SharePoint Migration Cost: Complete Pricing Guide (2026)

Total Cost Overview by Organization Size

These ranges include all phases: discovery, content cleanup, migration execution, permissions mapping, workflow remediation, training, and post-migration support. Actual costs depend on complexity factors discussed below.

Cost Breakdown by Phase

Phase 1: Discovery and Assessment (8-15% of total)

The discovery phase determines the entire project's cost and timeline. Skip this, and you will pay for it in change orders.

• Current environment scan: site collections, content databases, storage volume, permissions audit
• Content classification: migrate, archive, or delete
• Workflow and customization inventory: InfoPath forms, SharePoint Designer workflows, event receivers, web parts
• User and permissions mapping: AD groups, direct permissions, broken inheritance, external sharing
• Compliance and regulatory requirements: retention policies, sensitivity labels, data residency
• Target architecture design: hub sites, information architecture, governance framework

Typical cost: scales with environment complexity. EPC Group offers a fixed-fee 2-week Scoping Workshop that covers all discovery activities and produces a detailed migration plan with fixed-scope estimate.

Phase 2: Content Cleanup (10-20% of total)

The phase most organizations underestimate or skip entirely — and the one that determines whether the migration succeeds or merely "completes."

• Delete obsolete content (typically 30-50% of legacy sites)
• Consolidate duplicate documents and resolve version conflicts
• Restructure information architecture for the target SharePoint Online environment
• Standardize metadata and content types across site collections
• Archive historical content to compliant cold storage

Typical cost: scales with content volume and age. Organizations with mature governance may need minimal cleanup. Organizations that have run unmanaged SharePoint environments for 10+ years may need cleanup costs that approach the migration cost itself.

Phase 3: Permissions Mapping (10-15% of total)

Permissions migration is the most technically complex phase for most enterprises:

• Map on-premises AD groups to Azure AD / Entra ID groups
• Identify and remediate direct user permissions (should be group-based)
• Document broken inheritance patterns and decide whether to flatten or preserve
• Handle external sharing configurations for extranet sites
• Configure Conditional Access policies for the new environment

Typical cost: scales with permission complexity. The cost ceiling is driven by environments with thousands of unique permission sets from years of ad-hoc sharing.

Phase 4: Workflow Remediation (15-25% of total)

This is the phase that causes the most budget overruns because organizations underestimate how many workflows they have:

• InfoPath forms → redesign as Power Apps or SPFx solutions
• SharePoint Designer workflows → rebuild as Power Automate flows
• Nintex workflows → evaluate Nintex for M365 or rebuild in Power Automate
• Event receivers and timer jobs → rebuild as Azure Functions or Power Automate
• Custom web parts → rebuild as SPFx web parts

Typical cost per workflow: rises from a simple approval, to multi-step with conditions, to complex with external integrations. Multiply by your workflow count to size this phase.

Phase 5: Migration Execution (15-20% of total)

The actual data migration is often the most predictable phase — if discovery was done properly:

• Pilot migration (10% of content) to validate approach and identify issues
• Production migration waves (typically by department or site collection)
• Incremental sync to capture changes during parallel-run period
• URL redirect configuration for bookmarked pages
• Validation: content integrity, permissions verification, search indexing

Typical cost: $15,000 to $100,000 depending on volume and tool licensing (Sharegate, ShareGate, AvePoint, or Microsoft SPMT).

Phase 6: Records Retention and Compliance (5-10% of total)

Critical for regulated industries but often forgotten until audit time:

• Configure retention policies in Microsoft Purview for migrated content
• Apply sensitivity labels to documents containing PII/PHI/financial data
• Configure DLP policies to prevent inappropriate sharing
• Validate eDiscovery coverage for migrated content
• Document the chain of custody for regulatory audit trails

Typical cost: scales with retention complexity. Higher for HIPAA, SOX, or government environments with specific retention schedules.

Phase 7: Training and Change Management (10-15% of total)

• End-user training sessions (live and recorded)
• Site owner and content manager training
• IT admin training on SharePoint Online administration
• Change management communications (pre, during, post-migration)
• Adoption dashboard to track usage and identify struggling teams

Typical cost: scales with user count. Organizations that skip this phase see 40-60% lower adoption of the new intranet.

Phase 8: Post-Migration Support (5-10% of total)

• 90-day hypercare period for issue resolution
• Search tuning and relevance optimization
• Performance monitoring and optimization
• User feedback collection and iterative improvements
• Decommission legacy environment

Typical cost: included in the migration scope. EPC Group includes 90 days of post-migration support in all SharePoint migration engagements.

Hidden Cost Scenarios

Real examples from EPC Group engagements where clients encountered unexpected costs:

1. The "We Have 5 Workflows" Client: Discovery revealed 47 SharePoint Designer workflows, 23 InfoPath forms, and 8 event receivers. Workflow remediation added $180,000 to a project initially scoped at $120,000. This is why we require paid discovery before providing fixed-scope estimates.
2. The "Just Move Everything" Client: A 15,000-user organization insisted on migrating all 40TB of content without cleanup. Migration took 9 months instead of 5, cost $420,000 instead of $280,000, and the resulting SharePoint Online environment was so cluttered that adoption was 30% below expectations.
3. The "We Forgot About Compliance" Client: Post-migration, a healthcare client realized that retention policies from their on-premises environment did not automatically transfer. Six months of content had no retention protection, creating a HIPAA gap. Retroactive remediation cost $60,000.
4. The "Our Vendor Did Not Do Permissions" Client: A previous vendor migrated content but set all permissions to "Everyone except external users" to avoid the complexity. The client came to EPC Group for a $75,000 permissions remediation project after discovering the issue during an audit.

Cost Optimization Strategies

• Invest in discovery: A $15,000 discovery phase prevents $100,000+ in change orders.
• Clean before migrating: Every TB you do not migrate saves $3,000-$5,000 in migration execution costs and reduces timeline.
• Standardize permissions on groups: Converting direct user permissions to Azure AD groups before migration reduces permissions mapping cost by 50%.
• Prioritize workflow triage: Not every legacy workflow needs to be rebuilt. Many are unused. The discovery phase should include workflow usage analytics.
• Use a phased approach: Migrate by department or business unit. This spreads cost, reduces risk, and allows each wave to benefit from lessons learned in previous waves.

Frequently Asked Questions