SharePoint sites vs. Site Collections - CONFUSED!

[Oz Oscroft]

So, SharePoint sites vs. Site Collections has completely baffled me despite reading endless articles and watching many videos!  As a very advanced end user, with very little admin. experience, I've recently been given the task of sorting out the existing O365 SharePoint sites / hierarchy in my new company *HURRAH*.

However, I'm utterly confused!  Here's what I know:

1. All sites / sub-sites to date appear to have been setup in a single site collection (https://<mycompany>.sharepoint.com/) - I've checked this via SharePoint Admin Centre and SiteManager.
2. All sites setup to previously appear to be 'old-style' team sites with 10 or so directly under the root (https://<mycompany>.sharepoint.com/<site name>/).  There are then various levels of sub-site beneath these 10.
3. When I go to the Office 365 home page (https://www.office.com/), click the SharePoint tile and then the '+ Create Site' button it unexpectedly appears to create a new Site Collection under https://<mycompany>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site name>/.
4. If I go to the SharePoint Admin Centre and create a new site collection, it creates it under https://<mycompany>.sharepoint.com/sites/<site name>/.

So, my questions are:

1. When I go to O365 > SharePoint > '+ Create Site', is it creating a SharePoint Site Collection, just a Site or something else entirely (e.g. Site Collection with all the other new Groups functionality thrown in).
   
2.  If I'd like to create 3 'buckets' into which all new and existing content could be put, what should I be using (Site collections, Sites, Groups, something else ...)?  The buckets I'd like are:
   1. Operations (for internal employee use only; with 3 subsites (e.g. Finance; HR; Marketing).
   2. Associates (for use by employees or external consultants who have been provided with an Office 365 account by my company; with no subsites).
   3. Projects (for sharing project documentation with external clients; with a separate site / subsite for each project).
      
      
3. If I'd like to restructure all the existing sites (which are currently in a single site collection) so that they are in the 3 'buckets' above how do I best go about this?
   
   
4. When I'm creating new 'sites', what should I be using?:
   1. Create Site option on SharePoint homepage.
   2. New > Site in SiteManager.
   3. Something else.

I appreciate that this is a lot of questions, but I've done a lot of reading, watching videos and viewing webinars and I'm at a loss!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!  Oz

[#2]

I agree with Dean - the terminology is confusing and often misused for convenience (or maybe laziness as he suggests). As a general practice, I would try to create a separate site collection for each unit of work - a team, a project, or even a department Communication Site. When you create a new "site" from SharePoint home, you are actually creating a new site collection. For now, you can connect "modern" related sites with navigation links or custom web parts. 

[#3]

Hi Oz,

If i may offer some personal experience which may help.

I have for the past year been installing/developing SPO for my organization.

1) Adding sites/collections from the admin centre for a Top Level site, this gives good foundation for permissions management which is, imo, up there as a top priority.

2) Sharegate (as mentioned by @Dean Gross) is a really good tool, which gives great fluidity to your environment structure. I have ahd to restructure an SP2010 environment as my first SP experience, and Shargate made the job very comfortable. It also supports many forms of reporting and migration.

3) From a 'Sharepoint Freshy' point of view, having a site/project purpose clear (ours is collaboration due to the nature of the business), and sticking to it is crucial. MS provide so many solutions for so many situations.

Finally, i prefer to have a URL structure /sites/region/dept so that there is an order to the chaos. When you create a site via the Sharepoint Tile, its added to the root by default, so unless you are creating a subsite (and then the URL is beneath the upper site), you will need to migrate the site. OR a Top level site is required, from the Admin centre.

New to the forums and advanced dev of SP, but hopefully the above is of some benefit.

[#4]

Thanks Sam - really useful insights.  I think I've come to the conclusion that given the nature of our content (Projects, HR, Finance, Operations, Consultants), they don't actually require a vertical structure and could happily sit as discrete site collections (set up as Groups for collaboration tools etc.).  ShareGate seems to be where I end up for any thoughts of moving existing content around, so will probably end up going down that route.  I just want to make sure that I've thought all current and future requirements through before I even touch the system!

[#5]

One thing that is frequently forgotten is the inevitable organization changes. If you can come up with some vague/generic urls then when the department name changes from Human Resources to Employee Services, you may be able to just change the display title. (some of my clients have cared about urls, others have not)

[#6]

All,

Tried following in a trial O365 (E3) account (tenant name: "blithe1"):

1. Created 2 additional "collections', in addition to main site collection :

https://blithe1.sharepoint.com <-- 'ROOT' collection created by default 
https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/teams/Collection-1 <-- Created new collection with "../teams/.."
https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/sites/Collection-2 <-- Created a new collection with "../sites/.."  

2. When we see the properties of each of above collections then it shows that it has "1 subsite". I think this is for the "Home" site of that collection (i.e. the above URLs themselves).

3. When we log into Office-365 and select the SharePoint "TILE" then it directs to:
https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx <-- This is not a "site" since the gear icon doesn't have "Site Setting" option etc

4. Here when we click the "+ Create Site" it asks for "Team Site" or "Communication Site". I created "Team Site" and site name as "PSO".   It creates a site with URL https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/sites/PSO

AT THIS POINT IT DOES NOT GIVE US ANY OPTION TO SELECT SPECIFIC COLLECTION TO CREATE THE SITE IN. When we go to our three site-collections one-by-one and see "Site Contents" then none of the collection lists this "PSO" as a "subsite", so it's effectively not in any collection (and is obviously not a new collection in itself since it's not listed in collections list).

5. Next created a subsite under the "root" collection (by visiting collection-URL, then gear icon "Site Contents" and click "+ New" and select "Subsite"). 

URL (Fixed part): https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/
URL (Editable) : /Subsite-in-Root-Collection

It created the subsite and directed us to URL:
https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/Subsite-in-Root-Collection/SitePages/Home.aspx

5. Similarly created a subsite under "collection-1":
URL (Fixed part): https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/teams/Collection-1/
URL (Editable) : /Subsite-in-Collection-1

It created the site and directed us to URL:
https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/teams/Collection-1/Subsite-in-Collection-1/SitePages/Home.aspx 

So from a "non-developer" perspective with no knowledge of actual low-level coding and structure of collections etc. it seems like all Site-Collections by default have a "HOME" site created (and with a set template "Project Site", "Team Site" etc). In case we don't intend to create additional sub-sites then this HOME site itself can serve the complete purpose. A collection is site itself and everything else is SUBSITE because home site (https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/teams/Collection-1/SitePages/Home.aspx) will contain all the subsequent sites in that collection (https://blithe1.sharepoint.com/teams/Collection-1/Subsite-in-Collection-1/SitePages/Home.aspx)

However rebellious it may sound, from a "non-techie" view, the "collection" may be just a "terminology" in SharePoint, it's actually just SITES and SUBSITES. In fact the collections like any other site also has users and permissions with names like "Collection-1 Visitors", "Collection-1 Members" etc.

One-Drive (https://blithe1-my.sharepoint.com/) listed as site collection, may be another special site providing ability to everyone in the organization to create their own quick "folders" in this site and able to share among each other.

Ofcourse there are other state of the art stuff in the actual features in these sites/subsites like "Flow", Power BI, External Data Sources, MetaData etc.

[#7]

I'm not quite sure if there are any questions in this post, but your observations and testing have not uncovered anything unusual or unexpected.

In regards to item 4, you can control how that works by going to the SP Admin Center, Settings page.

A collection is an important object for administration and security. Site collection administrators have more power than a Site Owner.

Site collection features apply to all sites in the collection, site features only apply to the site in which they are activated.

Search scopes can easily be constrained to limit results to content from a specific collection.

While it doesn't matter in SPOnline, in SP on-premises, different site  collections can be assigned to different databases which can help out for backup/restoration issues.

[#8]

Thanks Dean. Appreciate all the insights.

[#9]

(a) In a fresh office 365 tenants, we have following site collections. Just wondering about the 2nd and 3rd, what are these collections used for.

1. https://tenant.sharepoint.com
2. https://tenant.sharepoint.com/portals/hub
3. https://tenant.sharepoint.com/search
4. https://tenant-my.sharepoint.com

(b) While setting up new structure from scratch, how do we decide if we should create our sites/subsites in base-collection (number 1 in above list) or should we create a new collection (say https://tenant.sharepoint.com/teams/collection-1) and define our sites/subsites under that. I assume any collection level setting done on "base-collection" (number 1 in above list) does not affect the new collection created (https://tenant.sharepoint.com/teams/collection-1). 

I am thinking of reserving the "base-collection" for any future use and creating the structure in the collections we create. Or having "organization wide" stuff in "base-collection" and "department wise" stuff in self created collections etc. Even though base-collection and other collections are independent of each other in there manageability, but the resulting URLs can give the right visual impressions.

(c) When we go to "portal.office.com" and then select "SharePoint" the resulting page shows the various "tiles" for all the collections in our SharePoint, on this page there is option of "+ Create Site" if I create a site here, then this does NOT create a new collection in my collection list. I think above posts indicated it does, but my experience is different.

Thanks.

[#10]

https://tenant.sharepoint.com/portals/hub is what is being created when you enable Office 365 Video.

[#11]

In regards to (a) #3 is the SharePoint Enterprise Search Center.

We have been recommending to our clients that they use the /teams/ path for

• group enabled modern sites that may have a MS Team connected to them, 
• private sites, project sites and/or externally shared sites

and that they use the /sites/ path for sites with large numbers of users, e.g. classic sites, communications sites, intranet sites.

In regards to (b) , your assumption is correct. The root site collection is a special site collection and you don't have the same level of control over it as you do with a site collection created in /sites/ or /teams/ paths. 

In regards to (c), MS is about to release a new SPO Admin center that will show the group enabled modern site collection. Until you get that in your tenant, you need to use PowerShell to get a listing.

MS has announced that they will be releasing a new type of Hub site that will make it easy to connect separate site collections into a common navigation structure with common branding, so this eliminates several of the traditional reasons for a hierarchical site collection.

MS is recommending that for most organizations a flat site collection structure should be used. 

[#12]

I'm even more confused.  It appears to me that there are 3 kinds of Team sites if you count the group and team that is created using the Teams App from the app launcher.  Those sites don't show up anywhere, only the groups.  The site looks different, the team site created from the 'Create Site' link looks different, and then the original classic site looks different.  Not to mention you have to go to various locations to either edit or delete these things.  A freaking nightmare in my opinion.  Maybe it will be better when Microsoft gives up the new Admin Center to manage groups.

[#13]

All of this information has been very good.  I'm glad to see I'm not the only one confused.

[#14]

There are actually more than 3 types of sites and you can create your custom sites designs for use within your organization or for your customers. Don't be frustrated by your confusion, SharePoint has been around for many years and it it tremendously powerful and flexible.  In order to provide the power, MS provided lots of options, some of which are being phased out, and some of which will be continued to be used for many years. 

My advice is to start slow, and ask lots of questions in this community. Almost everything you will want to do, has already been done by others, and many people are willing to share their lessons learned. 

[#15]

>there are 3 kinds of Team sites if you count the group and team that is created using the Teams App

IMHO you should not count the "Team" (in MS Teams) as a Site.

I understand it's a "thing" you go to that has stuff in it (which sounds a lot like a SharePoint site that you go to that has stuff in it). But it's really more akin to a Yammer Group or Public Folder than a "site" in SharePoint. And for sure it isn't treated as a site by any of the SharePoint admin functions.

Your other point - that it is a pain to manage the mix of Group Sites and Communications Sites and classic Team Sites and any custom SharePoint Sites... yes. Yes, it is.

[#16]

---

@Kevin Crossman wrote:

And for sure it isn't treated as a site by any of the SharePoint admin functions.

@Kevin Crossman, 

How about the new Admin Center that lists all the MS Teams's team sites? I know that this is still in preview but it looks like that is on its way.

[#17]

Hi @Dean Gross

Thanks for all your insights, can't appreciate enough.

a) I created a site with the "+ Create Site" option but while sharing the site externally, it stated the the external sharing is not turned on. Now since the collection for sites creates via this option is not listed in "Admin Center" how do we turn the external sharing on?

b) The option of creating a "communication Site" is available only through the "+ Create Site" option. Is there anyway to define a communication site on one of our private site collection?

Thanks a lot.

[#18]

1. see the instructions at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/share-your-office-365-sites-with-external-users-89502322-bf...

2. i'm not sure exactly what you mean but you cannot convert an existing site to a communication site.

[#19]

Thanks Dean.

1) After checking the instructions on the page, I see that in my Admin Center that is already turned on, but still it does not allow me to share my communication site externally. Following are all the setting I can think of.

2) Basically I was looking for way of creating a "Communication Site" through the "Site Contents -> New Subsite".   That way I will have my "Communication Site" under a known collection and control it's external sharing. But the only way to create a "Communication Site" is through the "+ Create Site" option, which is not allowing me to share it externally.

Thanks.

[#20]

MS has been positioning Communications Sites as an intranet-style use case. So, this would explain why it can't be set for external access.

[#21]

Thanks Kevin. I think that will be the case with all the sites created through the "+ Create Site" option, the "communication" as well as the "team site". The "Communication Site" sounded like a good option for setting up space for external audience.