ShareShift vs Quest On Demand Migration
Quest On Demand Migration is licensed per migrated user account and for one migration project. ShareShift is a flat price per organisation, reusable across every project you run, on machines you control.
30-day free trial, full product, card taken at checkout, nothing charged until day 30. Prices below in USD; change currency.
Quest On Demand Migration is a SaaS suite and its licensing follows the SaaS pattern: you pay per migrated user account, and the licence may only be used for one migration project. Its UK G-Cloud 14 listing from April 2024 puts the suite tiers at £16.91 (T1), £22.55 (T3) and £35.76 (T5) per migrated user. For a merger with 250 accounts that is roughly £4,230 to £8,940 for one project, and the next project starts the meter again.
ShareShift charges per organisation, not per user and not per project. $2,995 a year covers as many migrations as you like into one destination organisation and its subsidiaries: a tenant to tenant move this quarter, a file server next quarter and a SharePoint restructure after that. The monthly plan at $499 suits a single short project.
What each tool gives you
| Area | Quest On Demand Migration | ShareShift |
|---|---|---|
| Fidelity | Suite tiers cover progressively more workloads; the G-Cloud listing describes T1, T3 and T5 tiers. We have not verified SharePoint item-level fidelity, so ask for a scoped demonstration on your content. | File shares, SharePoint Online including lists, columns, content types, pages and navigation, OneDrive, Teams with private channels and chat archives, and Planner. Versions, authors and timestamps preserved. |
| Pause and resume | Not stated in the published materials we checked. Ask whether a stopped job resumes without recopying. | Every step is persisted. Pause, stop, schedule and resume on any worker, with incremental re-runs that keep version history. |
| Pricing model | Per migrated user account, per project. G-Cloud 14 list: T1 £16.91, T3 £22.55, T5 £35.76 per user. The licence may only be used for one migration project. | Per organisation, unlimited projects. $499 a month or $2,995 a year, three workers included, extra workers $500 a year. |
| Teams | Included in the higher suite tiers. Conversation and private chat handling not verified by us. | Standard and private channels with conversation history, authors and timestamps, chat archives and Planner. |
| MSP licensing | Per user per project across each client's engagement. | MSP plan: ten client organisation slots and ten workers for $7,995 a year, with per-client and white-label reports. |
| Data caps | Priced per user rather than per gigabyte, so data volume does not change the licence cost. | Unlimited data on every plan, including the trial. |
| Deployment | SaaS. The service runs in Quest's cloud and content passes through it on the way to the destination tenant. | Worker-only. Workers run inside your network and push directly to Microsoft-provided containers in the destination tenant; our licence server sees aggregate counts only. |
Quest facts from the UK G-Cloud 14 pricing document (April 2024) on the Digital Marketplace, checked September 2026. Quest figures in GBP as listed; ShareShift prices exclude tax.
What it costs, with the numbers shown
250-user tenant to tenant migration
- T1: 250 × £16.91 = £4,227.50
- T5: 250 × £35.76 = £8,940
- Licence covers this one project only
- Annual: $2,995 a year, unlimited projects
- Three workers, unlimited concurrent jobs, unlimited data
- Or three months of Monthly: $1,497 in total
Quest figures from the UK G-Cloud 14 pricing document dated April 2024, in GBP. Current commercial pricing may differ; ask Quest for a quote.
MSP with ten clients of 250 users each
- Ten projects × 250 users
- T1: £42,275; T5: £89,400 in total
- Each new client project is licensed again
- MSP plan: $7,995 a year
- Ten client slots and ten workers included
- Extra workers $500 a year each
Arithmetic on the published G-Cloud rates; volume terms from Quest may be lower.
Where Quest On Demand Migration is stronger
Quest is a large vendor with a long history in directory and identity tooling, and there are projects where that matters more than content fidelity or price.
- Identity-led projects: if your migration is primarily about accounts, directories and mailboxes rather than SharePoint and Teams content, look at Quest's suite tiers first and verify the current scope with them. ShareShift does not migrate identities or mailboxes.
- A hosted service: Quest runs the migration from its cloud, which suits buyers who do not want to run anything themselves. ShareShift is worker-only by design.
- Public-sector procurement: Quest is listed on UK G-Cloud with published framework rates, which simplifies buying for UK public bodies.
- Source breadth we have not verified: if you need sources outside file shares, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams and Planner, confirm them with Quest.
The parts that made people look for an alternative
- Worker-only: content never passes through our cloud, and we are never a processor of it.
- Pause, stop, schedule and resume on any worker, with incremental re-runs that keep version history.
- One flat price per organisation, unlimited data, three workers, from $499 a month with no commitment.
- Lists, columns, content types, pages and navigation, not just documents; Teams private channels and chat archives; Planner.
- Pro at $4,995 a year: eight workers and three organisation slots, half of ShareGate Pro.
- Ten client organisations under one $7,995 a year MSP licence.
Questions people ask before switching
What does per migrated user mean in practice?
Every user account whose data is moved consumes a licence. On Quest's G-Cloud listing that is £16.91 to £35.76 per user depending on tier, and the licence may only be used for one migration project. ShareShift does not count users at all.
Is ShareShift suitable for tenant to tenant migration?
Yes. Tenant to tenant SharePoint sites, OneDrive, Teams channels with conversations and private channels, and Planner are core workloads, with app-only authentication against both tenants and incremental delta passes so you can cut over in stages.
Does ShareShift migrate mailboxes or identities?
No. ShareShift moves collaboration content. For mailboxes and directory objects use Microsoft's own tooling or a specialist tool, and use ShareShift for the SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams and file share content that those tools leave out.
Can we run more than one project on one licence?
Yes. An Annual licence at $2,995 covers unlimited migrations into one destination organisation and its subsidiaries for a year. The MSP plan adds ten client slots.
Where does our content go during the migration?
From your worker straight into the Microsoft-provided Azure storage containers inside your destination tenant, encrypted per job. It never passes through ShareShift's servers. The 30-day free trial works exactly the same way, with card taken at checkout, not charged until day 30.
Run ShareShift next to Quest On Demand Migration for 30 days
Point it at a real site or team, compare the reports, and decide with evidence. Full product, three workers, no data limit, card taken at checkout, not charged until day 30.
Mid-project with Quest? Read what carries over.