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GoAnywhere MFT vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

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

GoAnywhere MFT
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
87
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sterling Commerce Connect:D...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 9.9%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 4.9%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
GoAnywhere MFT9.9%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct4.9%
Other85.2%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Anuj Bhagwat - PeerSpot reviewer
Dev Ops Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Has enabled secure, centralized file sharing while saving significant time and resources
The best features in GoAnywhere MFT are that it's fast, reliable, and secure. First, the improvement is that we have resolved one of our security points with compliance. So that compliance point we resolved. And also it's a centralized file sharing system. All the users are able to access the file. There is no one-to-one sharing. It's improved about 80 to 85%. It saves about 80 to 90% resources. In terms of time, we can say 90 to 95% time is also saved because it avoids the one-to-one sharing and simply a user can put one centralized directory and all the users are able to access this solution and access the file. So it's 95%.
reviewer1955103 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Has delivered robust secure file transfer with exceptional encryption features
Based on experience, the one area IBM can improve for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is the support mechanism. While support is available 24/7 whenever required, the solution time during American hours can take longer. In general, during American hours, the resource availability is not up to the standard. However, availability of support staff during UK timings or GMT timings is very good; they are supportive and helpful. Functionality-wise, they can make additional improvements to Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct. They recently improved by adding a GUI for configurations on Windows as well as UNIX platforms, which is very helpful. However, the web client is cumbersome and not as interactive as it should be. The CLI part is comprehensive, but the GUI needs improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was very stable compared to other solutions we have used, so I would not complain regarding this."
"Whenever a student has uploaded his or her data on our website, it is automatically sent to the universities, and no manual work is needed anymore, so I appreciate this as the best feature in GoAnywhere MFT."
"What I appreciate most about GoAnywhere MFT is the SFTP file transfer capability, which is a secure file transfer protocol; it also includes a file encryption module, scheduling, and email notification features, which are very useful."
"GoAnywhere MFT has improved my organization in the way that I can easily deploy the agents in remote areas."
"GoAnywhere MFT has many features that I appreciate, but most of all, it automates repetitive file transfers, so we don't have to waste our time doing them manually."
"GoAnywhere MFT has saved us approximately 30% of the time in securely connecting with third parties, as it previously took about 50 minutes to transfer files manually, but now it takes about 35 minutes."
"We are the core users in our organization that use this application to transfer files between organizations in a secure manner, protecting data at rest and data in transit."
"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."
"The Security Plus feature of this solution is excellent, and allows you to send encrypted files very securely to remote destinations."
"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."
"The most valuable feature is that it provides 100% reliability for file transmission. It ensures that files get delivered in a secure manner. When you use Connect:Direct, your file 100% gets delivered to the next delivery location. If the log shows that a file got delivered, it will have all the transmitted data without truncation or other data issues."
"Security is the most valuable feature of this product."
"Offers secure file transfers with a fast and efficient protocol for very large files."
"The most valuable feature is that it provides 100% reliability for file transmission."
"Automation is the most valuable feature."
"For Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct, my overall rating is ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"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."
"Recently, Microsoft published an article stating that GoAnywhere MFT can be attacked by ransomware, indicating there was a vulnerability in the product."
"Upgrading was a challenge and I ran into some problems along the way."
"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."
"One of the main important improvements I need for GoAnywhere MFT is a better real-time monitoring dashboard and an improved user interface."
"We had a few activities or events in the past where threat actors or hackers targeted MFT solutions or systems or software by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities."
"Security measures still have a long way to go, but since GoAnywhere MFT focuses on IT automation, this enables the company to provide IT staff with more productivity on other aspects of their jobs."
"There's one persnickety issue about NAS permissions. That is a problem we have run into with GoAnywhere. I would like to see more focus on compatibility with/enforcement of user roles and access permissions across NAS, among other things. We have filed a couple of tickets on that in the past."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"Technical support is the number one concern."
"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"They have File Agent, which is an additional utility and a component of Connect:Direct, for automated file transmission. In that utility, there is some issue with the file name. There is a limitation on the file name, and that is being fixed by IBM."
"Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct could improve by adding some of the functionality that some other vendors have. For example, GoAnywhere has call agents, which are small clients that can be installed on the endpoints and can be handled by the central point on the server. If I want to do this with the IBM solution, I have to sell a lot of account addresses. The price could be unprofitable for the customer. There is some small functionality that could be implemented and could be easily done to improve this solution."
"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."
"The resources required for this tool are costly and not easily available in the market."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is decent for mid-sized and small-sized companies. It is good for startups or mid-scale companies."
"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."
"Pricing is based on a one-time license."
"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 is an inexpensive solution."
"The pricing is not favorable when we use it for a few people."
"The pricing for GoAnywhere MFT seems reasonable when compared to other similar services, especially cloud services. Azure is significantly more expensive."
"Annual licensing fee."
"The solution's licensing cost is too high."
"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Media Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business62
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
GoDrive eliminates the need to use the exchange server for file sharing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
GoAnywhere MFT pricing is fine for me. I do not have any complaints regarding the pricing because SFTP is the most valuable asset in the organization.
What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
I believe that GoAnywhere MFT can be improved because the initial setup is somewhat challenging for a new user, so they need to make the initial feature easier for everyone, whether new or experien...
What needs improvement with Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?
Based on experience, the one area IBM can improve for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is the support mechanism. While support is available 24/7 whenever required, the solution time during American...
What is your primary use case for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?
The majority use case for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is for file transfer, specifically secure file transfer.
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer,
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
HZMO, Bank of Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about GoAnywhere MFT vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.