EhlerTech User Profile Central vs MigrationMerlin
EhlerTech User Profile Central
ehlertech.comMigrationMerlin
github.comSide by side
| Figure | EhlerTech User Profile Central | MigrationMerlin |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $50/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · PC Migration Software | 7.9 (#6) | 8.0 (#5) |
| Encryption | The guide says USMT migration backup files can be encrypted with a password. | It can encrypt the migration store with AES-256, and the README says there is no recovery path if the encryption key is lost. |
| Purpose | UPC backs up user profiles over a local area network to a network share and restores them to another PC or user profile. | MigrationMerlin is a PC-to-PC user-state migration tool for Windows sysadmins and power users. |
Plans
EhlerTech User Profile Central
- User Profile Central (UPC)$600 a year
In their own words
EhlerTech User Profile Central
EhlerTech User Profile Central has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
MigrationMerlin
MigrationMerlin is a free Windows tool for moving user state between PCs, aimed at sysadmins and power users. It wraps Microsoft’s User State Migration Tool, including scanstate.exe and loadstate.exe, and provides an arrow-key-driven text interface plus numbered batch wrappers for step-by-step migration. Both source and destination PCs must run Windows 10 or Windows 11, have administrator privileges, and be reachable on the same network with SMB port 445 open. The tool can configure an SMB transfer share on the destination PC, including a firewall rule. IncludeUsers and ExcludeUsers options let users select profiles. ExtraData can include taskbar pins, Wi-Fi profiles, power plans, and items covered by custom migration XML. Migration stores can be encrypted with AES-256, but the README says there is no recovery path if the key is lost. During capture and restore, the tool displays progress, file counts, and throughput. It writes transcript logs to the migration folder’s Logs directory and masks credentials in those logs. The project is MIT-licensed and distributes downloadable ZIP artifacts through rolling GitHub releases.