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Automate vs MOVEit 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Automate
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (5th)
MOVEit
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Automate and MOVEit aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Automate is designed for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and holds a mindshare of 1.6%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
MOVEit, on the other hand, focuses on Managed File Transfer (MFT), holds 8.8% mindshare, down 12.3% since last year.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco - PeerSpot reviewer
Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support
Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.
Gijish Vikraman - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides the ability to securely transfer very large files and has great logging capability
We've faced some challenges with MOVEit as well. During the initial setup, we encountered issues with the MOVEit Transfer Gateway component, which operates in the DMZ. It frequently went down, causing disruptions in SFTP connectivity for most of our vendors. As a result, we had to implement extensive monitoring to ensure we received instant visibility whenever the gateway failed, allowing our system admins to respond quickly and restart the service. Another issue stems from the fact that MOVEit is a Java-based product, and it seems to have a memory leak, leading to system slowness and unresponsiveness at times. To mitigate this, we had to schedule weekly restarts to clear out memory, which remains an ongoing process because, without these restarts, we wouldn't have a responsive system. These are two key challenges we’ve encountered with MOVEit Transfer. Regarding MOVEit Automation, a job is typically triggered as soon as a file arrives, and it looks for the file, matches it, and moves it to the destination. However, if the expected file doesn't arrive, say on a Tuesday at 8:00 AM due to a job failure or someone forgetting to place the file, we need better visibility. Currently, MOVEit Automation offers limited capabilities for this scenario. We rely on error codes that indicate when no file was found, and we've built an email alert system around this, but for complex schedules—like jobs running on the 10th of each month—the system becomes ambiguous and occasionally generates false alerts. While MOVEit is not designed as a notification system, better alerting features would be incredibly valuable. I'd also like to see Google Cloud connectivity in future updates. MOVEit has been expanding its connectors, initially supporting Azure, followed by AWS, but connectors for Google Cloud Platform are still missing. Adding this capability would be a great enhancement. Another improvement I'd welcome is the ability to interact with message brokers. Currently, MOVEit handles file transfers and supports HTTP calls, meaning you can invoke APIs or download files over HTTP/HTTPS protocols. However, I’d like to see support for messaging protocols like MQ or AMQP. These protocols would make the platform more versatile, particularly for integrations where we need to pull messages from a queue and create files. IBM offers this capability, and if MOVEit could add it, it would make the product even more feature-rich and useful for our needs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality."
"The most valuable features of Fortra's Automate include its FTP functionality and file manipulation capabilities."
"We have found the pricing to be very reasonable."
"I find it very user-friendly. Our IT department and other departments can seamlessly collaborate without requiring extensive training. As a business department, we particularly value this aspect, as our team doesn't consist of many IT users. However, we couldn't solely rely on a drag-and-drop approach to implement and utilize the solution within our departments."
"Compared to other vendors, it's the scheduling tool because a lot of vendors want to charge you extra for their enterprise-level license to have a scheduling tool built in to give you the ability to set up regular schedules to run and do certain data checks."
"The pricing is excellent. I would give them perfect marks in that regard."
"This product is quite easy to install, learn, and use, with our new employees being able to start using it in projects for clients after only two weeks of internal training."
"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."
"The major advantage is moving files as part of a workflow."
"From an administration standpoint, it's very easy to manage, and I feel pretty confident in the security of the product. From an end-user standpoint also, it's very easy."
"The log findings and troubleshooting on MOVEit are pretty easy. When you go to the logs, it clearly tells you what time a transfer happened, what time it failed, what is the source path, what is the destination path, and what is the failure reason. It's pretty straightforward."
"The tool’s GUI is very simple."
"I admire its ability to transfer really large files. One of the files that we transferred was 70 gigs. We didn't try anything larger than that, but so far, whenever somebody came to us to process a really large file, we were able to do it successfully. It can handle large files. That is one thing that I like about Automation."
"The most valuable feature of MOVEit is the upload speed."
"MOVEit's best features were the number of options available, like folder creation, and user-friendliness."
"Offers a large collection of very good path planning algorithms."
 

Cons

"The OCR for Hebrew text needs to be improved."
"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."
"Fortra's Automate is not as reliable as I would like it to be."
"It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help."
"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."
"I would like the updates to be easier to deploy. Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking."
"It would be an improvement if Automate had better stability tools, whether by recommending a certain amount of memory because it can be a memory hog at times."
"The vendor is currently working on a solution that allows us to automatically create a process that is based on a document that we receive via email."
"The initial setup is a bit difficult."
"It takes some time to learn and understand how the solution functions."
"We have had some challenges. Earlier when we were setting it up, a component called gateway, which runs in the DMV, was not working as expected. It was going down very often. That means most of our vendors were not able to connect using SFTP because that service was down. We had to put in a lot of monitoring to make sure if that goes down, there is some visibility instantaneously so that our system admins can go and do a restart."
"In future releases, MOVEit could add support for some additional protocols. For example, I don't think they supported the SFTP or FTPS protocols at the time."
"If the transfers are more or the file size is big, it takes more time. It doesn't have much capacity to process multiple files at the same time. It can get stuck or take a lot of time to process the files."
"The DR solution (DR recoveries) needs to be enhanced."
"It would be beneficial to include a feature that allows you to hide items and not be locked out if someone has made too many password attempts."
"Since I have to monitor two times a day, it would be nice if they have script templates."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."
"While solutions like UiPath and Blue Prism cost around $11,000-$12,000 for each license, this product costs around $7,000 and you can keep it forever."
"From a distributor's side, one of the biggest selling points is its price point. Without going into any numbers, compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, we're significantly cheaper. The main difference is that other competitors usually charge you per process. However, in Automate's case, it's priced per bot. So, a bot can run multiple processes at the same time, but you are only priced for a single bot."
"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."
"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."
"I believe the price falls within a reasonable range, which significantly influenced our decision regarding the product. This aspect is crucial for any technological solution, especially in our country where enterprises might be hesitant to invest heavily in something untested or uncertain about its practicality and potential returns."
"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."
"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."
"I haven't really priced out many other products like this, but I feel it's reasonable. Their upgrade support after hours was going to be $6,000. I just made the decision to wing it and just do it during business hours and call support if there was a problem."
"Technical support is only available with a paid license."
"When compared to other products I've used, I believe MoveIt is worth the money someone might pay to use it."
"It's cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?
We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.
What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?
I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scraping, pre-reporting, and many processes that need to be automated on the web. My...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.
What do you like most about MOVEit?
The automation is generally very simple that helps with operational efficiency. Since we mainly created interfaces and scheduled transfers, the tool itself handled the file transfer automation.
What needs improvement with MOVEit?
The product must improve its security features. Recently, there have been multiple attacks on the solution. It has ruined the reputation of clients who use the solution. The vendor must ensure that...
What is your primary use case for MOVEit?
We can use the product to transfer files. I work for a bank. The files we transfer have PGP encryption by default. The data we send or receive is encrypted, ensuring that there is no data breach.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
Ipswitch File Transfer, Ipswitch Managed File Transfer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories
Cambridgeshire County Council, Capita Document & Information Services, Enterasys, City of Guelph, Hermes
Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath, Microsoft, Automation Anywhere and others in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Updated: April 2025.
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