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Progress MOVEit vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 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

Progress MOVEit
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sterling Commerce Connect:D...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
8th
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 October 2026, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of Progress MOVEit is 6.2%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 4.0%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MOVEit6.2%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct4.0%
Other89.8%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

KS
Technical Lead at HCLSoftware
Has improved data transfer reliability and supports automated scheduling to handle sensitive healthcare files securely
The best part of MOVEit is that we can schedule any job, specifying the time when jobs should run and when files will come from sources sending files between locations. MOVEit utilizes a shared drive where location-specific folders are created. Users place files in designated folder locations on the shared drive, and when jobs are scheduled, they execute automatically. MOVEit offers functionality to transform file formats between source and destination. If the destination requires a different file format, we can specify the desired file name, and the script will execute the transformation during transfer. MOVEit encryption features protect data during transfer. In healthcare environments, financial data and patient insurance information are encrypted before transmission to destination locations where they are decrypted, preventing data loss or unauthorized access. User authentication in MOVEit allows us to monitor which users are authorized to run specific jobs. This is specified in MOVEit scripts on the host side, and unauthorized users attempting to access data will fail authentication. The system handles live data through HL7 messages, including daily pharmacy and billing information. Cold feeds come from the integration engine and are processed through MOVEit in batches. Files accumulate throughout the day in the integration engine, which specifies merge times and file naming conventions. The batch is created at a designated time and transferred through MOVEit to its destination.
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

"The renaming and timestamp features are great."
"The convenience of renaming files and using time stamps to segregate them has been very valuable."
"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."
"The major advantage is moving files as part of a workflow."
"Offers a large collection of very good path planning algorithms."
"I would recommend this solution over others that I would use."
"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."
"This automation service works very well in placing thousands of files each day in different locations where separate ETL pipelines or packages can begin."
"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."
"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."
"The product has been very stable."
"The solution's file transfer speed is quite high."
"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."
"Automation is the most valuable feature."
"It's a great tool because it offers secure file transfers and it has a fast and efficient protocol for very large files."
 

Cons

"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."
"Compressed data not managed very well."
"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."
"The initial setup is a bit difficult."
"MOVEit could be improved with some minor updates; the user interface could be more intuitive, and there could be more customization freedom and flexibility."
"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."
"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."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly."
"The initial setup could be simpler and better."
"The technical support is the number one problem."
"Sometimes we face issues and can't figure out the cause of failures."
"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."
"User interface is not user friendly."
"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"Technical support is only available with a paid license."
"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."
"The solution's licensing cost is too high."
"Annual licensing fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Construction Company
7%
Retailer
6%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MOVEit?
MOVEit's pricing is a little high. If you are running on-premises, it should be acceptable, but if you move to cloud or SaaS, it is substantial. Regarding pricing and licensing cost, I am not overa...
What needs improvement with MOVEit?
In terms of deployment, it is Windows-based since it is developed in .NET. It only supports the Windows-based platform. In the current era, deploying and managing in Windows is still not developer-...
What is your primary use case for MOVEit?
I am discussing the on-premises version, and we manage both on-premises and SaaS implementations. I have integrated MOVEit's user authentication feature. We are using our own authentication, which ...
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.
What advice do you have for others considering Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?
Integration with my IT infrastructure using Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is very straightforward. We have APIs, and Connect:Direct works via API connections. It has two ports: one transfer port...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
HZMO, Bank of Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about Progress MOVEit vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
916,117 professionals have used our research since 2012.