The state of SharePoint in 2026: what is gone, what is current, and what to build on
Every year someone declares SharePoint dead. It never was. But in a matter of months, real parts of it reached the end of the line: the Add-in model and Azure ACS retired in April, and SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, InfoPath and SharePoint Designer left support in July. Here is what actually ended, what replaced it, and what to build on now, on-premises and in the cloud.
Every year someone declares that SharePoint is dead. It never was, and it is not now. But 2026 is the year several real parts of it reached the end, close together, and that is worth a clear map instead of the usual noise. On 2 April 2026 the SharePoint Add-in model and Azure Access Control Services were retired. On 14 July 2026, days before this was written, SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 all left support on the same day. Meanwhile SharePoint itself is still one of the pillars of Microsoft 365, and its on-premises edition is committed into the next decade.
We build and migrate on this platform for a living, from global farms at the European Commission to Fortune 500 estates. What follows is what actually ended, what replaced it, and where to put your effort now.
Two SharePoints, one name
Most of the confusion comes from treating SharePoint as one thing. It is two lines that share a name: SharePoint Online, the evergreen service inside Microsoft 365, and SharePoint Server, the on-premises product you run yourself. The cloud line is Microsoft's primary platform and moves continuously. The server line is where the version numbers people argue about live, and where the July 2026 dates just landed.
| Version | Status in July 2026 |
|---|---|
| SharePoint 2007 / 2010 / 2013 | Long out of support |
| SharePoint Server 2016 | End of support, 14 July 2026 |
| SharePoint Server 2019 | End of support, 14 July 2026 |
| SharePoint Server Subscription Edition | Current, supported through at least 2035 |
| SharePoint Online | Microsoft's primary platform, evergreen |
What actually ended
Nothing about the word SharePoint died. Specific technologies did, and most of them had been walking dead for years:
| Gone | What to use instead |
|---|---|
| InfoPath (support ended 14 Jul 2026) | Power Apps, Microsoft Forms |
| SharePoint Designer workflows | Power Automate |
| Farm and full-trust solutions | SPFx |
| Sandbox solutions | SPFx |
| JSLink | Column formatting or SPFx Field Customizers |
| Add-in model + Azure ACS (retired 2 Apr 2026) | SPFx + Microsoft Entra ID |
| Custom ribbon and custom actions | SPFx Command Sets |
| Master pages | Site designs and modern themes |
Classic pages are deliberately not on that list. Microsoft has said plainly that it is not deprecating the classic experience: classic and modern coexist. Classic is where nothing new arrives, not something with an end date.
Two of these have the most recent dates, both in 2026. InfoPath was Microsoft's forms technology for SharePoint and Office, and its final support date has now passed. The Add-in model with Azure ACS was the authentication layer behind provider-hosted add-ins and app-only scripts; as of 2 April 2026 that layer stopped working, so anything that relied on it has to be on Microsoft Entra ID by now.
One more thing worth knowing, because it cuts the other way: the SPFx Field Customizers in that same table were themselves scheduled to be retired, and Microsoft reversed that decision after ecosystem feedback. They stay supported. Tracking what the platform actually does, reversals included, beats reacting to the first headline.
Why Subscription Edition exists
For years, staying on SharePoint Server meant a major upgrade every few years, waiting for the next box: 2016, then 2019, then whatever came next. Subscription Edition ends that rhythm. It follows the Modern Lifecycle, so it receives features continuously and does not expire on a fixed date, the same model as Windows Server and Microsoft 365. It is the reason there is no "SharePoint 2022" to wait for.
Subscription Edition or SharePoint Online?
If you are staying on-premises, Subscription Edition is the destination. But for most organisations the real question is on-premises at all, or the cloud. They are not the same product with a different bill.
| Aspect | Subscription Edition | SharePoint Online |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Your servers | Microsoft's cloud |
| Who operates it | You | Microsoft |
| Updates | You install them | Automatic, continuous |
| Control | Maximum | Less, more innovation |
| Where data sits | Your datacentre | Microsoft 365 |
| Best fit | Regulation, data sovereignty | Most other organisations |
SPFx is the whole extensibility story now
Everything in the "use instead" column above points, sooner or later, at one thing: the SharePoint Framework. The old model was server-side code running inside the farm. SPFx is client-side: it runs in the browser, in React and TypeScript, built with a Node toolchain. We went through that toolchain in detail, and its move from Gulp to Heft, in our article on SPFx 1.23.2; the short version is that the runtime is stable and the build is what keeps changing.
A team building on modern SharePoint today is working with React, TypeScript, a supported Node LTS, Heft, Fluent UI, and Microsoft Graph for data, and reaching into Viva Connections, Adaptive Card Extensions and Teams from the same codebase. That is a different job from the farm-solution world, and it is the job that has a future.
The mistakes we still walk into
The dates above are not theoretical. We still arrive at estates that are:
- still authoring in SharePoint Designer, for workflows that Power Automate has replaced;
- still shipping farm or full-trust solutions into servers that just left support;
- still building classic pages while new capabilities land on modern ones;
- still running provider-hosted add-ins on Azure ACS, which stopped working in April;
- still on SharePoint 2013, 2016 or 2019 with no plan and no migration date.
None of these break loudly. They accrue as risk and as technical debt, and the bill arrives later, usually at the worst moment. Moving off them is a project in its own right, and it can be done without downtime: we wrote about exactly that in migrating SharePoint without stopping the business.
What to build on today
There is no single answer, but there is a clear default per situation:
Not sure where your own environment stands? The SharePoint Compass turns these facts into a read on your estate in a couple of minutes: recommended destination, risk profile and next steps. It is free, and it runs entirely in your browser, so nothing is sent anywhere.
And none of this stands alone. The same fleet running these workspaces is the one leaving Windows 10 behind this year; the identity, management and security decisions there are the same ones that govern who reaches your SharePoint, which we covered in Windows 10 has ended, Windows 11 is the minimum.
SharePoint did not die, it moved
The honest version of "SharePoint is dead" is narrower and more useful: a set of specific technologies died, on real dates, and building on them now is a choice to take on debt. The platform underneath is more capable, more extensible and better secured than the one those technologies belonged to. The organisations that treat 2026 as a map, and not a headline, are the ones that come out of it on a platform with a future instead of a countdown.
