20 Best Internal Communications Tools For 2025 (And Beyond)

When you’ve got teams working on-site, at home, and everywhere in between, it’s vital to have a core hub for employee communication.

But while the simplest route may feel like choosing a fit-for-purpose platform, remember you’ll need it to delight your people through messages, meetings, notifications, documents, and everything else that keeps them connected.

That’s why when it comes to your employee experience platform, ‘best fit for your specific needs’ must trump ‘this’ll do’.

With a market full of noisy competing products, it’s hard to filter out the bluster and find the perfect match.

In the 20 internal communication tools that follow, we aim to pair you with the next core hub for your internal communications strategy.

TLDR: The needs of businesses have changed in the modern work era. Simply turning on extra features on your phone system is no longer enough and opting for Microsoft is no longer the safest choice for procurement. We advocate an employee engagement platform as the core hub with integrations with line-of-business apps for total streamlined productivity. Check out how Workvivo is doing just that for hundreds of customers.

What are internal communications tools?

Internal communications tools are cloud-based applications that offer various forms of chat, document sharing, company news updates, and meetings. These might be one-to-one or group communications. They may be real-time, asynchronous, or a mix of both.

Most offer a home-screen-style hub with modules for launching specific communication methods like browsing company updates, meetings, recording podcasts, or chatting with team members.

What sets the best internal communications tools apart is their integration with other apps to bring an organization’s entire digital workspace experience together. When thinking about digital workplace transformation, these tools are often the backbone of everything that follows.

20 Best internal communication tools you must consider

There are tons of internal communications tools to get your head around. Here are the 20 most useful tools you should be familiar with before making your decision.

1. Workvivo

Workvivo is the market leader when it comes to employee engagement and effective internal communication. Operating as a social intranet, you get everything you need (and more) to bring your teams together.

Key features

• Company podcast creation
• Asynchronous messaging
• Employee engagement measurement
• Livestream town hall meetings
• Read receipts for critical push notifications
• Auto-translation for all content types
• المساحات المجتمعية
• Badges and awards for participation and achievements
• Surveys and polls

There’s even a mobile app so every employee gets connected, regardless of their location or movements.

Best for

Organizations looking to boost employee engagement, improve internal communication, and build a strong company culture. Workvivo is particularly a winner with companies that have frontline cohorts and dispersed teams.

Want to make Workvivo the digital heart of your company?

Book your free 1:1 live demo here.

2. Zoom

Everyone knows Zoom as the video conferencing platform that kept people connected during the pandemic. But not everybody knows that Zoom has now introduced functionality like asynchronous chat, enterprise-grade security, and artificial intelligence (AI) to help make your workday more efficient.

Key features

• Phone system for external calling
• Intelligently processed recordings
• Automated note-taking
• AI Meeting summaries
• AI email and chat drafts
• Channel-based messaging
• Employee surveys and polls
• Asynchronous video clips
• Whiteboards during meetings and chats
• Integrations with collaboration apps like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google

Best for

Meeting-heavy businesses looking to streamline their process with AI. Businesses looking for both an internal communications tool and one that facilitates external calling and meetings.

Did you know? You can embed Workvivo inside Zoom!

Read More: Workvivo Launches in the Zoom Client

3. Slack

Slack is arguably the pioneer of modern chat-based collaboration. Ever since it took aim at Microsoft in the New York Times in 2016, the levels of internal communication have skyrocketed.

If your business thrives off asynchronous chat enabling individual contributors to focus on deep work or works on projects across time zones, the principles that made Slack such a quick success remain in place today.

When used correctly (i.e. not a messaging free-for-all), it’s still hard to make a case against Slack being the best interface for chatting. But, when governance slips, it’s hard to come back from over-communication and constant notifications.

Key features

• Slick interface for one-to-one messages
• Message threads for added context to channel-based working
• Integration with calling and meeting apps like Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams
• External channels for collaboration with other organizations
• Huddles for audio-based catchups
• Asynchronous video clips
• Searchable message retention
• Workflow builder for no-code automations
• AI that integrates across CRM and email data to draft chat responses and personalized recommendations

Best for

Businesses versed in working asynchronously or those looking for a new chat-focused internal communications tool.

 Check out how Workvivo integrates with Slack here.

4. Microsoft Teams

Thanks, in part, to its free bundling with the rest of the Microsoft 365 stack, Teams has become the de facto internal communications choice for the majority of businesses around the world.

Whether you agree with its aggressive “marketing” strategy of automatically giving Teams to all Microsoft users (and asking for a subscription fee some years later), it’s hard to ignore the success it’s had in the market.

Power users of Microsoft love and advocate Teams. However, users of other more intuitive interfaces remain uninspired by its clunkiness and use it more out of necessity than choice.

Key features

Teams provides a total collaboration experience when it comes to meetings, chat, calling, and document collaboration.

Thanks to Microsoft’s wide ecosystem of apps, it’s easy to integrate and build workflows with Microsoft-specific tools like SharePoint, Lists, Planner, PowerBI, etc.

Teams specific features include:

• One-to-one and group chat
• Channel-based messaging
• AI summaries to catch up on chats
• Teams Phone System for external calling
• Wide range of meeting and broadcast functionality
• Customizable notification schedule
• Whiteboards, virtual backgrounds, and translation in-meeting

Team also has a wide range of integrations with external apps in its app directory. You can connect to hundreds of apps like Trello, Asana, and Salesforce.

Best for

Companies already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Teams is a hard sell to those not already operating some form of Microsoft environment, but it remains an easy option for those choosing to use Microsoft as the template for business communication.

Check out how Workvivo integrates with Microsoft Teams here.

5. Microsoft SharePoint

Used as the backbone for Teams, SharePoint also holds its own as a basic intranet option. If you don’t need the front-end interface of Teams for chats, calling, and meetings, you can opt for the stripped-back version.

Key features

• Version control
• Access policies
• Custom site creation
• Analytics for user engagement
• Full-text search within documents (including PDFs)
• Policy center for deleted and archived content
• Integration with Power Apps, OneDrive, and PowerBI

Best for

Microsoft houses looking to satisfy their file storage needs rather than full collaboration requirements.

6. Webex

Once thought of as a clunky meetings tool, Webex has had a facelift and is now full of internal communication features and intelligence.

Key features

• New modern interface for chats and messaging
• Enterprise meeting and broadcast facilities
• Background noise removal
• Polling and Q&A
• Host webinars
• External calling options
• Extensive equipment range for face-to-face meetings
• Meeting intelligence and AI assistants during calls
• AI-focused contact center for customer experience management

Best for

Enterprises looking for an all-in-one internal and external communications tool. Large businesses looking for a more corporate feel.

7. Google Workspace

Google has been guilty of having too many tools that do a lot of the same thing in the past. Today, we see the umbrella package of Google Workspace catering for all its internal communications offerings.

While majorly based on email, there are plenty of integrative apps within the Google portfolio that make up the new Workspace package.

Key features

• Gmail
• Google Meet
• Google Chat
• Calendar
• Drive
• Docs
• Sheets
• Slides
• Forms
• Sites
• Keep

On top of these, you also get Gemini—the AI assistant that provides insights on usage and tips on how to get the most out of each app.

Best for

Businesses who crave the total collaboration needs of a Microsoft Teams-type deployment but don’t like the Microsoft interface or ecosystem. Companies already using Gmail, Docs, etc., and wish to go all-in on Google for their internal communications needs.

8. Simpplr

Simpplr leverages AI to personalize an intranet experience and prioritize employee engagement. Its goal is to provide a social intranet experience that doesn’t overwhelm employees with information and updates that may not be relevant to them.

Its AI engine analyzes user preferences to deliver targeted content. This means employees only see information relevant to their roles or interests.

By personalizing the intranet experience and providing data-driven insights, Simpplr is a good choice for organizations seeking an intelligent approach to intranet communication and content management.

Key features

• Employee onboarding tools
• Automated issue resolution
• Templated, no-code configuration
• Employee rewards and recognition
• Analytics to measure the effectiveness of communication efforts
• Integrations with apps like SharePoint, Google Drive, and Dropbox

Best for

Simpplr is valuable for companies with a large and diverse workforce. The personalized news feed takes the hassle out of manual filtering to find and share information.

If there's a fear of negativity in your business, take advantage of sentiment analysis to gauge the perception of your business.

9. Jive

Jive emphasizes interactive features and social networking capabilities to foster a community-driven intranet. There’s less of a one-way communication feel and more of a social network appeal.

Rather than stopping at static announcements and traditional forums, Jive offers features like:

• Social profiles
• Activity streams
• Gamification tactics like points and badges

Rather than focusing on forcing engagement, Jive aims to encourage user participation, knowledge sharing, and collaboration across departments by rewarding users for adoption. The more you use your intranet, the more rewards you can earn.

Key features

• Built-in search
• Cloud storage
• File management
• Internal messaging
• Integrated calendar
• إدارة المستندات
• Mobile app
• Integration with project management tools like SharePoint, Lucidchart, and SmarterPath

Best for

With its focus on social interaction and user engagement, Jive is a good fit for organizations looking to promote a more collaborative work environment.

If getting people to take part in company social networking is a major issue, Jive’s social intranet experience may be a good fit.

10. Happeo

Happeo positions itself as a next-generation social intranet platform, designed for the modern digital workplace, powered by advanced AI functionality.

Its strength is its tight integration with Google Workspace, with over 400 customers using the combination. You can use Happeo as your central hub for pulling documents from all parts of the Google stack (Docs, Sheets, Drive, etc.) and present them in an intranet-style interface.

On top of this, you get a customizable dashboard, task management and social tools, and real-time communication channels.

Key features

• Employee communities
• Mobile app
• Find like-minded people
• Automated organization chart
• Pages, channels, and posts
• Measurement analytics
• Integration with other line-of-business apps like Jira, Confluence, and Zendesk

Best for

Organizations that are invested in Google’s suite of productivity apps and rely on storing files in Google’s cloud without categories, labeling, and proper naming conventions.

11. Guru

Guru takes a unique approach to intranet solutions, merging the core functionalities of an intranet with advanced knowledge management features.

By making information accessible through its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine and robust wiki capabilities, Guru makes the hour-long search for the right document a thing of the past.

Employees can create, edit, and collaborate on knowledge-base articles, ensuring everyone has access to the latest information and best practices.

Key features

While Guru’s party trick is its AI search, it still comes with stock intranet features you’ve come to expect:

• Central calendar
• Content version control
• Company announcements
• Employee usage metrics
• Centralized document repository
• Discussion threads attached to articles
• Integrations with popular business tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana

You can even expand the internal search capabilities to look up documents and information from the apps you integrate with, making Guru a search engine as well as an intranet.

Best for

Ideal for organizations where capturing and sharing institutional knowledge is critical.

Professional service firms and research institutions will love the speed they can recall important documentation through the AI-powered search.

12. LumApps

LumApps caters to enterprises with complex needs by offering a large suite of features for content management.

It comes into its own when businesses want a customizable platform that they can tailor to fit specific requirements. By configuring LumApps from the ground up, you can grow your intranet for internal comms as you see fit.

Key features

The customization for admins and supervisors is the biggest sell. You get customizable dashboards, role-based access control, and a composable intranet experience.

Larger businesses can also benefit from:

• Multilingual support (30+ languages)
• Advanced security features like continual backups and API penetration testing
• Integration with enterprise apps like Workday, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams

Best for

The level of customization and scalability available with LumApps make it a good fit for large organizations with geographically dispersed teams or those with strict security and compliance requirements.

There is a flip side to this, however. The complexity of the platform that suits large enterprises might not be ideal for smaller businesses with simpler needs.

13. Blink

Blink is a cost-effective yet powerful tool for small businesses seeking a basic intranet setup.

Even when coming in at a lesser price point than its competitors, Blink provides common intranet features like:

• Company newsletter
• Discussion forums
• Document management tools
• Employee profiles
• Mobile app

Blink doesn’t offer the advanced features or customization options as some of the other intranet platforms. So, if you’re a large business looking to roll out across departments and integrate into many enterprise apps, it lacks in that area.

That said, if these aren’t your needs, it's a good value proposition for SMBs looking for a user-friendly intranet solution.

Key features

• Single content hub
• Employee survey tools
• Secure internal chat
• Blink Kudos for personalized recognition
• تسجيل دخول موحد
• Staff motivation journeys

Best for

Companies with frontline workers who would otherwise be overconsumed with too much information.

Blink’s lack of enterprise adaptability plays into the hands of smaller businesses that need to present a smaller amount of information and updates to key workers who often feel disconnected.

14. Igloo

Igloo is a well-rounded solution for businesses seeking to improve knowledge sharing. Another platform with a focus on connecting desk-based and deskless workers, Igloo is designed as a single platform but with many possibilities for access and consumption.

You get all the standard features, like:

• News feeds
• Discussion forums
• Document management tools
• Employee recognition tools

And they’re all accessible via laptop, desktop, or mobile app.

Key features

While also including employee profiles and project management options, Igloo comes with:

• User controls for admins
• Content recommendation engine
• Targeted content per department
• Digital reminders for key tasks and notifications
• Extended access to users without a business email address

Best for

If you’re new to intranets, Igloo is a good starting point if you don’t have any complex requirements and need a catch-all platform.

Its blend of intranet and social features makes Igloo a good choice for businesses that favor ease of use.

15. RingCentral

Once focusing on small to medium businesses as a basic cloud phone system, RingCentral has acquired several companies to now offer a wider team messaging and meetings platform, signalling its acknowledgment of internal communications.

Key features

While recognized as leader for external calling, internal communications features include:

• Team messaging
• Video conferencing
• Internal company email
• Employee engagement modules
• Project management stack
• File sharing
• Helpdesk
• Internal social media
• Shared company calendar

Best for

Small businesses looking for a budget-friendly phone system with some internal communication features built in.

16. 8x8

8x8 brings a slightly different proposition to the table in that it uses a composable approach to configuring the elements you need for internal communications.

While it’s been going toe-to-toe with RingCentral for many years, its new approach is somewhat customer-focused, but there are still a number of good features aimed at internal collaboration.

Key features

• Instant messaging
• Presence detection
• Public and private chat rooms
• Phone system features like call recording and switchboards
• Integration with other chat apps like Slack and Salesforce Chatter
• Contact center module for customer service management
• Business analytics for internal and external communications

Best for

Small businesses that need to replace their on-premises phone system while introducing basic internal communication components like messaging and chat rooms.

17. Salesforce Chatter

Since Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack in 2021, there’s been a lot of chatter (no pun intended) around the continuation of its flagship internal communication software.

While there’s no definitive answer on when Chatter will be discontinued, it remains a popular choice for instant messaging between salespeople and their back-end operations teams.

Key features

Sales features aside, Chatter provides features like:

• Follow people, groups, and deals
• Employee polls and Q&As
• Like and reply to company posts
• Pin posts for visibility
• Bookmarks to refer back to posts later in the sales cycle
• Public or private messages
• Feeds to follow specific deals

Best for

Businesses already using Salesforce to manage their sales and marketing activity and need an employee communication tool to join the dots.

18. Poppulo

Initially focused on email communication, Poppulo has evolved into a multi-channel solution that integrates various communication methods, including intranets, digital signage, and mobile apps.

It excels in providing targeted communication through advanced internal comms tools, helping organizations break down silos and improve overall engagement.

Key features

• Crisis comms: Quickly distribute critical information during emergencies, ensuring fast and effective messaging to all stakeholders.
• Audience segmentation: Precise targeting and segmentation of audiences, ensuring that messages are relevant and tailored to specific employee groups.
• Multi-language support: Supports communication in multiple languages, making it ideal for global organizations with diverse workforces.
• Metrics: like open rates, click-through rates, and engagement trends.

Best for

Companies introducing an internal communications tool for the first time and need to tailor content across departments and measure effectiveness from day one.

19. SnapComms

SnapComms is an internal communication platform that focuses on delivering urgent and essential messages directly to employees across multiple channels. It is designed to bypass the clutter of traditional email systems, ensuring critical company information is seen and acknowledged promptly.

It excels when it comes to the rapid circulation of important updates, alerts, and announcements.

Key features

• Desktop alerts: Allows important messages to bypass email inboxes and appear directly on employees' screens. Alerts can be customized with images, hyperlinks, and call-to-action buttons.
• Scrolling news feeds: Delivers information in a ticker format that scrolls across the bottom or top of employees’ screens, similar to a news ticker.
• Interactive quizzes: Engages employees and assesses their understanding of key topics through gamified content, including multiple-choice, true/false, or short-answer formats.

Best for

Sectors where timely communication is crucial, like healthcare, education, and emergency services.

20. Confluence

Confluence by Atlassian is a collaboration and content management platform designed to enhance productivity and communication.

It serves as a central hub where teams can create, organize, and collaborate on documents, projects, and ideas. The platform is highly customizable, allowing organizations to tailor its features to meet specific needs, whether for project management, knowledge sharing, or documentation.

Key features

• Template library: Includes templates to quickly create common types of pages, like meeting notes, project plans, and product requirements.
• Macros for dynamic content: Allows users to embed videos, calendars, roadmaps, and charts, plus create tables of contents and interactive elements.
• Page and space organization: Content is structured into “Spaces” for different teams, projects, or departments, with nested and linked pages.

Best for

Remote teams already using other Atlassian products like Jira and Trello.

Workvivo checks all the boxes when it comes to internal communications

Whether your goals are to enable productive day-to-day chat between teams or top-down broadcast company updates, this is bread and butter for a platform with a history of delivering great intranet experiences.

What’s more, the intuitive interface and modern features like company podcasts and workplace insights mean users love using the platform and get great value from day one.

With Workvivo, you can create a vibrant workplace where ideas flow freely, achievements are celebrated, and everyone feels valued.

Looking for the hybrid of internal chat, employee engagement, and a fully featured company newsfeed?

Discover what Workvivo can do for you with a free, tailored demo.

Internal communications tool FAQ's

What are the types of internal communications tools available?

• Intranets: Hub sites for company updates and high-level employee engagement.
• Instant messaging tools: Enable real-time messaging between colleagues.
• Collaboration platforms: Introduces wider functionality to the messaging experience, like message threads, channel-based working, and meetings.
• Standalone meeting platforms: Provides an option to schedule meetings or meet in the moment.
• Internal newsletters: Broadcast email-type company updates.
• Employee surveys: Online survey capture to gauge sentiment of employee wellbeing and engagement.
• Task management tools: Help track project milestones and personal deliverables relating to specific departments.
• Community channels: Engagement areas for colleagues to share non-work-related chatter.
• Video conferencing tools: Set up internal/external video meetings with extra features like screen sharing, background blur, and real-time transcription.
• Onboarding center: Online site for new employees to work through documentation and videos relating to their new role.
• News center: Broadcast website where company updates get posted.
• Employee feedback apps: Specific programs tailored to getting anonymized or personal feedback on job satisfaction, team engagement, or workplace environment.
• Employee recognition tools: Provides the ability to say thank you or create employee initiatives for a job well done.
• Team bonding tools: Engagement apps designed to get to know new (and old) colleagues better on a personal level.
• Employee engagement analytics: Track how well/often employees are using specific internal communications tools.
• File sharing and management software: Enables coworkers to collaborate on documents in real time and asynchronously.
• Crisis management tools: Especially useful for frontline workers, sends updates when major issues happen on-site or with software.
• Employee experience tools: Measures how staff are feeling with respect to their job role and working environment at any given time.
• Job board: Allows employees to browse and show interest in potential career paths.
• Knowledge base: Repository of files that help with different job roles, tools, or workplace situations.

While there are many types of team communications tools, the better apps incorporate many or all of these elements.