Yammer

What is Yammer

Yammer is an enterprise social networking service that facilitates open conversation, community building, and knowledge sharing across an organization. Built to support large-scale, cross-departmental communication, Yammer provides public and private communities, threaded conversations, announcements, and searchable knowledge retention. It is distributed as part of the Microsoft 365 suite and is intended primarily for medium and large organizations that need a persistent, institution-wide social layer.

Yammer focuses on company culture, leadership communication, and informal collaboration that complements formal project tools. Instead of replacing task or project management platforms, Yammer provides a place for broad questions, organizational updates, employee recognition, idea crowdsourcing, and employee resource groups. It integrates with core Microsoft 365 identity and productivity services so teams can use familiar accounts and bring conversation context into documents, SharePoint pages, and Teams channels.

Administrators use Yammer to create communities that reflect organizational structure (global, regional, departmental, and interest-based), apply governance and compliance policies, and surface organizational knowledge through search and pinned resources. Yammer also supports analytics so communicators and HR teams can measure reach and engagement for company announcements and programs.

Yammer features

Yammer provides a set of features designed to support conversation at scale, community management, and integrations with Microsoft 365.

• Communities: Create public and private communities for teams, departments, leadership announcements, or employee resource groups. Communities support moderators, pinned posts, and a member directory.
• Conversations and threads: Threaded discussions with rich text, mentions, polls, praise, and attachments so employees can discuss topics in context and surface collective answers.
• Announcements and live events: Broadcast important updates and host live Q&A sessions; announcements can be promoted and followed by threaded feedback from employees.
• Search and knowledge discovery: Enterprise search across conversations, files, and people; pin useful threads and resources to make answers persistent and discoverable.
• Moderation and governance: Roles for community admins and moderators, content moderation controls, retention policies, legal hold support, and integration with Microsoft Purview for compliance.
• Integration with Microsoft 365: Single sign-on with Azure AD, cross-links to SharePoint and OneDrive files, embedding on SharePoint pages, and interoperability with Microsoft Teams for context switching.
• Mobile and offline access: Mobile apps for iOS and Android that allow notifications, threaded replies, photo and video uploads, and limited offline viewing and drafting.
• Analytics and insights: Community-level and network-level analytics for post reach, engagement, trending topics, and active contributors to support internal communications measurement.

What does Yammer do?

Yammer acts as the enterprise’s social layer. It lets employees ask questions, share announcements, recognize colleagues, and form communities around shared goals or interests. It’s particularly useful for HR and internal communications teams to distribute company-wide news and get real-time feedback from across the business.

The platform centralizes informal knowledge that otherwise lives in emails or chat threads, making that knowledge searchable and persistent. Yammer also enables leadership to run AMA-style sessions (Ask Me Anything) and collect feedback from geographically distributed teams.

Because Yammer is part of Microsoft 365, it brings contextual collaboration into document and intranet experiences. For example, a SharePoint news post can surface the related Yammer thread, or a document in OneDrive can be discussed inside a Yammer community so context is preserved alongside the asset.

Yammer pricing

Yammer is included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions and is not typically sold as a separate consumer product. Typical Microsoft 365 subscription tiers that include Yammer are listed below with representative prices commonly published for business customers:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6/user/month (billed annually) — includes web and mobile Office apps, Exchange email, SharePoint, Teams, and Yammer
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50/user/month (billed annually) — adds desktop Office apps and additional services
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $22/user/month (billed annually)** — includes advanced endpoint and identity protections plus Yammer
• Office 365 E3 / Microsoft 365 E3: $36/user/month (billed monthly or annually depending on contract) — enterprise plans with advanced compliance and security features that include Yammer

Check Microsoft's Microsoft 365 pricing plans for the latest rates and enterprise options. For large organizations, Yammer capabilities are often governed and enabled by the tenant-level Microsoft 365 license and may be available under different Enterprise agreements; contact your Microsoft account team for precise enterprise pricing and volume discounts.

How much is Yammer per month

Yammer is included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic at a baseline price of $6/user/month when billed annually for that plan. For larger feature and compliance requirements, enterprise plans such as Office/Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 carry higher per-user monthly prices and include Yammer as part of the bundle.

Because Yammer does not have a widely marketed standalone consumer SKU, the monthly cost for an organization depends on the Microsoft 365 plan the organization chooses and any negotiated enterprise agreements. If you are evaluating Yammer, compare the Microsoft 365 plans to see which meets your security, compliance, and productivity needs.

How much is Yammer per year

Yammer costs $72/year per user for Microsoft 365 Business Basic when that plan is billed annually at $6/user/month (12 months). Annual costs for higher-tier plans scale accordingly — for example, Microsoft 365 Business Standard costs $150/year per user at $12.50/user/month billed annually, and Business Premium costs $264/year per user at $22/user/month billed annually.

Enterprises that purchase Office/Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 subscriptions typically negotiate annual contracts; these plans include Yammer plus additional compliance and security features. For the latest contractual terms and per-user annual pricing, consult Microsoft’s enterprise sales or review the Microsoft 365 plan comparison page.

How much is Yammer in general

Yammer pricing ranges from inclusion in Microsoft 365 plans starting at approximately $6/user/month to enterprise bundles that can cost $36+/user/month. The effective price for Yammer depends on the overall Microsoft 365 bundle and whether the organization needs enterprise-grade compliance, analytics, or security add-ons.

For organizations already using Microsoft 365, Yammer represents an included capability with no incremental per-user fee beyond their existing subscription. For organizations that require advanced governance, security auditing, or integrated analytics across the Microsoft stack, the appropriate E3/E5-level plans will increase per-user costs.

When assessing total cost, account for administration, training, community moderation, and change management — these operational costs often exceed software licensing cost when deploying a company-wide social platform.

What is Yammer used for

Yammer is used to facilitate company-wide communication, employee engagement, and knowledge sharing. Internal communications teams use it to publish announcements that reach the entire organization, while HR and culture teams run communities for recognition, onboarding, and resource groups. It is also used for cross-functional problem solving where answers from subject-matter experts across the company are valuable.

Product and engineering teams often use Yammer to solicit broad feedback on roadmap ideas from global stakeholders or to surface issues that require coordination across business units. Yammer communities are commonly used for onboarding new employees, sharing best practices, and maintaining institutional memory about frequently asked operational questions.

Because Yammer integrates with the Microsoft ecosystem, it is also used to connect conversation to content: SharePoint news articles, policy documents, and training materials can link to Yammer threads so employees can ask questions and the organization can capture answers and context.

Pros and cons of Yammer

Yammer’s strengths lie in scale, governance, and integration with Microsoft 365. It provides a persistent, searchable conversation layer and is designed to handle cross-organizational discussions. Integration with Azure AD simplifies SSO and identity management, and Microsoft’s compliance tooling helps organizations meet legal and regulatory requirements.

However, Yammer can feel separate in workflows for teams that primarily use chat-first tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack for day-to-day operations. Adoption often requires active community management and clear governance to avoid overlap with Teams channels or SharePoint document discussions. Visibility and discoverability depend on good community structure and moderation.

Operational trade-offs include the need to designate moderators and owners for communities, invest in employee training for best practices, and define retention and compliance policies. When used as part of a broader Microsoft 365 deployment, Yammer adds value by capturing institutional knowledge and enabling leadership-to-employee engagement at scale.

Yammer free trial

Microsoft does not typically offer a separate Yammer-only trial because Yammer is bundled with Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Organizations evaluating Yammer should take advantage of Microsoft 365 trial offers to test Yammer as part of the overall suite. Trials of Microsoft 365 Business plans allow IT teams to validate integration, identity configuration, and community setup before purchasing.

During a Microsoft 365 trial, administrators can create communities, configure network settings, test integration with SharePoint and Teams, and evaluate reporting and compliance tools. Use these trials to build representative communities, seed content, and run an internal pilot to measure adoption and outcomes.

If you need a guided evaluation, Microsoft partners and resellers can provide demo environments and advisory services to accelerate the pilot and provide recommended governance models for Yammer adoption.

Is Yammer free

No, Yammer is not offered as a standalone free enterprise product for most business use; it is included with Microsoft 365 plans. While some legacy or limited-access versions of Yammer have existed historically, modern organizational use of Yammer generally requires a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Yammer.

For small teams exploring internal social features, consider using a trial of Microsoft 365 Business plans to access Yammer during evaluation. Free individual accounts do not provide the enterprise governance and integration organizations require for secure deployment.

Yammer API

Yammer offers API access for developers, and it has historically provided both a Yammer REST API and integrations via Microsoft Graph connectors. The APIs enable automation of actions such as posting messages, reading and searching network conversations, managing groups and memberships, and attaching files programmatically. This supports use cases such as archiving conversations, integrating third-party services, or programmatically seeding communities.

Key API capabilities include reading threads and messages, posting messages as a service account, listing and managing communities, and retrieving user and profile information (subject to privacy and consent settings). For modern integration patterns, Microsoft recommends using Microsoft Graph and connectors where available and using Yammer-specific REST endpoints for features not yet surfaced through Graph.

Developers should consult the official Yammer developer documentation for rate limits, authentication patterns (OAuth 2.0 and Azure AD integration), and best practices for respecting privacy and compliance requirements. You can review the official Yammer developer resources and API reference in the Microsoft documentation for details on endpoints and sample code.

10 Yammer alternatives

• Slack — Real-time channel-based messaging built for team collaboration with robust third-party app ecosystem and integrations.
• Microsoft Teams — Integrated chat, meetings, and collaboration hub in Microsoft 365 optimized for persistent team workspaces and real-time communication.
• Workplace from Meta — Social networking designed to mirror consumer social features but for enterprise use, with groups, live video, and profiles.
• Chatter — Salesforce’s enterprise social collaboration tool, integrated deeply with CRM and Salesforce objects.
• Jive — Community and collaboration platform focused on knowledge management and employee engagement for enterprises.
• Bloomfire — Knowledge-sharing platform with emphasis on searchable content, Q&A, and content curation for internal knowledge bases.
• Confluence (Atlassian) — Collaborative documentation and team workspace that supports knowledge bases and structured content with commenting and inline discussions.
• Staffbase — Employee communication platform built for internal comms, mobile-first distribution, and segmentation of audiences.
• Yammer — (Reference list includes Yammer here to show category peers) — enterprise social networking inside Microsoft 365.
• Asana — While task-focused, Asana provides team conversations linked to work items and can serve cross-functional communication needs.

Paid alternatives to Yammer

• Slack: Paid plans add message retention, enterprise key management, and advanced compliance features for large businesses. Slack is optimized for small-group workflows and real-time chat rather than company-wide threaded communities.
• Microsoft Teams: Included in Microsoft 365 but often treated as paid when bundled; Teams supports chat, meetings, and channel conversations and integrates directly with Office apps and SharePoint.
• Workplace from Meta: Paid tiers include enterprise support, analytics, and managed services; Workplace appeals to organizations wanting familiar social features with a mobile-first experience.
• Jive: Enterprise licenses for large deployments focus on knowledge management, communities, and intranet-style publishing with professional services for deployment.
• Staffbase: Paid plans focus on employee communications, audience segmentation, and mobile-first delivery for organizations needing curated news and content feeds.

Open source alternatives to Yammer

• Mattermost: Open source team messaging platform that can be hosted on-premises, supports channels, threads, and integrations, and is designed for security-conscious organizations.
• Rocket.Chat: Open source chat and collaboration platform with community features, self-hosting options, and extensible bots and integrations.
• Discourse: Forum-focused open source platform built for threaded discussions, categories, tags, and community moderation, suitable for structured community knowledge bases.
• HumHub: Lightweight open-source social network framework for building internal communities and collaboration spaces with modules and extensions.

Frequently asked questions about Yammer

What is Yammer used for?

Yammer is primarily used for enterprise social networking and organization-wide communication. Teams use it to create communities, run company-wide announcements, collect cross-functional feedback, and surface institutional knowledge that is searchable and persistent across the enterprise. It is commonly used by internal communications, HR, and leadership for outreach and engagement.

Does Yammer integrate with Microsoft Teams?

Yes, Yammer integrates with Microsoft Teams. You can add Yammer conversations as tabs in Teams channels, share links between the services, and weave Yammer community discussions into Teams workflows. Integration helps teams keep informal, cross-organizational conversation available while using Teams for focused, real-time collaboration.

How much does Yammer cost per user?

Yammer is included with Microsoft 365 plans starting at $6/user/month for Microsoft 365 Business Basic when billed annually. The effective per-user cost depends on the Microsoft 365 license chosen by your organization, with enterprise plans carrying higher per-user prices that include additional compliance and security features.

Is there a free version of Yammer?

No, Yammer is generally available only as part of paid Microsoft 365 subscriptions and is not typically offered as a free standalone enterprise product. Organizations can use Microsoft 365 trials to evaluate Yammer, but production deployment requires a qualifying subscription.

Can Yammer be used for knowledge management?

Yes, Yammer can serve as a knowledge discovery and retention layer. With searchable threaded conversations, pinned resources, and integration with SharePoint and OneDrive, Yammer helps organizations capture collective answers, best practices, and context around documents and policies.

How does Yammer handle security and compliance?

Yammer leverages Microsoft 365 security and compliance frameworks. It integrates with Azure AD for identity and access management, supports retention and eDiscovery through Microsoft Purview, and inherits tenant-level security policies from the Microsoft 365 environment to meet enterprise governance requirements.

Can I import data into Yammer from other platforms?

Yes, data migration and import are possible but typically require planning. Administrators can migrate content using APIs or third-party migration tools, and Microsoft partners provide services to map groups, users, and historical content from legacy forums or social platforms into Yammer communities.

Does Yammer offer mobile apps and offline access?

Yes, Yammer offers mobile apps for iOS and Android with limited offline capabilities. Users can receive push notifications, view previously loaded threads offline, and draft replies that synchronize when connectivity is restored; full functionality requires an active internet connection.

Can external users participate in Yammer communities?

Yes, Yammer supports external guest participation under controlled settings. Administrators can configure external networks or invite guests with specific restrictions; organizations should configure governance and access controls to ensure data protection when allowing external participants.

What training and support resources are available for Yammer?

Microsoft provides documentation, training modules, and partner services for Yammer deployment. Resources include official Microsoft docs, Microsoft Learn content, community support, and certified partners who offer onboarding, governance templates, and adoption programs tailored to large-scale rollouts.

Yammer careers

Yammer-related careers are typically found within Microsoft under roles that support product engineering, program management, user experience, and cloud services. Positions include software engineers who build the Yammer product, product managers who define feature roadmaps, and program managers who coordinate customer and enterprise requirements.

For organizations using Yammer internally, career growth also appears in roles such as community manager, internal communications specialist, adoption lead, and digital workplace architect. These roles focus on designing governance models, building engagement strategies, running analytics programs, and training employees to use Yammer effectively.

If you are seeking Yammer-specific job opportunities at Microsoft, check Microsoft’s careers site and search for teams associated with Microsoft 365, Viva, and employee experience products. Many roles require experience in large-scale SaaS, enterprise security, and cross-product integration.

Yammer affiliate

Microsoft operates affiliate and partner programs rather than independent affiliate marketing for Yammer specifically. Partners in the Microsoft Partner Network provide implementation, migration, and advisory services for organizations deploying Yammer as part of Microsoft 365.

If you are an ISV or services provider, consider joining the Microsoft Partner Network to access integration guidance, technical resources, and co-selling opportunities to support customers implementing Yammer and Microsoft 365 collaboration solutions. Partner certifications and published case studies help build credibility for enterprise deployments.

Where to find Yammer reviews

You can find independent reviews and user feedback on major software review sites and enterprise IT analyst reports. Check user reviews on platforms like Gartner Peer Insights, G2, and TrustRadius for first-hand accounts of adoption, administration experience, and comparative pros and cons. For product updates and official guidance, consult Microsoft’s Yammer documentation and Microsoft 365 roadmap.

To compare features and licensing specifics, review Microsoft’s documentation and Microsoft 365 plan comparison on the official site: explore the Microsoft 365 plan comparison and consult community reviews for deployment experiences and adoption tips.