Types of SharePoint Sites: Communication and Team Sites
Regardless of your SharePoint goal, you’ll store your content in a site. Each site you make will have a specific link that those with access to a site can use. By default, the link won’t work for anyone that does not have access to the site.
There are two types of SharePoint sites you can create, which have different purposes, called Team Sites and Communication Sites. You can create and store content in either a team site or a communication site, but how you use them and how SharePoint designs them are very different.
Team site:
- Centralized location for you and your team to collaborate on projects, share and store documents, chat, and exchange information.
- All members can contribute, view, and edit all content.
Team Site Examples:
- A researcher on a small Jumbo project team might create a team site where their small research team can store and edit each others’ notebooks and documents.
- A repository for a research team to store and edit notebooks and files.
- A place for your direct team to collaborate on files and projects while consolidating emails and Microsoft Teams chat communications.
- An internal department site for the department administrators to upkeep and edit budget files
Communication site:
- Ideal for broadcasting news and reports to a large audience.
- A few editors create and post content, not for collaboration, but for wide distribution.
- Once content is posted, the site link can be shared for others to view.
Communication Site Examples:
- A department intranet
- A “Jumbo News and Upcoming Events” site where the entire Tufts community can check for news and upcoming events.
- An "Employee Services" site editable only by a small group of administrators that showcases resources on benefits and policy changes for the entire department to view.
- A site created by a faculty member for students to check for upcoming class events.
- A school posting travel guidelines for all faculty to check.
A more detailed comparison of Team vs Communication Sites:
|
Distinctions |
Team Site |
Communication Site |
| Main purpose | When your team needs to work together collectively on a project | When you need to showcase or share content for others to view |
| When you create a site, what comes with it? | Everything a project team might need: Microsoft Planner board, Microsoft OneNote notebook, an email address for the group, shared calendar and mailbox, opportunity to connect with a Microsoft Team | Nothing – you only have the communication site. |
|
By design, who can create, upload, edit, and view documents? |
All team members that are part of the site. If needed, you can grant explicit permissions for individuals outside of your team to view or edit specific documents. |
A small number of team members can create, upload, and edit documents. A much larger number of people can be invited to view the site contents. |
| Sharing the Site |
Your team members could bookmark this link to quickly jump to the site when they want to work on your project. You would leave the default permissions so that the link won’t work for anyone outside of your team. |
You could post the link on your school or department’s social media page. You would set the link to be usable by anyone at Tufts to view your site. |
For a detailed breakdown of team sites versus communication sites, see the Team Site vs Communication Site page in the Microsoft community documentation, or watch the YouTube video What is SharePoint and How Do I Use It?
The home page of a communication site is designed to be friendly and easy to quickly find and view information.
The main navigation visitors to your site will use is the top menu above the panels on the page.
- You and other team members can customize what shortcuts appear in the top menu.
- By default, the menu will have a link to all document libraries and other pages on the site.
Communication sites can have many pages, but each page has the same section and menu options, designed to easily showcase your content.
- Pages on communication sites are comprised of section panels to showcase events and content.
- Team members can collectively change what each page on the site looks like: what panels are on each page and how they are arranged. Like a website, these page edits will be reflected for every person viewing your site.
The home page of a team site by default is focused on collaborating on and co-authoring files and content, staying up to date on project status, and seeing the latest activity by team members on the site.
The layout of a team site is designed for easy collaboration between team members, such as working on a research project. Each team member will see the same site, and each team member can edit the site. Team sites can have many pages, but each page has the same menu options.
- The main site navigation is the sidebar on the left side of the page.
- You can customize what shortcuts appear in the left sidebar.
- By default, the sidebar will have a link to team notebooks, all document libraries, other pages on the site, and a primary list of the site contents.
- The main site page consists of panel sections, such as site news, recent activity, or a quick preview of all documents stored on the site.
- Team members can collectively change what each page on the site looks like: what panels are on each page and how they are arranged. Like a shared document, these page edits will be reflected for every team member.
