SharePoint Online vs On-Premises in 2026: After the SharePoint 2016/2019 End of Support

If your organisation still runs SharePoint Server 2019 or SharePoint Server 2016, you are now on unsupported software: both versions reached end of extended support on July 14, 2026, according to the Microsoft Product Lifecycle page for SharePoint Server 2019. Since that date, Microsoft no longer issues security patches, compliance updates or technical support for either version, so migration is now urgent. This guide covers the key decision points: SharePoint Online versus SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, AI features, SharePoint Premium (formerly Syntex), updated Microsoft 365 pricing, and the migration tooling available in 2026.

Updated October 2026: SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 are now out of support, SharePoint Premium has been renamed, and Microsoft 365 prices changed on 1 July 2026.

Key Takeaways

• ▸SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reached end of extended support on 14 July 2026 and no longer receive security updates.
• ▸SharePoint Online is the best target for most organisations — it gets Copilot, AI agents and new features first.
• ▸SharePoint Server Subscription Edition is the only supported on-premises option, with support committed until at least 31 December 2035.
• ▸SharePoint Premium (formerly Syntex) is now "document processing for Microsoft 365", and SharePoint Advanced Management is a standalone product.
• ▸Microsoft 365 list prices rose on 1 July 2026 (for example, Microsoft 365 E3 from $36 to $39 per user/month).

SharePoint Server 2019 End of Life — July 14, 2026 (Now Passed)

The Microsoft Product Lifecycle page for SharePoint Server 2019 confirms:

• ▸Mainstream Support ended: October 14, 2023
• ▸Extended Support ends: July 14, 2026
• ▸SharePoint Server 2016 extended support also ends: July 14, 2026

Since July 14, 2026, these versions no longer receive security patches. Continuing to run an unpatched SharePoint Server exposes your organisation to known vulnerabilities — a significant security and compliance risk for any regulated industry (financial services, healthcare, legal, local government). Cyber insurance policies increasingly require patched, supported software as a condition of coverage.

If you are still on SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, treat migration as a priority project and apply compensating security controls (network isolation, strict access, monitoring) until you move. Typical SharePoint migrations of moderate complexity take 3–6 months from initial assessment to production cutover.

SharePoint Online in 2026: AI Features and Copilot

SharePoint Online has extended its lead over on-premises in the AI and productivity feature set. Several significant capabilities have launched in 2025–2026 that are only available in SharePoint Online:

SharePoint Agent

Every SharePoint Online site now has a built-in AI agent, powered by Microsoft Copilot. Site owners can configure the SharePoint Agent to answer questions about the site's content — policies, procedures, project documents, team knowledge bases. Available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. According to Microsoft's SharePoint in the Era of AI: Spring 2025 Updates, these agents can be deployed to Microsoft Teams for wider accessibility.

Copilot Page Creation

Authors can describe the page they want to create in natural language — Copilot generates a structured page with suggested sections, images from Microsoft Designer, and content sourced from SharePoint and Microsoft Graph. This substantially reduces the time and skill required to create structured intranet content.

SharePoint Admin Agent

The SharePoint Admin Agent helps administrators assess and fix content risks — oversharing, content sprawl, lifecycle and permissions — using natural-language prompts. It requires SharePoint Advanced Management.

AI Document Processing

Microsoft's AI document processing capabilities (OCR, autofill columns, document translation, electronic signatures) are cloud-only. On-premises deployments do not receive AI Copilot features.

From Syntex to SharePoint Premium to Document Processing

If you have been researching Microsoft Syntex, note that the name has changed twice. Syntex was rebranded as "SharePoint Premium" at Microsoft Ignite 2023, and in September 2025 Microsoft retired the SharePoint Premium name: its AI content services are now called document processing for Microsoft 365, while SharePoint Advanced Management and Microsoft 365 Backup and Archive became standalone products. Document processing now prioritises four services — OCR, document translation, autofill columns and eSignature — with older capabilities grouped separately.

The AI-powered content services in this family include:

• ▸Document understanding: AI models that classify documents and extract metadata at scale
• ▸Structured document processing: Form extraction (invoices, purchase orders, onboarding documents)
• ▸Content assembly: Automated document generation from templates using data from Microsoft 365 and external systems
• ▸Electronic signatures: Built-in e-signature workflows integrated with SharePoint document libraries
• ▸Advanced content governance: Compliance and records management capabilities beyond standard Microsoft 365 Purview
• ▸SharePoint Embedded: A developer API for building custom content applications powered by SharePoint infrastructure

Licensing

Document processing is generally billed on a pay-as-you-go basis through an Azure subscription. Capability and plan details are on the Microsoft SharePoint plans and pricing page.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition: The On-Premises Future

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE), released in October 2021, is Microsoft's evergreen on-premises SharePoint version. Unlike the numbered releases (2013, 2016, 2019), SharePoint SE follows the Modern Lifecycle Policy. Microsoft has committed to support it until at least December 31, 2035 — the longest on-premises commitment Microsoft has made for any SharePoint version.

SharePoint SE receives continuous feature and security updates (like Windows Server or SQL Server), without fixed version numbers. It can co-exist with SharePoint Online in a hybrid configuration, allowing a staged migration approach.

For organisations upgrading from 2019 to SE (rather than migrating to Online), the upgrade path is supported and well documented. SharePoint SE uses subscription licensing for the server and client access licences.

Features Being Deprecated from SharePoint Server SE

Microsoft is actively deprecating legacy features from SharePoint Server SE. IT teams need to be aware of these before committing to an SE upgrade or continuing with on-premises:

• ▸SharePoint 2010 Workflows: Deprecated in SE from November 2024 update
• ▸InfoPath Forms Services: Deprecated — migrate to Power Apps or Microsoft Forms
• ▸SharePoint Designer 2013: No longer updated; use Power Automate for workflow automation
• ▸Basic Authentication: Deprecated in favour of Modern Authentication (OAuth 2.0)

None of these are new capabilities — they are legacy features from the SharePoint 2010/2013 era. However, if your organisation has critical business processes depending on any of these, migration planning must include reworking these workflows before the SE upgrade.

Microsoft 365 Licensing and 2026 Pricing Changes

Microsoft's pricing updates for Microsoft 365 took effect on July 1, 2026. US list prices for key plans include Microsoft 365 E3 at $39 (up from $36), Microsoft 365 E5 at $60 (up from $57), Office 365 E3 at $26 (up from $23), Business Basic at $7 (up from $6) and Business Standard at $14 (up from $12.50) per user/month, while Business Premium stayed at $22. Read our Microsoft 365 July 2026 price increase action plan for what to do next.

Before committing to a specific per-user cost in your business case, verify current pricing on the Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans and pricing page or through your Microsoft licencing partner, as pricing varies by region, volume, and existing agreements.

The TCO chart above uses illustrative figures for 100-user organisations. SharePoint Online (via M365 E3) typically shows lower 5-year TCO than on-premises SE for organisations of 500 users or fewer, due to the elimination of server hardware, Windows Server licences, SQL Server licences, and associated IT administration overhead.

Total Cost of Ownership: Online vs On-Premises

A common misconception is that on-premises SharePoint is cheaper than SharePoint Online for large deployments. The TCO analysis requires including:

On-premises costs: Server hardware (replace every 4–5 years), Windows Server licences (Standard ~$1,000+/core), SQL Server licences (Standard ~$3,900/core or Enterprise at significantly higher cost), power and data centre costs, SharePoint Server licences and CALs, and IT staff time for server maintenance, patching, and upgrades. For a 100-user deployment, realistic Year 1 on-premises cost (including hardware refresh cycle amortisation) is typically $90,000–$110,000; ongoing years $45,000–$55,000.

SharePoint Online costs: Microsoft 365 E3 includes SharePoint, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, Office apps, and security features. The per-user cost eliminates all server infrastructure overhead. For 100 users, 5-year TCO is predictable and linear.

For organisations of 1,000+ users, on-premises TCO can become competitive when existing server infrastructure is fully utilised across multiple services (Exchange, SharePoint, Active Directory). For most SMEs and mid-market organisations under 500 users, SharePoint Online provides lower or comparable TCO while delivering substantially more features, including AI capabilities.

Migration Tools in 2026: Migration Manager and SPMT

Microsoft's primary free migration tooling is now consolidated into Migration Manager, available within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center (admin.microsoft.com → Migration). Migration Manager uses the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) agent under the hood and provides a guided experience for:

• ▸SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and SE to SharePoint Online
• ▸File shares and Windows Server folders
• ▸Cloud sources: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Egnyte

Mover Retirement and Migration Roles

Microsoft retired the Mover tool in October 2024. If your team planned to use Mover for migration, switch to Migration Manager for cloud-to-cloud migrations.

A Migration Administrator role is now available in Microsoft 365, providing scoped permissions for migration tasks without requiring global admin access — supporting security best practices for migration projects.

For complex migrations involving custom SharePoint solutions, workflows, InfoPath forms, or large numbers of site collections, third-party tooling (ShareGate by Sharegate, AvePoint Fly) provides additional capability, content mapping, and audit reporting. PapaSiddhi Technologies uses both Microsoft Migration Manager and third-party tooling depending on migration complexity.

The Decision Framework: Which Path for Your Organisation?

Choose SharePoint Online if:

• ▸You are running SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019, which went out of support on July 14, 2026
• ▸You want Microsoft 365 Copilot AI features (SharePoint Agent, Copilot page creation)
• ▸Your users are already using Teams, Exchange Online, or other Microsoft 365 cloud services
• ▸Your organisation is under 500 users where on-premises TCO advantage is marginal
• ▸You want to reduce IT administration overhead (no server patching, no hardware refresh cycles)
• ▸You want AI document processing and eSignature — cloud-only

Choose SharePoint Server SE if:

• ▸Regulatory mandate explicitly requires data to remain on-premises at a specific physical location
• ▸Defence, government, or financial services compliance frameworks prohibit cloud hosting
• ▸You have significant on-premises customisation investment (custom web parts, farm solutions) that would be cost-prohibitive to migrate in the short term
• ▸You have existing on-premises infrastructure that is fully utilised and depreciated at 1,000+ user scale

Consider Hybrid as a Bridge:
SharePoint Hybrid configurations allow on-premises SE and SharePoint Online to coexist with unified search, My Sites (OneDrive for Business), and hybrid app launcher. For organisations that want to move gradually, starting with SharePoint Online for new projects while maintaining on-premises for established systems is a valid phased approach.

PapaSiddhi Technologies SharePoint Services

PapaSiddhi Technologies provides end-to-end SharePoint development and migration services for clients in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, UAE and USA. Our SharePoint developers handle SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 assessments, migration planning, SharePoint Online customisation with SPFx web parts and Power Automate, and AI document processing. Once you have migrated, our SharePoint intranet best practices guide helps you drive adoption.

If your organisation still runs SharePoint Server 2019 or 2016, it is already out of support. Contact us for a free SharePoint environment assessment and migration readiness review.

Related case studies: SharePoint intranet resource portal.