SPClean vs alternatives¶
How SPClean compares to Syskit Point and hand-rolled PowerShell scripts for detecting and cleaning orphaned users in SharePoint Online.
Feature comparison¶
| Feature | SPClean Free | SPClean Pro | Syskit Point | Manual scripting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orphaned user detection | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠custom code required |
| Risk scoring (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW) | ✅ | ✅ | — | — |
| HTML report | — | ✅ | ✅ web UI | — |
| WhatIf / dry-run | ✅ | ✅ | — | ⚠manual implementation |
| Snapshot & restore | — | ✅ | ✅ permission history | — |
| Scheduled / unattended scan | — | ✅ | ✅ continuous | ⚠manual Task Scheduler setup |
| Pricing | $0 | $79 / tenant / year | per-user SaaS (varies) | free (time investment) |
| PowerShell pipeline support | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
| Air-gapped / offline operation | ✅ | ✅ | — | ✅ |
⚠= partial support; — = not available
Positioning¶
SPClean is a focused, single-purpose module: detect orphaned users, score their risk, and remove them safely with rollback support. It lives inside your existing PowerShell workflow, integrates with the pipeline, and runs entirely inside your tenant — no SaaS backend, no data leaving your environment. Licensing is flat per-tenant ($79/year for Pro), which makes the cost predictable regardless of how many users your tenant has.
Syskit Point is a broader Microsoft 365 governance platform that covers permissions, lifecycle management, and reporting across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Orphaned user cleanup is one feature among many. It operates as a SaaS service with per-user pricing, which can be cost-effective for teams that need the full governance suite but adds overhead if the requirement is specifically orphaned user cleanup.
Manual PowerShell scripting has no licensing cost and gives full control, but building a reliable implementation — cross-referencing UILs with Entra ID via Graph batch, classifying account states, handling soft-deleted accounts, writing structured output, and wiring up WhatIf — takes substantial effort to develop and maintain. SPClean is effectively that script, already built and tested.
When to use each¶
| Scenario | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Occasional cleanup of a single tenant | SPClean Free |
| Regular scans with HTML reporting and snapshot backup | SPClean Pro |
| Full M365 governance (Teams, lifecycle, reviews) across many tenants | Syskit Point |
| Unique requirements that no existing tool covers | Manual scripting, or use SPClean as a base |