How to Share SharePoint Site with External Users?

Recently, I was working on the SharePoint Online site, where I needed to share my SharePoint Online site with my client [External user].

In this SharePoint tutorial, I will explain how to share the SharePoint Online site [Communication site or Team site] with external users.

Table of Contents

Share SharePoint Site with External Users

SharePoint Online allows organization users to share content with people outside of their organization. These users may be partners, clients, vendors, or customers.

SharePoint offers various permission levels, allowing you to control what external users can view, edit, or contribute to, ensuring that your organization’s data remains secure.

By default, the External sharing feature is available in SharePoint. However, you need to enable it on two levels. Such as:

Enable external Sharing at the tenant level
Enable external Sharing at the SharePoint site level

Note:
To enable external sharing at the tenant level, you need to be a SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator. Site owners do not have permission to modify the sharing settings of a SharePoint site.

1. Enable External Sharing at the Tenant Level

To enable the external sharing feature on the SharePoint tenant level, follow the below-mentioned steps.

1. Open SharePoint admin center [https://<tenant-name>-admin.sharepoint.com/] -> Expand the Policies dropdown -> Click on the Sharing option -> Drag both the SharePoint and OneDrive sliders up to Most permissive for Anyone, as shown below.

2. Next, expand the More external sharing settings and select the options below.

Guests must sign in using the same account to which sharing invitations are sent
Guest access to a site or Onedrive will expire automatically after this many days

share sharepoint site with external users

3. Then, select the File and folder links section to provide the below information. Such as:

Choose the type of link that’s selected by default when users share files and folders in SharePoint and OneDrive as “Anyone with the link.”
Choose the permission that’s selected by default for sharing links [View]
Choose expiration and permissions options for Anyone links as 15 days.

4. Finally, check all Other settings and click on the Save button.

This way, we can work to enable the external sharing feature on the SharePoint tenant level.

2. Enable external Sharing at the SharePoint Site Level

In the same way, we should enable external sharing at the SharePoint site level. To do so, follow the below steps.

1. On the SharePoint admin center home page, expand the Active sites, select the specific SharePoint Online site, and click on the Sharing option, as shown below.

2. Next, select the Anyone option and click on the Save button, as shown below.

3. Once it is done, you will get the confirmation message [Sharing settings updated successfully], as shown below.

This is how we can work with the external sharing feature on the SharePoint tenant level.

How to Share SharePoint Site with External Users

Now, I will show you how to share the SharePoint site with external users. In this case, follow this follow the below steps.

1. On the SharePoint Online site Home page, select the Gerar icon or Settings icon and click on the Site permissions option, as shown below.

2. Now, select the Share site only option, like the one below.

3. Finally, enter the external user Email name -> Send email [Optional] -> Select the Add option, as shown below.

how to share sharepoint site with external users

4. Now, the external user will get the SharePoint Online site with an Email notification [Which I have shared with the external user], as in the screenshot below.

Output:

how to share a sharepoint site with external users

This is all about the share SharePoint Online site with the external user.

I trust this SharePoint tutorial is useful. If you have any requirements related to sharing a SharePoint Online site with an external user, follow the above steps.