MOVEit vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

Progress Software and IBM are both solutions in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category. Progress Software is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while IBM is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. Progress Software holds a 7.9% mindshare in MFT, compared to IBM’s 5.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Progress Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of IBM users who would recommend it.

MOVEit

Read 18 MOVEit reviews

2,313 Views
2,174 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Sterling Commerce Connect:D...

Read 12 Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct reviews

1,660 Views
1,660 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

MOVEit

Sterling Commerce Connect:D...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct and MOVEit are key players in the managed file transfer space. MOVEit appears to have an advantage with its strong security and auditing features, which are crucial for data integrity and compliance.

Features: Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct offers robust automation, large-scale transfer capabilities, and reliable point-to-point data handling, making it suitable for enterprises. MOVEit stands out with comprehensive security features, including encryption, detailed audit logs, and the ability to manage extensive file transfer operations efficiently.

Room for Improvement: Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct could enhance its user interface for more intuitive operations and increase its flexibility with modern protocols. Better integration support for cloud environments and reducing complexity in deployment is desirable. MOVEit may benefit from optimizing installation costs and expanding its feature set to accommodate a broader range of transfer protocols. Additionally, enhancing support for very large file transfers could improve user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MOVEit's flexible deployment options, including cloud and on-premises, make setup and scaling more straightforward. Its customer service is often praised for its effectiveness, aiding in smoother operations. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct, while reliable for large-scale transfers, may experience a more complex deployment process.

Pricing and ROI: Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct may offer lower initial setup costs, appealing to cost-focused organizations. However, MOVEit's comprehensive security features potentially provide a higher ROI, particularly for companies prioritizing data protection, justifying its potentially higher price point.

To learn more, read our detailed MOVEit vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

MOVEit vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

December 2025

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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

MOVEit

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

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

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 MOVEit is 7.9%, down from 9.2% 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
Product	Market Share (%)
MOVEit	7.9%
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct	5.4%
Other	86.7%

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

Featured Reviews

Kiran Raju L

Project Manager at Cognizant

User adaptability impresses with room for enhanced reporting features

The solution lacks a flow view wherein you will not be able to see the integrated jobs in a flow diagram view. This becomes trickier to understand which flow is failing unless you were part of the design team. 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. It always comes in a scripted format. When you have to show the report to management, they don't understand the scripted format. They need everything in Excel. The reporting feature needs to work on having it in an Excel format. It has been pretty stable, but we were hit by malicious malware attacks in the last two years more comparatively. Depending upon the type of license that is owned and the support with the license, it is up to par with other leading marketing tools.

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reviewer1955103

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.

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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

"I admire its ability to transfer really large files. One of the files that we transferred was 70 gigs. We didn't try anything larger than that, but so far, whenever somebody came to us to process a really large file, we were able to do it successfully. It can handle large files. That is one thing that I like about Automation."

"MOVEit is specially designed for file transfers, making it very user-friendly to transfer files to multiple platforms in an easy manner with flexible scheduling features."

"Especially at the time of monitoring, it's a nice way to take a look at the script and take a look at run time, which gives enough information for the files that are getting picked or not."

"The most valuable feature of MOVEit is that it is the easiest tool to transfer files from point A to point B."

"MOVEit's best features were the number of options available, like folder creation, and user-friendliness."

"The tool’s GUI is very simple."

"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."

"It satisfies our requirements but they don't do new improvements as per the market."

More MOVEit pros

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

"Offers secure file transfers with a fast and efficient protocol for very large files."

"The solution's file transfer speed is quite high."

"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."

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

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct pros

Cons

"The product must improve its security features."

"At times, we had connection issues with MOVEit, and it had a tendency to reboot without any reason."

"With the new other vendors coming up, they come up with certain features, in addition to the file transfer. But MOVEit does not develop their product. That's why we are looking out for other solutions."

"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."

"The scheduling features need improvement as currently there are standard scheduling possibilities that could be enhanced with more options and features, such as automatically creating checksum files."

"The DR solution (DR recoveries) needs to be enhanced."

"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."

More MOVEit cons

"The user interface needs to be improved."

"User interface is not user friendly."

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

"The user interface could be more user-friendly."

"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."

"I do not have any notes for improvement."

"This solution cannot be deployed on a root_squash NFS, which limits superuser privileges."

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Technical support is only available with a paid license."

"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."

"It's cost-effective."

"When compared to other products I've used, I believe MoveIt is worth the money someone might pay to use it."

"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

Financial Services Firm

18%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

32%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Media Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MOVEit?

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with MOVEit?

From the support perspective, the logging system could be improved. When MOVEit jobs fail and vendor support is needed, sometimes vendor contact details are not properly documented. This creates is...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for MOVEit?

We are from a software organization where we have a US healthcare project. The hospitals use the application for file transfer from one location to another location, transferring banking, financial...

See all answers

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

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is an expensive platform.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

JSCAPE by Redwood vs MOVEit

Compared 15% of the time

GoAnywhere MFT vs MOVEit

Compared 12% of the time

Control-M vs MOVEit

Compared 12% of the time

IBM Sterling File Gateway vs MOVEit

Compared 9% of the time

WS_FTP Server vs MOVEit

Compared 3% of the time

More MOVEit Competitors

Kiteworks vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 24% of the time

IBM Sterling File Gateway vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 20% of the time

Control-M vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 10% of the time

Globalscape EFT vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 7% of the time

Aspera Managed File Transfer vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

Compared 5% of the time

More Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MOVEit

January 2026

Download MOVEit product report

Buyer's Guide

Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

January 2026

Download Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct product report

Also Known As

Ipswitch File Transfer, Ipswitch Managed File Transfer

No data available

Overview

Ipswitch Managed File Transfer is an automated file transfer system to manage, view, and control all file transfer services. You will always know where your files are with predictable and secure delivery, extensive reporting, and easy integration with existing systems.

Progress Software

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

Cambridgeshire County Council, Capita Document & Information Services, Enterasys, City of Guelph, Hermes

HZMO, Bank of Communications

Buyer's Guide

MOVEit vs. Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct

December 2025

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