Aspera Managed File Transfer vs GoAnywhere MFT comparison

IBM and Fortra are both solutions in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0, while Fortra is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8. IBM holds a 3.4% mindshare in MFT, compared to Fortra’s 9.2% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fortra users who would recommend it.

Aspera Managed File Transfer

Read 4 Aspera Managed File Transfer reviews

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522 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

GoAnywhere MFT

Read 44 GoAnywhere MFT reviews

2,404 Views
1,129 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Aspera Managed File Transfer

GoAnywhere MFT

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 8, 2025

Aspera Managed File Transfer and GoAnywhere MFT are formidable competitors in the secure data exchange sector for enterprises. Aspera has the upper hand in terms of speed, benefiting data-heavy industries, while GoAnywhere excels in protocol support and seamless integration, making it a cost-effective solution for diverse systems.

Features: Aspera Managed File Transfer facilitates high-speed transfers, maximizing available bandwidth, and provides robust security features like encryption and authentication. It is known for handling large data efficiently and operating effectively in bandwidth-limited environments. GoAnywhere MFT offers comprehensive protocol support, advanced workflow automation, and intuitive user interfaces, reducing the complexity of managing file transfers while integrating well with various systems. Its flexibility in automating file exchanges across diverse platforms stands out as a significant advantage.

Room for Improvement: Aspera Managed File Transfer can be challenging to deploy due to its complexity and requires technical expertise, potentially leading to increased initial costs. It could benefit from more straightforward integration options with other systems. Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT could enhance its interface even further to lower the learning curve for new users. Expanding real-time data monitoring capabilities and improving some notification aspects would strengthen its overall offering. Additionally, enhancing customization options for complex workflows could make the tool more attractive to advanced users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aspera's deployment can be scalable yet demanding, involving complicated setups requiring proficient support, thus extending deployment times. In contrast, GoAnywhere provides straightforward cloud or on-premise deployment options, supported by excellent customer service and documentation, which eases transitions and operational use. Its user-friendly setup process ensures a smooth user onboarding experience.

Pricing and ROI: Aspera Managed File Transfer involves higher initial setup costs, which can be justified for businesses focused on high-speed data handling, offering significant ROI for data-intensive operations. GoAnywhere MFT comes with a lower entry cost and provides substantial ROI through its robust automation and multi-protocol support, making it an attractive choice for organizations seeking efficient yet economical solutions without sacrificing functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Aspera Managed File Transfer

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

12th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

GoAnywhere MFT

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

2nd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of Aspera Managed File Transfer is 3.4%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 9.2%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

Featured Reviews

Michele Illiano

Head of Division at Innovery

Beneficial quick protocol, powerful, but limited use cases

Aspera Managed File Transfer should be packaged into another solution. Explaining to customers you need to have multiple solutions from multiple vendors for their use cases can get complicated for them to understand. The best way to propose a suite is to have an integrated suite where the customer could choose to license part of it. This solution could be one solution not two choices between 10 or 12 different solutions. The main feature of Aspera Managed File Transfer is the communication protocol, which is fast. There are a lot of different clients that are offering features related to these fast protocols. It's possible to create one unique suite that can handle this base protocol. It will be quite easy to propose to the customers.

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Joel Vinas

Senior Analyst at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Created a much better working relationship with our partners and saved a lot of time

While I was happy with the training and support, more of it could be beneficial. We had some basic training and support. I talked with Fortra recently, and they said that they revamped and changed their training support. I have not used it since December. I got support in February and May of last year, and it was not bad. I was just not sure which questions to ask. Trying to learn this stuff on the fly as you are handed a project is always stressful. I like that you can tweak the interface so much, but it would be nice to be able to tweak it some more. The ability to further tweak the interface would be advantageous, as our end users had some questions about modifications that we could not address. Other than that, GoAnywhere seemed to fulfill its role as a simple solution for secure file transfer.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We were able to effectively nullify the China firewall since the China firewall was disrupting our data transfer."

"The main feature of Aspera Managed File Transfer is that it's an incredibly fast protocol, you can use all the bandwidth available. If I need to send large amounts of data this is the fastest protocol on the market. I have been using it for some minor projects and it is very powerful."

"Aspera Managed File Transfer is an optimal solution for customers who want to transfer large files to remote sites with lower bandwidth and in less time."

"Good user interface and ability to set up multiple file transfer jobs."

"We were able to effectively nullify the China firewall since the China firewall was disrupting our data transfer."

"It is very easy to use. It is easy to create projects in a graphical environment. The configuration and the setup of the environment is very easy"

"The most valuable features are the automatic processing of files and scheduled execution of the files."

"It has saved significant time on both the security aspect and data transfers."

"The security and vendor management features are helpful in terms of providing access to data."

"The solution is easy to learn and user-friendly, which makes it accessible even to those without programming backgrounds and extensive scripting training. Newcomers can quickly get to grips with the platform, and as it's a more object-oriented application, it's easier to use and program."

"Its speed is the most valuable because every integration used to take months with old SOA tools, integration buses, and that type of stuff. Now, we do integrations in a matter of days. Security is another valuable thing because every step in the workflow has an audit trace, which is great. This also brings a lot of confidence in automating business process workflows through this type of solution."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"File monitors are one of the most valuable features. We have about 400 file monitors running in GoAnywhere. They monitor the NAS locations where files arrive, and they kick off workflows. When a file arrives, GoAnywhere will identify that the file is there, move it to a consumption zone, then reach out to our enterprise scheduler through a REST API call."

More GoAnywhere MFT pros

Cons

"If there is any failure in the data transfer and it can automatically detect and reinitiate it, that would be great."

"If you want to do a file transfer between two countries, and one is not China, then you have other more affordable options."

"Aspera Managed File Transfer should be packaged into another solution. Explaining to customers you need to have multiple solutions from multiple vendors for their use cases can get complicated for them to understand."

"Deployment is complex and it was difficult to get support."

"The solution's pricing is high and should be reduced."

"There is a function referred to as write CSV, to write a general text file. In this scenario of creating a simple text file, I ran into a situation where, if the product saw a quote or a double-quote in the data, it started wrapping all the text fields in double-quotes. The request I put in asks them to provide a feature that leaves my data alone and does not interpret anything."

"Fortra needs to offer more use cases for GoAnywhere MFT during training."

"When a monitor invokes a project to accomplish something, that gets logged as a job. I've had a little difficulty figuring out where to look to see the monitor's activities itself, to see if the monitor is having a problem. For instance, if an account on a secure FTP server has expired, the monitor that uses that account doesn't announce to us that it's having a problem. I want to work with them on this to get it fixed."

"There have been cases where we needed support due to the application getting stuck for no reason, and usually, the issue gets fixed by restarting the application. However, we never get a clear understanding of why the issue occurred and how we could prevent it."

"I tried to copy a file from an S3 bucket to another storage class. I don't know if it is a limitation from AWS, not the MFT. If I copy a file from the AWS S3 bucket to that storage class, it can't be transferred. It says that I can't remember the exact error, but it cannot be processed. I want MFT to be more compatible with cloud-based applications or services like AWS."

"Upgrading was a challenge and I ran into some problems along the way."

"While the technical support team is knowledgeable, their response time for critical issues needs improvement. A response within one business day is insufficient for urgent matters."

"The UI of GoAnywhere MFT could be a bit crisper because sometimes it gets tricky to find where to look for information."

More GoAnywhere MFT cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It was close to $10,000 to $20,000."

"Aspera Managed File Transfer is not an inexpensive solution. I am not aware of many competitors to determine how affordable the price is overall."

"After evaluating other solutions, we found the pricing they offered to be genuinely competitive."

"The cost is fine. It is probably the best software that I've had for the money that we spend for it. I am not aware of any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. I don't pay for it. IT pays for it."

"It is moderately priced. If I compare it with other products that we have been using, its price is moderate. There are approximately 30% to 40% savings."

"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT is an inexpensive solution."

"Licensing can be expensive and it depends upon which features you want to buy."

"GoAnywhere was the most attractively priced product that met our needs. In our PoC it really came down to MOVEit and GoAnywhere, and GoAnywhere's pricing was about 30 percent less."

"Its pricing is fair. It is not the most expensive, and it is not the cheapest. For what we get in our environment, the pricing model works pretty well."

"It is very attractive. In terms of the capacity of the product and functionality, it is a good price."

More GoAnywhere MFT pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Aspera Managed File Transfer?

Aspera Managed File Transfer is an optimal solution for customers who want to transfer large files to remote sites with lower bandwidth and in less time.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Aspera Managed File Transfer?

There are other products of Aspera which come as add-ons, however, we haven't purchased those, like report generation, since that was not our requirement. The features we needed were included in th...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Aspera Managed File Transfer?

We have an office in China, and we wanted to transfer data from China to the UK. We have an office in the UK as well.

See all answers

What do you like most about Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?

GoDrive eliminates the need to use the exchange server for file sharing.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?

The pricing for GoAnywhere MFT seems reasonable when compared to other similar services, especially cloud services. Azure is significantly more expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?

The application uses resources such as network connections to shared directories or SFTP connections. I would appreciate seeing utilization metrics for these resources. For example, when opening a ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

MOVEit vs Aspera Managed File Transfer

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

JSCAPE by Redwood vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 10% of the time

Control-M vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 6% of the time

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

May 2025

Download Aspera Managed File Transfer product report

Buyer's Guide

GoAnywhere MFT

June 2025

Download GoAnywhere MFT product report

Also Known As

No data available

HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer,

Overview

IBM Aspera takes a different approach to tackling the challenges of big data movement over global WANs. Rather than optimize or accelerate data transfer, Aspera eliminates underlying bottlenecks by using its proprietary fasp technology that fully utilizes available network bandwidth to maximize speed and quickly scale up with no theoretical limit. Using fasp, transfers are secure end-to-end and are largely unaffected by file size, transfer distance, or network conditions, making transfer times up to 100Xs faster than TCP-based protocols.

IBM Aspera offers SaaS, on-prem, and hybrid solutions to meet the needs of modernizing infrastructures. All solutions offer robust security and compliance, intuitive file sharing, workflow automation, central administration, and real-time visibility. Quickly and easily initiate transfers across hybrid infrastructures, including support for cloud-to-cloud transfers. IBM Aspera offers unmatched transfer speeds, end-to-end security, reliability, and exceptional bandwidth control.

IBM

GoAnywhere MFT offers user-friendly workflow features, advanced security, and seamless integrations. Its intuitive interface supports streamlined operations and rapid project creation, making it suitable for managing secure file transfers.

GoAnywhere MFT provides sophisticated automation through Advanced Workflows, enabling reduced manual tasks and improved efficiency. With centralized data exchange, file monitoring, and comprehensive security protocols, it supports scalability, encryption, and IP filtering for enhanced protection. Users appreciate its adaptability with systems including IBM and Epic, contributing to improved process management and significant time savings. While beneficial, enhancements in DNS support, user interface intuitiveness, and customer service responsiveness are potential growth areas. License costs are noted as high, with demands for better documentation, cloud service integrations, and improved scalability and load-balancing functionalities.

What are the key features of GoAnywhere MFT?

User-Friendly Workflows: Intuitive interface streamlines operations.
Advanced Security: Includes encryption, IP filters, and monitoring.
Seamless Integrations: Adapts to systems like IBM and Epic.
Automation: Simplifies processes with reduced manual tasks.
Scalability: Grows with business needs.

What are the benefits and ROI of using GoAnywhere MFT?

Improved Efficiency: Reduces workload through automation.
Time Savings: Accelerates project delivery.
Enhanced Security: Protects data with advanced protocols.
Adaptability: Supports multiple platforms and integrations.
Process Management: Simplifies and streamlines data exchange.

GoAnywhere MFT is deployed by organizations for secure file transfers across systems like financial, healthcare, and corporate sectors. It supports SFTP, FTP, and HTTPS for data exchanges and is highly effective in automating processes and managing large file movements efficiently. It integrates well with cloud platforms like Azure and accommodates environments such as Windows, Linux, and IBM iSeries.

Fortra

Sample Customers

Gwinnett County Public Schools, Evonik, Voith, BITMARCK, Oracle

McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications

Buyer's Guide

Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT

June 2025

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