Best Tool for Migrating Outlook Mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint to Microsoft 365 (Cost-Effective)?
-
Written By
Aradhya Jain -
Approved By
Shivam Rathore -
Updated on
September 2nd, 2026 - Read Time
7 minutes
User Query: “We’re planning a bulk migration to Microsoft 365 and need advice on the best tool or service for moving Outlook mailboxes, OneDrive data, SharePoint sites, and Teams with the best cost-benefit ratio.”
All Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations run into the same wall. Mailbox moves in one direction, OneDrive goes another way, and SharePoint or Teams content does not follow the same rules. Whether you are running IT teams wearing the hat of a merger, acquisition, or tenant consolidation project, they will only come with a single answer to how much it would cost them to move their Outlook mailboxes, OneDrive files, and SharePoint data into Microsoft 365 without spending all over on consultants & per-user licensing.
In this content, we focus on what Microsoft’s native cross-tenant options can and cannot do, where exactly Teams content actually lives during a migration, and when in your project a dedicated tool changes the economics.
What Counts as a Microsoft 365 Data Migration
A Tenant-to-tenant Microsoft 365 data migration covers four major workloads: Mailboxes, OneDrive for Business accounts, SharePoint Online sites, and Teams. Here are details of those workloads:
- Copy Mailboxes: In this workload, transfer the primary mailbox, shared mailbox, attachments, contacts, and calendars.
- Copy OneDrive to Microsoft 365 migration: This workload transfers the file & folders, metadata, and migrates them with the original folder hierarchy.
- Copy Teams: This workload migrates Teams channel files, chat messages, meeting, and maintains the original folder hierarchy.
- Copy SharePoint: The Copy SharePoint to Microsoft 365 workload copies document libraries, files & folders, site pages, and permissions.
Native Microsoft 365 Migration Options and Where They Fall Short
Microsoft has native cross-tenant migration capabilities for Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, each workload being supported at different levels.
- Exchange Online Mailbox Migration: Mailbox migration uses Exchange Online PowerShell and the Mailbox Replication Service. It requires an organization relationship, migration endpoints, and mail user objects with the source mailbox’s ExchangeGUID and ArchiveGUID.
- OneDrive Migration: OneDrive offers a cross-tenant migration path licensed per user as part of the Microsoft Cross-Tenant User Data Migration offer.
- SharePoint Migration: Microsoft offers cross-tenant migration of SharePoint (for qualifying enterprise agreement customers) on a basis of each 100GB of data migrated, as priced for enterprise agreements.
- Teams Migration: Teams has mailbox migrations on offer, but support for Teams messages and meetings is less so than our mailbox migrations on offer.
Limitation
- Mailbox Batch Limit: In a migration batch, you have 2000 mailboxes.
- Retention or Litigation Hold: If the mailbox is under litigation or retention hold, it cannot complete migration until the hold has been removed.
- One-Time OneDrive Transfer: There is no incremental pass in the case of OneDrive migration; it will be a one-time experience.
- Fight Or Partial Migration: If a Person Drives migration fails or leaves some accounts out, the target accounts have to be migrated for them.
- Limited SharePoint Tooling: The native migration capabilities for SharePoint are not as mature compared with those available to help mailbox migrations.
- Teams Limitations: Teams Chat & Meeting Migration has more limited + preview-level capabilities.
- Migrate Workload: The workload has a separate migration process, and the guideline for tracking within multiple workloads can add overhead over managing a large tenant-to-tenant case.
Where a Dedicated Migration Tool Fits the Budget
DRS Softech Tenant to Tenant Migration Tool is one such tool that can ease out the Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration by consolidating several workloads like mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams into a single streamlined process. Rather than relying on various scripts or other specific tools for distinct workloads, IT teams can utilize a single application to set up migration configuration, user mapping, as well as filters, and monitor the process. Its automated migration capabilities are particularly useful for large-scale projects, helping reduce manual effort, avoid repeated migration work, and keep the overall project budget under control.
Key Features
- Skip Previously Migrated: Previously migrated data is ignored. This functionality will not migrate previously migrated data.
- Flexible Mapping: This mapping feature supports one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one & many-to-many mapping.
- Advanced Filters: Filter the data by date range, file size, and file extension.
- Deduplication: Duplicate email, SharePoint, and OneDrive data is identified.
- Progress Tracking: Track the migration process in real time via the Active Tasks dashboard.
- Detailed Reports: Provides detailed reports for transferred, skipped, and failed items.
- Teams Support: Support for the Teams migration based on the type of content being transferred, including channel files and other Teams data.
Native Migration vs. a Dedicated Migration Tool
|
Feature |
Native Microsoft Cross-Tenant Migration |
DRS Softech Tenant to Tenant Migration Tool |
|
Mailbox Migration method |
Exchange Online PowerShell, migration batch |
GUI-based mailbox mapping and migration |
|
OneDrive migration |
Native path, licensed per user |
Included, folder hierarchy preserved |
|
SharePoint migration |
Limited native tooling, per-100 GB EA licensing |
Document libraries and lists in the same license |
|
Deduplication |
Not included |
Built-in email, SharePoint, and OneDrive dedup |
|
Teams chat and channels |
Preview capability only |
Not covered; channel files move via SharePoint |
|
Incremental migration |
Not supported for OneDrive or SharePoint |
Skip Previously Migrated built-in |
|
Licensing model |
Per-user and per-100 GB, scales with volume |
One-time application license |
Conclusion
That is, no one tool that migrates Outlook mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams without any manual work at all. If a provider claims otherwise while glossing over the platform boundaries set by Microsoft, you should scrutinize further. When migrating mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint from three to one license, that’s where a tool like DRS Softech Microsoft 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Tool comes in handy when it comes to the budget for a Microsoft 365 Tenant Migration project. Once the rest of the data has landed, it is worth planning Teams as its own smaller project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ans. A GUI-based product that includes built-in mailbox mapping. This is much easier than setting up Exchange Online PowerShell; it will process the primary mailboxes and shared mailboxes no scripting is needed.
Ans. Perform your transfer during off-peak hours with a tool that maintains folder structure as data is copied in the background, allowing users to continue working until cutover.
Ans. A one-time licensed desktop tool that migrates document libraries and lists can often be more cost-effective than what Microsoft’s “per 100 GB enterprise” offer would cost for smaller sites.
Ans. Yes. Dedicated tools allow you to map mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint (in batches); each process can have an adjustable date and file size range.
Ans. It depends on scale. Very small migrations complete in a matter of hours, and in cases with thousands of mailboxes, we process them in small batches over several weeks.
Ans. Native software will get more expensive as users and storage space grow over time; a one-time license purchase locks the price at purchase time.
Ans. Yes. There is a date range filter, file size filter, and file type filter, allowing you to ignore old data rather than migrating the entire mailbox or site to be migrated.
Ans. Mailbox holds, permission mapping, duplicate data, and Graph API permissions on custom lists and version history within SharePoint.
Ans. Confirm Mailbox and OneDrive space, release holds, check target licensing, and run a small chunk first.
