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BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer vs GoAnywhere MFT comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.3
BMC Control-M MFT achieved ROI quickly, reducing costs and errors, and transitioned from mainframe to distributed systems efficiently.
Sentiment score
7.8
GoAnywhere MFT enhances efficiency, security, and compliance while offering cost-effective solutions with quick returns and reduced resource usage.
GoAnywhere can perform the work of three people, leading to a decrease in manpower needs for automation and file transfer.
It saves considerable time, and I would say the investment pays off.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
BMC Control-M support is praised for responsiveness but criticism exists for Level 2 expertise, with mixed feedback on Italian support.
Sentiment score
7.3
GoAnywhere MFT receives praise for professional, responsive support but needs improvement in phone availability and first-contact resolutions.
BMC provides excellent service.
They have their number on their website to call, and they are fast and available all the time.
The support technician who worked with me initially owned the ticket through the whole process, even after escalating to developers or higher-level support.
Support deactivated the old license, activated the new one, and fixed the issue in about two to three hours.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is scalable for large enterprises but faces licensing costs and high availability limitations.
Sentiment score
7.6
GoAnywhere MFT is highly scalable, efficiently handling large file volumes weekly and adapting to diverse platform needs.
I have to pay per agent per server, which could be prohibitive for some organizations.
We have clients with over 600,000 users.
With the scaling of the company, it was absolutely capable of handling all the data and databases.
When adding new jobs, I typically find similar projects, copy them, edit the XML file, and apply the changes.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is reliable, stable, and enhanced by regular updates, ensuring high availability and robust performance.
Sentiment score
7.9
GoAnywhere MFT offers high reliability with minimal downtime, mainly during upgrades, earning praise for managing business processes smoothly.
It works very well, especially when kept up to date.
It was very stable compared to other solutions we have used.
We experienced some unscheduled outages a couple of months back, but the support team worked closely with us and provided a solution that appears to have fixed the problem.
 

Room For Improvement

BMC Control-M needs improvements in scalability, cloud integration, GUI, support services, licensing, APIs, and administrative functions.
GoAnywhere MFT requires a more intuitive interface, improved support, lower licensing costs, and enhancements in performance, security, and documentation.
It is adequate for most scheduling needs.
That's the only thing that could help if the application could log what caused the error for us to prevent it.
We did have some issues a couple of months back where we were having some unscheduled outages, and the support team worked with me closely and provided a solution that appears to have fixed the problem.
It would be helpful if they provided additional basic training for administrators who manage this product.
 

Setup Cost

BMC Control-M MFT pricing is high, yet users value effectiveness and can negotiate discounts despite geographic cost variations.
GoAnywhere MFT offers competitive pricing with optional features and customization, appealing to enterprise buyers despite some cost concerns.
Azure is significantly more expensive.
The pricing is decent for mid-sized and small-sized companies.
We recently considered moving GoAnywhere MFT from on-premises to their Cloud solution, however, it proved too expensive.
 

Valuable Features

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer offers automation, security, scalability, and integration features appreciated for enhancing workload efficiency and flexibility.
GoAnywhere MFT offers user-friendly automation, robust security, and seamless integration, enhancing efficiency through centralized file management and real-time error detection.
If I have a staff that operates Control-M on Windows Server, they will easily pick it up if they need to run it on Unix or mainframes. It's the same interface, saving time and improving efficiency.
It provides multiple cipher options for HTTPS and SFTP protocols, utilizing AES-based algorithms for secure communication and data transfer.
I can produce reports for security and have full control over secure protocols allowed on the system, making it easy to comply with security standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Before, we had to write scripts and manually update them to move data around, encrypt files, or rename files. Now we just use the GUI to set the modules for transfers, encryption, renaming, and copying, allowing us to set it and schedule it to run without any user interaction.
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC Control-M Managed File ...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
GoAnywhere MFT
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
2nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
42
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 BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is 3.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 8.9%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

SirajShaik - PeerSpot reviewer
Improve operational efficiency through workflow orchestration
Its stability and the feature list are rich compared to other tools in the market. I have experienced a thirty percent reduction in operational time for developers, increasing efficiency in workflow orchestration design. The UI is great, with a minimal learning curve and caters to both click-and-monitor users and those who want to code.
Earl Diem - PeerSpot reviewer
Key to our workflow and our workload automation strategy, helping us trade and consume files
File monitors are one of the most valuable features. We have about 400 file monitors running in GoAnywhere. They monitor the NAS locations where files arrive, and they kick off workflows. When a file arrives, GoAnywhere will identify that the file is there, move it to a consumption zone, then reach out to our enterprise scheduler through a REST API call. The solution helps centralize the exchange of data between systems, employees, customers, and trading partners. It's very central and that's pretty important. We generally move about 3,000 files a day, between our partners and internal workflows. My team really likes the intuitiveness of GoAnywhere's user interface. For example, my automation team has a file coming in from a bank, a file that needs to be unzipped, reformatted, re-zipped up, and then put into another folder where another team is going to consume it. Because of all the progressive elaboration—the project started a year ago—the format of the file is not the same. We addressed it with GoAnywhere instead of having the producer of the file change the format. That's how flexible it is for us. And looking at the comprehensiveness of GoAnywhere's workflow features, we use it pretty extensively for working with files. Stonebranch is our enterprise automation platform, but we don't really do any file work with Stonebranch. We chose to use GoAnywhere, our MFT tool, to move and manipulate files. The solution also connects to popular ICAP servers and that's pretty important to our security guys when it comes to preventing malware and other malicious content from entering our organization. The connection to popular ICAP servers, so that content is inspected for sensitive information like credit cards, is pretty important. We're a financial institution and a lot of the data we work with has PAN data and card numbers in it, coming in from partners.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer?
It is a highly scalable solution...I rate the product's initial setup a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer?
Negotiate based on task and ask for a better price where non prod tasks could be charged a lower price.
What needs improvement with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer?
There is not much room for improvement. It already has a GUI and even a mobile app, although I don't use it. It is adequate for most scheduling needs. Offering it as open source for free would be g...
What do you like most about Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
GoDrive eliminates the need to use the exchange server for file sharing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
The pricing is decent for mid-sized and small-sized companies. It is good for startups or mid-scale companies.
What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
A drawback is that it is not as feature-rich compared to its competitor Sterling, which we used before. It has fewer features, though it is more intuitive. This was the compromise we had to make du...
 

Also Known As

No data available
HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer,
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

British Sky Broadcasting
McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer vs. GoAnywhere MFT and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.