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 #1 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 3.1% mindshare in MFT, compared to Fortra’s 10.8% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Fortra users who would recommend it.

Aspera Managed File Transfer

Read 4 Aspera Managed File Transfer reviews

777 Views
754 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

GoAnywhere MFT

Read 72 GoAnywhere MFT reviews

3,098 Views
2,881 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Aspera Managed File Transfer

GoAnywhere MFT

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 14, 2025

Aspera Managed File Transfer and GoAnywhere MFT are competing in the managed file transfer space. GoAnywhere seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set that balances cost-effectiveness with extensive capabilities, despite some drawbacks in pricing and support when compared to Aspera.

Features: Aspera Managed File Transfer is known for its exceptional speed and efficiency in transferring large files, alongside strong security for critical data moves. GoAnywhere MFT proposes a wide range of capabilities, including system integration, automation, and enhanced security measures, which cater well to enterprise needs.

Room for Improvement: Aspera could improve its customer support for complex setups and enhance its cost predictability. GoAnywhere could benefit from more competitive pricing and possibly addressing some user feedback on technical support quality, along with offering further scalability options for larger enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Aspera offers a straightforward deployment model but might face challenges with more complex configurations, which could be aided by improved support. GoAnywhere is generally seen as easier to deploy and configure, backed by more responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Aspera presents a significant upfront cost but justifies this with the potential for high ROI due to its fast transfers for large files. GoAnywhere offers a more predictable pricing model with potentially lower initial costs, providing a balanced offering of cost and features, thus offering potentially better ROI for businesses seeking comprehensive solutions.

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

Buyer's Guide

Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,019 peers since 2012

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)

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of Aspera Managed File Transfer is 3.1%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 10.8%, up from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed File Transfer (MFT) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
GoAnywhere MFT	10.8%
Aspera Managed File Transfer	3.1%
Other	86.1%

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.

Read full review

Rohan Suryawanshi

Senior Software Engineer at Opcito Technologies

Automation simplifies file transfer and builds confidence in security

I appreciate the features of GoAnywhere MFT such as advanced workflows to automate all the transfer and reduce manual effort. The logs and reporting are very helpful for checking all the compliances. The encryption is quite good. The main feature which is very useful is connectors to connect it with cloud services such as AWS, Azure, GCP. The automation in GoAnywhere MFT really helps us because it reduced the manual work significantly. We can transfer hundreds of files with zero manual interventions. The audit trails also help during the compliance audits. It has given stakeholders more confidence in the security of file transfer. It also helped developers to securely transfer the files. Overall, the impact was very good and positive in our business and personal improvements.

Read full review

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."

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

"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."

"We also use the Secure Folders module and the Web Client a lot. For example, we set up external vendors to come in and review files or folders in a Secure Folder. That way they can go in and review whatever information or data they need to do."

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

"If it's dealing with SFTP or any kind of secure transfer, we don't hear about it. It's good. Everything works."

"I would highly recommend the use of GoAnywhere MFT to any individual or organization because it enhances managed and secure file transfer processes between systems and with partners."

"The best features of GoAnywhere MFT are its powerful customization capabilities that allow us to dictate the process and add in custom processes, which was a limitation with other MFTs we used."

"My favorite feature is shell scripting; when there is compatibility with the GoAnywhere MFT tool, we can implement shell scripting with respect to the functionality."

"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 feature I find most valuable about GoAnywhere MFT is that it's intuitive—it has all the things needed to build robust projects, giving you different resources, SFTP, and all the different things you might need to manipulate files."

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."

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

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

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

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

"One area where GoAnywhere MFT has room for improvement is in how the application reports issues; when the application runs on a server and encounters problems, it doesn't provide detailed information on the server issues, which could help users troubleshoot better."

"Sometimes, during the transfer of multiple files, some files may get lost, and we have no clear way of identifying which have moved successfully since the log feature does not provide this information clearly."

"One of the things that I wish is to not necessarily have to set up a username and password for people with whom we don't frequently share files. For instance, if I want to share files with a patient who is not somebody with whom we share files all the time, I would like them to somehow verify who they are and be able to push the file to them. I shouldn’t have to set them up as a user with a password. It should be almost like Dropbox."

"I experience occasional downtime and some glitches."

"In terms of improvement for GoAnywhere MFT, they could enhance the support, as 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."

"The support desk has room for improvement. I keep opening tickets and they keep telling me that they're closed, but they're not resolved."

"The pricing is high for GoAnywhere MFT, and speed can be one of the features they can look forward to improving."

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."

"The cost was definitely within reason and it has definitely been worth the cost, based on how much we can automate. It has exceeded my expectations."

"It would be good for the company to explore a modular approach to selling the product so it could be cheaper and more attractive to users."

"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT pricing is competitive."

"I find it to be very fair. It is very good."

"The product's pricing is reasonable."

"Pricing is based on a one-time license."

"When it comes to secure systems that we have used, the price point can get a whole lot higher. You might end up saving in the short term with other solutions, but are you getting a secure product? Do you feel confident in that? Will you be able to get any support afterward? From my experience, based on the price point and the service that we got, it was a good value for our money."

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

More GoAnywhere MFT pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,019 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	37

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?

It's a cost-effective solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?

We keep asking them to implement a feature for our upcoming project, which would benefit all other companies using the product. One area for improvement in GoAnywhere MFT is that they don't have a ...

See all answers

Comparisons

IBM Sterling File Gateway vs Aspera Managed File Transfer

Compared 50% of the time

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct vs Aspera Managed File Transfer

Compared 13% of the time

webMethods.io vs Aspera Managed File Transfer

Compared 13% of the time

Kiteworks vs Aspera Managed File Transfer

Compared 8% of the time

More Aspera Managed File Transfer Competitors

JSCAPE by Redwood vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 14% of the time

IBM Sterling File Gateway vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 12% of the time

MOVEit vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 10% of the time

TIBCO Managed File Transfer vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 5% of the time

Control-M vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 5% of the time

More GoAnywhere MFT Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

October 2025

Download Aspera Managed File Transfer product report

Buyer's Guide

GoAnywhere MFT

October 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

September 2025

Free Report: Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT

Find out what your peers are saying about Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,019 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Aspera Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT report.

See our list of best Managed File Transfer (MFT) vendors.

We monitor all Managed File Transfer (MFT) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.