types
Office 365 predefines the location of content type hub and limits the organization to one taxonomy store. |
Works great |
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Works great |
Classic Search
SharePoint Online predefines the location of classic search center. Content sources and craws are handled automatically. Using custom refines is possible with placeholder managed properties. The modern search experience relies on Delve that finds documents that are relevant to the user based on Office Graph filters. |
Works great |
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Works great |
Cost and performance
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Performance
When installed correctly with proper warm up scripts SharePoint 2016 is very fast with faster page loads than SharePoint Online. On premise is better if the most of the users are close to the servers.
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Works Great |
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Needs improvement |
Cost
There are a number of different plans that includes features in this comparison. License management is important for large organizations. |
Can be costly for small organizations |
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Great value for small organizations (<1000) |
Business Intelligence
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Excel data modeling, PowerPivot, PowerPivot application
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Works great |
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Works great |
Power BI Desktop, Power BI Server, and PowerBI.com
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Requires Power BI Server |
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Works great |
External connections and data refresh
In PowerBI.com, connections to on premise sources require setup through PowerBI admin center including installation of gateway software. Higher data refresh rates require PowerBI Pro licenses |
Works great |
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Works great |
Management
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Moving sites and lists
Administrators have to rely on third party tools such as ShareGate or Metalogix to efficiently move sites and lists. . |
Needs improvement |
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Needs improvement |
General PowerShell access
PowerShell commands on premise are fast to write and execute. Online commands usually require addition of SharePoint CSOM code or Graph API access |
Works great |
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Works great |
Application Development
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Provider Hosted Apps
SharePoint provider hosted apps are the best option for long term development in SharePoint. Code (C#, JavaScript, or any other language with REST API) is in one place outside of SharePoint. Most updates do not require version update. Development process is straightforward with local server in Visual Studio, and web deploy to staging (or production). Full Git support. On premise, setup of provider hosted environment should be more automated by Microsoft (hence needs improvement). |
Needs improvement |
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Works great |
SharePoint Hosted Apps
SharePoint hosted apps are simplest to get started with both on premise and online. However, the deployed code is stored in multiple SharePoint app webs (unless deployed with tenant scope). All updates require app version increase and the code is limited to JavaScript |
Don't use |
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Don't use |
Windows Azure
Azure web apps, SQL databases, Azure AD, Blog storage, and No SQL databases are a simple way to build great applications that can scale. Full integration into Visual Studio 2013 and 2015 provides a better alternative to AWS or Google. Visual Studio online provides support for Git, agile deployment, and build management. |
Works great |
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Works great |
Deploying JavaScript in document libraries
Microsoft does not support unmanaged script in the modern interface. |
Works great |
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Works great in classic pages |
SharePoint Framework
Client side extensibility of modern pages and web parts |
Available in Feature Pack 2 - Fall 2017 |
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Work in progress |