To curate this list, we analyzed more than 20 different options.
Finally, we arrived at the 7 best data migration software available right now.
We reviewed each of them based on:
On top of that, you’ll get pointers on how to choose the right solution for your specific needs. And we’ll show you how to use data migration tools to help move your information from one system to another.
Let’s get started!
Best Data Migration Software
1. Zinstall WinWin / Migration Kit Pro
Zinstall WinWin and Migration Kit Pro are powerful migration tools designed to simplify the process of transferring data and settings from one computer to another.
• Transfer everything
• Completely automatically
• Easy to use
WinWin offers a straightforward and user-friendly interface for transferring your entire computer environment to a new device. It goes beyond simply transferring files and data by migrating your programs, profiles, accounts, configurations, and settings. This ensures that your new computer feels familiar and personalized, with applications like Outlook, Chrome, and QuickBooks fully functional and retaining your data and preferences. WinWin is designed to be accessible even for users with limited technical knowledge, offering a hassle-free transfer experience.
Features
Simple User Interface: WinWin offers a super simple user interface that makes the migration process easy and accessible, even for users with limited technical expertise. With just one question to determine the old and new computers, the tool guides users through a straightforward transfer process.
Complete Environment Transfer: WinWin goes beyond transferring files and data by migrating your full computer environment. This includes programs, profiles, accounts, configurations, settings, and more. It ensures that your new computer retains the familiar feel of your old one, with all applications and settings intact.
Seamless Transition: The goal of WinWin is to make your new computer truly feel like your own. It transfers not only files but also important components like Outlook with emails and accounts, Chrome with passwords and logged-in sessions, QuickBooks with reports, and more. This ensures a seamless transition to the new computer, where everything works as it did on the old one.
Accessibility and User-Friendliness: WinWin is designed to be extremely user-friendly, catering to individuals who may not be comfortable with manual reinstallation and reconfiguration. It simplifies the transfer process, allowing users to effortlessly migrate their entire computer environment to a new device without dealing with complex technical steps.
Cost-Effective Solution: WinWin provides an affordable and efficient solution for transferring data and settings between computers. It offers a simplified experience compared to the more advanced Migration Kit Pro, making it suitable for consumer use and ensuring that users can easily make the new computer their own.
Zinstall Migration Kit Pro
Migration Kit Pro is a more advanced tool suitable for complex migrations. It can transfer data from a non-bootable or broken computer’s hard drive, making it useful in situations where traditional methods are not possible. Additionally, it supports transfers to smaller SSD drives with limited storage capacity and allows transfers via USB drive instead of over the network. Migration Kit Pro is often utilized in corporate and Managed Service Provider (MSP) environments, particularly for domain and Azure migrations.
Features
Advanced Migration Capabilities: Migration Kit Pro offers advanced migration capabilities, making it suitable for complex transfer scenarios. It can migrate data and settings from non-bootable or broken computers’ hard drives, allowing you to retrieve important data even from malfunctioning systems.
Flexibility with Storage Options: Migration Kit Pro allows transfers to smaller SSD drives that may not have enough space to accommodate the entire source system. This flexibility enables seamless migrations to devices with limited storage capacity.
USB Drive Transfer: In addition to network transfers, Migration Kit Pro supports transferring data via USB drives. This feature is especially useful when network connectivity is limited or unavailable.
Domain and Azure Migrations: Migration Kit Pro is particularly suited for corporate and Managed Service Provider (MSP) environments. It facilitates domain and Azure migrations, simplifying the process of transferring data and settings in enterprise settings.
Full Restore Support: The technology used in Migration Kit Pro is also employed in Zinstall FullBack when performing full system restores. This ensures a comprehensive restoration of the entire system, including applications, settings, and data, providing a reliable recovery option.
Pricing
Zinstall WinWin is priced at $129 which includes:
- Standard transfer from one live computer to another
- Transfer over wifi (wireless) or over network
- Supports transfer from Windows 10 to Windows 11,
Windows 7 to Windows 10 and other combinations
Zinstall Migration Kit Pro cost is $189 which includes:
- Transfer from a broken computer
- Transfer to small SSD drives
- Transfer using a USB external drive
- Transfer without a network connection
- In-place upgrade to Windows 11 or Windows 10 on same PC
Verdict
Both WinWin and Migration Kit Pro leverage powerful technology to ensure complete and reliable migration results. While Migration Kit Pro offers advanced capabilities, WinWin provides a simpler and more cost-effective solution that is ideal for consumer use. You can choose to run either tool depending on your specific needs and preferences.
Overall, Zinstall’s migration tools aim to streamline the transfer process and enable users to seamlessly migrate their entire computer environment, making the new device feel like their previous one.
2. EaseUS Todo PCTrans
EaseUS Todo PCTrans is a secure and quick way of transferring files and programs from one PC to another. It offers even more, allowing you to create file images, locally migrate apps, and create space by clearing unwanted files.
• User-friendly
• Handy extra features
• Lightweight
EaseUS Todo PCTrans is a powerful file migration software that offers Windows PC to PC app and data migration. With this program, users can move everything from a single file to multiple apps from an old computer to a new one. EaseUS Todo PCTrans isn’t only fast, but it’s also secure and reliable. It guarantees that the migrated files and apps aren’t corrupted and will still work on the receiving machine.
Features
EaseUS Todo PCTrans allows for seamless PC-to-PC data migration. To save time, it offers a one-click feature that does this while ensuring that there’s no data loss during transfers.
You can also create images of your files, accounts, apps, and settings with the Image Transfer feature. This functionality is quite useful, as it means you can archive and restore your data whenever necessary.
The App Migration feature comes in handy to save space. You can use it to transfer large apps locally from one disk to another, freeing up space on your primary disk. EaseUS Todo PCTrans offers two additional storage management features — System Cleanup for deleting temporary files and junk; and Large File Cleanup, which works as the name implies.
Ease of Use
EaseUS Todo PCTrans offers a simple, intuitive user interface, ensuring that migrating programs and files isn’t an uphill battle. Even beginners will have no issues using the software. In addition, there are detailed instructions on its website outlining the steps to take for each service.
Pricing
You can use a limited version of this Windows migration tool for free. The Free Plan allows up to 2GB of data transfers and up to five programs. To remove restrictions, upgrade to a premium plan.
- Standard (2 PCs) – starts from $49.95/month.
- Professional (2+ PCs) – starts from $99/year.
- Premium (2+ PCs) – starts from $139/year
3. Acronis True Image
From liquid spills to disk failures and cybersecurity threats, Acronis True Image ensures your data stays safe and easily recoverable. With several useful features and integrations, this software ticks all the boxes you need and more.
• Powerful backup and imaging
• Easy to configure and use
• 24/7 customer support
Formerly Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, Acronis True Image is a full-featured solution. While it’s primarily a backup tool, it easily slots into this list of the best data migration software due to its wide range of capabilities.
Features
To migrate from one device to another, you may choose to backup your data and restore it on the other device. Acronis True Image makes this possible with disk imaging and backup features. You can protect everything from individual files to full system imaging. The intuitive software lets you create an emergency boot disk to restore your data after disk failures and migrate programs to a new hard drive.
The tool also adds real-time protection from malware like viruses and ransomware. The software will scan and remove any malicious programs from your files. Safety for your backed-up files is guaranteed with the inclusion of the industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption.
The software isn’t limited to local backups only. With its Acronis cloud integration, you can replicate the images off-site for added security.
Acronis True Image also offers apps for Android and iOS. Users with cloud subscription plans can back up their mobile devices to the cloud – helpful for migrating data on a smartphone.
Ease of Use
For all its properties, Acronis True Image is refreshingly beginner-friendly and easy to use. The interface is clean, and navigation is effortless. With the scheduling functionality, you don’t even need to be hands-on to carry out backups.
Pricing
Acronis True Image isn’t a free migration software.
- Essential – starts at $49.99/year
- Advanced – starts at $89.99/year
- Premium – starts at $124.99/year
4. Paragon Hard Disk Manager
Paragon Hard Disk Manager makes the tough task of managing drive partitions easy. But it’s also one of the best file migration tools around, providing a quick and reliable means to clone and move your data from one drive to another SSD or HDD.
• Useful additional features
• Multiple packages to choose from
• Stable, reliable performance
Paragon Hard Disk Manager is a disk management tool that goes beyond that. It also functions as an OS migration software to help you switch your data to a faster SSD or higher-capacity HDD. You can copy disk partitions or entire drives without any data loss.
Features
Paragon Hard Disk Manager provides the means to duplicate your data – from files, folders, and a single partition, to the whole hard disk. To prevent unauthorized access, you can protect your backups with a password.
It goes further, allowing you to manage disk partitions on the hard drive. You can create, format, delete, unhide, deactivate, split, and merge partitions at will. The tool also lets you change hard disk partition labels and run surface tests.
Paragon Hard Disk Manager is a powerful HDD and SSD migration software. It offers the functionality to clone your OS and move it to a new disk. There’s flexibility, too – you can exclude unimportant files to allow easy migration to a smaller SSD or expand partitions so you can use more space on a bigger HDD. Alternatively, you can create a perfect duplicate of your HDD onto another drive. What’s more, you can continue working on your computer as the data transfers.
There’s also an inbuilt feature for wiping your HDD or SSD clean. Regardless of the drive’s size, you can quickly and easily erase all the data on it.
Ease of Use
Paragon Hard Disk Manager offers text hints and instructions, which makes it easy to use even for absolute beginners. To flatten the learning curve even further, the more intuitive Express Mode simplifies the usage of the software compared to the Advanced interface.
Pricing
Paragon Hard Disk Manager comes in two packages for home and business use.
- Hard Disk Manager Advanced – starts at $69.95 for five licenses and rises to $79.95 for three licenses.
- Hard Disk Manager Business – starts at $99 for a single workstation and rises to $899 for Enterprise use.
5. O&O SSD Migration Kit
The O&O SSD Migration Kit is your best bet for simple and convenient file migration from a hard drive to an SSD. It’s cheap, lightweight, and requires no advanced knowledge.
• Easy to use
• Lightweight
• One-time payment
As the name implies, O&O SSD Migration Kit is designed to help you move your data from a regular drive to a much faster SSD. With this tool, SSD data migration of files, folders, or entire partitions is possible without loss or corruption.
Features
O&O SSD Migration Kit doesn’t claim to be an all-in-one software with many bells and whistles. Instead, it’s a simple, straightforward tool that creates a duplicate of your data on a hard drive on an SSD.
To do this, O&O SSD Migration Kit ensures the partitions on the source drive are aligned to the structure of the SSD. That’s important because if there’s a misalignment and the SSD is simply overwritten, you could potentially lose up to 50% of your data.
Furthermore, this SSD migration software lets you select the data you prefer to transfer in case the receiving drive is smaller than the source.
Ease of Use
O&O SSD Migration Kit markets itself as a straightforward data migration software for Windows. This proves true after installation, as its usage is uncomplicated. It’s as simple as selecting a source hard drive and the target SSD. Even the lack of local directions and a user guide isn’t disastrous.
Pricing
Keeping with its simple theme, O&O SSD Migration Kit only has one payment package, which costs $29.90. While there’s a limited test program, it won’t let you migrate your OS to SSD for free.
6. PCmover Professional
Full-featured, convenient, and with impressive customer support, PCmover Professional has proved to be among the best PC migration software. With it, you get all the relevant data transfer features in one place.
• Useful advanced features
• Impressive technical support
• Expansive user instructions
There are many tools that can easily migrate your files and folders from one computer to another. Where PCmover Professional excels is in how good it is in effectively replicating your source system. It transfers not just files but applications and theirdata, cloud directories, user profiles, and settings.
Features
Data transfers with PCmover Professional are flexible. It’s up to you to choose the files, folders, or applications you prefer to move or migrate an entire directory to the new computer. You can also select the user accounts and profiles to transfer or leave behind. This is especially useful for shared PCs where different users operate separate accounts. Furthermore, PCmover Professional supports Azure and local Active Directory users.
The undo feature can come in handy to make sure your data is safe if you make a mistake. In such a situation, the tool simply reverts your system to its previous state.
The features discussed so far also exist on the lower pricing tiers. Professional goes further by including one that lets you restore a PC image from an older to a new operating system. Since PCmover Professional offers support for Windows 11, you can carry out data migration from your Windows 10 computer to the latest offering.
Finally, the tool provides critical hard drive rescue functionality for the nail-biting moments when a PC fails to boot and load its OS.
Ease of Use
Need help transferring your data to a new PC? No worries. While PCmover Professional isn’t a difficult software to get accustomed to, there’s also free transfer assistance. Even subscribers on the lowest tier get a trained expert to guide them through.
Pricing
- Professional, one license – $59.95
- Professional, two licenses + SafeErase – $84.95
- Professional + DiskImage + SafeErase – $89.95
- Professional, five licenses – $230
7. MiniTool Partition Wizard
MiniTool Partition Wizard is an excellent tool for cloning disks and migrating data from one system to another. It’s also a powerful OS migration software for Windows computers, with support for its latest version.
• Useful additional features
• Intuitive, beginner-friendly interface
• Safety nets for processes
MiniTool Partition Wizard is primarily a high-performance disk management program for PCs. It’s also among the best Windows data migration software. With this tool, you can perform a slew ofpartition-related, data cloning, and migration tasks. What’s more, there’s a free version.
Features
If you’re looking for software to transfer your OS to a new HDD or SSD, MiniTool Partition Wizard is just what you need. For instance, it’ll allow you to easily and conveniently migrate Windows 10 on your computer to a smaller SSD without losing any of your data.
It’s also as effective for disk cloning and data migration. With this tool, you can create a perfect backup of your data to retrieve on a new system.
When it comes to managing your disk, MiniTool Partition Wizard provides several features. It effectively covers the basics; you can create, delete, and format partitions on a hard disk in no time. You can also move and resize partitions, shrink dynamic volumes, and move unallocated space to extend other volumes.
Furthermore, MiniTool Partition Wizard lets you merge adjacent partitions or split large disks into smaller sections.
Ease of Use
While partitioning and migrating data, mistakes can have disastrous consequences. MiniTool Partition Wizard takes this pretty seriously and provides a preview section to allow users to stay in control and check for potential errors. In addition, the interface is quite intuitive. Apart from English, it’s available in seven other languages.
Pricing
MiniTool Partition Wizard’s free version doesn’t support data migration. It has two broad pricing categories – for home and business users.
Home:
- Pro – $59/year
- Pro Platinum – $109/year
- Pro Ultimate – $159 one-time payment
Business:
- Server Standard – $159/year
- Server Lifetime – $259 one-time payment
- Enterprise – $499/year
- Technician – $699 one-time payment
8. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is an open-source tool for disk imaging and cloning that’s completely free to use. It offers secure and reliable features and support for a wide range of file systems across all major operating systems.
• Free and open source
• Supports many file systems
• Military-level data encryption
Clonezilla is free, open-source data migration software with disk imaging and data cloning capabilities. It supports major desktop OSes, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS. Despite offering little customer support, it’s feature-rich and reliable. Clonezilla runs on a Live CD or USB for individual users, removing the need to install it directly on a computer. It can also operate from a server for cloning across a network.
Features
Clonezilla is a tool that excels at disk cloning. It provides the means to clone in multiple ways, such as with an image (device-image) or another device (device-device). With this software, you can effectively create a system image and then deploy it to one or more other devices without data loss.
Another useful feature is compression. To save space on the receiving drive, you can split the created disk image into smaller files and compress them. Several Linux utilities come under the hood, with GZIP offering an optimal balance between speed and size.
Clonezilla supports various file systems, including those of Linux, Windows, macOS, Chromium, Minix, and hardware RAID chipsets. There are 19 of them, so it can work on virtually any system.
You can also encrypt your created image to protect it from unauthorized access. The encryption utility is set to the industry-standard AES 256-bit, capable of preventing any external parties from retrieving your data.
Ease of Use
Clonezilla features a Linux-based command line, and there’s not much of a graphical interface. As you can imagine, this automatically precludes those without the required technical knowledge. However, more advanced users will have no issues handling this data transfer software.
Pricing
Clonezilla is available to use entirely free of charge.
What Is Data Migration Software?
In simple terms, data migration is the transfer of existing data from one storage system, environment, file format, or application to another. Both home and business users need to move data from time to time. In the case of the former, it could simply involve transferring a few files from an old computer to the new one. These days, businesses often need to migrate from on-site infrastructure to cloud-based storage.
Data migration software comprises tools employed to carry out the activities involved in the process. They facilitate the transfer of data in several ways, including validating, transforming, and loading the data onto the receiving system. The best data transfer software blend qualities like effectiveness, reliability, and fast performance to complete the transfers.
File migration tools are necessary for many reasons. Individuals and businesses often have to replace old and legacy systems that no longer function as they used to. Sometimes, it’s a matter of space or performance – you could be upgrading to a solid state drive from a hard disk.
As I mentioned earlier, firms may also need to move from local storage systems and applications to cloud-based alternatives. This optimizes business operations, reduces downtimes, and boosts productivity.
It’s possible to move data manually or use the tools made available by the source system. However, as is often the case, this can be tasking and time-consuming. Furthermore, it can result in data loss if you aren’t careful. The best data movement tools are significantly more convenient and take away that considerable risk.
Types of Data Migration
Data migration processes can involve different types of transfers. Let’s discuss each briefly.
1. Application Migration
Application migration involves companies switching from one vendor or platform to another. For instance, a company may need to move from a customer relationship management (CRM) system to a more effective model, taking along the information they have built up on the former software. Migration here usually involves data transformation, as vendors often operate proprietary models.
2. Storage Migration
This is the most common form of data migration and involves the transfer of data from one storage medium to another. If you have had to move your files from an old computer to a new one, you have carried out a storage migration. Many tools are available to facilitate this process, from basic ones to more advanced, feature-rich software.
3. Cloud Migration
Moving to the cloud comes with several benefits, including flexibility, reliability, ease of access, reduced risk of data loss, and cost saving. As a result, many businesses and even individuals find cloud migration attractive. The process usually involves some form of storage migration as entities move their data from on-premise infrastructure.
How To Choose the Right Software
Whatever the reason for transferring your data, you’ll need to implement the right migration solution for your needs. With that in mind, there are different factors to consider when choosing the best migration software.
4. Ease of Use
Depending on the details and scope of your data migration, the process can be a complicated one. It can get even tougher if the tool you pick has a steep learning curve. Ideally, you want software with a user-friendly interface. But good visuals don’t always translate to ease of use. The best solutions are usually intuitive and try to simplify the process, even for beginners.
5. Performance
Migrating a folder filled with photos or music can be frustrating if the transfer moves at a snail’s pace. Imagine how that would be if you intend to migrate an entire operating system or heavy data. The top transfer tools are built with performance and scalability in mind to cut down the time it takes to move your data.
6. Pricing
There are several free data migration tools. However, there’s usually a trade-off between cost (or a lack of it) and functionality, reliability, performance, and support. Free solutions are also usually not visually appealing or easy to work with. Still, ideally, you would prefer not to pay too much for data migration software. Ultimately, the offered quality, features, size, and scope of your project will determine how much you must pay.
7. Customer Support
If you run into any issues, available and timely help can make all the difference when migrating data. Access to support can come in different forms, including:
- Forums and community
- Resource base and user guides
- Live Chat
- Phone support
Providers that offer the last two are usually able to respond much quicker to inquiries and proffer help if you run into a dicey situation.
How To Use a Data Migration Tool
Data transfer processes can be wildly contrasting, depending on the type of migration and the tools involved. That said, let’s briefly look at what’s involved in a storage migration using EaseUS Todo PCTrans, a PC migration software.
Say you want to directly transfer files from your old Windows computer to a new one, the software offers a feature aptly labeled PC to PC. It allows you to move data if both computers are connected to the same local area network (LAN).
It’s a pretty simple process, even for a newbie. Here’s how to go about it:
- Launch EaseUS Todo PCTrans and select PC to PC.
- Choose the PC to connect with. The software will list other computers that have EaseUS Todo PCTrans installed and running.
- Select the content you wish to transfer. These could be files or applications. Click Transfer to start.
That’s all there is to it. Wait while the transfer initiates and completes. The time frame depends on the size of the selected content.
Wrap Up
Data migration software will ease the usually tedious process of moving your files from one system to another one. But not all solutions are on the same level.
In this article, we picked out the best options available. Each tool above has proven to be cost-effective, easy to use, and reliable.
FAQs
Is data migration hard?
It can be, depending on how extensive your data is and the systems involved. That’s why you need transfer tools – the convenience they provide makes data migration significantly easier.
Why do data migrations fail?
For several reasons, including:
Poor choice of migration software
How is data migration done?
Data migration requires a switch in storage, cloud, or application systems. It can be done manually or by using the tools provided by the source systems. However, specialized software can carry out this task more conveniently while saving time and reducing the risk of data loss.
Does Windows 10 have a migration tool?
Yes, Windows 10 has a migration tool called Windows Easy Transfer. It helps users transfer files and settings from one PC to another. However, compared to the best solutions, it’s rudimentary at best.
Aditya is an Azure DevOps and Infrastructure Virtualization Architect with experience in automation, infrastructure management, and designing and implementing virtualization solutions. His expertise encompasses both on-premise and cloud-based systems. Aditya's articles on TechJury serve as a reliable resource for individuals and organizations looking to harness the power of cloud computing, embrace automation, and leverage infrastructure-as-code practices.