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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 October 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of IBM Sterling File Gateway is 9.1%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MOVEit is 9.4%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 6.9%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Sterling File Gateway9.1%
MOVEit9.4%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct6.9%
Other74.6%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Vinutha Gangadhara - PeerSpot reviewer
Ability to customize on top of the inbuilt processes, user-friendly and well-categorized
I’ve been part of this client for the last seven-plus years. It’s been close to 70 to 80 continuous improvements we have delivered. The priority ones which we always shortlist are the recurring incidents or recurring issues, which came in the initial phase of the year when we took this entire landscape under our maintenance. One such incident I can recollect is with respect to performance tuning. We committed to our users 99.99% and above as the availability metrics for Sterling Integrator. This has acted as a high-availability system, but we treat it as mission-critical. When it comes to the commitment we give to users, we have to ensure the system is kept most stable. So, the majority of the problem was in the communication channels. Whenever we enabled additional logging for the communication channel, the system used to have hiccups. So we worked with the vendor, stating that the visibility channel framework needs to be changed because the moment we enable more logging, it literally brings the system down, or the system doesn’t work as it should. They took our input and delivered a better framework in their next releases, which helped us after upgrading to have that stability intact. As the system grows, we ensure to have performance tuning triggered and optimize the business process wherever required. For example, by default, Sterling Integrator business process will have full logging enabled. We took care of those things. Not all business processes or workflows require full logging enabled. Only a few critical ones require every step logs. For the rest, we categorized and reduced the logging for those workflows. That actually helped us to increase the IO overall from ten milliseconds to six milliseconds. That was a good achievement. Apart from that, in terms of queues, how we maintain the queues, how we defined all file queues across the critical business process is one thing we felt was done better. The threads we assign for the priority queues and the business processes were configured to those priority queues, whatever is critical, so that it gets high priority to allow the threads to process. So that queue thread Sterling was taken under the performance tuning. Apart from that, I think some of the best practices which IBM recommends is what we usually run through every year. We just have the health check done through IBM, and we just ensure that all the best practice recommendations are added in the system.
Kiran Raju L - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Caio Nascimento - PeerSpot reviewer
Transform encrypted files with enhanced flexibility and very robust
The package that IBM delivers does not come with many premade tools or templates. This means we have to create a lot of things by ourselves, which requires more work. We have a team of four to five people just to develop map-based programs. Additionally, the initial setup could be simpler and better.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Very high functionality with the ability to plug in your own code."
"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."
"This product has been a leader in the field of secure file exchange."
"It also has good error-handling methods."
"I really like its offer of a system and business process that handles inbound and outbound transactions."
"One feature that we appreciate or use for multiple customers is the routing channel."
"I like its ability to communicate in B2B scenarios."
"IBM Sterling File Gateway is user-friendly, allowing us to easily monitor and track file data."
"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."
"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 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."
"A significant advantage is that MOVEit eliminates the need for manual job monitoring and execution, as jobs are scheduled to run automatically based on scripts, with some running daily and others monthly, like insurance company billing processes that generate reports at month-end without manual intervention."
"MOVEit is specially designed for file transfers, making it very user-friendly to transfer files to multiple platforms in an easy manner with flexible scheduling features."
"The most valuable feature of MOVEit is the upload speed."
"The product, MOVEit, is user friendly for anybody who is starting new in scheduling rather than working with other tools."
"Automation is the most valuable feature."
"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."
"Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is a solution that is on the market for a very long time. There is an integrator that has been developed and evolves every year. On the roadmap, there is always a new integration. For example, it's one of the solutions in the market that out of the box can handle EBICS protocol. The file processing is done very well. By default, there are a lot of configurations that can be customized."
"Security is the most valuable feature of this product."
"The solution's file transfer speed is quite high."
"For Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct, my overall rating is ten out of ten."
"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."
"The product has been very stable."
 

Cons

"Not a ten because it's a bit complex, not so simple. It's one product but there are many screens."
"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."
"We need REST APIs or other tools to create that listening producer."
"The automation part is somewhat limited."
"The solution's technical support is sometimes slow to understand the use cases, and the answers are not practical."
"IBM Sterling File Gateway depends on a database, which can be a drawback compared to platforms where system resources are entirely controlled internally."
"Whenever we enabled additional logging for the communication channel, the system used to have hiccups."
"I faced issues during stress testing."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"At times, we had connection issues with MOVEit, and it had a tendency to reboot without any reason."
"Since I have to monitor two times a day, it would be nice if they have script templates."
"MOVEit could be improved with some minor updates; the user interface could be more intuitive, and there could be more customization freedom and flexibility."
"MOVEit could be improved with some minor updates; the user interface could be more intuitive, and there could be more customization freedom and flexibility."
"User interface is not user friendly."
"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."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly."
"Sometimes we face issues and can't figure out the cause of failures."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The initial setup could be simpler and better."
"Technical support is the number one concern."
 

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."
"It's reasonably priced at $800,000."
"The solution's pricing is reasonable."
"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."
"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."
"The solution's licensing cost is too high."
"Annual licensing fee."
"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Insurance Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
36%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Media Company
5%
 

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 Enterprise16
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 product itself wasn't very easy to comprehend. I required a lot of customization that didn’t meet my needs. I res...
What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling File Gateway?
I utilized Sterling primarily for SFTP and Connect Direct. I have a complicated system involving ZOS mainframe, data ...
What do you like most about MOVEit?
The automation is generally very simple that helps with operational efficiency. Since we mainly created interfaces an...
What needs improvement with MOVEit?
In my opinion, MOVEit could be improved with some minor updates; the user interface could be more intuitive, and ther...
What is your primary use case for MOVEit?
Currently, I am working on MOVEit Transfer and MOVEit Automation. In terms of development, I'm working on creating ta...
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
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Cambridgeshire County Council, Capita Document & Information Services, Enterasys, City of Guelph, Hermes
HZMO, Bank of Communications
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