Let users create their own team site

As the admin, you can let users in your company create their own team sites to manage their projects and related documents. Site creation is turned on by default, so, if a user has Create Subsites permissions at the destination parent site, setting up a new team site for users is as easy as clicking a link on their Sites page and providing a name for the site. By default, the new team sites are created under the root SharePoint site, for example, https://contoso.sharepoint.com. Alternately, you can specify a path where new team sites will be created, for example, https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teamsites/userProjects. You can also specify a custom template to control the behavior of new team sites.

To control whether or not users can create their own team sites:

1. Sign in to Office 365 with your work or school account.

2. Go to the SharePoint admin center.

3. Select Settings, and under Start a Site, choose one of the following:

   • Hide the link to disable the default permissions which allow site creation for users in your company and to hide the New Sites link on the Sites page.

   • Show the link to enable the default permissions which allow site creation for users in your company and to make the New Sites link visible on the Sites page. This is the default setting.

     Note:  This functionality only works if the root site collection uses the Team Site template.

     Note:  If you select Hide the link, admins will still be able to create sites from the More Content page in SharePoint, as will any other users who have permission to do so.

4. If Show the link is selected, supply path in the Create sites under box to the parent site under which new team sites will be created or leave this box blank to create new team sites directly under the root site.

5. If Show the link is selected, select one of the following options:

   • Hidden from users – to hide the retention policy option from users on the template they will see when creating a new team site. This is the default setting.

   • An optional choice – to make applying a retention policy optional for new team sites

   • A required choice – to require users to apply a retention policy for new team sites

6. If Show the link is selected, choose whether or not users must supply the name of a secondary contact for their team site. The default setting is Not required.

7. If Show the link is selected, check the Use the form at this URL box to use a custom template for new team sites and enter the URL for the template. This can be either an absolute URL (http://contoso.sharepoint.com/templates/MyCustomTemplate) or a relative URL (/templates/MyCustomTemplate). When this option is checked, you can control the behavior of new team sites by specifying the template to be used for all new team sites.

Site permissions

When users create their own team sites using the New Site link on the Sites page, unique user groups are created for Visitors, Members, and Owners using the default settings in SharePoint Online. The new site does not inherit permissions from its parent site. These groups are automatically named by adding the name of the site to the group name, for example, "ProjectX Members" and control who can see what information on the site.

When users first create sites, they are the only ones who have access to the site. Site owners can then share the site and assign permissions to users as usual.

For more information about using the default permissions settings in SharePoint Online, see Default permission levels.

For more information about permissions inheritance, see What is permissions inheritance?.

Site navigation

New sites will have their own navigation structure. They will not inherit the parent site's navigation. When a user creates a new team site, a link to the site will appear on their list of followed sites.

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