The verdict in one line: A self-hosted intranet wins for most organisations replacing Workplace from Meta, because ShaunSocial costs $149 one-time for the web platform against Meta’s last list pricing of roughly $4 to $8 per user per month.
Self-hosted suits organisations that want the data on their own server, their own branding, and their own native mobile apps. Hosted SaaS suits organisations with no server admin capacity that will pay per seat indefinitely.
This comparison covers pricing, features, technical requirements, and the migration paths available now that Workplace has closed.
Quick Comparison: Self-Hosted vs Workplace from Meta
| Dimension | Self-hosted (ShaunSocial) | Workplace from Meta |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $149 one-time (web platform); $559 one-time with native iOS + Android apps | Market estimate: ~$4/user/month Standard, ~$8/user/month Advanced under 1,000 users |
| Time to launch | Hours to days after VPS provisioning | Weeks of tenant setup; service now closed |
| Customization | Full source, white-label, remove all vendor branding | Configuration only, Meta branding persists |
| Source code access | Yes, full unencrypted PHP | No |
| Mobile app | Native iOS + Android, published under your brand ($559 package) | Meta-branded app, retired with the service |
| Hosting | Your VPS, $10 to $20/month | Meta cloud (discontinued 1 June 2026) |
| Support | Vendor support, free updates for 12 months, $49/year renewal after | Meta support, ended with the shutdown |
| Best for | 500+ seat orgs cutting per-seat spend, associations, alumni networks | Was for zero-ops buyers who accepted per-seat pricing |
Pricing Comparison: One-Time Licence vs Per-Seat Subscription
Per-seat pricing scales with headcount. One-time licensing does not. The table below models a 500-seat organisation over three years.
| Option | Unit cost | Annual | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workplace Standard (market estimate) | ~$4/user/month | $24,000 | ~$72,000 |
| Workplace Advanced (market estimate) | ~$8/user/month | $48,000 | ~$144,000 |
| ShaunSocial web license | $149 one-time + $15/month VPS | $180 hosting | ~$689 |
| ShaunSocial + native apps | $559 one-time + $15/month VPS | $180 hosting | ~$1,099 |
Ratio: the 500-seat Workplace Standard estimate is roughly 104x the three-year ShaunSocial web cost. Only ShaunSocial’s pricing is confirmed here. Meta’s Workplace figures are market estimates, not quotes, and Meta stopped publishing list pricing after the shutdown announcement.
Self-hosting removes per-seat fees and revenue share. It does not remove payment processor fees, and it does not remove VPS hosting. Model both before committing, as covered in one-time licence vs per-member pricing over three years.
Migration Paths After the Shutdown
Workplace went read-only on 1 September 2025 and closed on 1 June 2026. Four paths remain:
- Hosted SaaS successor. Meta named Workvivo as a preferred migration partner at announcement. Microsoft Viva Engage and Slack-based intranets are the other common destinations. All charge per seat.
- Self-hosted social intranet. Deploy ShaunSocial or HumHub on your own VPS. One-time cost, full data ownership. Trade-off is server admin work.
- Rebuild inside existing tooling. Push the intranet into Teams, Google Workspace, or Confluence. Cheapest short-term, weakest social feature set.
- Custom build. Market estimate for a custom social platform is $50,000 to $150,000 over 6 to 18 months. Rarely justified for an intranet.
Path 1 and path 3 are covered in more depth in self-hosted vs SaaS social intranet software.
Features Compared
Feed, Chat and Internal Comms
- ShaunSocial: activity feed and discover, real-time chat, groups and polling, stories and watch, notifications and mentions, hashtags and bookmarks.
- Workplace: news feed, groups, Workplace Chat, live video. Feature set was strong but closed as of 1 June 2026.
Parity on the basics: feed, groups, chat, notifications. ShaunSocial adds stories, short video, and an AI chatbot that Workplace never shipped in this tier.
Design, Branding and Customization
Workplace users got configuration. ShaunSocial buyers get the source.
- Full PHP source code, unencrypted, modifiable
- Complete white-label: your domain, logo, colors, app name, no vendor watermark
- Theme, menu, and layout managers in the admin panel
- Multilingual and RTL support, auto-translate for posts and comments
Monetization and Integration Tools
Workplace had no monetization layer; it was pure internal tooling. ShaunSocial covers both internal and mixed models.
- eWallet and credit system, payment gateway and currency manager
- Subscriptions and membership management, paid content
- Ads plugin and groups plugin
- RESTful API, OpenID and social login, 2FA
For associations and alumni networks, membership dues and paid content replace the per-seat model entirely.
Technical Requirements
| Requirement | Spec |
|---|---|
| Language | PHP 8.1+ (Laravel framework) |
| Database | MySQL 5+ |
| Extensions | Ctype, cURL, DOM, Fileinfo, Filter, Hash, Mbstring, OpenSSL, PCRE, Tokenizer, XML, GD, Zip |
| Memory | 128MB+ |
| Stack | Standard LAMP or LEMP on a VPS |
| Hosting cost | $10 to $20/month (DigitalOcean, Linode, Hetzner) |
Data residency is the strongest technical argument for self-hosting. Employee records stay on your infrastructure, which simplifies GDPR posture for EU staff. See the GDPR compliance checklist for self-hosted communities.
Support and Updates
- ShaunSocial: vendor support plus documentation, free updates for 12 months included, $49/year renewal optional
- Workplace: Meta support, terminated with the product
- Hosted successors: tiered support, higher tiers cost more per seat
Who Should Choose a Self-Hosted Intranet?
- 500+ seat organisations. Per-seat pricing multiplies; one-time licensing does not.
- Regulated and privacy-bound employers. Health, legal, finance, and public sector teams that cannot place employee data on a third-party cloud.
- Associations and alumni networks. Mixed models (dues, paid content, ads) that pure intranet SaaS does not support.
All three benefit from native mobile apps under their own brand, which is the differentiator versus PWA-only platforms. The trade-offs are compared in PWA vs native apps for community platforms.
Who Should Choose a Hosted SaaS Intranet?
- Teams under 200 seats with no IT staff. Per-seat cost stays manageable and no VPS admin is needed.
- Organisations already deep in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Viva Engage or Teams-based intranets avoid a second login.
- Buyers who need a compliance vendor contract. Some enterprises require a SaaS vendor to carry the SOC 2 and DPA paperwork.
Our Verdict
Self-hosted wins for most Workplace migrations. At 500 seats, the three-year difference is roughly $72,000 versus $689, and you keep the source code, the data, and the app store listing. The enterprise social networking platform comparison shows the same pattern across the whole category.
Hosted SaaS wins in exactly one case: fewer than 200 seats, no server admin on staff, and an existing Microsoft or Google estate you want the intranet folded into. Outside that window, buying a licence beats renting a seat.
See ShaunSocial pricing or try the live demo before you commit.