What are the limitations of Communication Sites compared to Team Sites?

Question

We are leaning towards Communication Site just because of the layout structure. My client wants a site with no left navigation and Search in the top right corner. So, on those terms. Communication Site suits them better.

My only concern is, further down the road, we find limitations and regret not going with Team Site.

The only feature they have in their current SP 2013 on prem (yes, this is a migration to Online) which is not available in Communication Site is SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure but we think that won't be necessary.

Are there other features that are not available in CS and are in TS?

Thank you

Answer 1

Here are key features and their differences:

What is a modern team site in SharePoint online?

A SharePoint team site is a great place to share content, information, and apps between you and team members. It gives very well designed out of the box home page web part so that easily a user can navigate to their respective area of works from the home page.

Web parts available in the modern team site home page:

• News
• Quick Links
• Activity
• Documents

What is a communication site in SharePoint online?

A SharePoint communication site is a great place to share information with others. You can share news, reports, statuses, and other information in a visually compelling format.

Web parts available in the communication site home page:

• News
• Events
• Documents

When should we use a team site or communication site template?

As we know the modern SharePoint online provides only two templates:

1. Team Site and
2. Communication Site

Then, in which scenarios, we should choose which one? There is no straight answer for this – as both have their own needs and scope in the business. But as a general rule of thumb, we can set the rule as if the audiences of the site are supposed to be more where its contributions are less, then we can go with the communication site.

For example, if we want to market any product for the sales team, we can go with the communication site, in fact, the company’s main web site also we can design using the communication site template. Because in this kind of site, we don’t need a frequent update, once a while, some dedicated people will update the content of the site. The bottom line is we can think communication site as a public-facing site and that is the reason we don’t see quick launch navigation as it needs more content area to display.

On the other hand, the team site is used for the team where a group of people will contribute to the site, but the audiences of the sites are less as compared to communication site – mainly it is used for the internal team of the company where multiple people collaboratively work with each other but exposed only to set of people. Actually, the meaning of collaboration in SharePoint comes to reality through the team site.

Key Difference:

• Office 365 group connected is not available in the communication site.
• The quick launch navigation menu is not available in the communication site.
• The communication site is used only to promote your company's work, product to the outside of your company for marketing purposes.

For the details refer to this article.

Answer 2

There are differences in the default permissions granted to users, as can be seen in the documentation:

To help you limit who has permissions to change the site, communication sites are not group-enabled like modern team sites are. This means that a Communication site is not automatically connected to a group of people with edit permissions. However, you can give specific people permission to make changes to your communication sites by selecting Site permissions under Settings and then Share a site. You can use Advanced permissions to give even more granular permissions if needed.

You can find more information here.

Answer 3

Long story short: Team site is about team collaboration, while communication site is about broadcasting and showcase services/contents.

The significant differences between these two site templates are publishing features and Office 365 groups, and due to which there are other things you might find not available in communications sites, such as:

1. Fewer Apps in the Site contents “Apps you can add” list. By default, there are only five types of OOB apps in communications sites.
2. Fewer Web Parts on modern page in communications sites, since some of the web parts in team sites are Office 365 group based.

Another post of discussion on these two site templates that might be useful: Communication Site vs Team Site.