Hub Sites
A hub site is a special SharePoint site designated via Register-PnPHubSite (or the admin center) that acts as a parent for a family of associated sites, providing shared top navigation, a common theme, and rollup of content and search results across the group. Hub association is a logical relationship, not a change to permissions or a folder hierarchy — an associated site keeps its own owners, members, and permissions entirely independent of the hub.
Cricket analogy: A hub site is like the BCCI acting as the umbrella body over IPL franchises — it sets shared branding and tournament-wide navigation, but each franchise like Mumbai Indians still manages its own squad and finances independently.
Associating Sites and Inherited Navigation
Once a site is associated with a hub via Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation, it automatically inherits the hub's top navigation bar, theme, and site logo (unless overridden locally), and it appears in that hub's search-based content rollup and the Hub Sites web part. Navigation changes made centrally on the hub — adding a new link to Finance or Careers — propagate to every associated site within minutes without any per-site configuration.
Cricket analogy: Associating a site with a hub is like a franchise adopting the IPL's shared broadcast graphics package — once opted in, every match automatically shows the league's standard scoreboard overlay without the franchise configuring it themselves.
Hub Permissions and Search Rollup
Hub site permissions are managed separately from associated site permissions: only Global or SharePoint Administrators (or a delegated Hub Site Owner) can register a hub or approve new associations, which prevents any site owner from silently hijacking another team's navigation. Search-based rollup web parts — like Highlighted Content scoped to 'hub' — query the search index for content tagged with the hub's association ID, so newly associated sites appear in rollups only after the next search crawl completes, typically within minutes.
Cricket analogy: Requiring admin approval for hub association is like the ICC vetting which tournaments can officially use its logo — a local T10 league can't just self-brand as ICC-endorsed without going through governance approval.
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CorporateHub" -Interactive
# Register the site as a hub
Register-PnPHubSite -Site "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CorporateHub"
# Associate another site with the hub
Add-PnPHubSiteAssociation -Site "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Finance" `
-HubSite "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CorporateHub"
# Verify associated sites
Get-PnPHubSiteChild -Identity "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/CorporateHub"A single SharePoint tenant can register up to 2,000 hub sites, and hubs can be nested up to one level deep (a hub can itself be associated with another hub), which supports large enterprises modeling divisions and sub-divisions.
Removing a site's hub association does not undo permission changes or move any content — it only detaches shared navigation and theming, so plan navigation fallback (each site needs its own nav configured) before detaching, or users will briefly see a broken or empty top nav.
- A hub site is a designated parent providing shared navigation, theme, and content rollup to associated sites.
- Hub association is purely logical — it does not change permissions, ownership, or folder structure.
- Only Global/SharePoint Administrators or delegated Hub Site Owners can register hubs or approve associations.
- Associated sites inherit top navigation and theme automatically unless locally overridden.
- Search-based rollup web parts show newly associated content only after the next crawl completes.
- Tenants can register up to 2,000 hubs, with one level of hub nesting supported.
- Detaching a site from a hub removes shared nav/theme but leaves content and permissions untouched.
Practice what you learned
1. What does associating a site with a hub actually change?
2. Who can register a new hub site or approve associations?
3. How deep can hub sites be nested in a tenant?
4. Why might a newly associated site not yet show up in a hub-scoped rollup web part?
5. What happens to a site's content when it is detached from a hub?
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