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Safe-T Secure Application Access vs Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Safe-T Secure Application A...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (26th), Access Management (35th), ZTNA (19th)
Sterling Commerce Connect:D...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Safe-T Secure Application Access and Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Safe-T Secure Application Access is designed for Enterprise Infrastructure VPN and holds a mindshare of 1.8%, up 0.4% compared to last year.
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct, on the other hand, focuses on Managed File Transfer (MFT), holds 4.0% mindshare, down 6.6% since last year.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Safe-T Secure Application Access1.8%
OpenVPN Access Server9.1%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks6.4%
Other82.7%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
Managed File Transfer (MFT) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct4.0%
GoAnywhere MFT7.1%
Progress MOVEit6.8%
Other82.1%
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user787671 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network and Security Engineer
Needs to be easier to configure and to display logs more simply
We use only it for scanning files for viruses. That's the only feature we use in this product It needs to be easier to configure, it should be something that's working well with other sources. It should be something that allows me to see the logs simply. One to three years. Sometimes it doesn't…
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 allows us to actually send it straight from our email to the other person's email in a safe way, where we can meet all our regulations and still keep the data in our control."
"Safe-T is very good for users because it has a plug-in for Outlook."
"At the end of the day it's really good and really improved."
"From a technical point of view, products are stable and scalable, and we do appreciate the personal touch the sales engineers (SE) support and development bring, as well as the personal touch of the sales support, the free online, and web-based training."
"the security level is very high. After we tested it and checked all the security aspects of the product, we found that it's highly secure."
"If you need a solution for sending big files to customers or for receiving large files from them, this is a very good solution."
"If you want a very flexible system that you can easily integrate, and develop interfaces for it or plug-ins to other application environments, it's probably the most flexible"
"It's easy to use over the web. A user who is not in the office can use it and securely insert files."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the security."
"For Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct, my overall rating is ten out of ten."
"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."
"The solution effectively reduced large transfer file transit time across global regions by over 50%."
"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 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 solution's file transfer speed is quite high."
 

Cons

"When we have something that we want improved, it takes a little bit of time until it can be fixed."
"One important thing that we haven't found in this product is the ability to provide a read-only view for documents. Also, the ability for the customer to add annotations to these documents."
"The cloud solution is not that great especially with Swiss customers."
"Better UI. A better UI for the people that manage all the processes of Safe-T. Some of the UI is not as intuitive as you would like it to be."
"The Outlook agent is not working well for installing it in the entire office."
"Setting up Safe-T SDE is very complex. It is not straightforward, and it requires much understanding on the concepts of the product."
"In terms of improvement, they need to be much more strict regarding the roadmap, about timelines and when new features will be up in production."
"I'm not sure what advice I would give others about this product because I don't like Safe-T."
"User interface is not 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."
"The user interface could be more user-friendly."
"The technical support is the number one problem."
"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."
"Functionality-wise, they can make additional improvements to Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct."
"I do not have any notes for improvement."
"Technical support is difficult to work with."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Annual licensing fee."
"The price and licensing of Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is expensive."
"The solution's licensing cost is too high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Transportation Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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.
What advice do you have for others considering Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct?
Integration with my IT infrastructure using Sterling Commerce Connect:Direct is very straightforward. We have APIs, and Connect:Direct works via API connections. It has two ports: one transfer port...
 

Also Known As

Safe-T SDA, Safe-T, Safe-T Software-Defined Access
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Government of Israel, eviCore Healthcore, Glen Imaging, Sarin, LBG, Rollomatic, Boegli-Gravures SA, Banque Heritage, Groupe Minoteries, Temenos, ZEK, RLM Finsbury, Harel Insurance, Meitav Dash
HZMO, Bank of Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenVPN, Tailscale, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN. Updated: October 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.