“Can you show us what a good intranet looks like before we build one?” That’s the first thing almost every client asks me, usually right after someone in leadership saw a slick demo at a conference.
The obvious move is to search for examples, but most of the polished galleries you’ll find are vendor designs that need extra products on top of Microsoft 365. Meanwhile, a dozen working examples are already sitting inside every SharePoint tenant, ready to preview in two clicks.
In this tutorial, we’ll tour the SharePoint intranet examples Microsoft ships with every communication site: Organization home, Department, Human resources, Learning central, New employee onboarding, Crisis management, and more.
For each one, I’ll show what it includes, which audience it fits, and how we used Organization home for our own SPGuides Intranet.
Quick answer: Open any communication site, select Settings (the gear) > Apply a site template, and stay on the From Microsoft tab. Select a card to preview it. Use Organization home for the company front door, Department or Human resources for team portals, New employee onboarding for new hires, and Crisis management for urgent updates.
Where to Find Microsoft’s Intranet Examples in Your Tenant
I preview templates from our real intranet site, SPGuides Intranet, which is a communication site. Templates differ by site type, so check the communication site vs team site differences if you’re not sure what you have.
- Open the site and select Settings (the gear icon) at the top right.
- Select Apply a site template.
- In the Select a template dialog, stay on From Microsoft. The From your organization tab holds templates your company created.
- Select any card to open its preview.
Each preview shows Site capabilities, a What’s included list, and a Preview site link. Nothing changes until you select Use template, so you can browse every example safely. I closed each preview without applying anything.
One thing to know before you show these to stakeholders: the preview images use Microsoft’s sample content, marked “[Sample content]”. The names, photos, and news stories are placeholders, not a real company.
SharePoint Intranet Examples at a Glance
Here’s what the main intranet templates included when I previewed them on 10/25/2026. Most organizations combine several of these, often joined together with a hub; our hub site vs subsite guide explains why hubs beat subsites.
| Template | Best for | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Organization home | Company front door | 1 home page, 3 additional pages |
| Department | Finance, IT, marketing, and other teams | 1 home page, 4 additional pages, 2 page templates, 1 document library |
| Human resources | HR portal | 1 home page, 4 additional pages |
| Learning central | Training landing page | 1 home page |
| New employee onboarding | New hires | 1 home page, 5 additional pages, 1 page template, 1 list |
| Crisis management | Urgent updates and support | 1 home page, 5 additional pages |
| Event | Conferences and town halls | 1 home page, 3 additional pages, 1 event schedule list |
| Leadership connection | Executive communication | 1 home page, 3 additional pages |
| Showcase | Visual product or project pages | 1 home page |
The gallery also lists Standard communication, Brand central, Volunteer center, and Blank. Department and New employee onboarding are enhanced with Stream, while Department and Leadership connection are enhanced with Viva Engage.
Example 1: Organization Home (Our SPGuides Intranet)
Organization home is the one I start with for almost every company. Microsoft describes it as “the online home for your organization” with news, resources, and personalized content.
Its capabilities are to highlight news and conversations, showcase organization resources, emphasize values and culture, and provide easy access to popular portals.
We built SPGuides Intranet from this template on 10/24/2026. The top navigation reads Home, Who we are, What’s happening, and Resources. The full walkthrough is in our guide on how to build a SharePoint intranet.
The home page has a hero banner, a world clock (Redmond, Singapore, Oslo, and Suzhou), a countdown to the next employee town hall, and an Upcoming events section.
Further down, the News web part shows our post “Welcome to the new SPGuides Intranet”, next to a Frequently used resources section built with the Quick Links web part (IT support, My vacation, My rewards, Glossary).
Why this works as an example: employees get today’s news and their most-used links on one screen, which is exactly what a front door should do.
Example 2: Department Site
The Department template is the one I hand to teams that want their own corner of the intranet. It’s built to “engage viewers with department news, events, and resources.”
Its capabilities cover the latest news and events, department resources, leadership teams and cultural values, plus a prebuilt event summary page template and a prebuilt newsletter page template.
You get 1 home page, 4 additional pages, 2 page templates, and 1 document library, with navigation of Home, Who we are, How we work, and Resources. The newsletter template pairs well with a regular SharePoint news post.
Use it when the finance, IT, or marketing team needs a site that matches the main intranet but still feels like theirs.
Example 3: Human Resources Portal
HR is usually the second site people ask for, because it answers the questions employees otherwise email about. The template says it gives employees “compensation, benefits, and career resources.”
Its four capabilities match its navigation: compensation and financial wellness, career resources for learning and development, employee benefits, and the organization’s cultural priorities and values. It includes 1 home page and 4 additional pages.
I like this example because each nav item (Compensation, Career, Benefits, Culture) is a real page, not a folder of PDFs. If you add more sections later, a dropdown navigation with sublinks keeps the menu short.
Example 4: Learning Central
Learning central is a single, busy landing page for training. Microsoft calls it “a landing experience for your organization’s learning opportunities.”
It highlights resources, shares news and announcements, promotes upcoming events, emphasizes values and initiatives, and showcases available courses. Everything lives on 1 home page; the sample navigation points to Remote learning, Courses, Learn a new language, Learn a new skill, and Get involved.
Because there’s only one page, it suits a small L&D team. To list upcoming sessions, add a calendar to the SharePoint site and link it from the events section.
Example 5: New Employee Onboarding
This is the most complete example in the gallery. It’s designed to “guide new employees through your organization’s onboarding process.”
You get 1 home page, 5 additional pages, 1 page template, and 1 list, enhanced with Stream. The capabilities include organization-wide news, values and initiatives, video training materials, a customizable onboarding checklist, and a prebuilt new hire introduction page template.
The navigation is short: Getting started, Meet the team, and Help & support. For a warmer welcome page, swap the top banner for a Hero web part with your own photos.
Example 6: Crisis Management
Crisis management is the example nobody wants to need, but it’s worth having ready. It exists to “share news, provide support, and connect people to resources in a crisis.”
Its capabilities are support channels for employees, the latest news and events, wellness resources, and new benefits and policies. It includes 1 home page and 5 additional pages, with navigation of Home, News & updates, Resources, and Help & support.
In a real incident, the news section does the heavy lifting. Show only the newest posts with a Highlighted content web part filtered to news if you need tighter control.
More Examples Worth a Look
- Event: event information, registration, and updates, a schedule list, speakers and sessions, and FAQs. It includes 1 home page, 3 additional pages, and 1 event schedule list with a default calendar view; the preview shows a countdown.
- Leadership connection: organizational vision and news, Viva Engage conversations with leaders, upcoming events, leadership teams, and individual leader profiles (1 home page, 3 additional pages).
- Showcase: related content, visual content like images, and calls to action on 1 home page. Good for a product launch or a project gallery.
- Brand central: a central place for brand assets and guidelines. It pairs naturally with the SharePoint brand center, which controls the themes and fonts every site can use.
Which Example Fits Your Audience?
When a client can’t decide, I ask who will open the site first thing on Monday. That answer usually picks the template:
| If your main audience is… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Every employee (company news, links, culture) | Organization home |
| One team or business unit | Department |
| Employees looking for pay, benefits, or careers | Human resources |
| People hunting for courses and training | Learning central |
| Hires in their first weeks | New employee onboarding |
| Everyone during an outage, storm, or emergency | Crisis management |
| Attendees of one conference or town hall | Event |
A typical mid-size company ends up with Organization home as the front door, plus HR, onboarding, and a few Department sites associated with it. Give them all one look with a custom SharePoint theme so the intranet feels like one product.
How to Use One of These Examples
Applying a template takes site owner permissions or higher. The steps are short:
- Go to Settings > Apply a site template.
- Select the template, review the preview, and select Use template.
- Replace the sample content with your own news, links, and photos, then publish each page.
Microsoft’s preview dialog notes that existing pages, libraries, and lists stay available in Site contents, and anything the template adds can be edited or deleted later. Your old content doesn’t merge into the new design, though; you get a new default home page.
If none of Microsoft’s examples fit, your admins can publish a custom site template that appears under From your organization. You can check what was applied earlier in Settings > Site information > View template history.
Common Errors and How to Fix Them
- No “Apply a site template” in the gear menu: you need owner permissions or higher. Ask an owner, or check your site permissions.
- Your old home page disappeared: the template created a new default home page. The old page is still in Site contents > Site Pages.
- The theme changed back after a few minutes: sites associated with a hub take the hub’s theme shortly after you republish, so change the theme on the hub instead.
- “[Sample content]” still shows on the live site: the template’s placeholder news and images stay until you replace or delete them, so review every page before launch.
- You want to undo it: there’s no automatic undo. Delete the added pages and navigation links yourself, and reset the theme.
For more page, web part, and site guides, browse our SharePoint tutorials.
Once your example is picked, these guides help you finish the build:
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there free SharePoint intranet templates?
Yes. The templates under Settings > Apply a site template > From Microsoft come with SharePoint in Microsoft 365, so you don’t pay extra for Organization home, Department, Human resources, and the others.
Does applying a SharePoint site template delete my content?
No. Existing pages, libraries, and lists stay in Site contents, but they don’t merge into the new design, and there’s no automatic undo. Microsoft’s site template guide covers the details.
Can I use these intranet examples on a team site?
Team sites get a different set, including Standard team, Employee onboarding team, Event planning, IT help desk, Project management, and Training course. The intranet front door is usually a communication site.
Who can apply a site template in SharePoint?
You need site owner permissions or higher. If you’re a member, ask a site owner to apply the template, or to give you owner rights for the setup.
Where can I see more SharePoint intranet designs?
Microsoft’s SharePoint look book is a gallery of ready-made communication and team site designs you can add to your tenant.
Hey! I’m Bijay Kumar, founder of SPGuides.com and a Microsoft Business Applications MVP (Power Automate, Power Apps). I launched this site in 2020 because I truly enjoy working with SharePoint, Power Platform, and SharePoint Framework (SPFx), and wanted to share that passion through step-by-step tutorials, guides, and training videos. My mission is to help you learn these technologies so you can utilize SharePoint, enhance productivity, and potentially build business solutions along the way.