Given a SharePoint site collection URL, how can you determine if it is SharePoint Online or SharePoint On-Prem?

Question

I would like to be able to determine if a SharePoint web application URL is a SharePoint online instance or not.

Previously, I used to think that you could check to see if a sharepoint web application URL had the form https://{tenantname}.sharepoint.com to see if it was a sharepoint online instance URL.

But now I've seen Office 365 sharepoint online urls that looks like https://prefix.mycompany.com.

Is there some simple way to check a URL for sharepoint online versus sharepoint on prem?

I'd rather not have to add a "SharePoint Online" checkbox in my UI.

Answer 1

For most circumstances, If it is SPO, it is cloud SharePoint and contains 'sharepoint.com' as part of the FQDN. Anything else shall be on-prem SharePoint. If there are custom domains with a URL like you mentioned not containing sharepoint.com, you may check the server version via csom, From the number returned (example: 16.0.0.1203) the most important part is the first number.

12 = SharePoint 2007 (WSS or MOSS)

14 = SharePoint 2010

15 = SharePoint 2013

16 = SharePoint 2016, and generally SharePoint Online / Office 365

I am not sure if there are other ways to tell the difference with a programmatic way.

Answer 2

Not from the URL. But you can from a web service call, or by looking at the data returned in the HTTP header.

Data returned in the header of a GET request. This is from SPO:

microsoftsharepointteamservices 16.0.0.9124