Microsoft SharePoint Archiving: Native vs Third-Party Solutions

Introduction: What is SharePoint Online Archiving?

SharePoint Online archiving is the process of moving older or less frequently used files into lower-cost storage (such as Azure Blob storage) while keeping them available if they’re ever needed again. The aim is to reduce storage costs, improve governance and keep active SharePoint sites focused on the content people actually use.

Even though SPO includes a generous storage quota to start off with (1TB + 10GB per licenced user), organisations that work with large files (such as media, entertainment, healthcare, and construction) are finding it hard to keep within default SPO quotas and are facing hefty overage charges:

For example, one of our clients is currently looking at a staggering SharePoint Online overage charge of $2million (around £1,640,000) a month.

In the past, if you wanted to archive SharePoint you needed to use third-party archiving solutions.

That remains a popular approach today, but Microsoft has been gradually improving its own native archiving capability, giving organisations another option to consider.

This article compares Microsoft’s latest archiving capability with third-party SharePoint archiving alternatives. Having implemented both approaches for customers, we’ll look at where each approach works best, and the types of organisations they’re best suited to.

Does Microsoft offer SharePoint Online Archiving? 

There were rumblings about Microsoft having a ‘native’ SharePoint archiving capability since the ’22 Microsoft Ignite and in May 2024, their native SharePoint archive service was introduced.

The ‘gotcha’ was that this first release worked at the site level only. In other words, it was an all-or-nothing decision: you had to archive the entire SharePoint site or keep the whole thing active.

That proved to be quite limiting. Imagine you had an old project site that (in theory) was ready to archive, but just one person (such as your project manager) might still need to check a few project documents.

In this case you either had to leave the entire site active or archive it and restore the whole site even if just one file was needed.

The result was that many organisations couldn’t really take advantage of storage savings potential that archiving promised. Added to this, site restores would incur costs (although this reactivation fee was later waived).

That’s now changed. Microsoft has improved its SharePoint archiving service and added file-level archiving, allowing individual files to be archived while the rest of the SharePoint site remains active.

The rest of this article looks at how Microsoft’s SharePoint Online archiving service compares and contrasts with that offered by third-party solutions.

Microsoft Vs Third-party SharePoint Online Archiving

A comparison of the new SharePoint Online archiving service from Microsoft vs the third-party archiving solutions we can offer is as follows:

Microsoft 365 File-Level Archive (Preview)	Typical Third-Party Information Lifecycle Management Platform
User-driven archiving Users manually archive individual files. Native policy-based automation is currently limited.	Policy-driven automation Files can be archived automatically using rules based on age, access, metadata, versions, location, file type and business policies.
Individual files only Files are archived individually. Folders cannot currently be archived as a single unit.	Folder-level archiving Entire folders, libraries or collections of content can be archived while preserving their structure.
Doesn’t reduce Microsoft 365 storage Archived files remain in their original SharePoint library and are moved into Microsoft’s lower-cost archive tier. They continue to count towards your SharePoint storage allocation.	Can reduce Microsoft 365 storage Archived content can be moved to lower-cost storage such as Azure Blob, customer-owned storage or other archive repositories, reducing active Microsoft 365 storage consumption.
Delayed reactivation Restoring archived files can take up to 24 hours (unless archived within the previous seven days). Once restored, files cannot be archived again for 120 days.	Near-instant recall Archived content is typically available immediately using shortcuts, stubs or transparent recall.
Limited file type support Certain content cannot currently be archived, including OneNote notebooks, SharePoint Pages and SharePoint Agents.	Broader content support Supports a much wider range of document types and content across multiple repositories.
SharePoint Online only File-level archiving is currently limited to SharePoint Online.	Multi-repository support Can manage SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Microsoft 365 Groups, file shares, physical records and other connected repositories from one platform.
Storage optimisation Primarily provides lower-cost storage for inactive SharePoint files.	Full Information Lifecycle Management Supports classification, retention, archiving, governance, records management and defensible disposal throughout the content lifecycle.
Limited discovery Administrators or users must decide what should be archived. There is little built-in analysis before archiving.	Discovery before archiving Discovery scans, ROT (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) analysis, capacity reporting and storage modelling help identify the best archive candidates before any action is taken.
Limited AI and policy capabilities Advanced classification and retention generally require additional Microsoft products such as Purview or SharePoint Premium.	AI-assisted lifecycle management Optional AI-powered classification and automated policy assignment can categorise content and apply lifecycle rules automatically.
Preview limitations Some Microsoft applications currently have limited support for archived files, including Word and PowerPoint Online, Teams and OneDrive mobile apps, older Office versions, older sync clients, Clipchamp and Power BI imports.	Mature platform support Enterprise archive solutions are designed to integrate with existing Microsoft workloads without the current preview restrictions.
Native Microsoft experience No third-party software is required and archived content remains entirely within Microsoft 365.	Flexible storage and governance Supports customer-owned storage, Azure Blob, Amazon S3, file shares and vendor-hosted storage, together with reporting, auditing and lifecycle automation.
Best for reducing archive storage costs Best suited to organisations that simply want inactive SharePoint files moved into Microsoft’s lower-cost archive tier.	Best for enterprise lifecycle management Better suited where organisations need automated governance, storage optimisation, compliance, records management and richer lifecycle controls.

So what are the key things I need to think about when comparing Microsoft’s native archive and third-party archiving?

At one point, having to archive at a site level made Microsoft’s native approach a ‘non-starter’ for many organisations, giving third-party solutions a clear advantage.

Microsoft’s introduction of file-level archiving has changed that considerably, but there are still some important differences between the native capability and specialist archiving solutions.

So let’s dig into the main ones:

User-driven archiving vs automated policies

Microsoft’s native archive is primarily user-driven. Users decide which files should be archived and when to archive them.

Third-party solutions typically take a more automated approach. Rather than relying on users, they can archive files, folders and sites based on business rules such as age, last modified date, metadata, project status or even the number of document versions. That not only saves users from making manual decisions but also helps ensure archiving is applied consistently across the organisation.

Archiving in line with your information governance & lifecycle management strategy

If your objective is simply to move inactive files into a lower-cost storage tier, Microsoft’s native archiving capability may be all you need.

However, if archiving forms part of a wider information governance and lifecycle management strategy, it’s worth understanding your data before deciding what to archive.

Specialist archiving solutions can discover and analyse your SharePoint estate along with other file repositories, including OneDrive, Teams and file shares, identifying file ages, version history, duplicate content, usage patterns and redundant information.

With this insight you can create automated archiving policies based on business rules, metadata or retention requirements, rather than relying on end users to decide what should and shouldn’t be archived.

Preserving the user experience

One concern organisations often have is whether archived files simply disappear from users’ view.

Microsoft’s native archive keeps archived files visible within SharePoint, although they must be reactivated before they can be opened or edited.

Some third-party solutions go a step further by leaving lightweight placeholders (sometimes called stubs) in place of archived files.

From a user’s perspective, the file still appears to be there, and selecting it can transparently retrieve the archived content. The aim is to make archiving almost invisible while still delivering the benefits of lower-cost storage.

Conclusion

Microsoft has come a long way with SharePoint archiving and the introduction of file-level archiving is a significant improvement over the original site-level approach.

This may be all the functionality you need, however

However, it’s important to understand what Microsoft’s native solution is primarily a user-driven archiving feature rather than a fully automated information lifecycle management platform.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to automatically archive files based on age, metadata or business rules, a third-party solution may still offer significant advantages.

The good news is that you have choice and the key is understanding your data, how it’s being used and what you’re ultimately trying to achieve before deciding which approach is right for you, in which case, get in touch and we’ll give you an honest and independent answer!

One final note: as SharePoint Online data is set to grow exponentially, there’s two other important areas you might also want to pursue to save storage:

• SharePoint & Teams Site Governance – By that we mean stopping SharePoint and Teams sites from getting out of control in the first place.
• SharePoint Version Management – By reducing the number of versions of the same file being retained you can literally slice your storage in half (or more). This is how to do it.

Frequently Asked Questions About SharePoint Archiving