Best SharePoint Migration Tools in 2026: Microsoft vs Paid Options

The best SharePoint migration tool is the smallest one that can move your actual source, permissions, metadata and change window with evidence you can verify.

For a straightforward file share or supported on-premises SharePoint move, Microsoft's own tools may be enough. A paid product adds value when the migration spans tenants or workloads, needs repeatable restructuring and mappings, requires stronger reporting, or must be operated across many business units.

There is no honest universal winner. A tool that is excellent for a SharePoint 2013 farm is not automatically the right tool for a Microsoft 365 tenant divestiture.

Method: this is a documentation-based comparison, checked against Microsoft Learn and current vendor documentation on 7 August 2026. We did not run a 10 TB benchmark, test 22 products or measure vendor transfer speeds. The previous article's invented test results, prices and winner have been removed.

The shortlist

Tool	Best starting use case	Why it earns a place	Check before choosing
SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)	Supported SharePoint Server or file-share content moving to Microsoft 365	Free Microsoft tool; assessment, migration and incremental reruns	Exact source version, unsupported customisations, identity mappings and report depth
Migration Manager	Distributed file-share or supported cloud-source migrations	Central task management, agents, prescan and reporting	Supported source and whether content transformation is required
Microsoft cross-tenant SharePoint migration	Eligible Enterprise Agreement customers moving SharePoint sites between Microsoft 365 tenants	Native site move with source redirects	Eligibility, per-data licensing and the lack of incremental/delta passes
ShareGate Migrate	Hands-on SharePoint restructuring and repeat migrations, including tenant work	Granular copy, mappings, reporting and broad Microsoft 365 migration coverage	Windows/operator model, exact workload fidelity and subscription terms
AvePoint Fly	Large or multi-workload programmes, including merger and acquisition scenarios	SaaS orchestration, discovery, mappings, incremental work and broad sources	Scope, regional architecture, service model and exact object support
Quest On Demand Migration	Identity-led Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant programmes	Tenant discovery, account matching and coordinated workload migration	SharePoint component limitations, workload dependencies and current known issues

This is a selection table, not a ranking. Start with the migration shape, then prove the candidate with your most difficult content.

First define the migration—not the product category

“We are migrating SharePoint” is not a specification. Record:

• Source: file share, SharePoint Server version, SharePoint Online, Google Workspace, Box or another system.
• Destination: an existing Microsoft 365 tenant, a new tenant, or a redesigned information architecture.
• Workloads: sites, lists, libraries, OneDrive, Teams, Exchange, Power Platform and identities.
• Fidelity: versions, permissions, authors, timestamps, metadata, content types, links, workflows and customisations.
• Change window: big-bang cutover, staged waves or a final incremental pass.
• Scale shape: not just total bytes, but number and size of files, list complexity and permission uniqueness.
• Compliance: data residency, encryption, audit evidence and who may operate the tool.
• Acceptance: what report and sample prove that the move succeeded.

Two projects with 1 TB of content can behave completely differently. Ten large video files are not the same workload as millions of small documents with versions and unique permissions.

When Microsoft's free tools are enough

SharePoint Migration Tool

Microsoft's SharePoint Migration Tool is free. Microsoft documents support for moving content from SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019, as well as file shares, into Microsoft 365.

Its supported-features documentation includes files, folders, lists, permissions, versions, managed metadata and incremental reruns, with source- and object-specific limitations.

SPMT is the obvious first pilot when:

• The source is supported.
• The destination architecture already exists or needs little restructuring.
• SharePoint and file content are the main workloads.
• Your team can own identity mapping and exception repair.
• The built-in assessment and reports are sufficient for the acceptance process.

Free does not mean risk-free. Unsupported web parts, custom solutions, workflows and malformed source content do not become portable because the transfer engine has no licence fee.

Migration Manager

Migration Manager gives administrators a central service for managing file-share migrations and supported cloud migrations. Microsoft documents agent-based scaling for file shares, prescans, task management and reports. Current cloud-source documentation includes services such as Google Workspace, Box, Dropbox and Egnyte.

Use it when the problem is distributed content ingestion rather than detailed SharePoint-to-SharePoint restructuring. It can reduce the need to coordinate isolated migration clients across many file servers.

Do not assume that “Microsoft tool” means every source property maps to a SharePoint equivalent. Read the source-specific support page and test the fields, permissions and links your users rely on.

Native cross-tenant SharePoint migration

Microsoft also offers a cross-tenant SharePoint migration service. This is not a general free utility: Microsoft's current documentation says it is available to Enterprise Agreement customers and licensed in 100 GB increments.

It has a significant planning constraint: Microsoft describes it as a one-time move without incremental or delta passes. The source site is redirected after migration.

That can suit an eligible, controlled divestiture where a native move and redirect align with the cutover. It is a poor assumption for a programme that needs weeks of staged copying followed by a short final delta.

What paid products can add over Microsoft 365 out of the box

Paid migration products are valuable when they remove a demonstrated project constraint, not because a comparison page awards them a trophy.

Common sources of value include:

• One console spanning several Microsoft 365 workloads.
• Repeatable user, group, site, metadata and destination mappings.
• Granular selection and restructuring during the move.
• Incremental passes that fit a staged cutover.
• Richer discovery, reports and exception handling.
• Automation for many waves or business units.
• Vendor support for a difficult production cutover.

Every bullet needs a proof against the exact product, edition and workload you plan to buy. A vendor's support for “Teams” may cover structure and files but not every message type, app tab or meeting artefact.

ShareGate Migrate

ShareGate's current documentation describes migration from supported SharePoint Server versions, file shares, Google Workspace and Box, plus Microsoft 365 tenant work including SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and Exchange scenarios.

Its strength is a hands-on operator experience for copying selected structures and content, applying mappings, running reports and repeating incremental copies. ShareGate documents that an incremental copy adds or updates qualifying content but does not turn the destination into a deletion mirror.

That makes ShareGate a strong candidate for consultants and internal teams that need to reshape SharePoint while moving it and want detailed control of repeated waves.

Check:

• Whether the exact source and target versions are supported.
• Which metadata, workflows, apps and Teams objects move.
• How identity and permission mappings behave.
• The Windows installation and activation model for your operators.
• Current licence terms from ShareGate, not an old third-party price table.

Sources: ShareGate Migrate FAQ, supported systems and SharePoint migration architecture.

AvePoint Fly

AvePoint positions Fly as a SaaS migration platform spanning Microsoft 365 and other content sources, with discovery, mappings, incremental migration, dashboards and tenant-to-tenant workloads. AvePoint also publishes a separate Fly capability for Power Platform.

It is a candidate for a large merger, acquisition or consolidation where the programme needs orchestration across several workloads and may benefit from a managed-service option.

Those are vendor-documented capabilities, not our lab results. Ask AvePoint to demonstrate your difficult objects in the architecture and region you will actually use. Check:

• Where migration data and credentials are processed.
• Whether the chosen deployment meets residency and compliance requirements.
• Exact fidelity for SharePoint, Teams, Exchange and Power Platform objects.
• How discovery counts translate into licensing.
• What is automatic, what is configurable and what remains a manual repair.

Sources: AvePoint content migration, Fly user guide and Fly for Power Platform.

Quest On Demand Migration

Quest On Demand Migration is designed around Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant work. Quest's documentation covers tenant discovery, account matching and migration projects across workloads, with a specific SharePoint migration guide and published known issues.

It is a sensible candidate when identity coordination is central to the programme and SharePoint is one connected part of a wider tenant move.

The existence of a supported workload does not mean every component is recreated. Use Quest's current support tables and known-issue list to build the pilot. Check the dependencies between account matching, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint before sequencing cutover waves.

Sources: Quest SharePoint migration guide, SharePoint security guide and current release notes.

There is no trustworthy “GB per hour” winner

Microsoft's migration performance guidance says performance depends on content shape, source, network, tool behaviour and Microsoft 365 service throttling. Microsoft does not guarantee a transfer rate and does not lift throttling for a migration window.

This is why claims such as “Tool A always moves 300 GB per hour” are not a sound buying basis. A product can improve scheduling, batching, retry and use of Microsoft's migration APIs; it cannot promise away tenant throttling or a pathological source.

Benchmark your content with:

• A representative mix of large and small files.
• Version histories.
• Lists with complex columns.
• Unique permissions and broken inheritance.
• Invalid names and paths.
• Departed users.
• A normal Microsoft 365 tenant load.

Record both transfer throughput and repair effort. A fast copy that loses metadata or produces thousands of manual exceptions is not the faster migration.

A proof-of-fit pilot

Choose the hardest ordinary site, not the cleanest demo library.

Before the pilot

• Inventory sites, libraries, lists, customisations, workflows and owners.
• Decide the target information architecture before mapping destinations.
• Resolve active, guest and departed-user identity mappings.
• Record unsupported objects from the selected tool's current documentation.
• Define whether source users may continue editing and how a final change pass works.

Acceptance checks

Area	Evidence to collect
Inventory	Source and destination counts with explained differences
Content	Hash or sample validation for representative files
Metadata	Versions, authors, timestamps, content types and required fields
Permissions	Owners, members, visitors, guests and unique item access
Navigation	Links, pages and key user journeys
Exceptions	Exportable report, owner and repair decision
Cutover	Measured final-pass duration and rollback boundary
Operations	Support owner, user communication and source-retention plan

Open the destination as normal users and external guests. Administrator access is not proof that permissions migrated correctly.

If the destination will support partners, re-establish its collaboration policy deliberately. Our 2026 SharePoint external-sharing guide explains the four sharing levels and the Microsoft Entra B2B transition.

Pricing without fake precision

Migration products use different subscription, user, workload, capacity and service models. Prices and packaging change, and an attractive licence can exclude the workload or support window that drives the project.

Request a written quote against:

• Source and destination tenants.
• Total data and object counts.
• Required workloads.
• Number and location of operators.
• Discovery, pilot and production periods.
• Vendor or partner support.
• Retention of migration logs and temporary data.
• Tax, renewal and overage terms.

Then compare total delivery cost: licences, discovery, cleanup, target design, identity work, execution, remediation, user support and decommissioning. Do not turn one public list price into a universal cost per user or terabyte.

Which tool should you pilot first?

• Supported SharePoint Server or file share, simple target: SPMT.
• Many file servers or a supported cloud-content source: Migration Manager.
• Eligible native tenant-to-tenant site move with a one-time cutover: Microsoft's cross-tenant service.
• Granular SharePoint restructuring and repeated operator-led waves: ShareGate.
• Large multi-workload or managed migration programme: AvePoint Fly.
• Identity-heavy Microsoft 365 tenant consolidation or divestiture: Quest On Demand Migration.

That is a shortlist for a pilot, not a purchase instruction. Let the difficult content and acceptance report decide.

Keep the migration grounded in working SharePoint

The Teams, SharePoint & Intranet Mastery Space brings current migration guidance, administration patterns and peer troubleshooting together beyond a one-off product list.

Microsoft sources used

• Introducing the SharePoint Migration Tool
• What SPMT supports
• Get started with Migration Manager
• SharePoint and OneDrive migration performance guidance
• Cross-tenant SharePoint migration

Source boundary: Microsoft and each vendor document their own supported capabilities. Vendor feature descriptions are attributed to vendor documentation. This article makes no independent speed, price, market-share or “best overall” claim. Prove the current product against your tenant before buying or cutting over.