SharePoint Online Differences between Communication and Modern Team Sites
Introduction
In this year in SharePoint Virtual Summit, Microsoft has announced various improvements to SharePoint Online (Office 365) and One Drive.
Important and interesting additions/enhancements include introduction of new Communication Sites and Modern Team Sites. These are great addictions to SharePoint Online which enables content authors/users to create/manage their sites easily than before. An user with minimum knowledge on SharePoint can create a site, wiki, how to page, publish articles, create charts, add images, videos, links, documents very easily than before.
Refer the reference section to know more in detail about SharePoint Online communication sites and Modern Team sites.
References
Differences Explained
| # | Communication Sites | Modern Team Sites |
| 1 | Communication Sites are a convenient way for broadcasting or communicating information to wider audience |
Team Sites are sites created for users to work collaborate as a team |
| 2 | In Communication site, typically there are a small number of users and many readers | In a team site, most users contribute content and collaborate each other |
| 3 | There are 3 designs (Topic, Showcase and Blank) available for Communication Sites to choose from while site creation | There are no different designs available for Team sites to choose from while site creation |
| 4 | Communication Site are ready made from the get go for sharing information | Team sites are focused on Collaboration and backed by Office 365 Groups |
| 5 | No shared apps are created automatically when communication site is created | A shared Documents, Calendar, One Note, Planner tasks board, mailbox is created automatically when a new modern team site is created |
| 6 | Office 365 groups are not automatically when communication site is created | Creating a Team Site automatically creates Office 365 groups |
| 7 | Communication Sites are private by default | Modern Team Sites are public by default |
| 8 | While site creation, it does not prompt to add users/members to the site | While site creation, it automatically prompts to add additional owners, members |
| 9 | Default top navigation (Home, Documents, Pages and Site Contents) is added when new site is created | There is no default top navigation |
| 10 | There is no left navigation in home page | Traditional left navigation is created by default |
| 11 | Clicking on “Home” in the top menu just navigates to the home page instead of displaying more options | Clicking on “Site Name” link opens a small context menu showing options to navigate to Home, Conversations, Calendar, Files, Notebook, Planner and Members. Also, it shows the numbers of members, option to leave group |
| 12 | There are no such options in Communication Sites | Team Sites show a summary of team members and a link to team conversations in the upper right-hand corner of the site navigation |
| 13 | The security groups are the more traditional SharePoint groups | It is Office 365 groups for permissions in modern team sites |