SharePoint Online administrators encounter more than twenty distinct site template IDs when auditing tenant sites via PnP PowerShell or the Microsoft Graph API. This reference lists each template, its full ID string, its experience type, and guidance for governance and migration work.
What is a SharePoint site template ID?
A site template ID is a string that describes the structural type of a SharePoint site, set at creation and never changed by subsequent configuration. PnP PowerShell, the Graph API, and the SharePoint admin centre all surface it. Admins use template IDs to classify sites in inventory reports, filter PnP scripts to specific site types, and identify which sites may require special handling during a migration.
The ID format is TemplateName#Variant. The number after # is the variant; most templates have a single variant (#0), while some, like the Records Center, use a non-zero variant. Template IDs are case-sensitive.
Modern site templates
These templates create sites with the full modern SharePoint experience. They are the recommended choice for new site provisioning in Microsoft 365.
| Template ID | Site name | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| GROUP#0 | Team site | Modern | Microsoft 365 Group-connected. Default when creating a "Team site" from SharePoint start or the Teams app. Includes a shared mailbox, calendar, and Planner by default. |
| STS#3 | Team site (no group) | Modern | Modern team site without a Microsoft 365 Group. Created via the SharePoint admin centre's "Create site" option when the group is not required. Common for project staging sites and admin workspaces. |
| SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0 | Communication site | Modern | No Microsoft 365 Group. Designed for broadcasting content to a wide audience. Used for intranet portals, department hubs, and news sites. Supports modern pages only. |
Classic team and document management templates
These templates are encountered on tenants that predate the modern SharePoint experience, or on sites provisioned via legacy automation. They remain active in SharePoint Online but Microsoft no longer offers them through the standard site creation UI.
| Template ID | Site name | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| STS#0 | Classic team site | Classic | The original team site template. Defaults to the classic experience. Can host modern pages if the admin enables the modern experience for the site. Frequently found on tenants migrated from SharePoint on-premises. |
| STS#1 | Blank site | Classic | Minimal classic site with no pre-installed lists or libraries beyond the default document library. Used for custom development or lightweight sub-sites. |
| BLOG#0 | Blog site | Classic | Classic blog experience with Posts, Categories, and Comments lists. Not to be confused with SharePoint news on modern pages. Rarely provisioned in new tenants; encountered mainly on older sites. |
| WIKI#0 | Enterprise wiki | Classic | Classic wiki-style site built around a Wiki Pages library. Replaced in modern tenants by SharePoint Site Pages with the modern page editor. |
| BDR#0 | Document center | Classic | Designed for managing large document collections with advanced content type routing. Includes a Document ID Service feature. Common in compliance-heavy environments. |
| DEV#0 | Developer site | Classic | Intended for testing SharePoint Add-in (app) development. Includes a pre-installed app testing facility. Rarely used in production; treat existing instances as candidates for decommission. |
| COMMUNITY#0 | Community site | Deprecated | Classic community discussion site with members, reputation, and categories. No longer actively developed; functionality has been superseded by Viva Engage and Teams channels. |
| COMMUNITYPORTAL#0 | Community portal | Deprecated | Hub site for listing community sites. Same deprecation path as COMMUNITY#0. Any existing instances are candidates for cleanup or migration to a modern hub site. |
Template IDs are case-sensitive and must be entered exactly as shown. When filtering by template in PnP PowerShell, test your script against a small subset of sites before running at tenant scope.
Publishing templates (classic)
Publishing templates create sites that use the classic SharePoint publishing infrastructure. They are deprecated for new site creation but are still encountered on tenants where the Publishing Features site collection feature was activated. These sites require special handling during migration.
| Template ID | Site name | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMSPUBLISHING#0 | Publishing portal | Classic | Full classic publishing infrastructure with page layouts, page approval workflows, and master pages. Typically used for intranet portals built before modern SharePoint. Requires significant rework to migrate to modern communication sites. |
| BLANKINTERNET#0 | Publishing site | Classic | A lighter publishing site than CMSPUBLISHING#0, with the same page layout and approval infrastructure. Often used as the root sub-site in a publishing hierarchy. Deprecated for new provisioning. |
| SRCHCEN#0 | Enterprise search center | Classic | Hosts classic SharePoint search result pages (Everything, People, Conversations). Modern SharePoint search is tenant-level and does not require a dedicated search center site. Existing instances are candidates for retirement. |
| SRCHCENTERLITE#0 | Basic search center | Classic | Lightweight version of the enterprise search center. Same deprecation path. Typically found on older sub-site hierarchies. |
Compliance, records, and eDiscovery templates
These templates create specialised sites for compliance workflows. They are provisioned by Microsoft 365 compliance features and should not be deleted or modified without involving your compliance team.
| Template ID | Site name | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| OFFILE#1 | Records center | Classic | Manages officially declared records. Receives content via the Send To connection. Files here are typically locked against editing. Exclude from storage cleanup operations. Microsoft Purview Records Management is the modern replacement path. |
| POLICYCTR#0 | Compliance policy center | Classic | Used for managing classic information management policies. Increasingly superseded by Microsoft Purview retention policies. Treat existing instances with care; active retention holds may be linked to content here. |
| EDISC#0 | eDiscovery center | Deprecated | Classic SharePoint eDiscovery site for legal hold and export. Replaced by Microsoft Purview eDiscovery. If your organisation still uses this template, migration to Purview eDiscovery is strongly recommended before the classic site functionality is retired. |
App catalog template
| Template ID | Site name | Experience | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| APPCATALOG#0 | App catalog site | Classic | Tenant-level or site-collection-level repository for SharePoint Framework (SPFx) solutions and SharePoint Add-ins. One tenant app catalog exists per Microsoft 365 tenant. Do not delete this site; removing it breaks all deployed SPFx extensions and web parts. |
Finding template IDs in your tenant
The fastest way to query template IDs across an entire tenant is PnP PowerShell:
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com" -Interactive
Get-PnPTenantSite | Select-Object Title, Url, Template | Export-Csv -Path sites.csv -NoTypeInformation
The resulting CSV includes a Template column with the full template ID for every site in the tenant. From there, you can filter in Excel or PowerShell to count or isolate specific site types.
Report Master includes site template information in its site inventory exports, giving non-scripting admins a no-code path to a template-annotated site list. The export is particularly useful when preparing a pre-migration site inventory, where knowing which sites use publishing templates or compliance templates helps prioritise migration effort and identify sites that require special handling.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a SharePoint site template ID?
A string identifier in the format TemplateName#Variant that describes the structural type of a SharePoint site. It is set at site creation, never changes, and appears in PnP PowerShell output, the Microsoft Graph API, and the SharePoint admin centre. Admins use it to classify, filter, and govern sites at scale.
How do I find the template ID of an existing SharePoint site?
Connect to the site in PnP PowerShell and run Get-PnPSite -Includes Template. For a tenant-wide export run Get-PnPTenantSite | Select-Object Url, Title, Template. The Template column contains the full ID string such as GROUP#0 or SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0.
Which SharePoint site template IDs support modern pages?
Full modern page support: GROUP#0, STS#3, and SITEPAGEPUBLISHING#0. Classic templates such as STS#0, BLOG#0, and WIKI#0 can have modern pages enabled but default to the classic experience. Publishing templates require significant rework to present modern pages to users.