Choosing Between Team Site vs Communication Site in SharePoint
SharePoint, Microsoft’s powerful collaboration platform, offers users a variety of site templates tailored to different organizational needs. Two commonly used site types are Team Site vs Communication Site.
Understanding the distinctions between these options is crucial for organizations aiming to optimize their SharePoint experience. This blog post explores the differences, use cases, and frequently asked questions surrounding Team Site vs SharePoint Site.
Let’s delve into the fundamentals of modern team sites and communication sites to discern the distinctions between these SharePoint offerings.
SharePoint Modern Team Site:
A SharePoint team site serves as an excellent platform for sharing content, information, and applications among team members. It proves invaluable for collaborative projects, allowing a group of users to store and collaborate on essential files and manage daily data lists.
SharePoint developers can customize the team site home page by setting up links to crucial files, external resources, recent site activities, and web pages, providing a convenient way to monitor work progress and task management.
Classic Site vs. Modern Site:
Microsoft has revamped the user interface, introducing a modern UI experience for team sites in SharePoint Online. This update incorporates the new Office 365 groups feature.
Office 365 Group
An Office 365 group is a collaborative space designed for people to work together and share resources. These resources include shared documents through OneDrive, an Outlook inbox, a shared calendar, or a document library for collaborative file editing.
The Office 365 group serves as a pre-packaged team space with features like web parts, document libraries, and task lists found in conventional team sites.
It facilitates easy addition or removal of team members. Microsoft Teams, a unified communication platform, tightly integrates with Office 365 groups, offering features like file sharing, team chat, and video meetings.
Modern team sites closely couple Office 365 groups with the site, enabling effective team collaboration.
Communication Site SharePoint
A SharePoint Communication site is designed for efficient information dissemination. SharePoint developers can share news, reports, and other information in a visually appealing format using Communication sites.
During the creation of a SharePoint Communication site, users can opt for a blank site or choose from predefined designs, each equipped with a default set of web parts.
Communication sites are geared towards broadcasting information to a larger audience. While a limited number of users edit the site’s content, a larger audience serves as readers.
Security groups are integral to communication sites. For instance, SharePoint developers and users can utilize communication sites to share news, images, and organizational events with an entire organization.
Only a specific group can update content, while others can solely read and access the content on the site. Notably, communication sites do not come with an Office 365 group.
Let's examine the matrices and criteria below to discern the differences between Modern Team Sites and Communication Sites:
| Criteria | Modern Team Site | Communication Site |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Objective | Team Collaboration When creating a place for the members of a workgroup or project team to collaborate on project details, plan tasks, events, or exchange ideas. | Showcase, share a service, tell a story When aiming to broadcast news, tell a story, or share content for viewing, showcasing services, or highlighting people |
| Authors on site | All members are content authors on the site who jointly create or edit content on the site. | Few members are content authors, and a large number of members are content readers or consumers. |
| Governance on site | Governance and policies are defined by the team. Practices are aligned to get work done. | Governance and policies are defined by the organization to manage consistency of experience and effective management of organizational information. |
| Quantity | Expected to have many sites in one tenant. Based on the number of projects/teams/workgroups running in an organization. | Expected to have very few sites in one tenant. Based on the functional area or major topic. |
| Behavior during site creation | A New Office Group will be created and coupled with the site. Sites are Public by default. It prompts you to set privacy settings and add users to the site during site creation. | Office Group will not be created. Sites are Private by default. |
| Examples | Project team collaborating to complete project deliverables and manage tasks.
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This matrix outlines the key distinctions between Modern Team Sites, designed for collaborative teamwork, and Communication Sites, intended for broadcasting information and showcasing content.
Understanding these criteria is crucial for organizations to choose the appropriate site type based on their specific needs and objectives.
Conclusion
Choosing between Team Site and Communication Site in SharePoint involves understanding the nature of your content, the intended audience, and the collaboration requirements.
Both site types play critical roles in enhancing organizational productivity and communication. By carefully evaluating your needs, you can leverage the strengths of each to create a well-rounded and efficient SharePoint environment for your organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Choose Team Site for collaboration within a specific group or project.
Choose Communication Site for broadcasting information to a wider audience or creating a polished intranet portal.
While some features overlap, each site type is optimized for its intended purpose. You may customize to a certain extent, but the inherent design and functionality differences should be considered.
Team Sites usually have more granular permissions, limiting access to specific team members.
Communication Sites often have more relaxed permissions, suitable for sharing information with a broader audience.
