GoAnywhere MFT vs VisualCron comparison

Fortra and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category. Fortra is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while SMA Technologies is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0. Fortra holds a 10.7% mindshare in MFT, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Fortra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SMA Technologies users who would recommend it.

GoAnywhere MFT

Read 68 GoAnywhere MFT reviews

3,083 Views
2,867 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

VisualCron

Read 11 VisualCron reviews

1,594 Views
494 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

GoAnywhere MFT

VisualCron

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 8, 2025

GoAnywhere MFT and VisualCron are both strong contenders in file transfer and automation, but they address different user needs. GoAnywhere MFT leads with advanced security, while VisualCron promises ease of use without deep programming knowledge.

Features: GoAnywhere MFT excels with advanced security mechanisms, comprehensive audit logs, and integration capabilities in complex environments. VisualCron provides a user-friendly visual interface, supports various plugins, and facilitates job scheduling without requiring programming skills.

Room for Improvement: GoAnywhere MFT could enhance its interface intuitiveness, improve cloud connectors, and address technical support delays. VisualCron users suggest a more streamlined interface, better documentation, and a structured support community.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GoAnywhere MFT offers flexibility with on-premises, private, and hybrid cloud deployments, but its customer service can be slow at times. VisualCron is praised for simple deployment and reliable support, yet lacks comprehensive resources for users.

Pricing and ROI: GoAnywhere MFT is viewed as an affordable option given its extensive features, typically justifying cost through improved efficiency. VisualCron's pricing is straightforward and valued for boosting productivity and managing workloads efficiently.

To learn more, read our detailed GoAnywhere MFT vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GoAnywhere MFT vs. VisualCron

September 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

GoAnywhere MFT

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

1st

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VisualCron

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

16th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Workload Automation (16th), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 10.7%, up from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.7%, up from 1.3% 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	10.7%
VisualCron	1.7%
Other	87.6%

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

Featured Reviews

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.

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Sourav-Dutta

Technical Lead - Database Administrator at SMART ENERGY SYSTEMS LLC

It's user-friendly, and I didn't need long to understand the process

We use VisualCron for all our automation needs, like connecting to FileZilla, calling APIs, generating PGP keys, creating encryption files with the PGP key login to Azure, etc. It can automatically log in to SQL Server and execute SQL script jobs in bulk. We had 2,000-3,000 users at my previous…

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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

"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."

"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT supports the PeSIT protocol."

"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."

"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 automation part is my favorite feature, which is pretty easy and quick; I can schedule the transfers and it works fine, triggering secure file transfers via the encryptions they have, which helps us meet compliance requirements."

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

"The user interface is simple."

"GoAnywhere stands out for its user-friendly project creation, intuitive testing and troubleshooting, and especially its notification system, which keeps me informed of any issues that need attention, a feature we lacked before."

More GoAnywhere MFT pros

"I love VisualCron because we previously spent a lot of time writing Power switches to connect to SQL Server. VisualCron makes it easier to execute services or connect to FileZilla by only adding the credentials to the master credentials stored in the solution."

"We don't have to do any coding. We just plug and play and it works."

"It helped us reduce manual steps."

"VisualCron is a very powerful program to automate different steps in your business processes. We use it to automate replacing files and inform departments about the replacement."

"The tool has reduced our operational costs by 40%."

"What I found most beneficial from VisualCron is that you can directly connect it with different databases, user accounts, and credentials. You can run queries from one machine to another using the credentials, unlike PowerShell, that's run by the machine itself. With VisualCron, you can directly ask other machines and run requests through user credentials. Suppose you have an AWS or Azure environment. In that case, you can maintain the connection between on-premises and cloud-based machines, which is the type of setup in the organization I'm working for. You can directly call some of the services via VisualCron on your local on-premises machine, and I found that an excellent feature of the tool."

"What I like about VisualCron is that like its name, it's a very visual tool. In my previous company, there were a lot of scripts for all kinds of services, and through VisualCron, you get to group all flows and get a nice visual overview. VisualCron also has an alerting feature, so you receive alerts from it. VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain. Every other solution that I was looking for almost always needed a programmer, but with VisualCron, you can do what you need to do without programming skills, so this is another valuable feature of the tool."

"The ability to clone jobs to shorten the time it takes to implement a process has been invaluable, but its flexibility also gives us the ability to create a job that can handle a multifaceted process with a complex workflow."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"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."

"The technical support is slow to respond and to take action when issues arise, along with difficult-to-use user forums which complicate finding solutions on our own."

"There's not a lot of improvement I can think of. Maybe in the tools section, they have an SQL Wizard and a URL Wizard, which are really good. I think that the SQL Wizard might need some improvement. I don't know how to improve it, but it's just a little slow here and there."

"The biggest weakness I have seen in the product is scheduling. It is very limited in that aspect. It needs more flexibility and more ways to schedule."

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

"The reporting could be more customizable."

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

"In terms of the integration mechanism that we use for the API, it has limitations regarding network congestion, causing logs to drop whenever the API throws an error."

More GoAnywhere MFT cons

"The only problem I face when I use the tool is that it doesn't contain much documentation or it doesn't have many video tutorials on its features."

"I want to improve the UI in VisualCron, as it's not as user-friendly, particularly when setting up the task scheduler. If you're familiar with the tool, then no problem, but if not, you'll have a problem typing text because sometimes, the cursor points to other places, so there's an issue with text box alignment in VisualCron. That was painful for me when I was just a VisualCron novice, but when you become used to it, there won't be a problem."

"I would like for VisualCron to expand audit log to show who changed job variables that are initialized per job run."

"VisualCron's command console is a little bit difficult to understand and needs to improve."

"VisualCron is software, and you will experience performance degradation when you scale up. VisualCron takes too much memory or CPU power. We have to increase the hardware resources of a specific server or system."

"VisualCron seems to operate like an efficient machine when it comes to improvements and enhancements and new features. I always appreciate the quick response I get when bringing up an issue or coming up with suggestions. I've mentioned before that it would be great to see a move away from SQLCE and XML configuration files."

"Our suggestion to make it better and more manageable in terms of GDPR: Implement it in a very partnership way."

"There are some conditions in the mail trigger, but you can only use them as an "AND" condition, not as an "OR" condition. This is an improvement that could be useful. For example, some people put "invoice" in the subject and others put "invoice" in the body. If I want to make a trigger for everybody whose sending invoices, I have to make two jobs for this now."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The cost of GoAnywhere versus the value it brings to our data transfer operations is reasonable... The cost is relatively expensive but, back to the car analogy, that's to be expected with a Ferrari."

"Compared to other tools it's less expensive."

"To have a solution like this for the price we're paying makes it cheap. Considering the time that it has saved us, and considering the development that we don't need to do, such as connectors and handling servers, the price is really affordable."

"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT pricing is competitive."

"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT carries a higher price tag than other MFT solutions."

"I get the invoices, and its price is fine and appropriate. It is well priced. Even if it was double the price, we'd use it. For us, it is indispensable. We're not going to go anywhere else. There are no additional costs. Its licensing is good. There is just one charge that we get. That's it."

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

More GoAnywhere MFT pricing and cost advice

"ROI is one month."

"The pricing is extremely fair, and because of that I recommend purchasing multiple instances to split out the processing load across multiple application servers."

"We are fine with a rather cheap setup. Licensing with VisualCron is fair. You have a simple one-year licence in different sizes. There isn't a licensing jungle with hundreds of options and opt-ins."

"VisualCron is correctly priced because it wasn't very cheap, and it wasn't overly expensive, so the price for it was set correctly. When my previous company bought VisualCron, it was €800 per server per year. On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing for VisualCron a five because it was just right. The tool was affordable, and it has one of the most competitive pricing in the market."

"The price is a bit high."

"ROI is 95 percent."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

27%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	41
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	31

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

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.

See all answers

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

It is around market value. It is neither too high nor too low, but balanced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?

Regarding data parsing on files such as XML and JSON, we mostly perform manipulations on the files themselves. I am unable to accomplish this with the predefined functions provided by GoAnywhere MF...

See all answers

What do you like most about VisualCron?

The tool has reduced our operational costs by 40%.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VisualCron?

The price is a bit high. However, it is okay.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VisualCron?

The documentation is a bit weak. The tool must provide a better set of documentation.

See all answers

Comparisons

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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

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer vs GoAnywhere MFT

Compared 5% of the time

More GoAnywhere MFT Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 37% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 21% of the time

OpCon vs VisualCron

Compared 9% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 7% of the time

MOVEit vs VisualCron

Compared 4% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GoAnywhere MFT

September 2025

Download GoAnywhere MFT product report

Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

August 2025

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

Overview

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

VisualCron offers task automation through a visual interface, eliminating the need for programming skills. With capabilities like alerting and variable usage, users benefit from integration with databases, timely task execution, and cross-platform operations.

VisualCron empowers users by simplifying complex workflows. It allows seamless task automation through features like interactive scheduling and role-based operations. Users appreciate its integration capabilities, replacing multiple tools with a comprehensive automation solution. The support system ensures quick assistance, making it a reliable choice for workflow visualization and task execution. However, areas like error handling and interface design require enhancements for improved user experience.

What are the key features of VisualCron?

Visual Interface: Users automate tasks without needing programming skills.
Integration: Connects with databases and multiple systems to streamline operations.
Alerting: Notifies users about tasks and system statuses.
Task Scheduling: Allows interactive management of automated tasks.
Credentials Management: Enables cross-platform operations securely.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating VisualCron?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces the time spent on manual processes.
Cost Reduction: Eliminates the need for multiple tools by consolidating functionalities.
Enhanced Support: Offers robust post-sales support for quicker assistance.
Streamlined Workflows: Simplifies complex task automation.

Organizations leverage VisualCron in industries like finance and logistics to automate tasks such as encryption and secure file transfers. It's also integral in managing data operations, facilitating communications between systems, and executing SQL jobs, enhancing operational efficiency across sectors.

SMA Technologies

Sample Customers

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

7 Eleven, ABB Sécheron SA, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Amazon Europe Core, Apple, Assa Abloy, Aston Martin, Banco Santander, BMW (Australia)

Buyer's Guide

GoAnywhere MFT vs. VisualCron

September 2025

Free Report: GoAnywhere MFT vs. VisualCron

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