SharePoint alternative
A SharePoint Alternative for Companies Paying for a Platform Nobody Was Given Time to Run
Microsoft does publish a price. Business Basic is seven dollars per user a month paid yearly, it carries a terabyte of cloud storage each, and SharePoint arrives inside it alongside Exchange, Teams and the Office apps. What you cannot do is buy SharePoint on its own.
With Cascadia you get
- Migration is included, not extra
- Your team trained, not confused
- We will say when WorkDrive is wrong
- Structure designed before anything moves
- Your account, your data
- Connected to the rest of Zoho
The short version
Why teams pick Cascadia over SharePoint
We exist for the business that bought a capable content platform and then found that capability is not the same as configuration.
What you get here
- Somebody decides which sites and Team Folders exist before every department quietly opens its own
- Permissions that follow a role somebody designed, rather than inheritance broken one exception at a time
- A monthly pass over members, guests, external sharing and connected apps, checked against who joined and who left
- A price that does not move when you hire, because it is charged per organization rather than per seat
- The same named person on every call, who built your structure and can say why each permission exists
- A leaver’s files handled as a process, rather than a terabyte belonging to somebody who no longer works here
- Retention and recovery decided deliberately, rather than a label that exists but was never applied
- File, ticket, deal and project inside one suite rather than joined up with connectors you maintain
What ships in the standard plan here
Sites created per project and never retired, permission inheritance broken in a dozen places nobody documented, a terabyte per person including the people who left, retention labels available but never applied, and a plan tier quietly deciding whether you hold Defender and device management. All of it capable, and all of it yours to run.
- Somebody decides which sites and Team Folders exist before every department quietly opens its own
- Permissions that follow a role somebody designed, rather than inheritance broken one exception at a time
- A monthly pass over members, guests, external sharing and connected apps, checked against who joined and who left
- A price that does not move when you hire, because it is charged per organization rather than per seat
- The same named person on every call, who built your structure and can say why each permission exists
- A leaver’s files handled as a process, rather than a terabyte belonging to somebody who no longer works here
- Retention and recovery decided deliberately, rather than a label that exists but was never applied
- File, ticket, deal and project inside one suite rather than joined up with connectors you maintain
- An honest no on the first call if the Microsoft license you already pay for is the right home for this
- Data loss prevention and audit trails actually configured, not merely available on the tier you happen to hold
Where owning the platform stops being the same as running it
A site and Team Folder structure decided in one pass rather than accumulated, permissions that follow roles instead of history, external sharing rules written down, leavers handled the week they leave, TrueSync on the desktops that need it, and WorkDrive connected to Zoho Directory, Flow, Sign and Analytics.
One figure per organization, whoever you hire next
Structure design, the permission and role model, external sharing controls, storage planning and reporting, the retention and recovery position, data loss prevention and audit trails, the TrueSync rollout and the migration off what you hold today.
Five hundred a month is about seventy Microsoft licenses
That arithmetic is worth doing out loud, because on this comparison we can actually do it. Five hundred dollars is roughly what Microsoft charges to license seventy people on Business Basic.
The person who designed it is the person who answers the phone
You are not explaining your site structure to somebody meeting it for the first time. Microsoft’s documentation and admin center are genuinely good and we used both to write this page.
One suite, so the file is already next to the record
WorkDrive sits in the same Zoho estate as CRM, Desk and Projects, and we wire it into Zoho Directory, Flow, Sign and Analytics as part of the fee, so a signed contract lands where the record already is.
Who this comparison is for
SharePoint has a price, just not one of its own
Every pricing route from the SharePoint page lands on the Microsoft 365 business plans.
A terabyte each, handed out per person
Every Business plan includes a terabyte of cloud storage per user. That is a generous allocation, and it is the opposite model to a team pool: capacity follows the individual rather than sitting with the team.
The capable parts are the parts that need an owner
Microsoft counts more than two hundred thousand organizations and a hundred and ninety million people using SharePoint for intranets, team sites and content management.
How switching works
- 1
Nothing moves until we have seen where your files actually live
We sit with the team that files everything correctly and the team that keeps it all on the desktop, and we look at both.
- 2
We count the sites, the broken inheritance and the departed owners before anything moves
The sites somebody opens weekly, the ones created for a project that ended two years ago, every place permission inheritance was broken for a good reason nobody wrote down, the external links handed to clients, and the files sitting in a leaver’s terabyte.
- 3
The structure, the permissions and the ownership position all get made on purpose
Which Team Folders exist, who may create one, who outside the company may be invited in, who owns a file when its author resigns, and how long a deleted item stays recoverable.
- 4
You run a full month on it, including one real project and one real departure
The first month of live filing runs with us beside it.
What clients say about working with Cascadia
“I’ve always dreaded website management, but Cascadia has done an incredible job with my WordPress site, making it one less thing for me to worry about.”
“I’ve worked with Cascadia for several years now. They are always ready to help in any way I ask and can implement my ideas with ease. A company that values their clients!”
“Cascadia has been great to work with! We recently needed some updates, and Cascadia was quick to get them completed! We highly recommend Cascadia Web Services.”
“Cascadia is very responsive and we’re happy with them as our primary IT vendor.”
“They do great work, been using for years. Prompt responses to requests.”
Ready to move from SharePoint?
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SharePoint alternative questions
Straight answers about switching, pricing, and what moves with you.
See Managed Zoho WorkDriveHow does SharePoint compare to Google Drive, Dropbox and Box?
It is the cheapest of the four to license and the only one you cannot buy on its own. Business Basic is seven dollars per user a month paid yearly with a terabyte each. Google Drive sits in a similar position for a different reason: it publishes no price at all, because it is sold inside Workspace and the plans page renders in the browser. Dropbox publishes fifteen and twenty four dollars per user, and Box publishes twenty and thirty three. Both of those hold their deeper administration for the upper tier.
Can I just buy SharePoint on its own?
No. Both pricing routes from the SharePoint product page resolve to the Microsoft 365 business plans page, where you are buying the suite. SharePoint arrives with Exchange, Teams and the Office apps whether or not you wanted them. That is not a criticism, it is how Microsoft sells it, and at seven dollars a user it is hard to argue with.
Which SharePoint capabilities depend on the plan you hold?
The storage does not, since every Business plan carries a terabyte per user. The security does. Microsoft Defender for Business, with ransomware protection, automatic threat disruption, advanced antivirus and vulnerability management, arrives with Business Premium rather than Basic. So the plan finance signed for decides how well protected the files are, which is worth knowing before an incident rather than after one.
What is not on the published plan list?
Who decides which sites exist and who may create one. Who repairs permission inheritance after the twentieth reasonable exception. Who audits the external sharing links handed out two years ago. Who owns a terabyte when the person holding it resigns. Whether the retention labels the license makes available were ever actually applied. None of that appears on any vendor’s plans page, ours included, which is why this page exists.
We already pay for Microsoft 365. Why would I pay you five hundred a month?
Often you should not, and we give that answer regularly. If SharePoint is working, the site structure is deliberate and somebody reviews access, keep your five hundred dollars. You pay us when the platform has quietly become nobody’s job, and somebody still has to design the structure, hold the permission model together, handle leavers and the files they held, wire storage into the rest of the estate, and still be doing all of it a year from now.
At what point does SharePoint stop being the cheaper answer?
This is the one comparison on the hub where we can actually do the arithmetic, because Microsoft publishes a number. Five hundred dollars a month is roughly what seventy Business Basic licenses cost. Below that headcount our fee is larger than your entire Microsoft bill, and we will say so on the call. Above it the comparison stops being about licenses at all, because a company that size with no owner for its file estate is not saving money, it is deferring a clean up.
Is SharePoint metered on people, files or storage?
On people. Each Business license carries a terabyte of cloud storage for that user, so capacity grows as you hire and, importantly, stays attached to individuals rather than to teams. Zoho WorkDrive works the other way: a team pool starting at one terabyte on Starter and three on Team, topped up per additional user. Neither model is better in the abstract. They fail differently, and the per user model fails when somebody leaves.
Is SharePoint a better product than Zoho WorkDrive?
As a content management platform, yes, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Document libraries, metadata, versioning, workflow and intranet publishing all go deeper in SharePoint than in WorkDrive, and the Microsoft ecosystem around it is enormous. WorkDrive wins on two things: it sits in the same estate as CRM, Desk and Projects, and its Team Folder model treats shared ownership as the default rather than something you configure. If your problem is intranet and content management, buy Microsoft.
Does Zoho WorkDrive connect to the rest of Zoho?
That is the reason to choose it. WorkDrive sits alongside CRM, Desk, Projects and People, and we wire it into Zoho Directory, Flow, Sign and Analytics as part of the fee, so a signed contract lands where the record already is. SharePoint pulls the same trick inside the Microsoft estate and does it very well. The question is which estate you have decided to standardize on.
What exactly do you do for five hundred a month?
We design the workspace and Team Folder structure and its naming, build the permission and role model, write the external sharing controls, settle retention and recovery, configure data loss prevention and the audit trail, add and remove people as they join and leave, roll TrueSync out across desktop and mobile, connect WorkDrive to Zoho Directory, Flow, Sign and Analytics, migrate you off what you hold today, and issue storage planning and access reporting every month. Support for your team is unlimited and carries no extra charge.
Who holds the Zoho WorkDrive license, you or us?
You do, and that is deliberate. WorkDrive is bought direct from Zoho in your name and we manage what you own. Every Zoho service we run works this way except Managed Zoho Assist, where the subscription genuinely sits with us. Here the license, the data and the account are all yours, so ending the arrangement means we hand back keys rather than transfer a contract.
Can you move us off SharePoint?
Yes, and it carries a step a straight file copy does not. Alongside listing the sites people actually use, the ones nobody has opened in a year and the outside companies still holding links, we have to unpick the permission model, because inheritance exceptions do not travel and neither does ownership of a leaver’s storage. Agreeing what happens to the Microsoft subscription afterward is part of the job rather than an afterthought, particularly where the rest of the suite is still in daily use.
Is there a minimum term?
No. Five hundred a month, month to month, thirty days’ notice, and no setup fee. Your Microsoft agreement is between you and Microsoft, and it is worth reading before assuming you can stop paying for it this quarter, because those Business plan figures are the paid yearly rates.
What if we are only five people?
Then buy the Microsoft licenses and keep your five hundred dollars, and we would tell you the same on the phone. Five people who all know where the file is do not have a governance problem. Come back when the second team starts, or when the first person leaves and nobody is sure what was in their terabyte.
Want a file structure somebody actually designed?
Five hundred a month per organization covers the audit, the Team Folder design, the permission model, the migration, the integrations and the ongoing tuning, with nothing metered. Your Zoho WorkDrive license stays yours.