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GoAnywhere MFT vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

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
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sterling Commerce Connect:D...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
6th
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 January 2026, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 10.2%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is 5.4%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
GoAnywhere MFT10.2%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct5.4%
Other84.4%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

AB
DevOps 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%.
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

"This product has numerous benefits as it has automated many processes that we previously had to do manually every day."
"It enabled us to allocate staff toward other work. All the time that we would have wasted worrying about this stuff and correcting problems is put into other parts of our job. That's one of the best things about it, is that we don't waste time on these projects. We just don't have to worry about them because it lets us know if there's a problem."
"GoAnywhere MFT is a great file-specific, file transfer-specific, and encryption-specific solution."
"The security and vendor management features are helpful in terms of providing access to data."
"GoAnywhere MFT has improved my organization in the way that I can easily deploy the agents in remote areas."
"All of it is valuable, but the most valuable would be the ability to release medical records without having a limitation for size and not having to deal with the fax machine."
"The best features in GoAnywhere MFT are that it's fast, reliable, and secure; it saves about 80 to 90% resources and 90 to 95% time because it avoids one-to-one sharing with a centralized directory accessible to all users."
"The solution is easy to use, easy to set up, and the support is good."
"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."
"The Security Plus feature of this solution is excellent, and allows you to send encrypted files very securely to remote destinations."
"The product has been very stable."
"Connect Direct offers Check Point functionality to ensure data integrity during transfers."
"Offers secure file transfers with a fast and efficient protocol for very large files."
"The most valuable feature of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is its flexibility with encryption."
"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."
 

Cons

"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."
"What I can suggest right now about GoAnywhere MFT is the integration of AI for chat support, as I am still trying to find my way around the app."
"We are a little concerned because the maximum number of open connections allowed is 200, and we are pretty much maxed out... if they expanded the number of open connections allowed, we would be better off."
"The cloud connectivity of GoAnywhere MFT to connect to different applications such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon, or Google Cloud could improve, as it's a little bit patchy right now."
"I would like to see GoAnywhere MFT integrating with more connectors or rather more integration with third-party tools."
"When a monitor invokes a project to accomplish something, that gets logged as a job. I've had a little difficulty figuring out where to look to see the monitor's activities itself, to see if the monitor is having a problem. For instance, if an account on a secure FTP server has expired, the monitor that uses that account doesn't announce to us that it's having a problem. I want to work with them on this to get it fixed."
"In GoAnywhere MFT, there are memory-related issues that need improvement. Sometimes it shows varying memory usage from 500 GB to 2 GB, and these issues can persist for multiple days."
"I am unable to accomplish this with the predefined functions provided by GoAnywhere MFT, which is why I use shell scripting."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The resources required for this tool are costly and not easily available in the market."
"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."
"Technical support is the number one concern."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly."
"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."
"Sometimes we face issues and can't figure out the cause of failures."
 

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 for GoAnywhere MFT seems reasonable when compared to other similar services, especially cloud services. Azure is significantly more expensive."
"Pricing is based on a one-time license."
"GoAnywhere was the most attractively priced product that met our needs. In our PoC it really came down to MOVEit and GoAnywhere, and GoAnywhere's pricing was about 30 percent less."
"The cost is fine. It is probably the best software that I've had for the money that we spend for it. I am not aware of any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. I don't pay for it. IT pays for it."
"It has flexible and affordable pricing because of custom quotes. The prices depend on the modules one needs and the volume of data being transferred. Overall, they offer custom and flexible pricing with an annual subscription, where you pay for specific features and functionality required."
"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT carries a higher price tag than other MFT solutions."
"Its pricing is fair. It is not the most expensive, and it is not the cheapest. For what we get in our environment, the pricing model works pretty well."
"Annual licensing fee."
"The solution's licensing cost is too high."
"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
32%
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 Business57
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

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 of GoAnywhere MFT is fair. I don't have any complaints about it. It feels really reasonable, and for the automation features that they provide, it is nice. It may feel high for basic ne...
What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
The UI/UX of GoAnywhere MFT feels somewhat cluttered. Some of the options I need are in a very cluttered space, and I need to search for them frequently. If the interface could be more simplified, ...
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.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
HZMO, Bank of Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about GoAnywhere MFT vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.