No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

GoAnywhere MFT vs MetaDefender Managed File Transfer (MFT) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 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

GoAnywhere MFT
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MetaDefender Managed File T...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
27th
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Anuj Bhagwat - PeerSpot reviewer
Dev Ops Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Has enabled secure, centralized file sharing while saving significant time and resources
The best features in GoAnywhere MFT are that it's fast, reliable, and secure. First, the improvement is that we have resolved one of our security points with compliance. So that compliance point we resolved. And also it's a centralized file sharing system. All the users are able to access the file. There is no one-to-one sharing. It's improved about 80 to 85%. It saves about 80 to 90% resources. In terms of time, we can say 90 to 95% time is also saved because it avoids the one-to-one sharing and simply a user can put one centralized directory and all the users are able to access this solution and access the file. So it's 95%.
Jasmit Singh Juneja - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO & Technology Specialist at Karman Infotech Private Limited
Secure file exchange between internal IT and OT networks has protected sensitive data and meets compliance needs
Threat Detection helps with data security and functions the same as Multi-Scanning. MetaDefender Managed File Transfer is integrated with the same platform, providing improved threat detection. MetaDefender Managed File Transfer includes encryption for data protection by storing data in an encrypted format so that no one can access it without proper authorization. Data Sanitization capability helps manage threats and is one of the features for detecting zero-day threats. For known threats, multi-scanning handles threat detection, so together it is a complete package for detecting both known and unknown threats. Reporting and auditing help maintain compliance in the company and provide functionality for PII, PCI, and GDPR management. When handling large file volumes, there is an impact on performance. Since it works on HTTPS and HTTP, performance will be reduced for large volumes, though not significantly. The biggest benefit from MetaDefender Managed File Transfer is secure data exchange from an unsecure network to a secure network or from external users to internal users. Because it scans and sanitizes files, there is very little chance of malware entering the organization during file sharing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The encryption feature is very impressive in GoAnywhere MFT, and the encryption provided by the company is much stronger than other file transferring software."
"Compared to other vendors, GoAnywhere MFT stands out with the feature that allows you to create your own workflows. When a file is uploaded, we want some automation to be triggered, something to be done. This feature is exclusively available in GoAnywhere MFT, which I did not see in any other MFT solutions."
"I like the organization of resources, specifically listing out all of our FTPs and having a name and description to easily organize them. I also like the scheduler. The organization and the scheduling, being able to create the folders and the jobs, have been really helpful."
"Transactions transfer in close to real time. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time because of the volume that we have, but the transactions transfer in seconds to the external platform."
"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT offers robust security as its most valuable feature."
"The automation capabilities are amazing. They help to reduce manual transfer tasks and handle the daily repetitive tasks that we do. It also ensures overall efficiency."
"The main benefits I have seen from using GoAnywhere MFT are that it removes all manual efforts through automation and reduces manual file transfer because we have scheduled our jobs."
"We like that GoAnywhere helps to centralize the exchange of data among our systems, employees, and customers."
"The biggest benefit from MetaDefender Managed File Transfer is secure data exchange from an unsecure network to a secure network or from external users to internal users."
 

Cons

"API functionality wasn't part of our initial unit testing because it wasn't necessary then. However, shortly after implementing GoAnywhere, two different vendors approached us to do API transactions. We checked to see if GoAnywhere could do this and found that it was supposed to have that capability, but it broke down."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"The security could be upgraded to address novel cyberattacks. I'm not sure whether the product's security is being updated periodically."
"Sometimes, during the transfer of multiple files, some files may get lost, and we have no clear way of identifying which have moved successfully since the log feature does not provide this information clearly."
"There are a number of built-in tasks in GoAnywhere. One, in particular, the write to CSV task, is slow. If you have, say, 100,000 records in your row set and you want to write them to a CSV file, it takes a long time. That definitely requires performance improvement."
"The technical support is slow to respond and to take action when issues arise, along with difficult-to-use user forums which complicate finding solutions on our own."
"Without knowledge, it can be challenging to manage as it uses XML files for configurations and has tricky variables. While it's not particularly intuitive for new users, it becomes easy once mastered."
"One area for improvement in GoAnywhere MFT is that they don't have a real debugger. You have to manually walk through your projects. If you build a big scripting project, you have no way at the beginning to step through; you can't skip straight to a line, nor can you put a breakpoint and say, 'stop here' as in any normal debugging process."
"An improvement would be in reporting. For an enterprise, reporting is not that great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"To have a solution like this for the price we're paying makes it cheap. Considering the time that it has saved us, and considering the development that we don't need to do, such as connectors and handling servers, the price is really affordable."
"The pricing of GoAnywhere MFT is affordable compared to other similar products. It's not expensive, according to me. What influenced my purchase decision was the fact that the product was quite affordable."
"When it comes to secure systems that we have used, the price point can get a whole lot higher. You might end up saving in the short term with other solutions, but are you getting a secure product? Do you feel confident in that? Will you be able to get any support afterward? From my experience, based on the price point and the service that we got, it was a good value for our money."
"For what we pay to GoAnywhere every year, we are getting a fantastic deal. From a dollar perspective, it provides very good value."
"The cost of GoAnywhere versus the value it brings to our data transfer operations is reasonable... The cost is relatively expensive but, back to the car analogy, that's to be expected with a Ferrari."
"The cost was definitely within reason and it has definitely been worth the cost, based on how much we can automate. It has exceeded my expectations."
"The product is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"I get the invoices, and its price is fine and appropriate. It is well priced. Even if it was double the price, we'd use it. For us, it is indispensable. We're not going to go anywhere else. There are no additional costs. Its licensing is good. There is just one charge that we get. That's it."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions are best for your needs.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business116
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise58
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
Our experience with GoAnywhere MFT's pricing, setup cost, and licensing structure has been highly positive because it is completely module-based. Instead of hitting us with a rigid, monolithic ente...
What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
Regarding the reporting about the logs, sometimes there is too much information. When looking for the exact way to find and troubleshoot different errors, the log can be very difficult to understan...
What is your primary use case for Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
My usual use cases for GoAnywhere MFT are for automatic processes with SFTP.
What needs improvement with MetaDefender Managed File Transfer?
An improvement would be in reporting. For an enterprise, reporting is not that great. It should have more flexibility in terms of configuration so that organizations can utilize the product more ef...
What is your primary use case for MetaDefender Managed File Transfer?
The clients are using the product for secure file exchange between the internal organization as well as to external users. One of the major use cases is data exchange from an IT network to the OT n...
What advice do you have for others considering MetaDefender Managed File Transfer?
I am a delivery lead in the company and work with the whole stack of the vendor's products, including MetaDefender Managed File Transfer. Regarding pricing, the solution is reasonably priced. I wou...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra, BMC, IBM and others in Managed File Transfer (MFT). Updated: July 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.