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 Plan for host-named site collections in 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
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
	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 collection and site, Server only
	Publishing site with workflow	A site for publishing web pages on a schedule by using approval workflows. It includes document and image libraries for storing web publishing assets. By default, only sites with this template can be created under this site.	Site collection and site, Server only
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

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 intranet site    A site collection for publishing content to intranet readers. A small number of authors create and publish content for many readers. For example, you might use a published intranet site to provide human resources information to employees. Publishing sites are often implemented as two site collections — a production site collection and an authoring site collection. The production site collection is the published site that the content audience uses. The authoring site collection is a mirror of the production site, and it is used by the authoring team to create and view site content and test site features. SharePoint 2013 includes a content deployment feature that copies content from an authoring site collection to a production site collection.

You create sites in your site collection to partition your content so that you can have finer control of the 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. In addition, you can change a template's design and features by using SharePoint Designer 2013 or Visual Studio 2012.

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 language-specific site template when you create a new site. Text that appears on the site is displayed in the site template's language. For more information, see 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 What's new in web content management for SharePoint 2013 publishing sites.

• 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.