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Migration tool comparison

ShareGate vs. Quest: What IT pros need to know

ShareGate Migrate and Quest On Demand Migration (ODM) both handle tenant-to-tenant and on-prem-to-cloud Microsoft 365 migrations. But they go about it differently. Here's how to tell which one fits your project.

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Feature information on this page is based on publicly available ShareGate and Quest documentation as of July 2026. Verify with each vendor before making a purchasing decision.

The Verdict

Which one should you choose?

Both tools will help you migrate to Microsoft 365. The decision comes down to your source environment, project scope, and how much process you want between you and a finished migration.

Choose ShareGate Migrate Pro if
  • Your project is a cloud-to-cloud M365 migration
  • You want one flat price before the project starts, with no per-user math
  • Same-tenant restructuring is part of the scope (reorg, consolidation, cleanup)
  • Google Workspace (including Drive and Shared Drives) is in scope and you want it self-service
  • You want to pilot the full product before signing anything, including identity migration
  • You want governance to complete the migration story: ShareGate Protect, a separate subscription, covers permissions visibility, cleanup, workspace lifecycle, and Copilot readiness in one product
  • You’re running multiple migration projects per year
Choose
Quest On-Demand Migration
if
  • On-prem Active Directory is part of your identity scope
  • You need long coexistence: directory sync, password sync, cross-tenant free/busy
  • Device migration (Windows 10/11 to Entra) is bundled into the project
  • Public folders or legacy/hosted Exchange sources are in scope
  • Your team prefers a fully SaaS tool with nothing installed locally
  • Quote-based, per-user licensing fits how your org buys

Commercial model and licensing

ShareGate publishes its prices, sells one flat annual license that covers unlimited users and data, and lets you trial before signing. Quest licenses per migrated user account through quote-based subscription plans, with prices available only after a sales conversation. Whether that difference matters depends on how your organization buys software. And how confident you are that your scope won't change.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
License model Flat fee of $9,995 per year. Published on sharegate.com/pricing. Per migrated user account, quote-based. Pricing not published on quest.com.
How you procure Self-serve from start to finish. Public pricing, full-featured trial, optional demo. Talk to sales when you choose to, not because you have to. Sales-led. Pricing and scoping start through a sales conversation. The trial is self-serve but capped, and excludes the AD modules.
Licensing flexibility when scope grows No additional cost. Add users, data, or migration waves mid-project without re-scoping the contract or requesting new licenses. Each new migrated user consumes another license. Consumed licenses can't be freed or transferred.
Data cost model No data caps. No per-GB metering. Version history doesn't count against any volume. No pass limits. No project data cap. Per-item caps apply: 250 GB max file size in SharePoint, 4 MB max per individual Teams message.
How it runs Lightweight local install, ready to run in minutes. Migration data goes tenant-to-tenant, never through ShareGate servers. 100% Azure-based SaaS. No local install. Migration runs through Quest's regional Azure data centers (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia).
Support ~3hr response, 96% CSAT, no paid tiers. Help that doesn't depend on your severity level. 24x7 for Severity 1 issues only. Other severities during business hours. Premier Support with named TAM is a paid tier.
Trial access 15-day trial, full-featured. Every workload, no caps, no credit card. Lightweight local install runs in minutes. 30-day trial capped at 5 accounts, 5 GB per mailbox, 5 sites, 5 teams. No trial for AD modules. SaaS, no install.
Pricing

You can’t budget around a quote you don’t have

Budget approval needs a number, and ShareGate's is on the website: one flat annual fee, unlimited users, data, and passes. The same number whether your scope doubles or your plans change at week six. You'll know your ShareGate cost before the first call. For Quest, the first call is where pricing starts.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest On Demand Migration AD & M365 subscription
Annual cost $9,995/year flat. Published. Quote-based. Not published.
Cost for additional data volume $0. No per-GB metering. Version history included. No per-GB cost. Per-item caps: 250 GB max SharePoint file, 4 MB max per Teams message.
Cost if scope grows $0. Add unlimited users, data, or migration waves at no additional cost. The flat annual license doesn't meter against headcount or volume. Each new migrated user consumes another license. A consumed license can't be freed or transferred.
Cost for re-runs or delta passes $0. Unlimited re-runs included. Re-migrating the same user is covered by the existing license.
Supported source workloads
  • Entra ID
  • Exchange Online
  • SharePoint
  • Teams
  • OneDrive
  • Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels
  • Google Workspace
Purpose-built for cloud native M&A, restructuring, and tenant consolidation.
  • Entra ID
  • Azure Active Directory
  • Exchange Online
  • SharePoint
  • Teams
  • OneDrive
  • Power BI
Better fit for hybrid environments and on-prem modernization scenarios.
What happens if scope grows No additional cost. Each new migrated user consumes an additional license.
How it runs

Deployment, performance, and operations

ShareGate runs as a lightweight desktop install, where Quest runs as Azure-hosted SaaS. The trade-offs show up in deployment speed, data residency, and how each tool handles the operational edges of a real-world migration.

With ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Supported source workloads
  • Entra ID
  • Exchange Online
  • SharePoint
  • Teams
  • OneDrive
  • Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels
  • Google Workspace
Purpose-built for cloud native M&A, restructuring, and tenant consolidation.
  • Entra ID
  • Azure Active Directory
  • Exchange Online
  • SharePoint
  • Teams
  • OneDrive
  • Power BI
Better fit for hybrid environments and on-prem modernization scenarios.
Deployment model and data residency Lightweight desktop install on the migration team's machine. Migration data moves tenant-to-tenant directly. It never transits or is staged in ShareGate infrastructure. Customer controls where data flows. Azure-hosted SaaS. No install. Migration data flows through Quest's regional Azure data centers (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia). Data residency selectable at tenant connection.
Set up and time-to-value Install the desktop app, connect source and destination tenants with one Azure consent each, start migrating. Setup requires granting consent to multiple Quest service principals—Exchange, SharePoint/OneDrive, Teams/Graph—separately per workload. AD module setup is a separate provisioning step under its own subscription.
Throttling management and API optimization Built-in awareness of Microsoft Graph and SharePoint throttling limits. Recommended batching guidance documented per workload. Concurrent migrations across multiple machines reduces the risk of tenant-wide throttling that would slow Outlook and Teams for everyone else during business hours. Throttling handled at the platform level. Quest customers can request upgraded throttling policies from Microsoft to improve throughput. Quest's support documentation says bottlenecking is a common cause of slow migrations.
Performance at scale Run migrations across up to 5 (or 25+ with the Enterprise plan) machines simultaneously to saturate available bandwidth and meet tight cutover windows. The customer decides how much parallelism to use. Documented at petabyte scale. Quest sets per-project capacity per workload. Customers don't control the parallelism ceiling. Quest recommends that competing workload migrations should be scheduled at different times to manage tenant API capacity.
Pre-migration conflict detection Identity conflicts, archive presence, mailbox size, and mapping issues surfaced before execution starts. Source analysis and permissions matrix report available before migration runs. Review and resolve everything before anything moves. Conflicts and duplicates between source and destination accounts surfaced before migration starts. Pre-Migration & Security Assessment included across identity, mailboxes, sites, and Teams.
Error handling and granular logging Item-level error logs with file path and error type. Tasks panel centralizes results across all workloads in one view. Exportable via the UI or PowerShell. Resume changed items via incremental passes. Item-level error logs identifying the failed object (file name, mail subject). Project workspace centralizes reporting per workload. Exportable as CSV individually or in bulk via the Error Log Export task. Error report download links retained for 30 days. AI-assisted log filtering for triaging large error sets.
Validation and reconciliation Migration reports show what succeeded, what failed, and why, per task and centralized in the Tasks panel. Permissions matrix report can be run before, during, and after migration to verify access didn't shift in transit. Source-to-target comparison reports generated when Collect Statistics tasks run against the target tenant. Per-workload migration reports identify failed items for remediation. Desktop Update Agent confirms user-side mailbox and OneDrive reconnection after cutover.
Coexistence during migration Not in scope. ShareGate is built for a defined migration sequence rather than long coexistence windows. Directory Sync keeps migrated and un-migrated users aligned across source and destination tenants. Cross-tenant free/busy calendar lookups and automatic mailbox forwarding supported during the migration.
Support ~3hr response, 96% CSAT, no paid tiers. Help that doesn't depend on your severity level. 24x7 for Severity 1 issues only. Other severities during business hours. Premier Support with named TAM is a paid tier.
Migration Outcomes

Migration outcomes and post-migration value

ShareGate Migrate and Quest ODM both preserve timestamps, authors, and permissions. The fidelity differences show up at the edges, especially around encrypted content and what each tool lets you do within a single tenant.

With ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Metadata and permissions fidelity The following are preserved:
  • Created/modified timestamps
  • Original authors
  • Site, list, library, item, and document-level permissions
  • Managed metadata
  • Custom site columns
  • Content types
  • Unique permissions (broken inheritance, item-level)
You can run the permissions matrix report before, during, and after migration to verify access didn't shift in transit. 		The following are preserved:
  • Created/modified timestamps
  • Original authors
  • Site, list, library, item, and document-level permissions
  • Managed metadata
  • Hub associations
Sensitivity labels and encrypted content Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels migrate with mapped destination labels applied during migration. If there's valid mapping, then files are re-encrypted under the destination tenant's keys, so migrated content stays accessible if the source tenant is decommissioned. If mapping is missing or invalid, the source label is kept and the content requires source-tenant credentials to read. Sensitivity labels reapplied at the destination. Content encrypted in the source tenant stays tied to the source tenant's encryption key, so if the source tenant is decommissioned, that content is no longer accessible.
Same-tenant restructuring Move or reorganize SharePoint and Teams content within the same tenant as part of a reorg, consolidation, or cleanup. Same flat license. Not supported.
Strategic post-migration governance value ShareGate Protect, a separate per-user subscription, is a purpose-built governance tool. It offers tenant-wide permissions matrix, guest and sharing-link cleanup, workspace lifecycle reporting, license cost analytics, and Copilot readiness in one product. You can use it before, during, and after migration. Governance capabilities spread across separately sold Quest products:
  • Enterprise Reporter for Office 365 (reporting and visibility)
  • Security Explorer (permissions remediation)
  • One Demand Audit (auditing and anomaly detection)
  • ControlPoint (SharePoint policy)
No single Quest product combines permissions visibility, lifecycle, and Copilot readiness.

Go deeper on what matters to you

Pick the workload that impacts your project.

Entra ID
Exchange Online
SharePoint
OneDrive
Teams
Google Workspace

Entra ID migration

Identity is the first thing to migrate in a tenant-to-tenant project. Users, groups, and their permissions have to exist in the destination before mailboxes and content can land where they should. ShareGate is intentionally cloud-first: Entra ID tenant to Entra ID tenant. Quest’s identity coverage extends to on-prem Active Directory.

ShareGate Migrate Quest ODM
Supported identity sources
  • Entra ID
Purpose-built for M&A, restructuring, and tenant consolidation.
  • Entra ID
  • On-prem Active Directory
Better fit for hybrid environments and on-premises modernization scenarios.
Identity objects migrated
  • Users
  • Security groups
  • Microsoft 365 groups
  • Group memberships
License assignment included as part of the migration flow.
  • Users
  • Security groups
  • Microsoft 365 groups
  • Group memberships
  • Contacts
License assignment is not part of the migration workflow.
Authentication, passwords, and MFA Users are provisioned in the destination tenant. End users sign in with destination tenant credentials after migration. Conditional Access policies and MFA settings are not migrated and must be reconfigured in the destination. Password Synchronization Service propagates passwords from source to destination during coexistence. Conditional Access and MFA settings reconciled.
Domain handling Domain cutover handled outside ShareGate Migrate, using Microsoft's native tools as part of the broader migration sequence. Domain cutover handled through Quest's Domain Move and Domain Rewrite features. Both require the upgrade to the AD & Microsoft 365 Plus plan.
Device migration Not supported. Windows 10/11 device migration to the destination Entra ID tenant, including domain join, profile migration, and Outlook reconfiguration via the Desktop Update Agent. Bundled with the AD & Microsoft 365 plan.

Exchange Online mailbox migration

Email is the most user-visible workload in any migration. Both ShareGate Migrate Pro and Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription cover Exchange Online tenant-to-tenant. The differences are in how each handles archives, delegates, and public folders.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Supported mailbox sources
  • Exchange Online
Purpose-built for cloud-to-cloud M&A, restructuring, and tenant consolidation between Microsoft 365 tenants.
  • Exchange Online
Despite including on-prem Active Directory, this subscription doesn't include on-prem Exchange, hosted Exchange, and IMAP migration. If you need to migrate both on-prem identities and mailboxes, you need to purchase Exchange Standalone add-on separately.
Mailbox types supported
  • User
  • Shared
  • Resource
  • Group
  • Archive
  • User
  • Shared
  • Resource
  • Group
  • Archive
  • Public folders
Archive handling In-place archive mailboxes migrate alongside primary mailboxes as part of the same migration flow. Archive migration included but not handled in a single combined pass with primary mailboxes. You need to run a separate migration task [text cut off in screenshot]
Mailbox-to-folder migration Migrate a full source mailbox into a named folder in the destination mailbox, with the source hierarchy preserved underneath. ShareGate creates the folder automatically if it doesn't exist. Migrate mailbox content into custom folders in the destination mailbox, or alternatively into the destination's online archive.
Content fidelity What's preserved:
  • Messages
  • Calendars
  • Contacts
  • Inbox rules
  • Online archives
  • Litigation Hold configuration
  • Recurring meetings (aligned to Exchange Online rules)
  • Automatic replies
Delta migrations capture changes between waves. 		What's preserved:
  • Messages
  • Calendars
  • Contacts
  • Inbox rules
  • Online archives
  • Litigation hold configuration
  • Delegate access
Data and license scope Unlimited data, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited re-runs on the flat annual license. No per-mailbox data cap. One license per migrated user covers the user's mailbox, archive, and OneDrive together. Re-migrating the same user is covered; new users require new licenses.
Coexistence Not in scope. ShareGate is built for a defined migration sequence rather than long coexistence windows. Cross-tenant calendar free/busy and automatic mailbox forwarding during migration.
Post-migration user experience Delta migrations capture mailbox changes between waves. Users sign in to their mailboxes with calendar, contacts, and server-side rules intact. Desktop Update Agent updates Outlook profiles and Office app connections automatically. Migrated meeting links updated to point at the new tenant.

SharePoint migration depth

SharePoint is the most structurally complex M365 workload. Both tools migrate SharePoint structure. The differences are in the documented details, and in what happens when the project is a reorg instead of a tenant move.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Supported SharePoint sources
  • SharePoint Online
  • SharePoint on-prem (2013, 2016, 2019, SPSE)
  • SharePoint Online
Despite including on-prem Active Directory, this subscription doesn't include on-prem Exchange, hosted Exchange, and IMAP migration. If you need to migrate both on-prem identities and mailboxes, you need to purchase [text cut off in screenshot]
Site structure, content, and permissions
  • Sites
  • Subsites
  • Lists
  • Libraries
  • Navigation
  • Content types
  • SharePoint groups
  • Documents
  • Folders
  • List items
  • Version history
  • Site columns
  • Permissions on all migrated content, including broken inheritance and custom permission levels
You can run the permissions matrix report before, during, and after migration.
  • Sites
  • Subsites
  • Lists
  • Libraries
  • Navigation
  • Content types
  • SharePoint groups
  • Documents
  • Folders
  • List items
  • Version options: last version, a subset, or all versions.
  • Permissions on all migrated content.
Managed metadata and term store Managed metadata columns and term store migration supported as a dedicated step. Term Store Administrator permissions recommended on source and destination. One documented limitation: managed metadata columns are not migrated when copying Microsoft Teams private channels. Managed metadata columns and term store migration supported as a dedicated migration task. Site-level term groups can be included as part of site migration.
Documented limitations Classic pages and web parts move but don't automatically modernize. Batching guidance: 500k–800k items per operation. Per Quest's user guide: column formatting not supported; page headers/footers, content type hub, third-party apps, and some term store configurations not migrated. 250 GB max file size.
Same-tenant restructuring Move or reorganize content within the same tenant. Included. Not supported.
Workflows Built-in SharePoint workflows and SharePoint Designer workflows (2013+) migrate. Nintex via a separate add-on. Workflows not migrated. Documented as a manual rebuild post-migration.
Classic and modern pages Classic pages and web parts migrate but do not auto-modernize. Classic pages migrate but do not auto-modernize. Page headers and footers, column formatting, content type hub, and some term store configurations not migrated.
Large list handling No size cap. ShareGate documents specific guidance for large lists with thousands of items. Migrating across multiple machines concurrently allows you to distribute load for projects beyond that threshold. 250 GB max file size.

OneDrive migration depth

Both ShareGate and Quest migrate OneDrive files, folders, and version history. The differences show up in sharing behavior and how users experience the destination on day one.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Content fidelity
  • Files
  • Folders
  • Version history
  • Metadata (created/modified timestamps and authors)
  • Permissions
  • Sharing links
  • Sensitivity labels
  • Files
  • Folders
  • Version history options (last, subset, or all)
  • Metadata (created/modified timestamps, original authors)
  • Permissions
  • Sharing links (converted to direct permissions
  • Filters by folder, type, date, or size.
Sharing links Sharing links migrate as sharing links. Internal sharing relationships preserved where source-to-destination user mapping exists. Only user-activated sharing links migrate, and they're converted to direct permissions at the destination rather than preserved as sharing links.
Post-migration user experience Users sign in to their OneDrive at the destination with files, folders, and version history intact. Sync client picks up the new tenant on first sign-in. Desktop Update Agent reconnects users' OneDrive accounts to the destination tenant automatically on first sign-in. No manual reconfiguration required by users.

Teams migration depth

What looks like a Teams migration is actually five or six interlocking workloads. Channels, conversation history, files, tabs, apps, Planner plans. Microsoft's APIs make this messy for every vendor on the market. The differences come down to channel types, how each tool handles chat history, and what's documented as out of scope.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM AD & M365 subscription
Content fidelity
  • Teams
  • Standard and private channels
  • Membership
  • Permissions
  • Channel files (with history and metadata)
  • Tabs
  • Apps
  • Planner plans
  • OneNotes
  • M365 Group association
  • Settings
  • Teams
  • Standard, private, and shared channels
  • Membership
  • Permissions
  • Channel files (with history and metadat)
  • Tabs
  • Planner buckets, tasks, and comments
  • Microsoft 365 Group association
  • Option to merge or rename teams during migration
Merge or rename teams during migration.
Conversation history 50 most recent conversations copied to the Posts tab by default (up to 500 via PowerShell). Full history in an HTML archive page in the channel. Conversations migrate with an "Originally posted by..." attribution line added by the migration service account. Messages over 4 MB don't migrate.
Same-tenant reorganization Move or restructure teams and channels within the same tenant. Not supported.
Private chat (1:1 and group) Not currently available. ShareGate disabled its beta chat migration until further notice. Available with documented caveats: 1:1 chats become group chats, chats initiated by external or Skype users can't migrate, tabs and Loop components excluded. HTML archive option delivers history as a file in OneDrive.
Planner Planner plans migrated. Buckets, tasks, and comments migrate. Premium Planner and the Planner tab don't.
Data limits No data limit on Teams content. No project data cap documented; 4 MB cap per individual message.

Google Workspace to M365 migration path

Google-to-Microsoft migrations are where the comparison stops being about features and starts being about whether the migration is even in scope for the tool. One tool covers Gmail, Drive, and Shared Drives in the same license you bought for tenant-to-tenant. The other requires two separate Quest products plus a Professional Services engagement to do the same work.

ShareGate Migrate Pro Quest ODM
Google Workspace as a source Supported, self-service, in the same tool and license. Not supported. Google Drive and Shared Drive migration positioned as a Quest Professional Services engagement. Each purchased separately from ODM. Gmail and calendar covered through Quest's separate On Demand Migration for Email (ODME) product.
Gmail & Calendar to Exchange Online What's preserved:
  • Messages
  • Calendars (including recurring events)
  • Contacts
  • Inbox rules (with conversion to Exchange equivalents)
  • Labels (converted to Exchange categories)
  • Meet events (converted to Teams meetings)

What's preserved via ODME:

  • Messages
  • Calendars (including recurring events)
  • Contacts
  • Inbox rules (with conversion to Exchange equivalents)
  • Labels (converted to Exchange folders)
  • Meet events (not converted to Teams meetings)
My Drive & Shared Drives to OneDrive or SharePoint What's preserved:
  • Files and folders
  • My Drive and Shared Drives
  • Permissions
  • Authors and timestamps
  • Version history
  • Format conversion: .gdoc → .docx, .gsheet → .xlsx, .gslides → .pptx

What's preserved via Quest Professional Services:

  • Files and folders
  • My Drive and Shared Drives
  • Permissions
  • Format conversion to Microsoft formats
Detailed fidelity scope defined per services engagement, not by a published product spec.
Data caps None. Unlimited data and users on the flat license. Depends on the ODME licensing and services engagement.
Direction and scope One direction only (Google to M365). Google Groups not supported. One direction only (Google to M365). Split across two products plus a services engagement, each scoped and priced separately.
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Quest®, On Demand Migration, and related marks are trademarks of Quest Software Inc. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. Workleap and/or ShareGate are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Quest Software Inc.

The information on this page comparing ShareGate Migrate and Quest On Demand Migration is provided for informational purposes only. All product comparisons are based on publicly available information as of July 2026, including quest.com product pages, Quest On Demand Migration documentation and knowledge base articles on support.quest.com, and ShareGate documentation on sharegate.com and help.sharegate.com. Features, pricing, and performance data are subject to change. For the most current information about Quest On Demand Migration, please visit Quest’s website.

ShareGate Protect capabilities referenced on this page reflect the July 2026 release. Quest does not publish On Demand Migration pricing; licensing details referenced here come from Quest’s public license FAQ and user guide. ShareGate makes no representation regarding the accuracy or completeness of any third-party product information presented on this page. This comparison does not constitute a warranty or guarantee regarding the performance or functionality of any product.