Migration tool comparison · as of June 2026
ShareGate vs. Quest: what IT pros need to know
Two capable platforms, two very different experiences. With one, the sales call is optional: pricing is public and the full trial is self-serve. With the other, the call is where you learn the price. Here’s how to tell which one fits your project.
Feature information on this page is based on publicly available ShareGate and Quest documentation as of June 2026. Features and pricing may change. Verify with each vendor before making a purchasing decision.
Last updated: June 2026
at a glance
Pick the governance you'll do
The decision comes down to whether you're staffing a governance program or fixing real risks with the team you already have.
fix real risks now
Choose ShareGate 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
- 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, not a catalog
- You’re running multiple migration projects per year
run a
Quest On Demand Migration
program
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
Breakdown
Key differences
A full side-by-side across scope, pricing, features, and support.
Scope
Pricing model
Buying experience
Licensing flexibility
Data limits
Pre-migration assessment
Deployment
Identity migration
Coexistence
SharePoint depth
OneDrive
Teams
Exchange Online
Legacy email sources
Sensitivity labels & encrypted content
Same-tenant restructuring
Google Workspace
Governance before & after the migration
Support
Free trial
ShareGate Migrate
Full M365 tenant-to-tenant migrations: SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Exchange Online, Google Workspace, Entra ID identity (Preview). Same-tenant restructuring included.
$5,995–$17,995 / year flat. Unlimited users, unlimited data, unlimited passes on every tier.
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.
One annual license per tier. Unlimited users, workloads, and passes for the full term. Scope changes mid-project cost nothing extra. No consumption tracking, no surprises at wave three.
No data caps. No pass limits.
Source analysis, inventory, and a Permissions Matrix Report before migration starts.
Lightweight local install, ready to run in minutes. Migration data goes tenant-to-tenant, never through ShareGate servers.
Entra ID tenant-to-tenant (Preview): users, security groups, M365 groups, memberships, conflict detection, domain mapping. Included in Pro at no extra cost.
Not in scope. ShareGate handles the migration sequence; it’s not a directory sync or coexistence tool.
Sites, subsites, lists, libraries, metadata, content types, permissions, versions. Same-tenant restructuring supported.
Included from the Essentials tier. Files, versions, metadata, permissions, sharing links, sensitivity labels. No data cap.
Channels, files, tabs, apps, Planner, membership, settings. Cross-tenant and same-tenant reorganization.
Tenant-to-tenant. Messages, calendars, contacts, shared mailboxes. Unlimited data, no pass limits. Included in Pro and Enterprise.
Exchange Online and Google Workspace sources only.
Microsoft Purview sensitivity label migration included in Pro and Enterprise.
Move or restructure within one tenant. Included at no extra cost.
Gmail, Calendar, My Drive, and Shared Drives to M365 in the same tool. Flat fee. No data cap.
ShareGate Protect, a separate subscription: tenant-wide permissions matrix, guest and sharing-link cleanup, delegated owner reviews, workspace lifecycle, dollar-value cost and license savings, and Copilot readiness in one product, inside Protect or from the AI tools your team already uses via ShareGate MCP. Use it on the source tenant before the move and the destination after.
Migration specialists on all plans. ~3hr response, 96% CSAT, no paid tiers. Help that doesn’t depend on your severity level.
15-day full-featured trial. Every workload, no caps, no credit card. Run a real pilot before you decide.
Quest On Demand Migration
M365 tenant-to-tenant: Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, plus AD / Entra ID across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Devices and public folders covered.
Licensed per migrated source account (per Quest’s user guide); pricing is quote-based. No prices published on quest.com. Sold as Secure Migration subscription plans (AD, Microsoft 365, or both).
Pricing and licensing are scoped through a sales conversation. The trial is self-serve but capped, and excludes the AD modules.
A license is consumed per migrated source account, and per Quest’s license FAQ, consumed licenses cannot be freed. Every user added to scope consumes another. One license covers re-migration of the same user.
No data limits for content migration on production licenses. Per-item caps apply: 250 GB max file size (SharePoint), 4 MB max individual Teams message.
Pre-migration and security assessment included in Secure Migration plans. Mailbox, site, and Teams discovery with statistics.
100% Azure-based SaaS. No local install. Migration runs through Quest’s regional Azure data centers (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia).
Broad coverage: Entra ID, on-prem AD, hybrid. Directory sync, password sync, domain move and rewrite, Windows 10/11 device migration. Separate AD licensing; no trial for AD modules.
A core strength. Directory sync keeps migrated and un-migrated users aligned; cross-tenant calendar free/busy supported.
Sites, lists, libraries, permissions, version options, classic-to-modern. Documented gaps: column formatting, page headers/footers, content type hub, nested hubs.
Supported. Permissions, version options, metadata, filters. Only sharing links activated by users are migrated, converted to direct permissions.
Standard, private, and shared channels. Conversations migrate with service-account attribution lines. 1:1 chats become group chats. Premium Planner, bots, adaptive cards, and reactions don’t migrate.
Strong coverage: user, shared, and resource mailboxes, public folders, rules, litigation holds, online archives, free/busy coexistence.
On-premises and hosted Exchange, IMAP, hybrid Exchange scenarios.
Labels are reapplied rather than migrated. Per Quest’s KB, content encrypted in the source stays tied to the source tenant’s key: decommission that tenant and the encrypted files and emails are no longer accessible.
Not documented. Quest positions ODM for tenant-to-tenant scenarios.
Not supported in ODM (per Quest’s KB). Gmail requires the separate ODME product (email, calendar, contacts, tasks only). Google Drive is a Professional Services engagement.
Migration-focused. Governance is spread across separately sold tools: Enterprise Reporter for Office 365 for reporting (remediation via the bundled Security Explorer), audit folded into Identity Defense, SharePoint policy management in ControlPoint. No single Quest product combines permissions visibility, cleanup, lifecycle, and Copilot readiness.
24x7 for Severity 1 issues only; other severities during business hours. Premier Support (named TAM) is a paid tier.
30-day trial capped at 5 accounts, 5 GB per mailbox, 5 sites, 5 teams. The AD modules have no trial at all.
Pricing
One plan vs. Plans and add-ons
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 in week six. Quest licenses per migrated user account through quote-based subscription plans, with no numbers published on quest.com. And per Quest’s own license FAQ, a consumed license can’t be freed, so every scope change, re-org surprise, and forgotten department has a price. You’ll know your ShareGate cost before the first call. For Quest, the first call is where pricing starts.
License model
Published pricing
Identity migration
Workloads included
Re-runs & delta passes
Scope grows mid-project
Trial
ShareGate Migrate Pro
$9,995/year flat. Unlimited users, unlimited data, unlimited passes.
Public on sharegate.com/pricing.
Entra ID (Preview) included in Pro and Enterprise. No separate license.
Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Google Workspace, Entra ID (Preview), plus Box, file shares, and Purview sensitivity label migration.
Unlimited. Included in the flat annual license.
No additional cost.
15 days, full-featured, no credit card.
Quest On Demand Migration
Per migrated source account. Quote-based Secure Migration subscription plans (AD, Microsoft 365, or combined).
Not published. “Request pricing” on quest.com.
Separate AD module licensing. Per Quest’s FAQ, every migrated object requires a license, including shared mailboxes.
Depends on the subscription plan purchased (AD, Microsoft 365, AD & Microsoft 365, add-ons). Google Workspace not included in ODM.
One license covers re-migration for the same user. Consumed licenses cannot be freed or transferred.
Each new migrated user consumes an additional license.
30 days, capped (5 accounts, 5 GB/mailbox, 5 sites, 5 teams). No trial for AD modules.
ShareGate pricing from sharegate.com/pricing as of June 2026 (Essentials $5,995, Pro $9,995, Enterprise starting at $17,995, USD, annual). Quest licensing terms from Quest’s On Demand Migration license FAQ and user guide (support.quest.com). Quest does not publish ODM prices; confirm current pricing directly with each vendor before budgeting.
CAPABILITY deep dives
Go deeper on what matters to you
Pick the risk area that applies to your project.
Oversharing & permissions
Both tools migrate SharePoint structure. The differences show up in the documented details, and in what happens when the project is a reorg instead of a tenant move. Worth knowing: Quest’s own user guide notes its limitations list may not be exhaustive. (OneDrive comparison included below.)
Site structure
Metadata & versions
Permissions
Documented limitations
Same-tenant restructuring
Incremental migrations
Pre-migration report
ShareGate Migrate
Sites, subsites, lists, libraries, navigation, site columns, content types, SharePoint groups.
Metadata, versions, and timestamps preserved.
Unique permissions, broken inheritance, sharing links. Permissions Matrix Report included, before, during, and after migration.
Classic pages and web parts move but don’t automatically modernize. Batching guidance: 500k–800k items per operation.
Move or reorganize content within the same tenant. Included.
“Copy if newer” incremental passes at no extra cost.
Source analysis, inventory, and permissions matrix before migration starts.
Quest ODM
Sites, sub-sites, lists, libraries, navigation, content types, managed metadata, hub associations (nested hubs not supported).
Created/modified dates and authors preserved. Version options: last version, a subset, or all versions.
Site, list, library, item, and document permissions preserved.
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.
Not documented. Quest positions ODM for tenant-to-tenant scenarios.
Supported within the consumed license for migrated users.
Discovery of sites, libraries, and lists with statistics.
OneDrive
Availability
Content fidelity
Sharing links
Post-migration
ShareGate Migrate
Included from the Essentials tier ($5,995/year). No data cap.
Files, folders, version histories, metadata, permissions, sharing links, and sensitivity labels.
Migrated.
Incremental passes at no extra cost.
Quest ODM
Included in M365 subscription plans. One license per migrated user covers OneDrive alongside mailbox and archive.
Files with version options (last, subset, or all), metadata, and document properties. Filters by folder, type, date, or size.
Only links activated by users are migrated, and they’re converted to direct permissions.
Desktop Update Agent reconnects users’ OneDrive accounts.
Sharing links & guest access
Teams is where migration fidelity gets messy for every vendor, because Microsoft’s APIs make it messy. Here’s what each tool documents.
Cross-tenant Teams migration
Conversation history
Shared channels
Same-tenant reorganization
Private chat (1:1 / group)
Planner
Not migrated (documented)
Data limits
ShareGate Migrate
Teams, standard and private channels, membership, permissions, files (with history and metadata), tabs, apps, Planner plans, OneNotes, settings.
50 most recent conversations copied to the Posts tab (up to 500 via PowerShell); full history in an HTML archive page in the channel.
Not supported.
Move or restructure teams and channels within the same tenant. Included.
Not currently available. ShareGate disabled its beta chat migration until further notice.
Planner plans migrated.
Shared channels; some tabs (Yammer, Power BI, Stream, Forms, Whiteboard) supported same-tenant only.
No data limit on Teams content.
Quest ODM
Teams, standard, private, and shared channels, conversations, documents, M365 Groups. Merge or rename teams during migration.
Conversations migrate with an “Originally posted by…” attribution line added by the migration service account. Messages over 4 MB don’t migrate.
Supported.
Not documented. Tenant-to-tenant scenarios only.
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.
Buckets, tasks, and comments migrate. Premium Planner and the Planner tab don’t.
Adaptive cards, bots and bot messages, code snippets, reaction emojis, email attachments, wiki pages, Shifts. Only Word/Excel/PowerPoint/PDF tabs linked to same-channel files migrate.
No project data cap documented; 4 MB cap per individual message.
Copilot & sensitivity labels
If Google Workspace is in your scope, this section is the whole comparison. One tool does it. The other refers you elsewhere.
Google as a source
Gmail & Calendar
My Drive & Shared Drives
Data caps
Limitations
ShareGate Migrate
Supported, self-service, in the same tool and license (Pro and Enterprise).
Gmail and Google Calendar to Exchange Online, including contacts, rules, and labels. Labels become Exchange categories. Meet events recreated as Teams meetings.
Both, to OneDrive or SharePoint. Google formats (.gdoc) converted to Microsoft formats (.docx) with permissions, authors, timestamps, and version history preserved.
None. Unlimited data and users on the flat license.
One direction only (Google to M365). Google Groups not supported.
Quest
Not supported in On Demand Migration. Quest’s own KB states ODM cannot migrate mail, files, users, or groups from Google Workspace.
Via the separate On Demand Migration for Email (ODME) product: email, calendar, contacts, and tasks.
Not available as a self-service product. Quest’s datasheet offers Google Drive and Shared Drive migration as a Professional Services engagement.
Depends on the ODME licensing and services engagement.
Split across two products plus a services engagement, each scoped and priced separately.
Workspace lifecycle
Quest covers more Exchange territory: public folders, archives, litigation holds, legacy sources, coexistence. ShareGate keeps it focused: tenant-to-tenant Exchange Online, no data caps, no pass limits, no per-mailbox license to track.
Exchange Online → Exchange Online
Mailbox types
Content fidelity
Legacy / on-prem sources
Coexistence
Post-migration
Encrypted content
ShareGate Migrate
Tenant-to-tenant. Unlimited data, no pass limits. Included in Pro and Enterprise.
User, shared, and resource (room and equipment) mailboxes.
Messages, calendars, contacts. Incremental copy for previously migrated mailboxes.
Not supported. ShareGate targets Exchange Online only.
Not in scope.
Incremental passes at no extra cost, on the same flat license.
Purview sensitivity label migration included in Pro and Enterprise.
Quest ODM
Supported. Per-user licensing; one license covers the user’s mailbox, archive, and OneDrive.
User, shared, and resource mailboxes. Public folders of all types.
Mail, permissions and delegates, inbox rules, litigation holds, online archives. Folder and date filters.
On-premises and hosted Exchange, IMAP, hybrid Exchange.
Cross-tenant calendar free/busy and automatic mailbox forwarding during migration.
Desktop Update Agent updates Outlook profiles and Office app connections. Migrated meeting links updated to the new tenant.
Per Quest’s KB: labels are reapplied rather than migrated, and content encrypted in the source stays tied to the source tenant’s key. If the source tenant is discontinued, that content is no longer accessible.
Reporting, auditing & alerts
Migration scope
Objects migrated
On-premises AD
Conflict handling
Workflow integration
Coexistence
Domain control
Cost model
ShareGate Migrate
Cloud-to-cloud: Entra ID tenant to Entra ID tenant (Preview). Purpose-built for M&A, restructuring, and tenant consolidation.
Member and guest users, shared/room/equipment mailbox accounts, security groups, Microsoft 365 groups, group memberships. Distribution lists and mail-enabled security groups not supported.
Not supported. ShareGate is intentionally cloud-first, for organizations migrating between cloud tenants.
Conflict detection before execution. Matching conflicts get a “needs review” status; nothing moves until you resolve them.
Built into ShareGate Migrate. Identity, then mailboxes, then workloads, in one tool, one license.
Not in scope. ShareGate is not a directory sync or coexistence tool.
Custom domain mapping: define how domains translate between source and destination. License assignment from the planning view.
Included in Pro ($9,995/year flat). Re-runs across migration waves at no extra cost.
Quest ODM Active Directory
Entra ID, on-prem AD, and hybrid directories. One-to-one through many-to-many configurations. Broadest documented identity coverage.
Users, groups, contacts, devices, workstations and servers (on-prem scenarios). Password sync for AD accounts.
Supported, including AD-to-AD and AD-to-Entra. Offline Domain Join for remote users.
Attribute and schema compatibility checked. Custom mapping and scripting available.
Separate AD module and licensing. Per Quest’s FAQ, no trial licenses for AD modules.
Directory sync keeps migrated and un-migrated users in sync. Domain sharing and domain rewrite supported.
Domain move between tenants without impacting mail delivery. Domain rewrite for shared-domain coexistence.
Per-object licensing, quote-based. Every migrated object consumes a license.
ShareGate Entra ID identity migration (Copy identities) is currently in preview. Feature and pricing information verified from public ShareGate and Quest sources as of June 2026. Confirm current scope with each vendor before purchasing.
Support & buying experience
Pre-migration analysis
Migration reports
Permissions reporting
Support model
Trial
ShareGate Migrate
Source analysis, permissions matrix, inventory, before migration starts.
Item-level results with error context, centralized across all workloads.
Permissions Matrix Report: unique permissions and inheritance breaks, before, during, and after migration.
Migration specialists included on all plans. ~3hr response, 96% CSAT. No paid support tiers. 24/7 prioritized support on Enterprise.
15-day full-featured trial. No credit card. Every workload, no caps.
Quest ODM
Pre-migration and security assessment included in subscription plans. Workload discovery with statistics.
Real-time dashboards, event logs, audit logs, email notifications, AI-assisted log filtering.
Not an equivalent documented report.
24x7 for Severity 1 issues; business hours otherwise. Premier Support with a named TAM is a paid upgrade.
30-day trial capped at 5 accounts, 5 GB per mailbox, 5 sites, 5 teams. AD modules excluded from trial.
See your tenant first. Decide second.
Know who has access to what. And keep it that way.
Get a free assessment of your tenant. Then 15 days to try everything, no credit card, no minimums.
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 June 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 Entra ID identity migration (Copy identities) is currently in preview. ShareGate Protect capabilities referenced on this page reflect the June 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.