SharePoint Migration Tool: What to Use When

Name: ShareMaster - SharePoint migration tool (Clone Master)
Price: 900 USD

Which SharePoint migration tool should you use?

It depends entirely on where the content is coming from.

On-premises SharePoint Server, or a file share - use Microsoft's SPMT. It is free and it is built for exactly this.
Another Microsoft 365 tenant - SPMT cannot do it. Microsoft's cross-tenant migration can, but only for Enterprise Agreement customers. Otherwise you need a third-party tool.
Within one tenant, site to site - PnP PowerShell if you script, a third-party tool if you would rather not.

The options, honestly

Tool	Cost	Moves content from	Tenant to tenant?
SPMT (SharePoint Migration Tool, Microsoft)	Free	SharePoint Server 2010 to 2019, file shares	No
Migration Manager (Microsoft, in the admin centre)	Free	File shares and on-premises content, at scale with agents	No
Cross-tenant SharePoint migration (Microsoft)	Licensed	SharePoint Online	Yes, but Enterprise Agreement customers only
PnP PowerShell	Free, open source	Anything you can script	Yes, if you write it
ShareMaster (Clone Master)	$900/yr or $1,300/2yr	SharePoint to SharePoint only	Yes
Enterprise third-party (ShareGate, AvePoint, Quest)	Quoted, typically far higher	Many sources	Yes

If your source is on-premises or a file share, stop here and use SPMT. It is free, Microsoft supports it, and paying anyone for that job is a waste of money. We would rather tell you that than sell you something you do not need.

The gap Microsoft leaves

The one thing the free tools do not do is the thing people most often need: move SharePoint Online content from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another. Microsoft's own documentation is explicit that SPMT can migrate from on-premises SharePoint Server but not from another SharePoint tenant in Microsoft 365.

Microsoft does have a cross-tenant SharePoint migration capability. Per their documentation the feature and its licences are currently available only to Enterprise Agreement customers, and setup runs through PowerShell.

So if you are below Enterprise Agreement size and need a tenant-to-tenant move - a merger, an acquisition, a demerger, a client leaving one MSP for another - Microsoft's free tools cannot help and Microsoft's paid path is not open to you. That is the gap third-party tools exist to fill, and it is the only reason to consider paying for one.

Sources: SPMT FAQ and Cross-tenant SharePoint migration overview, Microsoft Learn, checked 11 August 2026. Licensing terms change; verify against current Microsoft documentation before planning.

What ShareMaster actually does

You pick a source site and a destination site as two separate sign-ins. Because the two connections are independent, they can be in different tenants. Then you choose how much to copy.

Mode	How it moves the data	When you would pick it
Copy structure and content	Microsoft's Migration API, staged through Azure	The default for a real migration. Best throughput on large libraries
Copy content only	Item by item	The destination already exists and you just want the data in it
Copy structure only	Creates lists, fields and content types	Standing up a destination to review before any content lands
Move To / Copy To	SharePoint's own copy-job endpoint	Shuffling folders inside or between sites without a full migration

Within a run you can work at whichever level you need: whole tenant, individual sites, lists and libraries, items, files, site columns, list columns, content types, permission levels, SharePoint groups, and views. Source users can be mapped onto destination users, which is the part that matters when the two tenants have different identities.

It is a Windows desktop application with a wizard. No PowerShell, and no SAS tokens to manage. It also means it runs while your machine is on: there is no scheduler and no server component.

Where ShareMaster is the wrong choice

Your source is not SharePoint. File shares, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Notion - we do not migrate any of them. SPMT covers file shares for free.
You need an enterprise support commitment. If your migration needs a named contact and a response-time guarantee, buy from a vendor who sells that.
You need it unattended on a server. It runs on your machine, while your machine is on.

Before you trial it: on a trial licence the migration runs but deliberately skips items at random, so a trial copy is never a complete one and should not be treated as a real migration. Reports are unrestricted, so scope the job with reports first, then buy the tier you need.

Frequently asked questions

What is a SharePoint migration tool?

Software that copies SharePoint content from one place to another while preserving the things a manual copy destroys: metadata, version history, created and modified dates, authorship, content types, and permissions. Microsoft publishes free tools for getting content into SharePoint Online. Third-party tools exist mainly because those free tools do not cover SharePoint Online to SharePoint Online moves between two tenants.

Is there a free SharePoint migration tool?

Yes, from Microsoft. The SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) is free and moves content from on-premises SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019, and from file shares, into Microsoft 365. Migration Manager in the SharePoint admin centre covers similar ground. PnP PowerShell is free and open source if you are comfortable writing scripts. If your source is on-premises or a file share, start there and do not pay anyone.

Can SPMT migrate between two Microsoft 365 tenants?

No. Microsoft's documentation states SPMT can migrate content from SharePoint on-premises Server but not from another SharePoint tenant in Microsoft 365. Microsoft does offer a separate cross-tenant SharePoint migration capability, but per their documentation the feature and its licences are currently available only to Enterprise Agreement customers and require manual setup through PowerShell.

What does ShareMaster migrate?

SharePoint to SharePoint only, including between two different tenants. Within a run you can work at whichever level you need: whole tenant, individual sites, lists and libraries, items, files, site columns, list columns, content types, permission levels, SharePoint groups, and views. Source users can be mapped onto destination users, which is the part that matters when the tenants have different identities.

What does ShareMaster not migrate?

File shares, NAS drives, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox and Notion. It is not a general-purpose content migrator. If your source is a file share, Microsoft's SPMT does that job for free and you should use it.

What does it cost?

Clone Master is $900 USD for one year or $1,300 for two, per seat and excluding tax. That tier also includes recycle bin search and bulk restore, version trimming, storage cleanup and find-and-replace, which are the jobs that keep recurring after the migration project ends.

Can I test a migration before paying?

You can, with an important caveat. On a trial licence the migration runs but deliberately skips items at random, so a trial copy is never complete and must not be treated as a real migration. Reports are unrestricted, so the reliable way to evaluate is to scope the job with reports first.

Does it need PowerShell?

No. It is a Windows desktop application with a wizard: pick a source site, pick a destination site, choose what to copy. That is the main reason people pick it over PnP PowerShell for one-off moves.

In action