TL;DR: Notion publishes Free at $0 and Plus at $10 per member / month billed annually ($12 monthly). Confluence Cloud publishes Free for up to 10 users. Guru is primarily packaged as a scoped platform on the English pricing page (localized self-serve surfaces have shown $25/seat / month with a 10-seat minimum—confirm the live currency and SKU). Staffbase-style employee-app suites are quote-led. Order follows public $0 / published price first, quote-led last.
Intranet software is the internal home for policies, team pages, knowledge cards, and company news. It is not a full HRIS and it is not a generic wiki dump, though Notion and Confluence are often used as both wiki and intranet.
Every entry uses the same fields: published pricing, free plan or trial, core focus, and the main limitation. The order below is not a quality ranking. Public $0 / published price first, quote-led last.
Intranet software compared at a glance
| Provider | Published pricing | Billable unit | Best for | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notion | Official: Free $0. Plus $10 / member / mo annual ($12 monthly). Business $20 / member / mo annual ($24 monthly). Enterprise quote. Custom Agents billed $10 per 1,000 Notion credits after the try window. | Workspace member | Teams that want docs + databases as the company intranet | Visit → |
| Confluence Cloud | Official licensing: Free plan up to 10 users, 2 GB storage, community support. Standard and Premium are paid progressive cloud SKUs (use Atlassian’s live calculator). Enterprise annual. Price update scheduled 13 Oct 2026 PT. | User | Atlassian shops that want spaces, permissions, and Jira adjacency | Visit → |
| Guru | English pricing page is package / sales-led. Localized self-serve cards have listed $25/seat/month annual ($30 monthly) with a 10-seat minimum and AI-credit limits—verify the live page you are billed on. | Seat (minimums apply on self-serve) | Teams that want verified knowledge cards in Slack/Chrome more than a page tree | Visit → |
| Staffbase | Employee communications / intranet suite sold by quote. No durable public starter price on the commercial site used for this check. | Quote (employees reached) | Internal comms teams that need mobile employee apps and targeted news | Visit → |
Notion, Atlassian Confluence licensing, Guru, and Staffbase commercial pages were reviewed on 1 October 2026. Confirm calculator output after Atlassian’s 13 October 2026 cloud list-price update.
Guests, viewers, and verified-card authors are different people. Only members who need an account should enter the seat model.
How intranet software is bought in 2026
Startups stand up Notion or Confluence Free and grow seats. Knowledge teams buy Guru-style verification when answers must appear in Slack with citations. Internal comms buys employee-app suites when deskless workers will not live in a wiki. The commercial fork is per-member SaaS versus reach-based employee communications quotes.
The 4 providers in detail
1. Notion
Best for: Companies that already write in Notion and want the intranet to be the same workspace as project docs.
| Published pricing | Free $0. Plus $10 / member / mo annual. Business $20 / member / mo annual. Enterprise custom. Custom Agents: $10 per 1,000 monthly credits after trial. |
| Free plan / trial | Free plan for individuals; paid plans self-serve |
| Core focus | Pages, databases, teamspaces, optional AI agents |
| Main limitation | Full AI is bundled at Business+; Free/Plus AI is limited. File and history caps bite on Free. |
- Official page: Free has 5 MB uploads and 7-day page history; Plus lifts uploads and history to 30 days.
- Business adds SAML SSO and private teamspaces on the public matrix.
- Credit packs for Custom Agents are a second meter—model agent runs separately from seats.
2. Confluence Cloud
Best for: Organizations standardized on Atlassian that need spaces, page trees, and Jira links as the intranet.
| Published pricing | Free up to 10 users. Standard and Premium via Atlassian cloud calculator (progressive monthly; annual tables published). Enterprise annual contract. |
| Free plan / trial | Free for 10 users; Standard/Premium cloud trials documented |
| Core focus | Team knowledge spaces, permissions, Atlassian graph |
| Main limitation | List prices move on a published schedule; always run the live calculator |
- Atlassian documents Maximum Quantity Billing on monthly cloud subscriptions—peak seats in the cycle set the bill.
- A cloud list-price update for Confluence is scheduled for 13 October 2026 PT; honor quotes issued before that date per Atlassian FAQ.
- Community and academic discounts are 75% off eligible cloud per licensing pages.
3. Guru
Best for: Support, sales, and ops teams that need verified answers in the tools they already use rather than a homepage intranet.
| Published pricing | English marketing page: packaged / contact. Self-serve surfaces have shown $25/seat/month annual with a 10-seat minimum. Confirm before budgeting. |
| Free plan / trial | Demo / sales; nonprofit “Guru for Good” discount stated in FAQ |
| Core focus | Verified knowledge cards, AI search/chat, Slack/Chrome delivery |
| Main limitation | 10-seat floors and AI-credit packs can make small-team TCO higher than Notion Plus |
- Guru prices knowledge complexity and AI maturity, not only seats, on the English page narrative.
- Permission-aware answers and “data never trains our models” are the security claims to verify in the DPA.
- If you only need a page tree, compare Confluence Free/Standard before you buy a 10-seat floor.
4. Staffbase
Best for: Internal communications teams that need a mobile employee app, targeted news, and deskless reach.
| Published pricing | Quote-led employee communications platform |
| Free plan / trial | Sales-led |
| Core focus | Intranet + employee app + campaigns |
| Main limitation | No public starter price for spreadsheet comparison |
- Fit is reach and targeting, not wiki editing speed.
- Ask how frontline workers authenticate without a corporate mailbox.
- Compare the quote to Notion Business + an email tool if most staff already live in a browser workspace.
Kurums Match: which intranet fits?
Docs-first company wiki at $0–$10/member — Notion Free or Plus.
Atlassian stack, ≤10 people to start — Confluence Cloud Free.
Verified answers in Slack — Guru (confirm seat floor).
Deskless employee app and comms — Staffbase quote.
Buying tip: Separate “place we publish policy” from “place people get answers while working.” A cheap wiki plus a weak search still loses to a smaller verified-card graph.
How this comparison was put together
Official Notion, Atlassian Confluence licensing, Guru, and Staffbase pages were checked on 1 October 2026. Quote-led tools are labeled as such. No quality ranking badges are applied.
FAQ
Is Notion an intranet or a notes app?
Both. Teams use teamspaces and databases as the intranet. That does not give you a native employee-app notification model like Staffbase.
Does Confluence Free include guest access like Notion?
Guest and anonymous access rules differ by plan. Use Atlassian’s live feature matrix; do not copy Notion guest caps onto Confluence.
Why is Guru’s price hedged?
The English commercial page is packaged. A localized self-serve card still showed $25/seat with a 10-seat minimum during research. Budget from the page that will invoice you.
Related: Best Knowledge Base Software 2026 · Best Note-Taking Software 2026 · Best Team Chat Software 2026
Last updated: 1 October 2026. Packaging changes; always verify with the vendor before purchase.
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