Microsoft SPMT - The Free Baseline
What it is: A free, downloadable Windows application from Microsoft for migrating content to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams. Also available as PowerShell cmdlets for scripted, automated migrations.
SPMT supports migration from file shares (network/SMB drives) and from SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and the Subscription Edition. It integrates directly with Migration Manager in the SharePoint admin center for centralized scheduling and agent management across larger deployments.
What SPMT does well
Its strength is file share to SharePoint Online migration. SPMT delivers bulk document migration with metadata preservation, incremental sync, and parallel agent support. Production throughput is 1-2 TB per agent per 24 hours. You may deploy up to 50 agents, though throttling typically limits effective concurrency to 10-15 agents.
- Preserves the essentials: folder structure, file metadata, created/modified timestamps, basic site-level permissions.
- PowerShell-first. Everything in the GUI is scriptable. For large migrations across many sites, this is vital; you won’t be clicking through a UI at 2am during cutover.
- AI-powered document management with Copilot smart tagging and intelligent search
- Custom AI agents for HR self-service, IT helpdesk, and internal knowledge base queries
- Power Platform AI Builder integration for intelligent automation
Where SPMT falls short
- No workflow migration. SharePoint Designer workflows, Nintex, and InfoPath forms don’t migrate. SPMT is trying to map some workflows to Power Automate, with mixed results.
- Permission complexity presents challenges. Site-level permissions migrate accurately, but deeply nested structures or custom permissions at the folder or item level may need significant manual cleanup.
- No non-Microsoft sources. Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox aren’t valid sources. This is a hard stop.
- Error reporting lacks detail. Failed files are listed, but the reasons are often unclear. SPMT does not provide a pre-migration scan to warn of potential issues, so problems may only surface once the migration begins.
- No tenant-to-tenant. Post-M&A migrations between two Microsoft 365 tenants? SPMT can’t do it.
- Long paths and special characters fail silently. Paths over 400 characters or files with restricted characters don’t show clear errors; they just don’t migrate.
Pricing: Free
Best for: File share to SharePoint Online migrations of any size. SharePoint on-prem to SharePoint Online with standard content and straightforward permissions. Organizations that want to avoid third-party licensing and have IT staff comfortable with PowerShell.
Migration Manager - SPMT’s Cloud Sibling
What it is: The cloud-based migration console built into the SharePoint admin centre. Runs the same underlying engine as SPMT but adds centralised scheduling, monitoring, and agent management without installing anything on a central server.
In 2024, Microsoft added Google Workspace support to Migration Manager, a major advantage over SPMT, which does not support Google Drive. Migration Manager now migrates Google Drive files to SharePoint Online or OneDrive, expanding your options beyond SPMT and other basic tools.
What Migration Manager adds over SPMT
- Central dashboard. Monitor every migration task across multiple agents from one interface. No jumping between machines or log files.
- Agent management at scale. Deploy migration agents across multiple machines and manage them from the cloud. Useful when you’re running 10+ agents in parallel.
- Google Workspace support. Migrate Google Drive files and shared drives to SharePoint Online or OneDrive. One-directional only (Google → Microsoft), but the capability is there, and it’s free.
- Migration scheduling. Set migration windows to run during off-peak hours without babysitting the process.
Where it falls short
- Same core limitations as SPMT: no workflow migration, limited permission handling, and weak error reporting.
- Google Workspace migration is file-content only. Google Forms, Google Sites, and Gmail don’t come across.
Pricing: Free (included with Microsoft 365)
Best for: Organizations running multiple SPMT agents who want centralized monitoring. Basic Google Workspace to SharePoint Online file migrations.
ShareGate - The Popular Choice
What it is: A desktop-based migration and governance tool for Microsoft 365 from Workleap. The most widely used paid SharePoint migration tool on the market, with more than 100,000 IT professionals relying on it.
ShareGate supports migrations from SharePoint, SharePoint Online tenant-to-tenant, file shares, Google Workspace, Exchange, and Teams. Unlike Microsoft’s tools, ShareGate incorporates governance, auditing, and lifecycle management functionalities, such as automated policy enforcement, activity tracking, and reporting on permission changes across migrated content.
In practical terms, these features enable organizations to maintain compliance and data integrity by continually monitoring usage patterns and enforcing organizational standards both during and after migration. This extended governance capability distinguishes ShareGate from basic migration utilities, which typically focus solely on data transfer without providing mechanisms for ongoing environment oversight.
What ShareGate does well
- Easiest to learn. Ranked as the most approachable migration tool. The drag-and-drop interface for mapping source to destination truly reduces user error risk.
- Fidelity is excellent. Metadata, version history, content types, managed metadata, and permissions are preserved reliably. ShareGate outperforms SPMT for complex environments.
- ShareGate is highly effective for tenant-to-tenant migrations. For mergers or acquisitions involving Microsoft 365 tenants, this capability ensures full content fidelity.
- Pre-migration reports allow you to scan your source environment before migration. This identifies file name conflicts, unsupported characters, and permission complexities upfront, reducing remediation efforts later.
- Incremental sync. Migrate the bulk first. Run delta syncs during the cutover window to capture changes since the initial pass.
- Unlimited data transfer. All plans are priced per machine activation, not per GB or per user. For large migrations, this matters.
Where ShareGate falls short
- Price. $5,995/year for a single-machine activation is expensive if you’re doing a single migration project and never touching it again.
- Desktop-only. Requires a Windows machine. No SaaS option for the migration engine itself.
- Workflows still don’t fully migrate. Like every tool in this category, ShareGate maps what it can from SharePoint Designer and Nintex and flags the rest. There’s no silver bullet here.
Pricing: $5,995/yr (1 machine)·$9,995/yr (5 machines)·$17,995/yr (25 machines)
Best for: Mid-to-large organizations with complex SharePoint-to-SharePoint migrations. Tenant-to-tenant M&A work. IT consulting firms that run migrations regularly the per-machine licensing model makes economic sense when you’re using the tool constantly.
AvePoint Fly Migrator - Enterprise Scale
What it is: A SaaS-based enterprise migration platform, part of AvePoint’s broader Microsoft 365 management ecosystem. No desktop installation. Everything runs in the cloud.
AvePoint Fly supports the widest range of source platforms of any tool in this comparison SharePoint (all versions), file shares, Google Workspace, Box, Dropbox, Exchange, and Teams. If you’re consolidating multiple source environments into Microsoft 365 simultaneously, this is the tool built for that scenario.
What AvePoint does well?
- Multi-source migrations. Google Workspace, Box, and Dropbox are all natively supported. The strongest option for organizations moving from non-Microsoft platforms.
- Enterprise scale. Designed for 10,000+ user migrations with multi-terabyte data volumes. Handles scheduling, throttle management, and parallelization at a level other tools don’t approach.
- Co-existence support. Both source and destination environments can stay active simultaneously during the migration period, which is critical for large organizations that can’t execute a hard cutover.
- Audit trails for regulated industries. Healthcare, financial services, government. AvePoint’s compliance reporting satisfies requirements that generic migration tools don’t address.
Where AvePoint falls short?
- Complexity. More involved to configure than ShareGate. You need experienced hands to get it set up correctly.
- Opaque pricing. Not publicly listed. Typically $15-$50/user for managed migrations in straightforward scenarios, higher in regulated or complex environments.
- AvePoint may be overly complex for smaller migrations. For example, migrating a single SharePoint 2016 farm with 500 users may not require this level of capability.
Pricing: Contact AvePoint - typically $15–$50/user
Best for: Large enterprise migrations (5,000+ users, 5TB+ data). Multi-platform consolidations, Google + Box + on-prem into Microsoft 365. M&A scenarios requiring co-existence. Regulated industries with detailed audit requirements.
BitTitan MigrationWiz - The Cross-Platform Specialist
What it is: A SaaS migration platform from BitTitan (part of Idera). Fully automated, fully cloud-hosted. No agents, no desktop software, no infrastructure to manage.
MigrationWiz built its reputation on email migration, moving mailboxes from Gmail, Yahoo, and IMAP sources to Exchange Online. That’s still where it’s most reliable. But it also handles document migration from SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and file shares.
What MigrationWiz does well
- Cross-platform email migration. The strongest tool in this comparison for moving mailboxes from non-Microsoft sources to Exchange Online. Reliable and well-documented.
- SaaS simplicity. Nothing to install, nothing to manage. The entire migration runs in the cloud. For MSPs or consultants working across dozens of client environments, this removes a lot of overhead.
- Per-user pricing. Pay only for what you migrate. No annual subscription for migration licenses, which keeps costs proportional for smaller projects.
- Works across diverse source platforms. If a client environment is genuinely mixed, IMAP email here, Google Drive there, on-prem SharePoint somewhere else, MigrationWiz handles it from a single platform.
Where MigrationWiz falls short
- SharePoint migration speed. Users consistently report slower throughput for document migrations compared to ShareGate or SPMT. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it matters for large datasets.
- Limited customization. Less granular control over permission mapping and metadata handling than ShareGate. What you see is largely what you get.
- Email-first DNA. Document migration feels like a secondary feature. If SharePoint content fidelity is the priority, other tools do it better.
- No governance features. Pure migration tool. Nothing ongoing.
Pricing: Per-user / per-mailbox (contact BitTitan for current rates)
Best for: Email-first migrations Gmail to Exchange Online, IMAP to Exchange Online. Organizations migrating from multiple non-Microsoft sources. MSPs and consultants who need a single tool that works across diverse client environments without infrastructure.
