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IBM Sterling File Gateway vs MOVEit vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of IBM Sterling File Gateway is 5.9%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MOVEit is 7.0%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 4.3%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Sterling File Gateway5.9%
MOVEit7.0%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct4.3%
Other82.8%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Kiran Raju L - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Cognizant
User adaptability impresses with room for enhanced reporting features
The solution lacks a flow view wherein you will not be able to see the integrated jobs in a flow diagram view. This becomes trickier to understand which flow is failing unless you were part of the design team. Reporting for MOVEit needs a lot more work. For example, if I have to pull a task report for a specific requirement such as its history and task attributes, the report doesn't come in a CSV format, which is consumable. It always comes in a scripted format. When you have to show the report to management, they don't understand the scripted format. They need everything in Excel. The reporting feature needs to work on having it in an Excel format. It has been pretty stable, but we were hit by malicious malware attacks in the last two years more comparatively. Depending upon the type of license that is owned and the support with the license, it is up to par with other leading marketing tools.
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

"What I like best is that the tool is very secure and reliable. We can send huge files, even up to hundreds of GB. The automation depends on the source - it can be through automated processes, manual transfers, shell scripting, or file scripting. Partners can schedule batches according to their needs."
"The biggest advantage of the tool is that it acts as a centralized solution for all the different protocols."
"I have found almost all the features valuable."
"Scalability is fine."
"IBM Sterling File Gateway is user-friendly, allowing us to easily monitor and track file data."
"Technically, I don't see any challenge."
"This product has been a leader in the field of secure file exchange."
"It offers easy utilization of resources for smooth transfers."
"It is a secure managed file transfer using servers that allow exchange of large and sensitive data files, with data encrypted on managed servers at rest and also during the transfer process in flight."
"Especially at the time of monitoring, it's a nice way to take a look at the script and take a look at run time, which gives enough information for the files that are getting picked or not."
"The renaming and timestamp features are great."
"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 product, MOVEit, is user friendly for anybody who is starting new in scheduling rather than working with other tools, and being on a Windows machine makes your life easier."
"Within our organization, we have two different networks and there is no communication between these different networks, and we use MOVEit if we need a file from one network to another network, as well as for the secure transfer of these files among the employees, which are not supposed to be shared over email."
"The major advantage is moving files as part of a workflow."
"It satisfies our requirements but they don't do new improvements as per the market."
"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."
"The solution effectively reduced large transfer file transit time across global regions by over 50%."
"Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is one of the stronger MFT solutions in the market, it is available in each type of installation, and offers SaaS, PaaS, YaaS, on-premise."
"The product has been very stable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the security."
"The Security Plus feature of this solution is excellent, and allows you to send encrypted files very securely to remote destinations."
"It's a great tool because it offers secure file transfers and it has a fast and efficient protocol for very large files."
"The solution's file transfer speed is quite high."
 

Cons

"The solution should provide content or videos explaining to freshers how to configure it and what every field means."
"I would like to see auto-deployment without service disruptions."
"IBM Sterling File Gateway depends on a database, which can be a drawback compared to platforms where system resources are entirely controlled internally."
"The automation part is somewhat limited."
"We need REST APIs or other tools to create that listening producer."
"The admin console needs some work."
"IBM is advising not to use the IT translate anymore but this is going to be an extra cost to the customer to use the alternative."
"The usability, performance, and reliability, are absolutely no good."
"Something that I would like to see is better upgrade support. We had looked at getting help with an upgrade, and to do it after hours, it was going to be $6,000. It only takes 15 minutes to do. It'd be nice if the after-hour support was a little more reasonable."
"Even our lead software engineers who have years of experience and understand the architecture, find it very cumbersome to use."
"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."
"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."
"Since I have to monitor two times a day, it would be nice if they have script templates."
"During version upgrades or feature deployments on MOVEit servers, which are handled by the sysadmin team, we encounter difficulties. The server sometimes becomes unresponsive or crashes, causing MOVEit jobs to fail and generating multiple tickets."
"The initial setup is a bit difficult."
"Compressed data not managed very well."
"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."
"Technical support is difficult to work with."
"The resources required for this tool are costly and not easily available in the market."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"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."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly."
"User interface is not user friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are two types of customer licenses, an annual preview license, and an ELA-based license. I have found the solution is priced well. However, they need to review the pricing model because if you look at any other competitors, such as GlobalSCAPE, they do pricing based on the components and what you select. With this solution you have a monolithic application which you need to buy, there is no component level price discount."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable."
"It's reasonably priced at $800,000."
"I do know that it's generally considered expensive, but it's also widely used across corporate organizations due to its robust protocol communication, secure file transfer capabilities, and integration features. Although there are other tools on the market, IBM Sterling File Gateway stands out for its unique options and cloud compatibility, which offers future benefits, particularly in avoiding data storage issues."
"It's cost-effective."
"When compared to other products I've used, I believe MoveIt is worth the money someone might pay to use it."
"Technical support is only available with a paid license."
"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."
"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
31%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

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 th...
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 p...
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 Indi...
What needs improvement with MOVEit?
From the support perspective, the logging system could be improved. When MOVEit jobs fail and vendor support is neede...
What is your primary use case for MOVEit?
We are from a software organization where we have a US healthcare project. The hospitals use the application for file...
What advice do you have for others considering MOVEit?
A significant advantage is that MOVEit eliminates the need for manual job monitoring and execution. Jobs are schedule...
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. Whil...
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

No data available
Ipswitch File Transfer, Ipswitch Managed File Transfer
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Information Not Available
HZMO, Bank of Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra, BMC, IBM and others in Managed File Transfer (MFT). Updated: May 2026.
896,942 professionals have used our research since 2012.