Forum Discussion
Communication Site vs Team Site
Mark-KashmanOther than what other Office 365 tools are autogenerated (i.e. planner, onenote), I am struggling to see the difference between communication sites and team sites. It seems all the new we...
Very good discussions here. Very helpful.
Besides what discussed here already, one other difference is Communication sites do not have left navigation where Modern Team Sites have both the top and left navigation.
But now - there’s Modern Team Sites without the O365 Groups, just came out not too long ago. So technically it is just like the Communication sites. But there still are some differences:
1) Modern Team Sites w/o the O365 group can be Groupified later on and then attach to Teams if someone wants to do so to use other features that comes with Teams and O365 Group. This is not possible as of yet with the Communication sites (and you probably you don’t want to do so anyways).
2) Communcation Sites do not have the left nav that I mentioned above, may be this will be changed down the road and user can decide whether they want left nav or not.
3) Microsoft releasing very soon Mega Menue, Footer, updated Site Design for Modern Sites. However, as of now it looks like Footer only will be available for the Communication sites only and also for some specific pages in the Communication sites. Not sure why it’s not be available for other Modern Sites, makes no sense really.
Re permission - The most confusing thing with the Modern Team Sites with the O365 Group is permissioning the site: you can permission such a site via O365 Group membership or via SharePoint UI like we all are used to. When you permission via Group it shows the # of group members at the top of the site. If permission was given outside of the O355 Group via the SharePoint permission, the site membership does not reflect properly as it only uses the Group Members for that, confusing to users.
Plus with with Group Memebrship, permission only can be owner or members, this may work for a smaller org but any mid to large orgs permission needs to be need to know basis - Owner ( Full control) Contribute, Read. We can’t have everyone editing data, some just read, and this is very confusing with the Modern Sites with O365 Groups. And this probably is one of the reasons now Modern Sites w/o O365 Group. Thanks.
Besides what discussed here already, one other difference is Communication sites do not have left navigation where Modern Team Sites have both the top and left navigation.
But now - there’s Modern Team Sites without the O365 Groups, just came out not too long ago. So technically it is just like the Communication sites. But there still are some differences:
1) Modern Team Sites w/o the O365 group can be Groupified later on and then attach to Teams if someone wants to do so to use other features that comes with Teams and O365 Group. This is not possible as of yet with the Communication sites (and you probably you don’t want to do so anyways).
2) Communcation Sites do not have the left nav that I mentioned above, may be this will be changed down the road and user can decide whether they want left nav or not.
3) Microsoft releasing very soon Mega Menue, Footer, updated Site Design for Modern Sites. However, as of now it looks like Footer only will be available for the Communication sites only and also for some specific pages in the Communication sites. Not sure why it’s not be available for other Modern Sites, makes no sense really.
Re permission - The most confusing thing with the Modern Team Sites with the O365 Group is permissioning the site: you can permission such a site via O365 Group membership or via SharePoint UI like we all are used to. When you permission via Group it shows the # of group members at the top of the site. If permission was given outside of the O355 Group via the SharePoint permission, the site membership does not reflect properly as it only uses the Group Members for that, confusing to users.
Plus with with Group Memebrship, permission only can be owner or members, this may work for a smaller org but any mid to large orgs permission needs to be need to know basis - Owner ( Full control) Contribute, Read. We can’t have everyone editing data, some just read, and this is very confusing with the Modern Sites with O365 Groups. And this probably is one of the reasons now Modern Sites w/o O365 Group. Thanks.