In this post, we will explore the difference between Team Site and Communication Site in SharePoint Online. Which one should we choose when creating a new SharePoint site Team Site or Communication Site? This is actually the most frequent question I hear from clients and SharePoint developers.
The preceding photo is showing the popup window where you have to decide which type to select when creating a new SharePoint Site. Let’s understand the difference between the two templates in the next sections.
What is a SharePoint Communication Site?
Let's start with the Communication Site, it is essentially a type of site that you want to use for one-way communication such as broadcasting your organization’s message and vision, showcasing the organization’s services, or sharing content, documents, and training materials for viewing to a large audience in the organization.
In a Communication Site, there will be a specific number of users who have access to modify the content that will be read or viewed by a large number of users or readers. Think about your corporate intranet. Even if you have some collaborative parts available in the intranet, the main target of the intranet is to communicate a story such as corporate activities, events, or showcase services and information such as the internal policies. The intranet sites are good examples of Communication Sites.
Examples of communication site scenarios:
- Official corporate news and announcements
- HR team communicating benefits and compensation information
- Travel team publishing guidelines about corporate travel
- Policies and procedures
What is a SharePoint Team Site?
Team Site is used for two ways of communication and collaboration, in contrast to the Communication Site. Each time you have a team that needs to connect and collaborate to create a document or to finalize some content then you need a Team Site. In a Team Site, most members are content authors, they work in a team group where they jointly create and edit content or deliver a project.
You may need to create a Team Site for each department or unit of work in
your organization.
Examples of team site scenarios:
- Project team working together to complete deliverables and manage tasks
- Holiday party planning committee planning the annual get-together. If you have work locations in multiple geographies, you may have many holiday party committees and each party committee team site might be in a different language
- Human Resources team members – everyone who works in HR
- Executive Committee – different leadership groups within the organization
- Extranet site to work with a particular Partner
Feature Comparison: Communication Site vs Team Site
|
Feature |
Team Site |
Communication Site |
|
Who creates the site? |
Site Owner (or Admins) |
Site Owner (or Admins) |
|
Who creates content? |
All members are content authors who jointly create and edit content. |
Small number of content authors and a much larger number of content readers or consumers. |
|
Security |
Microsoft 365 Groups |
SharePoint Groups |
|
Default Setting for External Sharing |
External Sharing Enabled (but can be disabled by the SharePoint Admin) |
External Sharing Disabled (but can be enabled by the SharePoint Admin) |
|
Navigation |
Left |
Top |
|
Multilingual features? |
No |
Yes |
|
When you create, you ALSO get … |
Planner board, OneNote notebook, Email address for the group, Shared Calendar, shared mailbox, opportunity to connect with a Microsoft Team (if the site wasn't created as part of provisioning a Microsoft Teams) |
NOTHING but a SharePoint communication site! |
I hope this post was informative enough to help you decide how to choose between Team Site and Communication Site in SharePoint Online. Leave me a comment in case you have any question.