# HumHub — Employee Communication & Intranet

HumHub by HumHub GmbH & Co. KG holds a panel rating of 2.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2.5/5), as of 2026-10-30. Provenance: EU-Made; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG (https://www.humhub.com/de/)
- Category: [Employee Communication & Intranet](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): EU-Made
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/humhub
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/humhub/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/humhub/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-04 · evaluated 2026-10-30 · oldest source captured 2026-10-29

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026

## The panel's verdict

HumHub is an open-source social intranet from HumHub GmbH & Co. KG of Munich, self-hosted or vendor-hosted, and the bench scores it strongest as a knowledge and announcement platform. Content and knowledge is the top area at 6-6: versioned wikis with rollback and per-space permissions, full-text search across wiki, posts, files and comments, and collaborative editing via OnlyOffice and Collabora. Engagement and feedback is the weakest at 4-4 — likes, comments and polls are documented, with no public information on surveys with anonymity rules, recognition or per-group measurement. Sovereignty runs 6-7 on a German legal entity, optional SaaS hosting on EU servers under ISO 27001 and an on-premise option, though we found no public information on the hosting infrastructure or the product's push-delivery chain. Reach and targeting splits 4-6: the higher scores credit documented announcements with read confirmation and mobile push; the lower scores weigh the absence of any documented login for staff without a company email address. Integration and administration holds at 5 with SAML SSO, Advanced LDAP, a RESTful API and more than 80 marketplace modules.

**Speaks for it:**
- Versioned, searchable knowledge base with per-space permissions and OnlyOffice or Collabora editing, where content and knowledge scored 6-6.
- Open-source software from Germany, self-hostable with full data sovereignty or with optional SaaS hosting on EU servers under ISO 27001 — sovereignty scored 6-7.
- Network-wide announcements with read confirmation and read rates, delivered by push notification to the iOS and Android apps and in the browser.
- Extensible platform with more than 80 marketplace modules, SAML single sign-on, Advanced LDAP and a RESTful API — integration and administration at 5-5.
- Professional Edition publicly priced at approximately €2.37 per user per month for up to 100 user accounts, monthly cancelable, with a free trial and no credit card.

**Held against it:**
- Engagement and feedback scored 4-4: likes, comments, shares, messages and polls are documented, with no public information on surveys with stated anonymity rules, recognition or engagement reported per group.
- Reach and targeting spans 4-6, and the captured pages give no public information on login without a company email address, shared devices, urgent alerts or scheduled posts.
- Works council and privacy sits at 4-5, with no public information on a works-agreement template, on what an employer can see on employees' private phones, or on whether a manager can see individual read confirmations.
- We found no public information on the hosting infrastructure or on providers in the product's own delivery chain such as push notifications; the listed subprocessors (easybill in Kaarst, Germany; Stripe and Google in the USA) serve the vendor's website billing and advertising.
- We found no public information on Microsoft 365, Teams or SharePoint integration, SCIM or HR-system provisioning, webhooks, or an audit log.

**Best for:**
- You want an open-source intranet from a German vendor that you can run on-premise on your own servers, or use with optional SaaS hosting on EU servers certified to ISO 27001.
- You need a versioned, searchable internal knowledge base with per-space permissions for confidential pages and multilingual content in EN, DE and FR.
- You communicate chiefly through network-wide announcements with read confirmation and read rates, reaching staff on the iOS and Android apps or in the browser.

**Avoid if:**
- Many of your staff lack a company email address or company device — reach and targeting scores as low as 4 rest on the absence of any documented login for them.
- Your works council needs a works-agreement template or clarity on whether a manager can see individual read confirmations before signing under section 87 BetrVG — works council and privacy scored 4-5 with these questions open.
- Your IT stack is Microsoft-centric and depends on automated provisioning — the documented integration surface is SAML SSO, Advanced LDAP, a RESTful API and the OnlyOffice and Collabora connectors.
- You are buying primarily for engagement measurement or structured onboarding journeys — engagement and feedback scored 4-4, and onboarding appears as a use-case label with handbooks rather than a timed journey.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Internal Communications Lead | The Frontline Operations Lead | The Microsoft 365 Administrator | The Works Council Member | The Data Protection Officer | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reach & targeted announcements | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Pages, documents & knowledge | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Engagement, surveys & onboarding | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Works council, private phones & privacy by design | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Integration, identity & administration | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** | **2.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Internal Communications Lead** (v1.0): Heads internal communications at a 3,000-person manufacturer with eleven sites in four countries, a third of the staff at desks and the rest on the shop floor. Sends the CEO letter, the site news and the safety notice, and wants each to reach the right people in their language, a read confirmation where the law asks for one, and figures that show the board who actually saw it — not an email open rate.
- **The Frontline Operations Lead** (v1.0): Runs HR and operations for a logistics company with 1,800 drivers, pickers and store staff, most of them without a company email address and many on temporary contracts. The notice board and the WhatsApp group are what works today. Wants a login a new picker manages on day one, onboarding before the first shift, content in six languages, and a per-user price that still makes sense for seasonal staff.
- **The Microsoft 365 Administrator** (v1.0): Looks after Entra ID, SharePoint and Teams for a company of 4,000, of whom 2,500 have no Microsoft licence. Has seen an intranet project end as a second SharePoint nobody maintains. Wants provisioning from the HR system including staff without email, SSO and SCIM, the app inside Teams rather than beside it, delegated admin rights per site, a real API, and an export when the contract ends.
- **The Works Council Member** (v1.0): Sits on the works council of a retail chain and negotiates the Betriebsvereinbarung for every new system under § 87 BetrVG. Will not sign off an app that tells a store manager who read a post at eleven at night, or that colleagues must install on their private phones to get their shift news. Reads the analytics pages first and asks what a manager can see about one person.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): External data protection officer for several mid-sized employers. Reads the DPA and the subprocessor list before the feature pages: where push notifications, translation and the AI assistant send employee data, how long messages and read receipts are kept, how voluntary use on a private phone stays voluntary, and whether the parent company sits under a non-EU law that reaches the whole workforce's data.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen an "employee super app" that was a news feed with a chat bolted on, "reach every employee" that needed a company email to log in, and "95 percent adoption" that counted downloads. Reads "GDPR compliant" next to a push provider and a translation API that sit outside the EU, and per-user prices that apply only above a thousand seats — and asks what leaving would cost.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Analytics matomo self hosted: Matomo · yes · Deutschland [S8]
- Automated decision making: no [S8]
- GDPR conform: yes [S1]
- Matomo ip anonymization retention: yes · 6 [S8]
- Newsletter tracking pixel: Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. a DSGVO · yes [S8]
- Supervisory authority: Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA) [S8]
- Test network DPA: yes [S8]

**Data**
- Analytics cookies consent: yes [S11]
- Analytics ip anonymized: yes · 6 [S11]
- Analytics matomo self hosted: Matomo · Germany · yes [S11]
- GDPR rights: access · rectification · erasure · restriction · portability · objection · withdrawal [S11]
- Google ads conversion: Google LLC, USA · yes · 30 [S11]
- Newsletter double optin: yes [S11]
- Newsletter tracking: yes [S11]
- No automated decision making: no · no [S11]
- Payment receipt retention years: 10 [S8]
- Payment retention: 10 [S11]
- Server log retention days: 30 [S8]
- Server logs retention: 30 [S11]
- Trial double optin: yes [S11]
- Trial DPA: yes [S11]

**Hosting**
- Deployment options: SaaS · On-Premise [S1]
- Professional saas option: EU · yes · yes · daily · weekly · monthly · yes [S6]

**Integrations**
- Advanced ldap: yes [S1]
- App stores: App Store (iOS) · Google Play (Android) · yes [S4]
- Collabora online: yes [S1]
- Github: yes [S7]
- Module count: >=80 [S10]
- Named modules: News · Messenger · Translation Manager · Kalender · LDAP · SAML SSO · Umfragen [S1]
- Onlyoffice: yes [S1]
- Restful API: yes [S1]
- SAML SSO: yes [S1]

**Legal**
- Commercial register: Amtsgericht München · HRA 103451 [S7]
- Company: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S2]
- Company: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S3]
- Company: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S5]
- Company name: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S10]
- Controller: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Str. 28C, 81369 München [S8]
- Controller: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Str. 28C, 81369 Munich, Germany [S11]
- Copyright holder: © 2026 HumHub GmbH & Co. KG [S7]
- Dispute resolution: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr · no [S7]
- Entity: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S1]
- Entity: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S4]
- Entity: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S6]
- Entity: HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c, 81369 Munich, Germany [S9]
- Entity name: München · HumHub GmbH & Co. KG · Johann-Clanze-Straße 28c · Deutschland [S7]
- Last updated: 2026-07-15 [S11]
- Privacy last updated: 2026-07-15 [S8]
- VAT id: DE298862182 [S7]
- Website: www.humhub.com [S7]

**Pricing**
- Custom quote available: yes [S6]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S1]
- Professional billing: yes · yes [S6]
- Professional monthly 100 users: EUR · 237 · 10 [S6]
- Professional price 100 users: bis zu 100 Userkonten · EUR · 2.37 [S6]
- Trial available: yes · Professional Edition [S1]
- User tiers: 50 · 100 · 200 · 300 · 400 · 500 · 1.000+ · 5.000+ · 10.000+ [S6]

**Product**
- Admin access: yes [S5]
- Advanced search: Advanced Search module full-text indexes wiki pages, posts, files and comments in a single result list [S3]
- Advanced search module: Advanced Search module: full-text search across all knowledge [S10]
- Advanced search scope: Advanced Search indexes wiki pages, posts, files and comments [S10]
- Announcements read receipts: Network-wide announcements with read-receipt confirmation and read rates [S2]
- Calendar: yes [S1]
- Content types: Beiträge · Artikel · Umfragen · Galerien · Dateien · Wiki-Seiten [S1]
- Custom pages: Custom Pages module for landing pages, glossaries and structured docs [S10]
- Custom subdomain: yes · humhub.com [S5]
- Dashboard activity stream: yes [S1]
- Demo availability: yes · Professional Edition [S10]
- Demo registration double optin: yes [S8]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S2]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S3]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S5]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S7]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S6]
- Editions: Community Edition · Professional Edition · Enterprise Edition [S10]
- File management: yes [S1]
- Files module: Files module to attach documents to pages [S10]
- Fulltext search: yes [S1]
- Hosted edition: Hosted full HumHub Professional Edition on vendor infrastructure, no server setup or maintenance [S5]
- Included features: yes · yes · yes [S5]
- Live demo: yes · Professional Edition [S3]
- Live demo private demo: Live demo available; private demo network available with Professional Edition [S2]
- Marketplace module toggle: yes · yes [S1]
- Marketplace modules: 80 [S3]
- Mobile app: Push-Benachrichtigungen · Datei-Uploads · iOS · Android [S4]
- Mobile app: push notifications · file uploads from phone · yes [S9]
- Mobile friendly: mobile-friendly, low-noise for frontline workers [S2]
- Mobile platforms: yes · yes [S9]
- Modular configurable: yes [S1]
- Module count: yes [S1]
- Module custom pages: Custom Pages module: department landing pages, FAQs, internal microsites [S2]
- Module custom pages: Custom Pages module: landing pages, glossaries, structured docs beyond the wiki [S3]
- Module files: Files module: attach reference documents, diagrams and exports to any page [S3]
- Module news: News module: targeted broadcasts with confirm-receipt tracking [S2]
- Module polls: Polls module for decision-making [S2]
- Module translation manager: Translation Manager module to localize interface and content [S2]
- Module wiki: Wiki module: create and edit pages [S3]
- Modules marketplace count: over 80 modules available in the Marketplace [S2]
- Multilingual network: same network in multiple languages [S2]
- Notification center unified: Direct messages, group chats, mentions and replies all land in the same notification center [S2]
- Notification preferences: Per-user notification channels: in-app, email digest, push; quiet hours and per-space muting [S2]
- Notifications configurable: yes [S1]
- On premise option: Professional Edition also available on-premise with full data sovereignty [S5]
- Open source germany: Deutschland · yes [S1]
- Platform purpose: Kollaborationsplattform zum Kommunizieren, Kollaborieren und Wissen teilen [S1]
- Professional commercial license: Commercial license: modifications remain your property, no obligation to publish [S6]
- Professional exclusive modules: Advanced LDAP · SAML SSO · SOLR · News · Enterprise Theme [S6]
- Professional lts: Long-term support for the last two major releases [S6]
- Professional modules: Calendar · Tasks · Wiki · Files · Forum · Custom Pages · Mail [S5]
- Professional onboarding packages: Optional workshop and onboarding packages for setup, configuration and design [S6]
- Professional premium support: Premium Support included in Professional Edition [S6]
- Professional prioritized bugfixing: Prioritized bugfixing by HumHub developers [S6]
- Professional updates: All updates and upgrades including security patches at no extra cost [S6]
- Provisioning time: Network automatically provisioned after email confirmation; ready in a few minutes [S5]
- Related use cases: Sozialer Austausch & Schwarzes Brett · Wissen & Wiki · Zusammenarbeit · Personen & Onboarding · Termine & Kalender [S2]
- Responsive: yes [S1]
- Roles permissions: Administrator · Moderator · Editor · Lesezugriff [S1]
- Social features: yes · yes [S1]
- Space structured wiki: Each Space has its own wiki; permissions follow the Space to prevent accidental disclosure of confidential pages [S3]
- Space wikis: Per-space wikis with space-based permissions [S10]
- Spaces: Spaces mit eigenen Mitgliedern, Inhalten und Berechtigungen [S1]
- Subdomain rules: 30 · 4 · letters/numbers, max one hyphen not at start/end [S5]
- Trial no credit card: yes · no [S5]
- Use case customer support: Customer Support: playbook for ticket handling, scripts, product knowledge [S10]
- Use case it engineering: IT & Engineering: runbooks, post-mortems, architecture docs [S10]
- Use case operations HR: Operations & HR: policies, processes, onboarding handbooks [S10]
- Use case roles: Use cases described for IT & Engineering, Customer Support, Operations & HR, Sales & Marketing [S3]
- Use case sales marketing: Sales & Marketing: battle-cards, brand guidelines, pitch material [S10]
- Versioned wiki: Versioned wiki pages with change tracking, rollback and version comparison [S10]
- Wiki module: Wiki module for creating and editing pages [S10]
- Wiki versioning: Wiki pages are versioned: every change tracked, can revert, compare versions, see who edited what [S3]

**Subprocessors**
- Easybill: easybill GmbH · Deutschland · Rechnungsstellung [S8]
- Easybill: easybill GmbH · invoicing · Kaarst, Germany [S11]
- Google ads: Google LLC · USA · Conversion-Messung · EU-US DPF · 30 [S8]
- Stripe: Stripe Inc. · USA · Kreditkarten- und Lastschriftzahlungen · EU-US DPF [S8]
- Stripe: Stripe Inc. · credit card and direct debit payments · San Francisco, USA · yes [S11]

**Support**
- Demo available: yes [S1]
- Docs: yes [S6]
- Documentation: Documentation and HumHub Community resources available [S2]
- Documentation: Dokumentation · HumHub Community · News · GitHub · Downloads [S1]
- Documentation: Dokumentation · HumHub Community · News · GitHub · Downloads [S7]

## Questions

### Is HumHub European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies HumHub as EU-Made.

### Where does HumHub store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### Does HumHub have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to HumHub?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates [Flip (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/flip), [Workvivo by Zoom (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/workvivo) and [Staffbase (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/staffbase) highest among the other 17 Employee Communication & Intranet products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Flip](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/flip) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [HumHub alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/humhub/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 4 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://www.humhub.com/de/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S2] Features page (communication): https://www.humhub.com/de/use-cases/communication/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S3] Features page (knowledge): https://www.humhub.com/de/use-cases/knowledge/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S4] Features page (mobile app): https://www.humhub.com/de/get-mobile-app/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S5] Features page (hosting): https://www.humhub.com/de/hosting/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S6] Pricing page: https://www.humhub.com/de/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S7] Legal notice: https://www.humhub.com/de/legal/imprint/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S8] Privacy policy: https://www.humhub.com/de/legal/privacy/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S9] Reach & targeted announcements — found from sitemap: https://www.humhub.com/get-mobile-app/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S10] Pages, documents & knowledge — found from sitemap: https://www.humhub.com/use-cases/knowledge/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S11] Works council, private phones & privacy by design — found from sitemap: https://www.humhub.com/legal/privacy/ (checked 2026-10-29)
- [S12] Self-hosting / on-premises installation docs — found from the homepage: https://www.humhub.com/de/downloads/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S13] Open-source licence page — found from the homepage: https://www.humhub.com/de/licenses/ (checked 2026-11-01)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "HumHub — Employee Communication & Intranet", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-04. https://whats-best.ai/software/employee-communications/humhub

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1170?target=page