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February 19, 2025
7 min read

Unily: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to selecting a platform for your organization’s digital workplace needs, there are a lot of options to consider. Tools like Unily aim to centralize communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing, offering a unified solution for modern teams. But is Unily the right fit for your team, or could another solution like Guru better meet your needs? In this guide, we’ll dive into what Unily offers, explore its strengths and weaknesses, and compare it directly with Guru to help you make the best decision for your organization.

What is Unily?

Unily is a digital workplace platform designed to help organizations enhance communication, foster collaboration, and improve knowledge sharing. Created by Unily Ltd. in 2005, the tool serves as an intranet solution that brings together employees, tools, and resources into a single, customizable hub. Unily is popular among enterprise-level organizations looking for a centralized platform to connect dispersed teams and streamline workflows.

Unily is known for its sleek interface and robust customization options, making it a go-to choice for businesses in industries such as healthcare, financial services, and retail. While its core focus is as a digital workplace, Unily also positions itself as a comprehensive employee experience platform, helping companies foster culture, engagement, and productivity.

Key features of Unily

The platform is packed with features designed to support large organizations in creating a seamless, connected workplace. Here are some of the most notable ones:

  • Personalized intranet experience: Unily allows organizations to create a fully branded intranet tailored to their needs. Users can personalize their dashboards, ensuring they see the most relevant updates, tools, and resources every time they log in.
  • Content management system (CMS): Unily includes a powerful CMS that enables teams to create and manage content with ease. This makes it simple to share company news, resources, and updates across the organization.
  • Integration with enterprise tools: Unily integrates with popular workplace tools like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and ServiceNow, allowing teams to access the software they already use from one centralized platform.
  • Employee engagement tools: Features like social feeds, gamification, and surveys are designed to foster engagement and enhance company culture.
  • Mobile app: Unily’s mobile app keeps employees connected, even when they’re on the go, ensuring they have access to the same resources and communication tools as their desktop counterparts.

These features make Unily a powerful solution for companies looking to streamline communication and boost collaboration, particularly in large and distributed teams.

Who uses Unily?

Unily is primarily designed for medium to large enterprises with diverse teams and complex needs. It’s especially popular in industries like healthcare, financial services, and retail, where internal communication and employee engagement are critical. Organizations that need to manage a dispersed workforce or want to enhance their employee experience tend to find value in Unily’s extensive feature set.

Unily is also well-suited for companies that prioritize creating a strong internal brand identity through a customized intranet experience.

Pros and cons of Unily

No platform is perfect, and Unily is no exception. Here’s a breakdown of its main advantages and disadvantages to help you evaluate if it’s the right fit for your team.

Pros:

  • Comprehensive integrations: Unily integrates seamlessly with enterprise tools like Microsoft 365, making it a natural fit for organizations already using these platforms.
  • Customizable design: The ability to create a fully branded, personalized intranet experience is a major selling point for Unily.
  • Employee engagement features: Social feeds, gamification, and surveys help organizations foster a sense of connection and community among employees.

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve: Setting up and managing Unily can be challenging, particularly for smaller teams without dedicated IT resources.
  • High cost: Unily’s pricing structure can be prohibitive for small and mid-sized businesses, as it’s primarily geared toward enterprise-level organizations.
  • Overwhelming feature set: While Unily’s extensive features are a strength, they can also be a drawback for teams that don’t need such a complex solution.

Guru vs. Unily

Now that we’ve covered the ins and outs of Unily, let’s compare it to Guru. While both tools help teams centralize knowledge and streamline workflows, they serve different purposes and excel in different areas. Here’s how they stack up:

Guru’s strengths

Guru stands out as a knowledge management solution tailored for teams of all sizes, delivering verified, accessible knowledge directly within their workflows. Its combination of robust features ensures teams can work efficiently and stay aligned. Here’s what makes Guru a leader in knowledge management:

  • Ease of use: Guru integrates seamlessly with tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Chrome, allowing users to access information without interrupting their workflow.
  • AI-powered knowledge verification: Guru’s AI ensures your team’s knowledge base remains accurate and up-to-date by notifying subject matter experts when content needs review or verification.
  • Pages for tailored employee hubs: Guru’s Pages feature allows teams to create customizable, branded homepages that act as central hubs for accessing critical updates, resources, and tools. These pages help keep employees aligned by prioritizing essential content and making it easy to find key information.
  • Announcements for critical updates: With Guru’s Announcements feature, teams can broadcast vital updates that employees must acknowledge, ensuring no critical information slips through the cracks.
  • Scalability for teams of all sizes: Whether your team is a startup or a large enterprise, Guru’s flexible structure and robust features scale effortlessly to meet your needs.

Unily’s strengths

Unily’s primary strength lies in its ability to serve as a centralized digital workplace. For organizations that need a comprehensive intranet solution with customizable branding, employee engagement features, and enterprise-level integrations, Unily is hard to beat.

Integration and user experience

Both Unily and Guru integrate with popular tools, but their approaches differ. Guru integrates directly into your team’s existing workflows, enabling employees to access knowledge without leaving their preferred tools, like Slack or Chrome. Unily, on the other hand, focuses on creating a centralized hub for all tools and resources, which can be advantageous for organizations with complex workflows but may require employees to spend more time navigating the platform.

What customers are saying

Hearing directly from users can provide valuable insights into how tools like Unily and Guru perform in real-world scenarios. Here’s what customers have to say about each platform:

Unily users often commend the platform for its flexibility and ease of use. One reviewer on G2 shared, “Unily has been a great partner. We're able to take advantage of the many options, features, and functionality that they offer for their intranet. We love that it is easy to use, customizable within reason, and user friendly. We're very happy with the customer service that we've received from both the customer service teams and the technical teams from Unily.”

Guru users, on the other hand, frequently highlight its simplicity and its ability to transform team workflows. A G2 reviewer stated, “I use it every day. It's very user-friendly. It works just like Google—all you need is a keyword and bang—you'll find what you're looking for. Also, I've been working for 7 years and I can tell you: We never had that much knowledge or organization that we have now. Workflows are very organized and with proper reading and attention, you'll know what to do.”

Conclusion: Choosing the right tool for your team

Choosing between Unily and Guru ultimately comes down to your team’s needs. If you’re looking for a customizable digital workplace with robust employee engagement tools and don’t mind a steep learning curve, Unily might be the right fit for you. However, if your priority is ensuring your team has easy access to trusted, verified knowledge directly within their workflows, Guru is a better choice.

Ready to see how Guru can transform your team’s knowledge management? Check out a demo today!

Key takeaways 🔑🥡🍕

What does Unily do?

Unily is a digital workplace platform that helps organizations improve communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing by providing a customizable intranet solution.

Is Unily a Microsoft product?

No, Unily is not a Microsoft product. However, it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and other enterprise tools.

Who owns Unily?

Unily is owned by Unily Ltd., an independent company specializing in digital workplace solutions.

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