--- title: "Employee Details vs. Employee Directory: What's the Difference?" description: "A practical comparison of two Vitextra web parts for SharePoint Online: Employee Directory, which helps you find people, and Employee Details, which shows one employee's full personal page with self-service editing. Learn what each does, how they differ in data, permissions and settings, and how to use them together." url: https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10581 language: en published: 2026-11-11 modified: 2026-11-14 products: - "Employee Details" author: "Līga Ozola" tags: ["Employee Details vs Employee Directory", "SharePoint employee directory", "SharePoint employee profile page", "personal page web part", "employee profile", "people search", "Microsoft Graph permissions", "Vitextra Employee Details", "Vitextra Employee Directory"] --- # Employee Details vs. Employee Directory: What's the Difference? A practical comparison of two Vitextra web parts for SharePoint Online: Employee Directory, which helps you find people, and Employee Details, which shows one employee's full personal page with self-service editing. Learn what each does, how they differ in data, permissions and settings, and how to use them together. ## Overview Vitextra offers two web parts that both work with employee data from ::Microsoft 365::: **Employee Directory** and **Employee Details**. Their names are similar, they share some functions - presence, local time, contact actions - and they are often installed together. They have different jobs, though, and choosing the right one saves configuration time. In short: **Employee Directory helps you find people. Employee Details shows one person in depth.** ## At a glance | | Employee Directory | Employee Details | |---|---|---| | **Main job** | Search a ::list:: of employees and find the right colleague | Show the full personal page of one employee | | **Starting point** | A search box and a list or cards of employees | One employee: the current user, a chosen user, or the user from the page address (`?user=`) | | **Search and filters** | People search, refinement panel, quick filters, favorites and skills search | None - it shows a single person; you navigate through the manager, direct reports and colleagues | | **Views** | Details and Cards layouts | A header and tabs: Overview, Documents, Projects, Education, Awards, Certificates, People, Activity and Insights | | **Depth of a profile** | A profile panel with contact data, local time and availability for the selected person | A full page: skills, languages, social accounts, about me, projects, education, awards, certificates, documents, colleagues, activity and insights | | **Editing** | Not intended for editing profiles - it is built for finding and reading | Employees edit their own skills, languages, social accounts, about me and other profile sections | | **Contact actions** | Chat, call, e-mail and meeting actions on results | Chat in Teams, copy link to profile, save contact (.vcf), QR business card, schedule a meeting | | **Export** | Export of the search results to Excel | Export of one contact to a .vcf file or a QR business card | | **Typical page** | A "Find a colleague" page or a company directory | A "My profile" page, or a profile page that opens for any employee | | **Platform** | ::SharePoint Online:: | SharePoint Online | 📝 **Note** Employee Directory also includes the **Employee Directory (Entra ID)** and **New Employees** web parts and can be added to ::Microsoft Teams::. For the full list of its features, see [KB10064. Employee Directory Overview: Web Parts, SPFx and Microsoft Graph](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10064). ## Which web part should I use? **Choose Employee Directory** when users need to look for people: - "Who works in the Riga office?" - "Who knows ::Power BI::?" - "I need the phone number of someone in finance." - You want to export a list of employees to Excel. **Choose Employee Details** when users need to know a person: - A personal page where every employee sees and maintains their own profile. - A profile page that opens for any colleague from a link in a ::news post::, a team page or a message. - A page that shows an employee's skills, languages, documents, projects and a place in the organization. - A way for employees to ask for a change of their job title or department through an approval flow. **Use both** when you want a complete people experience: search in the directory, then open a full profile. See the section below. ## Using them together The web parts are connected by the page address: 1. Create a page with Employee Details that is set to take the employee from a query string parameter - a profile page that serves everybody. Its address then looks like `https://.sharepoint.com/sites//SitePages/Profile.aspx?user=`. 2. In the Employee Details settings, specify the address of the page with Employee Directory. The header of every profile then gets the **Open Employee Directory** button, which leads back to the search. 3. Use the profile page address in links to a person, for example in a news post or an onboarding page. ![Employee Directory and Employee Details on two pages](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10581/directory-and-details-en.png) *Employee Directory and Employee Details on two pages* 📝 **Note** The **Open Employee Directory** button is set up in the settings of Employee Details. In the opposite direction, the address of the profile page (`?user=`) can be used in any place where you can put a link: a news post, a team page, an onboarding checklist or a message. ## Questions and answers ### Is Employee Details a replacement for the details pane of Employee Directory? No. The details pane of Employee Directory is part of a search experience: it shows a compact profile of the person you selected in the results. Employee Details is a standalone ::web part:: with a page of its own, more tabs, and editing of the employee's own profile. You can keep using the details pane in the directory and add Employee Details for the people who need the full picture. For the details pane settings, see [KB10199. Employee Directory: Customizing the Details Pane](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10199). ### Do they need the same Microsoft Graph permissions? No. Both read data through ::Microsoft Graph::, but each product requests its own set of permissions, which a ::tenant:: administrator approves in the ::SharePoint admin center::. Employee Details additionally asks for permissions to edit your own profile (`User.ReadWrite`) and to read documents and insights (`Files.Read.All`, `Sites.Read.All`). The full list is in [KB10279. Employee Details. Solution Overview](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10279#data-and-permissions). ### Can an employee edit their profile in Employee Directory? The directory is intended for finding and reading profile data. Employees edit their own skills, languages, social accounts and other profile sections in Employee Details. ### Do I need to buy both products? No. They are separate products, and you can use either one on its own. For information about trials and licenses, see [KB10206. Vitextra Licensing and Account: How to Buy and Activate a License](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10206). ### Can I show the custom attributes of my organization in both? Yes. Both web parts can show ::Microsoft Entra ID:: ::extension attributes:: and ::SharePoint:: ::user profile:: properties as additional attributes, but they are configured separately in each web part. For Employee Directory, see [KB10060. How to Display Custom Entra ID Attributes in the Employee Directory Web Part](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10060). 💡 **Tip** To get started with Employee Details, see [KB50029. How To Add and Configure the Employee Details Web Part](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/50029). For Employee Directory, see [KB50023. How To Add and Configure the Vitextra Employee Directory Web Part](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/50023). Learn more about the products: and