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AWS Transfer for SFTP [EOL] vs GoAnywhere MFT comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 8, 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

AWS Transfer for SFTP [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
GoAnywhere MFT
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
87
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

Kyle Titus - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at Revio
Always works, handles all types of load, and allows us to have S3 files as storage
Its cost needs improvement. In addition, there could be a universal client that works on all desktops. There could be client software that you use to connect to the server. Generally, AWS doesn't provide one for you, so you have to use either your CLI, maybe your SSH CLI, or use some kind of desktop solution. I had to find a desktop app from a third party to run this. Our clients also do the same everywhere else, so it would be nice if the SFTP Gateway solution came with a client that anyone could download on their Mac, Windows, or any other machine.
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%.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution has helped with collaboration in our organization."
"The solution offers good data recovery."
"Being able to have the S3 files as storage is most valuable. We can use S3 as storage instead of an SFTP server or a machine."
"We also use the Secure Folders module and the Web Client a lot. For example, we set up external vendors to come in and review files or folders in a Secure Folder. That way they can go in and review whatever information or data they need to do."
"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT offers robust security as its most valuable feature."
"What I appreciate most about GoAnywhere MFT is the threat protection feature, whereby before transferring files anywhere, I am able to first make the file analysis and confirm there are no threats or malware in the files."
"I would highly recommend the use of GoAnywhere MFT to any individual or organization because it enhances managed and secure file transfer processes between systems and with partners."
"The best features in GoAnywhere MFT are that it's fast, reliable, and secure, and it saves about 80 to 90% resources and 90 to 95% time because it avoids the one-to-one sharing by allowing users to access a centralized file directory."
"GoAnywhere centralizes data exchanges, helping to facilitate file transfers between our critical systems."
"Whenever a student has uploaded his or her data on our website, it is automatically sent to the universities, and no manual work is needed anymore, so I appreciate this as the best feature in GoAnywhere MFT."
"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."
 

Cons

"The tool's UI should be pretty easy and straightforward. I would also like to see a simple audit report of the SFTP guest account that shows the amount of data transfers and security kind enabled."
"Could be more automated, particularly for file transfers."
"Its cost needs improvement. In addition, there could be a universal client that works on all desktops."
"In terms of improvement for GoAnywhere MFT, they could enhance the support, as there have been cases where we needed support due to the application getting stuck for no reason, and usually, the issue gets fixed by restarting the application."
"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."
"A drawback is that it is not as feature-rich compared to its competitor Sterling, which we used before."
"In terms of scalability, I would rate it around five, as it needs further scaling. The interface built should be more stable, as performance varies across different browsers and deployed versions."
"The support could be enhanced a little bit... If the first echelon of support could say, 'Okay, you are trying to create a variable,' and could tell you what you have to do, that would be good."
"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."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's $249 per month per instance. It's not great; it's pretty pricey. We've got multiple users on that one instance. If we had to build it by hand, we would win on cost there, but obviously, there is effort and time. In terms of the additional costs, they do have some specific pricing, but for our use case, we don't end up going over $249. They do specify in their pricing what they're charging for."
"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 is not favorable when we use it for a few people."
"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 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."
"Licensing can be expensive and it depends upon which features you want to buy."
"Compared to other tools it's less expensive."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise43
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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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?
GoAnywhere MFT pricing is fine for me. I do not have any complaints regarding the pricing because SFTP is the most valuable asset in the organization.
What needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
I believe that GoAnywhere MFT can be improved because the initial setup is somewhat challenging for a new user, so they need to make the initial feature easier for everyone, whether new or experien...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Myriota, FINRA, Celgene, Kontor New Media, Belong, ThinkCX, BluTV
McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortra, BMC, IBM and others in Managed File Transfer (MFT). Updated: January 2026.
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