Overview of sites and site collections in

SharePoint 2013
Published: February 19, 2013
Summary: Learn about site collections, sites, and site templates in SharePoint 2013.
Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2013 | SharePoint Server 2013
A site collection is made up of one top-level site and all sites below it. As shown in the following figure, it is the
top level of organization in a SharePoint 2013 web application. The number of site collections you can have in a
single web application depends on the capacity of your server infrastructure. For more information about
SharePoint 2013 boundaries, see Software boundaries and limits for SharePoint 2013. For more information about
SharePoint 2013 capacity planning, see Capacity management and sizing overview for SharePoint Server 2013.
Figure: Structure of a site collection in SharePoint 2013
From an architecture standpoint, all the content of a site collection must be stored in a single content database.
You cannot have a site collection's content spread out across multiple content databases. Content databases scale
with your infrastructure capacity so site collections can share a content database. A site collection can exist in only
one content database, but one content database can host the content for multiple site collections. Similarly, any
given SharePoint 2013 site can only exist in one site collection, but a site collection can host a multitude of sites. A
site cannot exist outside of a site collection.
In this article:
Overview of SharePoint site collections
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Overview of SharePoint sites
Overview of SharePoint site collections
You create a site collection to host sites that are going to have something in common. For example, the sites
might be in a common administrative boundary or share common branding. The site collection might be created
to house all the sites and content for a business unit. Or, a single site collection might have become too large to
manage, and it must be split into smaller ones. Lastly, some site collections are created exclusively to host specific
SharePoint 2013 functionality, such as Enterprise Search Center or to host My Sites. Site collections are a way of
organizing sites for a common purpose.
SharePoint 2013 supports two types of site collections: host-named site collections and path-based site
collections. In a path-based site collection, all the subsites in the site collection will share a root or parent URL
(DNS name). For example, Team A could have a site collection at http://contoso.com/sites/teamA, and Team B
would have a site collection at http://contoso/sites/teamB. All sites in either site collection would have the
http://contoso.com/sites/teamA or /teamB root. The only way to have a different URL root is to create a different
web application.
To better align with SharePoint Online best practices, you should use host-named site collections. Host-named
site collections allow you to assign custom names to each site collection that you create in a web application. For
example, you can have two site collections in the same web application addressed like this:
http://TeamA.contoso.com and http://TeamB.contoso.com. This is much more scalable and has been heavily
tested in SharePoint Online. For more information about planning host-named site collections, see Host-named
site collection architecture and deployment (SharePoint 2013).
Because site collections and sites exist in a parent-child relationship, there are aspects of control and functionality
that can be configured at the site collection level and used at the site level. This provides many benefits as follows:
For site designers, a site collection's galleries and libraries (such as the Master Page Gallery or the Site
Collection Images library) provide a means for creating a unified, branded user experience across all sites in
the site collection.
For site collection administrators, a site collection provides a unified mechanism and scope for
administration. For example, security, policies, and features can be managed for a whole site collection; Site
Collection Web Analytics Reports, audit log reports, and other data can help administrators track site
collection security and performance.
For farm administrators, site collections can be moved between content databases. By doing this, farm
administrators can manage the size of their content databases.
For site authors, shared site columns, content types, Web Parts, authoring resources, workflows, and other
site collection features provide a consistent authoring environment.
For site users, a site collection's unified navigation, branding, and search tools provide a unified website
experience.
Every site collection starts out as a single, top-level site. Because it is a site, its structure and functionality is based
on a site template. SharePoint 2013 provides many site templates for your use. You can also create and use your
own as needed. SharePoint 2013 includes the ability to present sites in the style of SharePoint 2010 Products or
the style of SharePoint 2013. The following table describes the 2013 experience version site templates that are
available in SharePoint 2013.
Table: 2013 experience version site templates in SharePoint 2013
Type Name Description Availability
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Collaboration Team Site A place to work together with a group of people. Site collection
and site, Server
and Foundation
Blog A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and
expertise that site visitors can comment on.
Site collection
and site, Server
and Foundation
Develop Site A site for developers to build, test, and publish apps for
Office.
Site collection
only, Server
and Foundation
Project Site A site for managing and collaborating on a project. This
site template brings all status, communication, and
artifacts relevant to the project into one place.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
Community
Site
A place where community members discuss topics of
common interest. Members can browse and discover
relevant content by exploring categories, sorting
discussions, by popularity or by viewing only posts that
have a best reply. Members gain reputation points by
participating in the community, such as starting
discussions and replying to them, liking posts, and
specifying best replies.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
Enterprise Document
Center
A site to centrally manage documents in your enterprise. Site collection
and site, Server
only
eDiscovery
Center
A site to manage the preservation, search, and export of
content for legal matters and investigations.
Site collection
only, Server
only
Records
Center
This template creates a site designed for records
management. Records managers can configure the routing
table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site
also lets you manage whether records can be deleted or
modified after they are added to the repository.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
Business
Intelligence
Center
A site for presenting Business Intelligence content. Site collection
and site, Server
only
Enterprise
Search
Center
A site focused on delivering an enterprise-wide search
experience.
Note:
Search Centers should be separate site collections
because they search for information across a company
portal or division. If you create a Search Center as a
subsite, you might have to create some workarounds
for a full customization. For more information, see
Customizing the Search Center in the MSDN Library.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
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My Site Host A site used for hosting personal sites (My Sites) and the
public People Profile page.
Site collection
only, Server
only
Community
Portal
A site for discovering communities. Site collection
only, Server
only
Basic Search
Center
A site focused on delivering a basic search experience. It
includes a welcome page with a search box that connects
users to a search results page and an advanced search
page. This Search Center will not appear in navigation.
Note:
Search Centers should be separate site collections
because they search for information across a company
portal or division. If you create a Search Center as a
subsite, you might have to create some workarounds
for a full customization. For more information, see
Customizing the Search Center in the MSDN Library.
Site collection
and site, Server
and Foundation
Visio Process
Repository
A site for viewing, sharing, and storing Visio process
diagrams. It includes a versioned document library and
templates for Basic Flowcharts, Cross-functional
Flowcharts, and BPMN diagrams.
Note:
The Visio Process Repository site template will be
removed in the next version of SharePoint Server.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
Publishing Publishing
Portal
A starter hierarchy for an Internet-facing site or a large
intranet portal. This site can be customized easily with
distinctive branding. Typically, this site has many more
readers than contributors and it is used to publish web
pages with approval workflows.
Site collection
only, Server
only
Enterprise
Wiki
A site for publishing knowledge that you capture and want
to share across the enterprise.
Site collection
and site, Server
only
Product
Catalog
A site for managing product catalog data that can be
published to an Internet-facing site through search.
Site collection
only, Server
only
Publishing
site
A blank site for expanding your website and quickly
publishing web pages. Contributors can work on draft
versions of pages and publish them to make them visible
to readers. The site includes document and image libraries
for storing web publishing assets.
Site only,
Server only
Publishing
Site with
A site for publishing web pages on a schedule by using
approval workflows. It includes document and image
Site only,
Server only
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workflow libraries for storing web publishing assets. By default, only
sites with this template can be created under this site.
Custom <Select
template
later>
Create an empty site and pick a template for the site at a
later time.
Site collection
only, Server
and Foundation
The following table describes the 2010 experience version site templates that are available in SharePoint 2013.
Table: 2010 experience version site templates in SharePoint 2013
Type Name Description Availability
Collaboration Team Site Same functionality as the 2013 Team site. Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Blank Site A blank site for you to customize based on your
requirements.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Document
Workspace
A site for colleagues to work together on a
document. It provides a document library for
storing the primary document and supporting
files.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Blog Same functionality as the 2013 Blog site. Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Group Work Site This template provides a groupware solution that
enables teams to create, organize, and share
information. It includes a Group Calendar,
Circulation, Phone-Call Memo, a document library,
and other basic lists.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Visio Process
Repository
Same functionality as the 2013 Visio Process
Repository.
Site collection and
site, Server only
Meetings Basic Meeting
Workspace
A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of
a meeting. It provides lists for managing the
agenda, meeting attendees, and documents.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Blank Meeting
Workspace
A blank meeting site for you to customize based
on your requirements.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Decision Meeting
Workspace
A site for meetings that track status or make
decisions. It provides lists for creating tasks,
storing documents, and recording decisions.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Social Meeting
Workspace
A site to plan social occasions. It provides lists for
tracking attendees, providing directions, and
storing pictures of the event.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
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Multipage
Meeting
Workspace
A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of
a meeting. It provides lists for managing the
agenda and meeting attendees in addition to two
blank pages for you to customize based on your
requirements.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
Enterprise Document Center A site to centrally manage documents in your
enterprise.
Site collection and
site, Server only
Records Center This template creates a site designed for records
management. Records managers can configure the
routing table to direct incoming files to specific
locations.
Site collection and
site, Server only
Business
Intelligence
Center
Same functionality as the 2013 Business
Intelligence site.
Site collection
only, Server only
Enterprise Search
Center
A site for delivering the search experience. It
includes a search box with scopes for general
searches and for people searches. You can add
and customize tabs to focus on other search
scopes or result types.
Site collection and
site, Server only
My Site Host Same functionality as the 2013 My Site Host site. Site collection
only, Server only
Basic Search
Center
A site for delivering the search experience. The site
includes pages for search results and advanced
searches.
Site collection and
site, Server and
Foundation
FAST Search
Center
A site for delivering the FAST search experience. Site collection and
site, Server only
Publishing Publishing Portal Same functionality as the 2013 Publishing Portal
site.
Site collection
only, Server only
Enterprise Wiki Same functionality as the 2013 Enterprise Wiki site. Site collection
only, Server only
Publishing Site
with Workflow
Same functionality as the 2013 Publishing Site with
Workflow site.
2010 site only,
Server only
Custom <Select template
later>
Same functionality as the 2013 <Select template
later> option.
Site collection
only, Server and
Foundation
Web
Databases
Assets Web
Database
Create an assets database to keep track of assets,
including asset details and owners.
2010 site only
Charitable
Contributions
Web Database
Create a database to track information about
fundraising campaigns including donations made
by contributors, campaign-related events, and
2010 site only
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pending tasks.
Contacts Web
Database
Create a contacts database to manage information
about people that your team works with, such as
customer and partner.
2010 site only
Issues Web
Database
Create an issues database to manage a set of
issues or problems. You can assign, prioritize, and
follow the progress of issues from start to finish.
2010 site only
Projects Web
Database
Create a project tracking database to track
multiple projects and assign tasks to different
people.
2010 site only
Note:
The Web Databases site templates that are available through the 2010 experience sites in SharePoint 2013 are
no longer available in the 2013 experience sites in SharePoint 2013. In SharePoint 2013, you create an Access
database by creating a new app, instead of creating a site. For more information, see Overview of apps for
SharePoint 2013.
Important:
Some SharePoint 2010 Products site templates, such as the Document Workspace Site templates, were
deprecated and are not available as an option in SharePoint 2013. Existing sites that were created by using
these deprecated site templates and then upgraded will continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. The
deprecated site templates will be removed completely from the next version of SharePoint. For more
information, and to see a complete list of deprecated site templates, see Changes from SharePoint 2010 to
SharePoint 2013.
Examples of solutions that benefit from being implemented as site collections are as follows:
Team collaboration site A site collection to support authoring and collaboration tasks. Often, this kind
of site includes collaborative content that is not published but only used internally. For example, a team
collaboration site collection might contain a site for each team in your organization to use to plan projects,
coordinate tasks, record meeting notes, and store team documents.
Published Internet site A site collection for publishing content to anonymous Internet readers. A small
number of authors create and publish content for many readers. For example, you might use a published
Internet site to provide information about company products or services to customers. You can implement
publishing sites in a single site collection, where authoring and publishing tasks are performed on the
same site. You can also implement publishing sites as two or more site collections that separate the stages
of authoring and publishing. Content is created on one or more authoring site collections, and is displayed
on one or more publishing site collections by using the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature in
SharePoint Server 2013. For information about how to decide which publishing method to use, see Plan for
Internet, intranet, and extranet publishing sites in SharePoint Server 2013. For information about cross-site
publishing, see Plan for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server 2013. Publishing sites are not available in
SharePoint Foundation 2013. Cross-site publishing is only available in SharePoint Server 2013.
Overview of SharePoint sites
You create sites in your site collection to partition your content so that you can have finer control of the
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appearance and the permission to the content. You can also have different features available on the various sites
in your site collection. You can use a site template with its default configuration, or you can change the site's
default settings through site administration, and then save the site as a new template.
Note:
You cannot save a SharePoint publishing site collection or site as a template. If you activate the SharePoint
Server Publishing Infrastructure feature on a nonpublishing site collection, the Save site as template link is
removed from the Site Actions section on the Site Settings page.
You can configure the following items for a site:
Templates Sites in a site collection can each use different templates.
Language If language packs were installed on the web server, you can select a specific language to use
together with the site template when you create a new site. The user interface that appears on the site is
displayed in the language that was selected when the site was created. Content and other items created by
users are displayed in the language in which they are created. For more information, see Plan for
multilingual sites in SharePoint 2013 and Install or uninstall language packs for SharePoint 2013.
Security You can define unique user groups and permissions for each site. For more information, see
SharePoint 2010 Governance Planning (white paper). For information about how to share securely, see
Sharing - simplified on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog.
Navigation You can fine-tune your site's navigation experience by configuring unique navigation links in
each part of your site's hierarchy. Site navigation often reflects the relationships among the sites in a site
collection. Therefore, planning navigation and planning sites structures are closely related activities. For
more information, see Overview of site navigation in SharePoint 2013.
In SharePoint Server 2013 publishing sites, you can use managed navigation to create a site navigation that
is derived from a tightly managed taxonomy. For more information, see Overview of managed navigation
in SharePoint Server 2013.
Web pages Each site can have a unique welcome page and other pages.
Site layouts Each site can have a unique layout or master pages.
Themes You can change colors and fonts on a site. For more information, see Plan for themes in
SharePoint 2013.
Regional settings Each site can have custom regional settings, such as locale, time zone, sort order, time
format, and calendar type.
Search Each site can have custom search settings. For example, you can specify that a particular site never
appears in search results.
Content types Each site can have unique content types and site columns.
Workflows You can make each site have unique workflows.
Apps You can install apps for SharePoint to deliver specific information or functionality to a SharePoint
site. An app for SharePoint is a small, easy-to-use, stand-alone application that solves a specific end-user
or business need. For more information, see Overview of apps for SharePoint 2013.
See also
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