SharePoint Site Types: Explore Different Sites in SharePoint

SharePoint is a collaborative application that is used to maximize the organization’s productivity to a large extent. It comprises several features including permissions, lists, libraries, sites, and so on. One of the common uses of SharePoint is to create sites. 

It offers different types of sites such as Team, Communication, and Classic. All these sites have their own features and advantages. But sometimes this makes admins confused about which one to choose when. So, let’s break this confusion today and explore all of the sites of SharePoint in detail.

Why Create Sites in SharePoint?

There are multiple reasons to create the different types of SharePoint sites. Here are some of the major reasons.

• Easy Sharing – SharePoint allows you to add team members to access the site content. You can add the required team members and share the content with the members that you want to share using the document library in SharePoint.
• Enhance Collaboration – With the help of SharePoint, you can enhance the collaboration of the team members. You can share the regular tasks with the deadlines so that members are also aware of the deadlines. It also offers the calendar feature to set alerts.
• Manage Documents – People also know SharePoint for its document-storing feature. Most of the Organizations used SharePoint as the document storage related to the Organizations in the Document library through which it is easy to track the version of the documents.
• Intranet and Extranet Sites – Not only does SharePoint serve for sharing information among team members, but it also creates sites for both team members and external partners. You can set up both intranet and extranet sites in SharePoint.
• Easy Integration – SharePoint integrates with OneDrive, Teams, Power BI, and other Office 365 applications to share the content with others.
• Support Remote Work – SharePoint sites can be accessed through any location with the help of the Internet. Due to this, the team members can work remotely.
• Scalable – SharePoint sites scale well and suit organizations of any size. Admins can add or remove users in the SharePoint sites as needed.

What to do Before Creating Sites in SharePoint?

Let’s explore what you should remember while creating them before directly jumping to the SharePoint site types.

• Purpose of Site – Before creating a site in SharePoint you should find what is the purpose of creating the site. What are the gaps it will fill? Is this used for the collaboration? Or just to share the information.
• Find the Audience of the Site – You need to find the audience of the site. Is it used for the customers, partners, or team members?
• Identify the Features – After selecting the audience for the site. Then find the required features on the site such as tasks, lists, news, discussion boards, images, and many more.
• Setup the Budget – After finalizing all the required details of the site. It’s time to make the budget and set up the features according to the budget.

What are the Different SharePoint Site Types?

As per the requirement, the organizations can create distinct types of sites in SharePoint to store and manage their information. You can also create a subsite in SharePoint Online.

1. Modern Team Site (Connected to Office 365 Group)

The modern team site allows team members to collaborate on files by adding them. In this type of SharePoint site, team members share lists, information, and updates. All members connect to a single group within it.

• Conversation – A shared mailbox for the team conversation and calendar in Outlook.
• Documents – Shared file storage in SharePoint Online.
• Notebooks – A shared OneNote notebook is included.
• Chat – For the real-time chats, the Microsoft Teams is used.

You can also connect the site’s group to the different apps of Office 365 such as Task management tool planner. You can create group in SharePoint either in public or private mode, and it is identified by the text underneath the site name.

“ The modern team site connected to a group is mostly used for small team members“.

“You can implement the Modern team site without a group, but it still utilizes the same template as the Modern team site connected to a group. However, this site isn’t linked to the group.“

“When working on business solutions, huge groups of people or organizational departments can greatly benefit from the modern team site that isn’t affiliated with any group.“

2. SharePoint Communication Site

In SharePoint, people don’t use this SharePoint site types for collaboration. Instead, employees use them as a one-way channel to share information. They mainly serve as intranet sites, landing pages, specific departmental sites, and platforms for company news updates.

Communication sites are not connected to Outlook/Teams/Planner. It has three different templates Topic site (for events and news), Showcase( to show the images of the events), and blank(to create customized applications).

3. Classic Team Sites

Previously, in SharePoint, users utilized Classic Team sites to create blogs, wiki pages, and web parts among different types of SharePoint sites.

Classic team sites require more customization and do not have the new features to make collaboration easier.

The company has deprecated the classic team sites, so if you stick to the classic team sites, you need to upgrade to the modern team site to enjoy the rich features it offers.

A Quick Comparison of SharePoint Site Types

Feature	Classic SharePoint Sites	Teams Sites	Communication Sites
Purpose	Generally used for small tasks	To showcase the projects status.	Heavily used to share the latest announcements
Layout	Use Web parts for customization.	Incorporates modern layout	Highly interactive and visually appealing layouts.
Features	Use different SharePoint features such as document libraries, lists, and web parts	Seamlessly integrated with the Teams which provides all MS Teams features.	Majorly focused on communication using impeccable features including articles, and surveys.
Use Cases	Organization’s Task Management	Teams Project Status	Organizations Announcements and Notices
Accessibility	Allows Limited users	Only limited to the Team members	Open for all users.
Integration	Easily Integrates with all the Microsoft products	Integration with Microsoft Teams	Integrates with all Microsoft products
Modernization	Less modern features.	Supports all Modern design	Modern by design

Some Other Types of Sites in SharePoint

• Document Center site – It is used to store thousands of documents such as Word, PDF, and photos.
• Enterprise Wiki site – These are used to share a large volume of information.
• Phishing Portal site – It is a type of classic site used for authorizing and publishing content for a large volume of people.
• Developer site – The developer site used to develop and deploy an app for the organization.
• Project site – Project sites for track and assigning project-related tasks.
• Community site – Community sites are ready to share ideas.
• eDiscovery center – It manages the preservation of content and export to the SharePoint farm.
• Record center – Manages and stores the records.
• BI center – It analyzes data for activities such as creating dashboards and reports.
• Enterprise search center – Here users search their queries and results pages.

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Author’s Suggestion

With so many SharePoint site types to choose from, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. This guide breaks down each type, helping you pick the perfect one for your team’s needs. Whether you’re looking for a place to share documents, collaborate on projects, or manage your team’s workload, there’s a SharePoint site that’s just right for you.