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Files.com vs IBM Sterling File Gateway comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.0
Files.com enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and allows resource reallocation, despite challenges in quantifying exact ROI and cost savings.
Sentiment score
6.6
IBM Sterling File Gateway is valued for cost-effectiveness, ease of use, robust support, and simplifies monitoring, enhancing retail processes.
Files.com saved our time and our resources.
Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I have seen a return on investment using Files.com over other methods, saving money and time.
Chief Executive Officer at Verified Backups
We have seen a return on investment, as our average time saving per week, when looked at across the whole year, saves us an average of 24 days in the whole year from a work perspective, which is equivalent to a saving of £19,000.
Head of Data at Maze Media
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Files.com is praised for exceptional customer service, knowledgeable support, effective communication, and strong documentation, despite some usability concerns.
Sentiment score
6.0
IBM Sterling File Gateway support is mixed; praised for availability but criticized for delays, inefficiencies, and outsourcing concerns.
The customer service rating is a ten out of ten, as they are pretty quick and accurate in supporting technical issues.
Lead Consultant at Infosys
The documentation is incredible, and their willingness to expand upon existing features or implement new features based on requests is an incredible value.
Infrastructure Administrator at Optimed Health Partners
Files.com's customer support is excellent, second to none.
IT Manager at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
Regarding the technical support of IBM Sterling File Gateway, I would rate their job about nine.
CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Files.com is highly scalable, user-friendly, supporting various needs and sizes efficiently, though some infrastructure integration challenges exist.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Sterling File Gateway is highly scalable with some complexity and effective for large transactions, but performance may drop.
From one to ten, the scalability rating is a ten.
Lead Consultant at Infosys
Since starting to use it, it has been growing with us, managing increased connections and data payloads effortlessly.
Senior Director Information Architecture at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Files.com's scalability is very easy to manage, as they have child domains or child sites within the main site that I can expand on the fly without needing any technical support.
IT Manager at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
Files.com is praised for its stability, excellent uptime, reliable performance, and high user satisfaction with minimal issues.
Sentiment score
6.2
IBM Sterling File Gateway is generally stable, with occasional bugs and issues, but cloud migration has improved overall performance.
Files.com is pretty reliable, and we have not faced any downtime or any bug.
Lead Consultant at Infosys
It maintains 100% uptime.
Senior Director Information Architecture at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
As far as uptime and reliability, it has been excellent.
Director of Technology at C.I.A. Services, Inc.
 

Room For Improvement

Improvements needed in UI, navigation, integration, and documentation; users seek cost-efficiency, easier setup, and clearer error alerts.
IBM Sterling File Gateway needs user management, interface, auto-deployment, performance, and licensing improvements for a better user experience.
Some UI functionalities, including file automations, could have a richer set of commands for scripting improvements and better visualization for building automations.
Senior Director Information Architecture at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
My third concern is that I now need to cancel it and no one has replied to me, and they've just charged me again, which is annoying because I wanted to be able to cancel and you cannot cancel within the platform.
Founder and CEO at DMajor Productions Ltd
The features you want to have, such as 24/7 premium technical support or data security standards, are included in their costly packages that need to be subscribed to.
Lead Consultant at Infosys
When there is an audit requiring proof that a file has gone in a secure way, most customers have not been able to prove it.
CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Files.com offers fair and flexible pricing with minimal setup, making it a favorable choice for enterprise file management.
IBM Sterling File Gateway is costly but valued for secure transfers, cloud compatibility, and appealing to corporate organizations.
I think the pricing is fair, the setup cost was very easy, and licensing allows me to choose a larger number of user accounts to receive a discount.
Chief Executive Officer at Verified Backups
Regarding pricing and setup costs, they have been favorable for our size, with minimal setup involved since it is a SaaS-based system, and licensing is straightforward and easy to manage.
Senior Director Information Architecture at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I thought it was a very fair price, and we've been there three years, ready, eager, and excited to sign up for another three years with an increased license count, which I think is going to increase by 200.
IT Manager at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Files.com offers secure, user-friendly file management with strong integrations, automation, and role-based permissions for enhanced operational efficiency.
IBM Sterling File Gateway offers secure, automated file transfers with high configurability, supporting large data volumes and multiple protocols.
The encryption, decryption on the fly, live links and inboxes stand out as great features.
IT Manager at a non-profit with 51-200 employees
When I say technical support is phenomenal, I recall when I was first evaluating Files.com and was not yet a paying customer; I had a couple of really good thirty-minute tech support phone calls or Zooms from some of the different tech people at Files.com while setting it up on my AWS server to receive files from my clients.
Chief Executive Officer at Verified Backups
The biggest use case is integrating with S3 as either a mount point or a sync point so that file gateways can present those files to systems that use SMB/CIFS shares on a Windows environment.
Director, Systems & DevOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
The software has automation that at a fixed point in time triggers the copying of file A to B.
CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

Files.com
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Sterling File Gateway
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of Files.com is 1.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Sterling File Gateway is 5.6%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Sterling File Gateway5.6%
Files.com1.4%
Other93.0%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Ajay Kadu - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Consultant at Infosys
Secure file sharing has become straightforward and meets strict compliance needs
Files.com is a secure and easy-to-setup product with multiple integration options for on-premise servers or any of the public cloud servers. The setup is quite easy, and they follow all the data security standards, making it easy to set up and use. Files.com has an option to set permissions. We can have Active Directory-based corporate authentication as well as local user creation on their platform, and we can manage permissions independently. We can give all the rights to the end-user. They can set up their folders and permissions the way they want. The solution is flexible, allowing users to choose what they want to share with internal parties or external vendors and what kind of rights they want to give on folders and files. Everything is granular permissions by administrator and by end-user, and it is quite easy to set the permissions. Files.com uses standard HTTPS, ensuring encrypted transfer of files from the main point to the end-user. They follow all the top data security standards, like the European standard or the US standard. Whatever country we are operating from, they have all the compliances listed on their platform, which is why we chose to go with them. The benefit is that Files.com is a platform we do not have to manage, so the infrastructure is there at their end. We just have a web interface, and for end-users, they also have a desktop application. We just have to access the web interface and can set it up the way we want our file-sharing setup. Logs are there, so we can review who is accessing what, what kind of data is being accessed, and what kind of action is being taken.
DB
CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd
Has supported consistent deployments and automation but needs better reporting and tracking
The disadvantages I see in IBM Sterling File Gateway include price and reporting. Reporting is not very easy. If 10 people are putting file transfer using this protocol, determining who did what file transfer, how long it took, what encryption was done, and whether it was accessed by somebody or whether it was fully done without any retrial is difficult. Reporting is a big problem in IBM tool, according to our customers' complaints. When there is an audit requiring proof that a file has gone in a secure way, most customers have not been able to prove it. Additionally, when there is a large file transfer which has to be done in multiple pieces because of bandwidth restriction, they have not been able to do splitting. The splitting was not possible during file transfer. Many customers have asked if they can split the file and then send it, or pick and choose and send it from a large file. It was also found that it was hogging the bandwidth whenever it was doing file transfer. Ultimately, we ended up selling HP also. The tracking and monitoring features of IBM Sterling File Gateway present some challenges, particularly with tracking, monitoring and compliance issues which RBI is asking for. While it was possible to address these issues, it required an expert to figure it out. When expertise business activity is required, it costs money to customers who are not willing to pay. Regarding future features to make it more competitive, automation email could be one feature I recommend where once the file transfer is done, an email or log should be created for the admin person confirming successful completion. Second is 24/7 support in case of any issues. IBM has never been able to give round-the-clock support whereas customers can ship files even at midnight. Our support is also based on support from IBM. The third improvement area could be automation release notes. IBM has never given us or customers notifications when a new release or patch has come. Whenever a patch is released, an email should go to the buyer or user and to the reseller so they can sync up whether to upgrade the patch or not.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
38%
Wholesaler/Distributor
12%
University
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
5%
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Files.com?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that they are up to the mark, but we would be happy if they came down on what they are charging now. As a customer, we always expect a good ...
What needs improvement with Files.com?
There is nothing I wish Files.com did better at this time. There are no needed improvements, even small things or nice-to-have features that I can identify.
What is your primary use case for Files.com?
My main use case for Files.com is that we transfer files from our company to our external customers back and forth. This is our main use, but we also use it internally for transferring files as wel...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Sterling File Gateway?
The cost-effectiveness of IBM Sterling File Gateway was a major factor in our decision to use it, in comparison to the higher costs associated with DataPower.
What needs improvement with IBM Sterling File Gateway?
The disadvantages I see in IBM Sterling File Gateway include price and reporting. Reporting is not very easy. If 10 people are putting file transfer using this protocol, determining who did what fi...
What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling File Gateway?
I have been dealing with IBM Sterling File Gateway for some time, and we have sold to about six customers across India with the help of IBM. One large bank which we have sold this solution to is SB...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Files.com vs. IBM Sterling File Gateway and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.