How to Create a Subsite in SharePoint Online: Step-by-Step Guide!

Microsoft Business plans offered various tools and the most preferred is SharePoint Online due to its advanced collaboration features. It allows organizations to store data (storage capacity depends on the M365 plan), manage documents, collaborate on projects in real time, and much more. All these things are managed in a single SharePoint site. But when we need to find specific data, it becomes cumbersome to search within a large dataset. To address this,  SharePoint offers to create a subsite in SharePoint Online, which can help in effective content management.

A subsite is used for various purposes, such as project management, department collaboration, etc. In this complete walkthrough, we will guide you on how to create subsite in SharePoint Online using PowerShell, Modern SharePoint Interface, Site Collection (For Admins), and more. Let’s start this journey with an overview of the subsite.  

What is a Subsite in SharePoint Online?

A subsite in SharePoint Online is a part of a parent or main site. It can be created as any of the SharePoint Site types such as a Team, Communication, or Project site for effective data management, collaboration, and organization. E.g., if you have a Team site as your parent site and you want to organize specific content for a team task. Then you can create a subsite as a Project site that offers better features for document creation, modification, and real-time collaboration.

Each subsite has its lists, and document libraries. The admin can control who has access to it and assign permissions with specific privileges to individual users. It helps to safeguard data from unauthorized access. There are many advantages of creating subsites which we will discuss in the next section. 

Why Should You Create a Subsite in SharePoint Online?

Creating a subsite poses several advantages to the organizations. How? Let’s understand:

• Creating subsites helps to organize large content and becomes easy to search, and manage, as it provides dedicated spaces for teams to collaborate.
• Subsites allow the Admin to set up permissions for specific users like who can access the content, and who don’t have the same privilege.
• It helps in enhancing productivity, as it makes tasks like team collaboration, storage, and communication seamless. 
• Managing multiple SharePoint sites becomes challenging, so instead of merging SharePoint sites, creating subsites is preferable and enhances efficiency.
• If your parent site is accessed by everyone across the organization, you and your team have to work on some confidential project. Then, a customized subsite allows you to work on the project without any interference from external users. 
• Moving that data which is not in use, but may be needed later, can be moved to subsites, to clean and manage the main site effectively.  

After reading these points we are sure that, you have decided to create a subsite in SharePoint Online. If yes, then go through the next part of the phase to proceed.

Prerequisites for Creating a Subsite in SharePoint Online!

To ensure a seamless creation of subsites, it is important to keep some points in mind to avoid disruptions:

• Require SharePoint site collection administrator access or permissions for creating sites. Remember, without proper credentials, you can’t do anything. 
• Ensuring you have the site collection, as subsite is the part of it. So, without site collection, you can’t make any subsite.
• Choose the name of your subsite on a priority basis for easy navigation across the organization. You can name your subsite as any project, document, or anything to make it different. 
• Set up the security setting for your subsite before moving data into it. You can apply the same settings as the parent site if needed.

That’s all! When you ensure all these prerequisites, then move to the main process. The following sections will guide you to do that.

How to Create a Subsite in SharePoint Online? – Tried & Tested Solutions!

We found various solutions for creating a subsite in SharePoint Online, but not all of them are practical. Therefore, we will focus on those that are most effective i.e. 

Solution 1). Using SharePoint Site Settings

SharePoint Site Settings is a centralized location where Admins manage all the SharePoint Sites. This helps in creating sites or subsites. This time, we will learn how to create subsite in SharePoint online using this:

• Open the parent site in SharePoint Online.
• Click the Settings gear icon > Site settings.
• Under the Site Administration section, select Sites and Workspaces.
• Afterward, hit the Create button.
• Now, when prompted select any template for your subsite like Team, Communication, or any other.
• Provide Subsite Details: Title, Description, URL, Permissions, and Navigation.
• Lastly, hit the Create button. 

This is the most straightforward solution, and one can easily create multiple subsites with this. Still, there are other techniques also, so let’s move to the next one. 

Method 2: Create a Subsite in SharePoint Online Via SharePoint Admin Center

The SharePoint Admin Center allows administrators to configure SharePoint settings across all sites. Using the Admin Center, creating a subsite in SharePoint Online makes it seamless. You just need to follow these instructions:

• Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
• Expand Admin Centers > SharePoint.
• Go to Sites > Active Sites.
• Find and select the parent site, and hit the Settings icon > Site Settings.
• This will redirect you to the site, where you have to follow the same steps as mentioned in Method 1 for creation of subsites. 

Method 3: Using PowerShell (For Site Collection Administrators)

PowerShell is an automated tool that helps users to create multiple subsites simultaneously in a single command. This is quite simple for those who are familiar with technicalities. 

The cmdlets are as follows to create a Subsite in SharePoint Online:

• Open Windows PowerShell, and connect to SharePoint Online by running this command:
  

  Connect-SPOService -url https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com

• Create a Subsite:
  

  New-SPOSite -Url "https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/ParentSite/Subsite" -Title "Subsite Name" -Template "STS#0" -Owner "user@domain.com"

That’s it! If you run the commands right, then within a few seconds you can see a subsite is created in your SharePoint Online. 

Method 4: Using Modern SharePoint Interface (For Site Owners)

The Modern SharePoint Interface offers a user-friendly UI for managing data effectively. Through this creating a subsite in SharePoint Online is simple, by following these steps:

• Open the SharePoint Online site, and click on the Settings gear.
• Select Site contents, click the New button > Subsite.
• Provide the required things like Title, description, etc, as mentioned in Method 1.
• Finally, press the Create button.

Method 5: Use a SharePoint Online Site Collection (For Admins) to Create a Subsite in SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online Site Collection is a container for subsites in which all the data such as settings, and other resources are stored. This will also help in creating a subsite i.e. 

• Sign in to the SharePoint Admin Center and go to Active Sites.
• Choose the site collection > Settings > Site Settings.
• Afterward, follow the same guidelines mentioned in Method 1 to create.

Best Practices for Managing SharePoint Online Subsites

After creating the subsites, ensure that you manage them effectively. These listed points help you in this:

• Grant permissions to only those users who need it. Regularly monitor the user activity and review the permissions.
• As we know the differentiation of SharePoint Modern vs Classic sites, it is suggested to use a modern UI, which is more intuitive and mobile-friendly.
• Too many SharePoint sites or subsites make the navigation cumbersome. So, it is suggested don’t make the sites unnecessarily, and if created merge them using SharePoint Online Site Merger. Try this solution for free today!

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How to Manage Permissions in Subsites?

You can easily customize your subsite permissions, and set up new rules or modify current ones by following these steps:

1. Open the subsite, and go to the Settings menu.
2. Under Users and Permissions, click on Site Permissions.
3. For setting up new rules hit the Stop Inheriting Permissions option.
4. Now, add or remove users and assign them appropriate permission levels.

Subsite vs Site Collection in SharePoint Online

As we discussed Site collection at the beginning of our discussion, some users find that this and the Subsite are the same. But this is wrong, they are different. For a better understanding, let’s go through the below table:

#	Feature	Subsite	Site Collection
1	Definition	A subsite is a site that exists under a parent site.	A site collection is a group of related SharePoint sites.
2	Location	Created within a parent site.	Created at the top level of SharePoint.
3	Permissions	Inherits permissions from the parent site by default.	Has its unique permissions.
4	Management	Managed at the site level.	Managed independently with complete control over settings and configurations.
5	Storage	Storage is tied to the parent site’s storage.	Has its dedicated storage quota.
6	Customization	Limited customization.	Full customization options for site structure, settings, and others.

Bottom Lines!

Creating a subsite in SharePoint Online is an excellent way to organize and manage content effectively. The Admin can decide and assign privileges to the specific users, who can access the data on each subsite. However, most of the users are unable to find a way to create a subsite in SharePoint Online. Therefore, we covered every possible method to complete the creation in minimum time and hassle-free.