MSP migration tool licensing: per-client subscriptions vs client slots
How ShareGate, per-user vendors and slot-based plans price a managed service provider running many client migrations, with the maths for 5, 10 and 20 clients.
A managed service provider or consultancy runs the same migration many times a year for different clients, and most migration tools are licensed as if each of those were the buyer's only project. MSP migration tool licensing therefore comes down to one question: does the licence scale with the number of clients, with the number of users, or with the number of machines doing the work? This article sets out the three models with the vendors' published figures, works the maths for 5, 10 and 20 client migrations a year, and lists the operational features an MSP needs beyond the price.
The three licensing models
| Model | Who uses it | How it scales | Published figures (September 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| One subscription per client organisation | ShareGate Migrate | Linearly with client count | Essentials US$5,995 a year per client, one machine, one migration at a time. ShareGate's channel FAQ: “you must purchase a new subscription for each one of your clients”. Partner SMB Migration License terms exist; the price is not public |
| Per user or per object, per project | Quest On Demand Migration, BitTitan MigrationWiz, Cloudiway | With the size of each client | Quest UK G-Cloud list £16.91 to £35.76 per migrated user, one project; BitTitan Tenant Migration Bundle US$57 per user, Shared Documents US$25 per library up to 50 GB; Cloudiway about US$11 to US$17 per user (secondary sources) |
| Client slots and workers under one licence | ShareShift MSP plan | In steps of ten client slots | US$7,995 or £6,395 a year for 10 client organisation slots and 10 workers; US$495 per additional slot per year; US$500 or £400 per additional worker per year |
| Quote only | AvePoint Fly, CloudFuze (MSP pay-as-you-go and volume) | Negotiated | Not published |
Microsoft's free tools sit outside this table but are worth naming. SPMT and Migration Manager cost nothing per client and cover file shares, SharePoint Server and cloud file stores into Microsoft 365; the roundup of tools explains where they fit. What they do not cover is the work MSPs are most often paid for: SharePoint Online to SharePoint Online restructuring, tenant to tenant SharePoint and Teams channels for clients without an Enterprise Agreement, Planner, and an assessment with a completion report the client will accept.
The maths for 5, 10 and 20 clients
Assume each client is a 250-user organisation and each migration is content only: SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams channels, file shares. Per-user figures are simple multiplications; ShareGate is one Essentials subscription per client; ShareShift is the MSP plan with extra slots at US$495 each beyond ten.
| Clients per year | ShareGate Essentials | Quest T5 (UK list) | BitTitan tenant bundle | ShareShift MSP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | US$29,975 | £44,700 | US$71,250 | US$7,995 (5 of 10 slots used) |
| 10 | US$59,950 | £89,400 | US$142,500 | US$7,995 |
| 20 | US$119,900 | £178,800 | US$285,000 | US$12,945 (10 extra slots) |
Two honest caveats. Per-user pricing is cheaper than any flat plan for very small clients: a 30-user client on Quest T1 is about £507, and no annual licence competes with that for a single job. And ShareGate's partner terms may improve on the published one client per subscription figures; nobody outside the programme can say by how much. The comparison above is what the published prices say, which is the only thing a buyer can verify.
What a worker buys, and what it does not
ShareShift licenses registered workers rather than machines or administrators. A worker is any machine running the app that has registered with the licence; the MSP plan includes ten, and each holds a short-lived lease that its heartbeat renews. Replace a VM and the old lease lapses in fifteen minutes with no support call. Hardware is never fingerprinted.
Be precise about what a worker adds. Microsoft measures throttling per application per tenant, so workers pointed at the same client tenant share one API budget and do not multiply it. A worker buys upload bandwidth, packaging and encryption CPU, reach into a client's network or a separate site, and parallel work across different client tenants, which for an MSP is the case that matters: ten workers across ten client tenants use ten separate budgets. Within a worker, concurrent jobs are unlimited because the Migration API is asynchronous. The throttling article has the figures.
Compare that with a machine activation, which ShareGate defines as one use of the licence key by one user on a specific workstation, and with per-concurrent-migration limits of one, five or 25. An MSP engineer who moves between client sites, or who runs a job from a client's own jump box, is constrained by both.
What an MSP needs beyond the price
- Per-client isolation. Each client tenant is a separate connection with its own app registration and certificate, and item-level state stays on the worker in that client's environment. Nothing from one client should be visible from another.
- Content stays in the client's network. A worker-only design means client files, permissions and user lists move directly from source to the client's Microsoft 365 tenant from a machine the MSP or the client runs. The vendor never becomes a processor of client content, which simplifies the MSP's own data protection agreements with clients.
- Completion reports the client will accept. An item-level CSV, a JSON summary and an HTML completion record generated on the worker, with Microsoft's own per-job import logs kept alongside. The ShareShift MSP plan includes white-label completion reports; see the completion report article.
- Repeatability. A CLI and PowerShell module so the same assessment, mapping and migration can be scripted per client, and a state file per migration so any client job can be paused and resumed.
- Multi-client reporting. Aggregate counts per client from the portal, without item-level detail leaving the worker.
- Trials that behave like the product. ShareShift's 30-day trial issues a key from the portal that works with the same app, so an MSP can run a real client pilot before buying.
ShareGate documents per-client isolation through its one client per subscription rule, which is the same isolation achieved by a different means. What it does not offer is a monthly term (ShareShift Monthly is US$499 or £399 for a single project, bound to one destination organisation and re-pointable once per billing month) or pause and resume, which for an MSP running several client jobs in parallel is the difference between a Saturday and a weekend.
Choosing a model
- One or two migrations a year: buy per project. ShareShift Monthly for a content job, or a per-user licence if the client is small.
- Three to ten clients a year, mostly mid-sized: the MSP plan pays for itself against the second ShareGate subscription.
- More than ten clients a year, or several in flight at once: the MSP plan with extra slots and workers as needed. Add a slot when an eleventh client tenant is active, not when the eleventh contract is signed.
- Any client needing Exchange mailboxes, Google Workspace, Entra ID copy or sensitivity label mapping today: ShareGate Pro at US$9,995 per client, or a per-user suite; ShareShift is content only at launch.
The full ShareGate tier breakdown is in ShareGate pricing explained, and the comparison page sets out the feature differences. The MSP plan is on the pricing page in USD, GBP and EUR, and the portal is where slots and workers are added self-serve.
Frequently asked questions
Can an MSP use one ShareGate licence for several clients?
Not under the published terms. ShareGate's channel FAQ states a one client per subscription model and that consultants must purchase a new subscription for each client. Partner SMB Migration License terms exist but their pricing is not public.
How much does ShareShift's MSP plan cost?
US$7,995 or £6,395 a year for ten client organisation slots and ten workers, with additional slots at US$495 per year and additional workers at US$500 or £400 per year. It includes multi-client reporting, white-label completion reports and priority support.
Is per-user pricing ever cheaper for an MSP?
Yes, for very small clients. A 30-user client on Quest T1 at £16.91 per user is about £507 for a single project. From roughly 100 users per client, or more than one client a year, flat and slot-based pricing wins.
Do more workers make client migrations faster?
Across different client tenants, yes, because each tenant has its own API budget. Within one tenant, no: Microsoft measures throttling per app per tenant, so workers there add bandwidth and reach rather than budget.
Run your first migration on a 30-day free trial
Every workload, unlimited data, three workers, pause and resume built in. Worker-only, so your content never passes through our servers. The trial key is issued from the portal and works with the same app you would buy.