SharePoint team sites vs communication sites
The two main SharePoint site types — what each is for, and how to pick.
SharePoint Online has many site types, but two account for the vast majority of usage: team sites and communication sites. They're fundamentally the same product — the same web parts, the same APIs — but they're shaped for different jobs.
Team sites
A team site is a workspace for a group of people working together — a department, a project, a product. Every Microsoft 365 Group and every Microsoft Teams team is backed by a team site. Team sites assume:
- A relatively small, defined membership.
- High write-to-read ratio — lots of people contributing files and edits.
- Quick links and shared dashboards rather than polished marketing pages.
- Members and Owners groups inherited from the underlying Microsoft 365 Group.
The default home page is utilitarian: news, document library, activity feed, links.
Communication sites
A communication site is for broadcasting information to a wider audience — an intranet landing page, an HR portal, a brand hub, a company news site. Communication sites assume:
- A small set of authors writing for a broad audience of readers.
- Low write-to-read ratio.
- Polished page design with hero images and modern layouts.
- Permissions tilted toward read-only for most of the org.
Communication sites are not connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, which means no shared mailbox, no team, no Planner. That's fine — they're publishing tools.
How to choose
| Use case | Site type | | --- | --- | | Project workspace, 5–50 people contributing | Team site | | Department intranet, broadcast to whole company | Communication site | | Teams channel (auto-created) | Team site | | Company news hub | Communication site | | Manager toolkit, edited by HR, read by managers | Communication site | | Customer-facing site | Neither — use Power Pages or another platform |
Hub sites
Both can be associated with a hub site, which provides shared navigation, theme, and search across many sites. Most modern intranets use one or more hub sites with a communication site at the centre and dozens of team and communication sites associated to it.
A practical rule: if you find yourself adding a "site visitors" group to a team site so half the company can read it, you probably want a communication site instead. Trying to make a team site behave like a publishing site means fighting the product the whole way.