PowerDMS alternative 2026: Xoralia compared
This article is written for you if you are evaluating alternative policy management solutions to PowerDMS. That applies whether you already use PowerDMS and are questioning if it still meets your needs, or it is on your shortlist as you formally evaluate different options.
We are Xoralia, and PowerDMS is our competitor. Of course, although we would love you to select Xoralia, we know that to win long-term customers, we must provide a solution that fits your needs. Therefore, we’ve tried to provide an honest and useful comparison between Xoralia and PowerDMS. If PowerDMS is genuinely the better fit for you, the information here will help you reach that conclusion.
What is PowerDMS?
PowerDMS is a document and policy management platform with a history rooted in the US public safety sector covering law enforcement, fire services, emergency medical services, and other accreditation-driven organisations. It has expanded into broader public sector, healthcare, and corporate compliance use cases over time.
PowerDMS is a standalone SaaS platform. It offers policy lifecycle management features, including document creation, review, approval, distribution, and acknowledgement, as well as training, accreditation management, and, in some configurations, scheduling tools. It is primarily a US-market prod
What is Xoralia?
Xoralia is a policy management platform built natively for Microsoft 365. It manages the full policy lifecycle from creation and review through to approval, distribution, attestation, and audit reporting. It achieves this by running entirely inside your Microsoft SharePoint and Teams environment. Xoralia is a focused, standalone policy management product, not part of a broader suite of compliance tools.
Xoralia’s customer base spans regulated organisations of 150 to several thousand employees across financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, public sector, aviation, and manufacturing — predominantly in the UK, Europe, US, and Australia.
The fundamental architectural difference between Xoralia and PowerDMS
This is the most important comparison point. PowerDMS is a standalone SaaS platform, so your policy content is hosted in PowerDMS’s environment rather than your own. Employees access PowerDMS through a separate portal with a separate login. It integrates with some third-party tools, but it does not run within your Microsoft 365 tenant.
Xoralia runs inside your Microsoft 365 tenant, so your policy documents stay in SharePoint. Employee authentication uses your existing Entra ID SSO with no new login required. Attestations occur in Teams (or in SharePoint, if preferred), while AI features run via Azure OpenAI within your tenant. Critically, at no point does your policy content leave your Microsoft 365 environment.
For regulated and complex organisations, this architectural difference is important in three ways:
Feature comparison
| | Power DMS | Xoralia |
|---|---|---|
| Runs inside the Microsoft 365 tenant | standalone SaaS | native M365 |
| Employee login | Existing SSO / Entra ID | Existing SSO / Entra ID |
| Acknowledge policies in Teams | | |
| Data stays in your tenant | PowerDMS hosting | always |
| Automated review cycles | | |
| Escalating review reminders | | |
| AI knowledge checks | Limited / basic | Azure OpenAI, in-tenant |
| AI knowledge assistant (policy Q&A) | | in-tenant, with citations |
| Audience targeting by role/team | | uses existing M365 groups |
| Real-time compliance dashboards | | Power BI native |
| Audit-ready evidence export | | one click |
| Accreditation management | (core strength) | standalone policy management |
| Training module | | policy management focus |
| Typical deployment time | Weeks to months | Days to weeks |
| Primary market | US public safety / public sector | UK, EU, and US regulated sectors |
| Data sovereignty for the UK / EU | Review required | Your tenant, your jurisdiction |
PowerDMS vs Xoralia: where Xoralia has advantages
Xoralia has several notable strengths.
Finding an alternative to PowerDMS: when to switch?
If you are currently using PowerDMS and evaluating whether to switch, the relevant questions are:
- Do you actively use PowerDMS’s accreditation management features, or primarily its policy and attestation functionality? If the latter, you may be paying for features you do not use.
- Are your attestation completion rates where they need to be? If employees find the portal inconvenient to use, a platform that surfaces requests in Teams will solve the adoption problem.
- Does your organisation have data residency requirements that PowerDMS’s external hosting creates friction for? UK and EU organisations subject to GDPR, NHS information governance, or financial services data security frameworks should verify the data residency implications of their current contracts.
- Is your organisation’s Microsoft 365 investment central to how employees work? If so, policy management that lives within that environment will achieve adoption levels that a separate portal cannot.
Migration from PowerDMS to Xoralia
Migrating from PowerDMS to Xoralia is a managed process and is usually straightforward. Policy documents are typically either already in SharePoint or can be migrated there as part of onboarding.
Review schedules, ownership records, and any assigned audiences for policies that are configured during the implementation process. Any existing attestation history can also be retained.
Most migrations are completed within the standard onboarding process without requiring significant professional services engagement. The Xoralia team manages the transition to ensure continuity of compliance. Any policy management or employee attestation process already in flight or needing to kick off during the migration period is not disrupted.
Frequently asked questions
Is Xoralia used in the public sector?
Yes. Xoralia is used by public sector organisations, including NHS England and Transport for London, as well as regulated private sector organisations in financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and aviation.
Does Xoralia handle accreditation management?
No. Xoralia is focused on policy management, covering the lifecycle of policies and procedures, employee acknowledgement, and compliance audit trails. If accreditation management is a primary requirement, particularly for US public safety organisations with CALEA, CAMTS, or similar body requirements, PowerDMS’s purpose-built accreditation functionality would be relevant to that need.
Can Xoralia replace PowerDMS’s training module?
Xoralia’s AI knowledge checks provide a comprehension-testing mechanism through dynamically generated questions from your policy content, run within your tenant. This is not a full training module, but it provides a more policy-specific approach to testing understanding than traditional training content. For organisations whose primary training requirement is policy comprehension rather than broader skills or compliance training, Xoralia’s knowledge checks address the core need.
How long does migration from PowerDMS take?
The timeline depends on the complexity of your policy library and the extent of historical data to migrate. Most Xoralia implementations are live within days to a few weeks of signing. Contact the Xoralia team for a tailored migration plan based on your current environment.
Is Xoralia suitable for US organisations?
Yes. Xoralia has customers across the US alongside its strong UK and European customer base. US organisations using Microsoft 365 benefit from the same native M365 integration, in-tenant data residency, and Teams-based employee experience as UK and EU customers.
About the author
Dan Hawtrey
Dan Hawtrey
How policy management software can help
We think the best place to store your policies is inside SharePoint. Most companies already have SharePoint as part of their Microsoft 365 subscription. Using SharePoint means you have full control of your policies, and many best practices can be achieved right out of the box. However, there are gaps and certain best practices are hard to achieve.
To fill these gaps, and for best results we recommend using purpose-built policy management software for SharePoint and Microsoft 365.
We’ve developed a dedicated solution called Xoralia (pronounced Zor-ra-lee-a) that will ensure you have the best overall approach to policy management, supporting your users, policy owners and administrators.
We learned all about policy management from many years of building custom solutions for our clients on SharePoint. But we kept coming up against the same challenges, mostly caused by feature gaps in SharePoint. One day, a client asked us to build a policy management tool that filled these gaps. The trouble was, they didn’t have a lot of budget. But we had a good relationship with them and so we decided to collaborate on it provided we got to keep the code. Looking back, it was a pretty simple tool but over the years we have added more features and relaunched it. We’re now on version 3 and our original customer is still using it!
3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia
Make it easy to find policies
Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering
Reduce administrative burden
Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time
Demonstrate compliance and best practice
Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.
And lots more!
What our clients say
A great time saver and tool for document management
We have found Xoralia to be very beneficial to us as it has allowed us to focus on other area’s as Xoralia will take care of who has read the documents and notify them if they have not. A great time saver and tool for document management all together.
Tim Galer
IT Coordinator
Hughes
Ideal partner for our regulated environment
LifeArc operates in a strictly regulated sector where compliance and information security are critical. It is essential that LifeArc’s workforce have easy and effortless access to the latest up-to-date policies and procedures, which is the structure Xoralia gave us.
Adam Lythgoe
IT Manager
LifeArc
How to get started with Xoralia
Step 1: Explore or request a demo
Start a free trial for instant, hands-on access, or fill out our form to book a personalised demo at a time that suits you.
Step 2: Get a price proposal
If Xoralia looks right for your organisation, ask us for a tailored quote. We’ll outline any options and packages to fit your needs.
Step 3: Install and launch
Set up Xoralia in your environment with our support. We’ll provide onboarding, training, and full assistance to get your team up and running quickly.
Here's what you'll get
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Central policy library
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Search and filter tools
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Mandatory read policies with attestations
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Quizzes
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Notifications and alerts
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Employee dashboard
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Line manager dashboard
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Works on mobile, in Teams and SharePoint
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New policy creation workflows
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Policy update workflows
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Review and approval gates
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Policy version history
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Compliance dashboard
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Audit trail
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Full reporting
And last but not least:
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Professional implementation service and support
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Evergreen software – frequent updates and improvements
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Comes with our "it just works" support warranty – we’ll fix any bugs, often before you even notice
Ready to get started?
Connect with us to streamline your policy management and ensure effortless compliance.
Uniting excellence in integration and features for seamless policy management
As the newly appointed IT Manager at our company, I was tasked with implementing the Xoralia policy management tool, and the experience has been nothing short of impressive.
Rian Stuart
IT Manager
TwinStream
