SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

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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

SEEBURGER Business Integrat...

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business-to-Business Middleware (6th), API Management (23rd), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (11th)

Sterling Commerce Connect:D...

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite is 2.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 8.4%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

Featured Reviews

VARUNKUMAR

Mgr Value Chain Integration/EDI at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

Great end-to-end integration, data mapping, and communication protocols

At this moment, everything is working fine. When we are talking to them, when we are trying to bring all this mapping in-house, right now, SEEBURGER is doing everything for us. However, when we are thinking of going onto the cloud, so they are not using any of AWS or Azure which are more stable. They have their own private cloud. That's the reason we did not go ahead with managing everything by ourselves or moving into the cloud. They said that they're going to be doing it within the next two years, having access to Azure and AWS. That would be something we would like to see.

Read full review

Sumit Mundik

Application Development Senior Analyst at Accenture

Has good file transfer speed, but licensing cost is too high

The initial setup of the solution is not straightforward because it's not GUI-based. If you are installing the solution on a UNIX server, you should have a basic understanding of UNIX. You should know how to go from one directory to another, what the config files are, how to edit those files, and how to get the backup of those files. You need a little technical knowledge for it. The developers working on the solution are very costly for the organization. Also, the complexity of having this kind of setup is very difficult. This solution is only used by giant financial companies like BNY Mellon, Barclays, and JPMorgan Chase. They cannot replace the solution because they have several files transferred internally using it. It is very difficult and cost-consuming for them to change, migrate, or upgrade their system. That's the reason they are not able to do it very easily.

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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

"It's a very robust solution and it's very configurable. Before this product we would use an ESB-type of solution which required us to write code and go through a process. We can configure the SEEBURGER solution much more easily, instead of writing code... It can handle large files very well."

"SEEBURGER has helped us to enable digital business transformation. Every time we add a new customer, there is a digital footprint. This is no longer a manual process."

"SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) has been good at communicating between two applications, changing formats and using the required protocols... We can have one site communicating in an old FTP or SFTP style, or via file transfer. And with other applications, we could have API or a web service call or some other protocol used to send information."

"For the tool that we used to have, we had specially trained developers who used to do all the development of EDI maps and the configuration. But with SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) now, we were able to train our EDI analysts, and because the tool has very simple, intuitive mapping capabilities, even our EDI analysts are able to develop all the EDI maps, do all the configurations, and do all the setups for any of the trading partners."

"It has a lot of basic EDI already established for all the main users. Also, it lets me share setups that I had already set up for my first plant. I was able to use them for my second one which was very helpful. I didn't have to start from scratch for my second facility."

"One valuable feature is the scalability. We have not had to add processing power or hardware since we installed it. Also, we are able to create and deploy maps to migrate from another EDI platform very quickly."

"The entire framework is something that is very easy to use, easy to set up, and extremely straightforward. Once you develop a process and once you get it deployed within the process engine, with the latest 6.52 features, the processing engine is actually smart enough to make a decision as to which process engine has less load, and it can exchange messages with that process engine."

"It used to take half an hour to move one file from one location to another. Now, it takes 10 minutes."

More SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite pros

"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."

"The most valuable feature of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is its flexibility with encryption."

"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 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."

"Automation is the most valuable feature."

"The Security Plus feature of this solution is excellent, and allows you to send encrypted files very securely to remote destinations."

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct pros

Cons

"There are some aspects at the front, the actual queries that you use, that could be improved. They're all very minor to be honest."

"The integration is not so excellent. While I'm not saying there is a problem, there is no pattern. When we start a new project, we have to work with new people and processes every time. The technical side of their system is very good, but their change process is not repeatable. It needs to be rebuilt each time."

"The product is not integrated very well with different cloud providers. We did work with the vendor to build a solution for Amazon, but there is no solution for other cloud providers like Google or Azure. The vendor needs to create adapters so that if we have a requirement to transfer data from our data center to another cloud, outside of Amazon, we would be delighted with that."

"In some of the other tools out there in the market, you can create one service and use that service without creating a copy. That kind of capability currently doesn't exist in this solution."

"The BIS Front End needs a little bit of refreshing, especially when it comes to setting up new trading partners and trading partner agreements or transactions. It can be a bit clumsy to copy and rename and then go in and modify."

"They have their own private cloud. That's the reason we did not go ahead with managing everything by ourselves or moving into the cloud. They said that they're going to be doing it within the next two years, having access to Azure and AWS. That would be something we would like to see."

"Difficult in handling large amounts of data, like when the file has more than 100MB in size."

"The solution's documentation is not up to the mark and needs to be improved."

More SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite cons

"The user interface needs to be improved."

"The initial setup could be simpler and better."

"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."

"Sometimes we face issues and can't figure out the cause of failures."

"The resources required for this tool are costly and not easily available in the market."

"Technical support is the number one concern."

"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."

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On an annual basis, our support costs, which are based on the licensing, are about £120,000."

"Sometimes it seems a little pricey, especially when some of the stuff is available through freeware, like SFTP communications... It costs a lot more money to buy this stuff from SEEBURGER but I think it's worth it in the long run."

"The way they have their licensing structure set up, they have a lot of different modules. For us, we did not really know if we were licensed for certain things or not. We had to reach out to them multiple times to tell them that we were looking for this or that capability. We had to buy licenses for different things at different points in time, not knowing that we could have it bundled initially."

"The cost-based model is slightly different now in SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS). They changed the licensing, based on adapters and other things. In the old style of licensing, the whole suite was one license..."

"I find the pricing expensive. But I know that when we evaluated another company, it was about the same. That just seems to be the market. It's probably not expensive overall."

"Our licensing model is based on transactions. We have a base service contract which is priced against a volume of transactions and another volume of individual transactions, which are covered by one service agreement. Then, we have development services on top of that. Our annual spend is around £80,000. It's about mid-priced, as there are some cheaper alternatives out there and some more expensive ones. It's neither cheap nor expensive. It's somewhere in the middle."

"We pay maintenance of between $75,000 and $100,000 per year, per box."

"The pricing is cheap. In fact, when I saw the pricing, I thought, "Really? What's the catch?" But the functionality that we get out of it, for the price we pay, is great value."

More SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite pricing and cost advice

"The solution's licensing cost is too high."

"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."

"Annual licensing fee."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

43%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite?

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite is a highly stable solution that offers rich features for our B2B integration.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite?

I've heard that the solution is cheaper when compared to other products in the market.

What needs improvement with SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite?

Overall, SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite is a robust and standard product. However, providing more training materials, especially when new products are released, would be beneficial. Acquiring...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is an expensive platform.

What needs improvement with Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?

I do not have any notes for improvement.

What is your primary use case for Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?

The primary use case for Connect Direct is for transferring data from Linux or Unix systems to mainframe systems. I am the mainframe support person responsible for Connect Direct, Xcom, and other p...

SAP Cloud Platform vs SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite

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Compared 36% of the time

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Compared 26% of the time

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 8% of the time

Axway AMPLIFY Managed File Transfer vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 6% of the time

GoAnywhere MFT vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 6% of the time

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct Competitors

Product Reports

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite

Download SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite product report

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite report

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Download Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct product report

Also Known As

SEEBURGER BIS

No data available

Overview

With SEEBURGER’s experienced team behind you, and SEEBURGER BIS as the foundation of your hybrid integration strategy, you’re prepared for whatever comes your way – even as your business gains complexity and integration requirements increase.

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) is a unified, agile, secure and scalable platform that solves integration challenges across your business and ecosystem, so that you can make valuable connections between clouds, applications and people.

Our platform provides integration across all scenarios, including B2B/EDI, MFT, API and ERP on-premises, in the cloud and hybrid, in addition to expert support that is unmatched in the industry for your simplest to your most complex integrations.

Your APIs are likely multiplying quickly, and if you’re looking for a solution to manage, secure and scale them properly, you get all of the benefits and less of the hassle with our API Management toolkit.

Bring us your toughest B2B/EDI challenges. We help with difficult onboarding and partner connections, and will save you time and effort to complete complex projects. We make B2B easy with pre-packaged, re-usable content and automation capability, so your team can make the connection, and move on to the next mission.

Simplify your workload with our iPaaS solution. SEEBURGER iPaaS enables your team to save man-hours connecting data, applications and systems, by letting us handle all the time-consuming platform operations. We cover maintenance, updates, security, scalability and more.

Did you know that without managed file transfer (MFT), your company is at greater risk for a data breach? It’s as simple, and as dangerous, as that. The security and control you get with our centralized, easy-to-use solution ensures less risk for the company, and more sleep at night for you.

Our customers say it best! Check out our reviews you’ll see that SEEBURGER’s rock-solid, built-from-the-ground-up platform, is combined with an expert team, and stellar service. We power your connections, future-proof your vision and give you a competitive edge.

Seeburger

IBM's Sterling Connect:Direct is a software product that offers security-hardened, point-to-point file transfers to reduce reliance on insecure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transmissions. It is designed for high-volume file distribution within and between businesses. The solution guarantees more reliable file movement, from batch integration and movement of large images or catalogs to synchronization with distant sites. Sterling Connect:Direct also enables hybrid cloud deployment through certified containers, allowing for simple and consistent deployment lifecycle management.

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct Features

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Performance capabilities such as extraordinary scalability and low latency.

Automated, dependable file transmission that permits unattended, round-the-clock operations.

Designed to run on a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, IBM z/OS, OpenVMS, i5/OS, and HP NonStop.

Advanced security features with cutting-edge encryption to meet regulatory and industry standards.

IBM certified containers for Sterling Connect:Direct are enterprise-grade, secure product editions that are scalable, secure, easy to install, and manage update and rollback processes. They also have integrated common software services for consistent deployment lifecycle management.
Boosts transfer speed for large files over high-speed networks by up to four times the previous speed while reducing latency.
Gives existing FTP transfers the ability to retry, checkpoint, and compress existing transfers.
Supports a variety of network protocols, including TCP/IP, Systems Network Architecture (SNA), and an optional high-speed add-on based on Aspera FASP technology.

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

High performance: Takes care of your most demanding workloads, including multi-gigabyte files to large volumes of small files.

Reliable file delivery: To help ensure predictable, assured file delivery, it offers automated scheduling, checkpoint restart, and automatic recovery.

Secure transmission of files: Maintains the confidentiality of customer information and supports regulatory compliance measures.

Speed up patching and installation: By deploying your solution with a certified container that contains all necessary components, you can drastically cut installation and patch time from hours to minutes.

Reviews from Real Users

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust file processing and its security for file transfers. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Michele I., Business Unit Manager at Innovery, writes of the solution, “The file processing is done very well. By default, there are a lot of configurations that can be customized. 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.”

Camilo M., Pre-sales Engineer at Dell EMC, mentions, “It's a great tool because it offers secure file transfers and it has a fast and efficient protocol for very large files.”

IBM

Sample Customers

Altis, Autoliv, Cebi, Cofresco, MoneyGram International, Samsonite Europe, VSP Global, BMW Group, OSRAM, Magna, Lavazza

HZMO, Bank of Communications

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct