In this article we'll review existing tools for SharePoint management. The idea to create this overview appeared after I read that Bamboo solution shipped their own SharePoint Analyzer. My first thought was:“Why do we need another tool, if we already have SharePointSpy and SharePoint Manager?!” So, let’s compare the three free tools and see how the functionality differs ...
 SharePoint Analyzer from Bamboo Solutions provides rich, good, structured overview of your SharePoint farm from administrator/infrastructure perspective – detailed info about servers, web applications, logs, and etc. Good usability, grouping and detailed information across all your farm servers, but there is also useful info for developers.
 SharePointSpy by Echo Technology is an absolutely different tool – it stays away from infrastructure, providing your deep info about sites, features, site definitions and etc., allowing you to export different schemas xml. It's a really powerful tool for developers, who need deep dive inside their SharePoint stuff.
 SharePoint Manager (from CodePlex) locates somewhere between administrator and developer poles. It provides you almost the same functionality as SharePointSpy, but has a lot of information for infrastructure guys/administrators as well.
Features Comparison
| SHAREPOINT REVIEWSCHEAT SHEET: SharePoint Management Tools |
| |
SharePoint Analyzer (Bamboo Solutions)
|
SharePoint Manager (CodePlex)
|
SharePointSpy (Echo Technology)
|
| RATING: |
|
Rating:
4 out of 5 |
Rating:
3 out of 5 |
Rating:
2 out of 5 |
| DETAILS: |
| Farm setting |
yes |
yes |
- |
| Farm servers |
yes |
yes |
- |
| Logs for each sever in farm (IIS/SharePoint) |
yes |
no |
- |
| Web App overview |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| Web App on server |
yes |
yes |
- |
| Central admin options |
- |
yes |
- |
| Content DB site location |
yes |
- |
- |
| AAM |
yes |
- |
- |
| IIS settings |
yes |
- |
- |
| Service instances |
yes |
- |
- |
| Definitions export (list, content type) |
- |
yes |
yes |
| Web Parts Gallery |
yes |
- |
- |
| Account Security overview |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| SharePoint DB overview |
yes |
- |
- |
| Best Practices Analyzer |
yes |
- |
- |
Analyzing those tools I found that SharePoint Analyzer and SharePoint Manager provide you the richest functionality to manage your SharePoint environment. It's hard to name a better tool, because those tools have different target audience and must be used together.
My Choice
Combination of SharePoint Analyzer for maintenance and SharePoint Manager for development. But, if those three tools were shareware, then I’d chose SharePoint Manager for its balance between administrator and developer functionality.
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