How to Create a SharePoint Site (Step-by-Step)

You can create a SharePoint site in Microsoft 365 in two main ways: through the SharePoint admin center if you’re an administrator, or directly from the SharePoint start page if your organization allows regular users to create their own sites. Either way, you’ll pick between a team site or a communication site, give it a name, and SharePoint handles the rest.

Quick steps

Sign in to Microsoft 365 and go to the SharePoint admin center (or the SharePoint start page if you’re not an admin).
Select Create (admin center) or the option to create a new site from the start page.
Choose a team site or communication site.
Give the site a name, add an optional description, and set privacy settings.
Add owners and members, then finish the wizard to create the site.

Before you start

A few things to check before you dive in:

You need a Microsoft 365 account with a SharePoint license to create a site at all.
Creating sites through the SharePoint admin center requires at least SharePoint Administrator permissions for your organization.
If your organization has restricted self-service site creation, only admins will be able to use the admin center method, and the create option may not appear on the SharePoint start page for everyday users.
Decide ahead of time whether you want a team site (built around a Microsoft 365 group, good for collaborating on documents) or a communication site (built for broadcasting news and information to a wider audience).

Create a site in the SharePoint admin center (for admins)

This is the route IT admins typically use, especially when setting up sites for departments, projects, or specific permission structures.

Go to Active sites in the SharePoint admin center and sign in with an account that has SharePoint Administrator permissions.
Select Create.
Choose whether you want a team site or a communication site.
Enter a site name and description, and set the privacy level if you’re creating a team site.
Add owners and members who should have access.
Complete the wizard to finish creating the site. It can take a short while for the site to fully provision and show up across your organization’s directories.

If you’d rather browse to it another way, the admin center also lets you reach site creation through Resources > Sites, which lands you on the same creation options.

Create a site from the SharePoint start page (for regular users)

If your organization allows self-service site creation, you don’t need admin access at all. Just go to the SharePoint start page in your browser while signed in to your Microsoft 365 account, and look for the option to create a new site. From there, the flow is similar to the admin path: pick team site or communication site, name it, set privacy, and add the people who need access.

If you don’t see an option to create a site, your organization has likely restricted that ability to admins only. In that case, you’ll need to ask your IT team to create the site for you.

Let Microsoft Teams create a site for you

If you already use Microsoft Teams, you may not need to create a SharePoint site manually at all. Every standard Team you create in Teams automatically gets a connected SharePoint team site behind it, used to store the files shared in channels. This is worth knowing if you’re really trying to set up a collaborative space for a group rather than a standalone website: creating the Team in Teams does the SharePoint site creation for you as part of the process.

Keep in mind that long team names can create long folder and file paths in the connected SharePoint site and OneDrive, which sometimes causes file path length errors. If you run into that, renaming the Team can help shorten things. See Rename Team Name In Teams To Shorten OneDrive Path Lengths for the steps.

Choosing between a team site and a communication site

SharePoint gives you two core site types, and picking the right one matters for how the site works day to day.

Team site: built around a Microsoft 365 group, ideal for a specific team or project that needs to collaborate on documents, share a calendar, and work together behind the scenes.
Communication site: designed for sharing news, updates, and information outward to a broader audience, more like a polished webpage than a working file library.

Permissions also work differently depending on the type. For communication sites, Microsoft recommends managing access through the built-in SharePoint groups. For team sites, permissions are generally managed through the associated Microsoft 365 group rather than directly on the site.

Using Copilot to create a site (preview feature)

Microsoft has been rolling out Copilot capabilities inside SharePoint that let you describe what you want in natural language and have it help generate sites, pages, and content. This is still an emerging feature and availability depends on your Microsoft 365 plan and whether it’s been enabled for your organization, so don’t expect it everywhere yet. If it’s available to you, it can speed up the early setup work, but the underlying site creation still follows the same team site or communication site structure described above.

If it doesn’t work

The Create button is missing or greyed out

This almost always comes down to permissions. If you’re trying to create a site from the admin center, confirm you actually have SharePoint Administrator rights. If you’re trying from the regular SharePoint start page, your organization may have turned off self-service site creation for standard users, in which case you’ll need an admin to create it for you.

You can’t choose a site type

Some organizations limit which site types users can create, or restrict certain templates to admins only. If a particular site type isn’t appearing as an option, check with your Microsoft 365 admin about your organization’s site creation policies.

The site was created but you can’t find it or access it

New sites can take a little time to fully provision and show up in search results, the SharePoint start page, or your list of followed sites. If it’s been a while and you still can’t see it, double check that you were added as an owner or member, since access is usually tied to that list rather than just having created the site.

You’re trying to use SharePoint as a public website builder

SharePoint sites are built for internal collaboration and communication within your Microsoft 365 organization, not as a general public website platform the way a dedicated website builder would be. If your goal is a public-facing marketing site, SharePoint communication sites can work for some internal portals, but they’re not a direct replacement for external website hosting.

If your SharePoint setup is tied to a broader data management or backup process and you run into logging errors elsewhere in your environment, it can help to check other server-side logs for context. For example, see Cant backup server event id 8230 in logs if you encounter that specific error while managing related infrastructure.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need admin permissions to create a SharePoint site?

Not necessarily. If your organization allows self-service site creation, you can create a site directly from the SharePoint start page. If that option isn’t available to you, you’ll need someone with SharePoint Administrator permissions to create it through the admin center.

What’s the difference between a team site and a communication site?

A team site is connected to a Microsoft 365 group and works best for groups actively collaborating on files and projects. A communication site is built for sharing news and information broadly and doesn’t require a connected group.

Can I create a SharePoint website for free?

SharePoint is part of Microsoft 365, so you need an active Microsoft 365 subscription with SharePoint access to create a site. There isn’t a standalone free version of SharePoint outside of a Microsoft 365 plan.

How long does it take for a new SharePoint site to be ready?

It usually takes just a short while for a new site to fully provision, though it can take longer during busy periods or for larger organizations. If a site isn’t showing up right away, give it some time before assuming something went wrong.

Can I use SharePoint to build a public website?

SharePoint is primarily designed for internal collaboration and communication within an organization, not for hosting a public-facing website in the way a dedicated website builder does. Communication sites can work well for internal portals and announcements, but they aren’t a direct substitute for external website hosting platforms.