There is no single "directory" button in SharePoint, which is why so many teams end up with a stale page of hand-added photos or a spreadsheet nobody trusts. In practice there are several genuine ways to build a staff directory in SharePoint, and each one suits a different size of organisation and level of ambition. This guide walks through eight of them honestly, with the pros, the cons and who each option really suits, so you can pick the approach that fits your team rather than fighting the one that does not.
Everything below assumes SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365. Most of the people data you need, names, job titles, departments, office locations, photos and reporting lines, already lives in Microsoft Entra ID. The question is simply how to surface it well.
1. The built-in People web part (manual)
The People web part lets you drop a small set of colleagues onto a page as tidy cards showing photo, name, title and contact details. It is the quickest thing to reach for and it looks clean out of the box.
Pros
- No setup, no licensing, no admin involvement.
- Neat cards that pull live details from profiles.
- Ideal for a single team or project page.
Cons
- You add every person by hand, so it does not scale.
- No search, filtering or org chart.
- Joiners and leavers mean editing the page manually, and it drifts out of date fast.
Who it suits: small teams that want a simple "meet the team" block on a departmental page, not a whole company.
2. A SharePoint list with a formatted list view
Here you create a list of staff, either typed in or synced from another source, and use column formatting or view formatting to present it as cards or a styled table. It turns a plain list into something that reads like a directory.
Pros
- Full control over which fields you show and how they look.
- Built-in sorting, grouping and column filtering.
- No extra product to buy.
Cons
- The list is a copy of your people data, so it has to be kept in sync manually or with automation you build and maintain.
- JSON view formatting has a real learning curve.
- No live presence, and photos need managing yourself.
Who it suits: teams comfortable maintaining a list and willing to invest in formatting, especially where you want custom fields that Entra ID does not hold. If you go this route, plan how the list stays current, because one that quietly falls out of date is worse than none at all.
3. The Highlighted Content web part over a people list
Once your staff live in a list or library, the Highlighted Content web part can display them dynamically using rules, for example everyone in a chosen department, presented in a card or list layout. Unlike the People web part, the content updates automatically as the underlying list changes.
Pros
- Dynamic: no need to re-add people when the list changes.
- Filtering by column values, so you can build per-department views.
- Uses only native SharePoint components.
Cons
- Still depends on a list you maintain, so the sync problem from method 2 remains.
- Layouts and card fields are limited to what the web part offers.
- No instant search box, presence or org chart.
Who it suits: organisations already keeping a people list who want a low-maintenance way to display slices of it on different pages.
4. SharePoint and Microsoft Search, and PnP search-based directories
Microsoft Search already indexes people across your tenant, so a search box can act as a lightweight directory. For a richer experience, the community PnP Modern Search web parts let you build query-driven results pages, including people cards, filters and refiners, without writing a full application.
Pros
- Draws on data Microsoft already indexes, so it reflects the live tenant.
- PnP Modern Search offers powerful filtering and templating for free.
- Scales to large organisations.
Cons
- PnP is community-supported, so you own configuration, updates and troubleshooting.
- Query and template configuration is genuinely technical.
- Search relevance and profile completeness affect what people see.
Who it suits: larger tenants with capable SharePoint people who want a search-first directory and are happy to maintain a community solution.
5. Microsoft 365 profile cards and Org Explorer
These are not a directory page as such, but they are how people already discover colleagues. Hovering a name across Microsoft 365 shows a profile card with contact details and reporting lines, and Org Explorer offers a browsable view of the organisation for tenants where it is enabled.
Pros
- Zero build effort: it is simply there in the apps people use daily.
- Always reflects live Entra ID data.
- Includes reporting relationships out of the box.
Cons
- There is no single browsable directory page you can point people to.
- Availability of Org Explorer varies by tenant and configuration.
- Little control over layout, filtering or branding.
Who it suits: teams whose needs are met by in-context discovery and who do not want to build or maintain anything.
6. The built-in Organization Chart web part
SharePoint includes an Organization Chart web part that renders reporting lines around a chosen person, drawing on the manager relationships in Entra ID. It answers "who reports to whom" on a page.
Pros
- No setup beyond adding the web part and picking a person.
- Reads live reporting data, so it stays current.
- Genuinely useful for understanding structure.
Cons
- It shows hierarchy, not a searchable, filterable people list.
- Accuracy depends entirely on manager fields being maintained in Entra ID.
- Limited styling and no department or location filtering.
Who it suits: teams whose main need is visualising structure, ideally alongside another method that handles browsing and search.
7. Building your own SPFx web part with Microsoft Graph
If none of the built-in options fit, you can commission a custom SharePoint Framework (SPFx) web part that queries Microsoft Graph directly for people, photos, presence and reporting lines, then presents exactly the directory you want.
Pros
- Complete control over features, layout and branding.
- Live data straight from Graph, no separate list to sync.
- Can include search, filters, presence and an org chart if built well.
Cons
- Real development cost, plus ongoing maintenance as APIs and SharePoint evolve.
- You are responsible for performance, Graph permission scoping and security review.
- Time to delivery is measured in weeks, not minutes.
Who it suits: organisations with development capacity and very specific requirements that off-the-shelf options cannot meet.
8. A dedicated staff directory app
The final option is to install a dedicated directory app that gives you the polished result of a custom build without the development project. This is the sweet spot for most organisations that want a proper company-wide directory and do not want to maintain one themselves.
Glow Cloud Directory is an example of this approach. It is an SPFx web part (v2.0) for SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365, a Glow Cloud Kit product by Glow Cloud Solutions, that adds a searchable directory to a page with no coding.
Pros
- Live contact cards with Microsoft 365 profile photos and Teams presence.
- Instant search with department and office location filters, plus an A to Z jump bar.
- An org chart of managers and direct reports on demand, opt-in birthdays and work anniversaries, self-service profile fields, and config export and import.
- Guests are excluded by default, and it uses only three read-only Graph scopes (User.Read.All, Presence.Read.All and User-LifeCycleInfo.Read.All), running as the signed-in user with no data leaving your tenant.
Cons
- It is a paid product, from £29 per month per tenant for unlimited users.
- You depend on the vendor for updates and support, as with any third-party app.
Who it suits: organisations that want a complete, low-maintenance directory quickly and value privacy and easy setup over building their own.
Which is best for a staff directory in SharePoint?
There is no universal winner, only the right fit for your size and needs:
- A single team: the People web part (method 1) is enough.
- Custom fields you want to control: a formatted list (method 2), or the Highlighted Content web part over it (method 3).
- Large, technical tenants: search-based directories with PnP Modern Search (method 4).
- In-context discovery only: lean on profile cards and Org Explorer (method 5), with the Organization Chart web part (method 6) for structure.
- Very specific requirements and dev capacity: a custom SPFx build (method 7).
- A polished, company-wide directory with minimal effort: a dedicated directory app (method 8), such as Glow Cloud Directory.
Most organisations that want a real, searchable staff directory without an ongoing maintenance burden land on the last option, because it delivers photos, presence, search, filtering and an org chart in minutes while keeping all data inside their own Microsoft 365. If you would like to weigh the trade-offs further, there are more guides covering related decisions, including how to create an employee directory in SharePoint Online and a closer look at the SharePoint People web part versus a staff directory.
If method 8 sounds like your fit, you can try Glow Cloud Directory free for 14 days and see it running in your own tenant before you decide, starting here.