Globalscape EFT vs IBM Sterling File Gateway comparison

Fortra and IBM are both solutions in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category. Fortra is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.5, while IBM is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0. Fortra holds a 4.1% mindshare in MFT, compared to IBM’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Globalscape EFT

Read 14 Globalscape EFT reviews

1,097 Views
1,053 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Sterling File Gateway

Read 19 IBM Sterling File Gateway reviews

2,540 Views
2,515 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Globalscape EFT

IBM Sterling File Gateway

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 2025

IBM Sterling File Gateway and Globalscape EFT offer strong solutions in the file transfer category, each with unique features. IBM Sterling File Gateway seems to have an edge in robust security and protocol flexibility, while Globalscape EFT excels in user-friendliness and automation capabilities.

Features: IBM Sterling File Gateway offers security protocols with encryption, versatile support for PGP and AS2, and schedulers for automation and protocol transformation. Meanwhile, Globalscape EFT provides a user-centric platform with advanced workflow automation, centralized management, and integrated encryption alongside robust event-driven functionalities.

Room for Improvement: IBM Sterling File Gateway could improve user experience, simplicity, and API support, addressing challenges in managing its features without complicating the core tool. Globalscape EFT could enhance folder monitoring services and high-availability features while optimizing performance for handling many jobs and improving scalability for large file transfers.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Sterling File Gateway is mainly deployed on-premises with IBM's robust 24/7 support, though users noted technical response delays. Its complex architecture requires expertise for secure integrations. Globalscape EFT offers varied deployment options, including cloud and hybrid setups, and is praised for its responsive customer service, though efficiency improvements are possible. The deployment process is relatively straightforward with practical support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Sterling File Gateway is considered expensive with a PVU-based licensing model, depending on hardware, while Globalscape EFT provides competitive server-based licensing. Users find Globalscape EFT pricing fair, with modular purchases enhancing ROI. Both solutions deliver strong security and compliance features within their pricing models.

To learn more, read our detailed Globalscape EFT vs. IBM Sterling File Gateway Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Globalscape EFT vs. IBM Sterling File Gateway

December 2025

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Helped 879,768 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

7.0

Globalscape EFT offers cost reduction, increased efficiency, stability, and operational insights, leading to substantial financial and operational gains.

Sentiment score

6.6

IBM Sterling File Gateway is valued for cost-effectiveness, ease of use, robust support, and simplifies monitoring, enhancing retail processes.

It has custom reports which are inbuilt, showing things such as how many files are going through, what the file sizes are, and if any invalid logins have happened.

Ravi Kumar Dake

Software Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.2

Globalscape EFT support is knowledgeable and collaborative, though response times vary; regional teams enhance service for specific zones.

Sentiment score

6.0

IBM Sterling File Gateway support is mixed; praised for availability but criticized for delays, inefficiencies, and outsourcing concerns.

A quicker response would be appreciated.

Swaroop Shivoji

Technical Lead at Equifax Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

Regarding the technical support of IBM Sterling File Gateway, I would rate their job about nine.

Devarshi Buch

CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Globalscape EFT excels in scalability, ease of expansion, and reliability, despite needing platform optimization and a web version.

Sentiment score

6.4

IBM Sterling File Gateway is highly scalable with some complexity and effective for large transactions, but performance may drop.

While I sometimes find difficulties with GCP, it works fine and flawlessly on AWS, especially since we have a large customer base and vendors where we send numerous files daily.

reviewer2753700

Transmission Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

5.9

Globalscape EFT is stable generally, with occasional issues in on-prem deployments, scaling challenges, and rare slowness mostly resolved.

Sentiment score

6.2

IBM Sterling File Gateway is generally stable, with occasional bugs and issues, but cloud migration has improved overall performance.

Sometimes we encounter error logging issues or the system goes down, requiring us to connect with the cloud engineer.

reviewer2753700

Transmission Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Room For Improvement

Globalscape EFT struggles with cloud integration, large file handling, and requires interface, performance, auditing, and functionality improvements.

IBM Sterling File Gateway needs user management, interface, auto-deployment, performance, and licensing improvements for a better user experience.

In one instance, while working on sending files from one folder to different vendors with different loops for every condition, the upload activity went out of the loop, resulting in all files being sent to the same vendor.

reviewer2753700

Transmission Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

If I'm transferring large batches, it takes them in threads. Globalscape EFT uploads the files on a threading basis, such as 100 files at a time, and the rest of the files will be in a queue system.

Ravi Kumar Dake

Software Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

When there is an audit requiring proof that a file has gone in a secure way, most customers have not been able to prove it.

Devarshi Buch

CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Setup Cost

Globalscape EFT is cost-effective with flexible licensing, appreciated for robust features, easy setup, and overall enterprise value.

IBM Sterling File Gateway is costly but valued for secure transfers, cloud compatibility, and appealing to corporate organizations.

It operates as a pay-as-you-go model.

Ravi Kumar Dake

Software Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Valuable Features

Globalscape EFT offers user-friendly interfaces, strong security, and integration features, ideal for high-volume, complex, and compliant data management.

IBM Sterling File Gateway offers secure, automated file transfers with high configurability, supporting large data volumes and multiple protocols.

It is flexible because you can modify many aspects in Globalscape EFT.

reviewer2753700

Transmission Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Globalscape EFT report

Automation is working fair for all my customers and was never a problem.

Devarshi Buch

CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Sterling File Gateway report

Categories and Ranking

Globalscape EFT

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IBM Sterling File Gateway

Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)

2nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

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 Globalscape EFT is 4.1%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Sterling File Gateway is 7.4%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed File Transfer (MFT) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Sterling File Gateway	7.4%
Globalscape EFT	4.1%
Other	88.5%

Managed File Transfer (MFT)

Featured Reviews

Ravi Kumar Dake

Software Developer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Seamless integration and enhanced automation streamline complex tasks while opportunities exist for improved batch file processing

The best feature of Globalscape EFT is that it has inbuilt encryption. We can use outside PGP encryption or we can use the inbuilt encryption as well, enabling us to do the encryption file transfer to the destinations. The other thing is that, by using the advanced workflow, we can make complex integrations for ease, and the workflow allows us to have alerts and everything by using email notifications through SMTP. We utilize the advanced automation capabilities, and we can also integrate to Azure. In one of the projects, we use Globalscape EFT as an intermediate integration and we use SAP BI where they send the files to Globalscape EFT. We take the files and push them to the banking system, where we get the response and return that back to the SAP system. Globalscape EFT can integrate with the Azure cloud systems as well. We can upload as many files as we can, and we can automate everything using SFTP software such as FileZilla, WinSCP, or any of the SFTP tools.

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Devarshi Buch

CEO at Logic Systech Pvt Ltd

Has supported consistent deployments and automation but needs better reporting and tracking

The disadvantages I see in IBM Sterling File Gateway include price and reporting. Reporting is not very easy. If 10 people are putting file transfer using this protocol, determining who did what file transfer, how long it took, what encryption was done, and whether it was accessed by somebody or whether it was fully done without any retrial is difficult. Reporting is a big problem in IBM tool, according to our customers' complaints. When there is an audit requiring proof that a file has gone in a secure way, most customers have not been able to prove it. Additionally, when there is a large file transfer which has to be done in multiple pieces because of bandwidth restriction, they have not been able to do splitting. The splitting was not possible during file transfer. Many customers have asked if they can split the file and then send it, or pick and choose and send it from a large file. It was also found that it was hogging the bandwidth whenever it was doing file transfer. Ultimately, we ended up selling HP also. The tracking and monitoring features of IBM Sterling File Gateway present some challenges, particularly with tracking, monitoring and compliance issues which RBI is asking for. While it was possible to address these issues, it required an expert to figure it out. When expertise business activity is required, it costs money to customers who are not willing to pay. Regarding future features to make it more competitive, automation email could be one feature I recommend where once the file transfer is done, an email or log should be created for the admin person confirming successful completion. Second is 24/7 support in case of any issues. IBM has never been able to give round-the-clock support whereas customers can ship files even at midnight. Our support is also based on support from IBM. The third improvement area could be automation release notes. IBM has never given us or customers notifications when a new release or patch has come. Whenever a patch is released, an email should go to the buyer or user and to the reseller so they can sync up whether to upgrade the patch or not.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Healthcare Company

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Financial Services Firm

31%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Globalscape Managed File Transfer?

I never looked at the pricing for Globalscape EFT because it was at the management level where my line manager handled it. I was a team lead, so we only did the RFQs and everything. I never had a c...

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What needs improvement with Globalscape Managed File Transfer?

Globalscape EFT is prone to errors because one single click can lead to a file being sent to another vendor, and it doesn't give any warning if the code goes out of certain loops. The user interfac...

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What is your primary use case for Globalscape Managed File Transfer?

Currently, I'm working on Globalscape EFT 2020. The usual use cases for Globalscape EFT that we are applying involve imports and data that we send from our organization to different vendors, and so...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Sterling File Gateway?

The cost-effectiveness of IBM Sterling File Gateway was a major factor in our decision to use it, in comparison to the higher costs associated with DataPower.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Sterling File Gateway?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling File Gateway?

I have been dealing with IBM Sterling File Gateway for some time, and we have sold to about six customers across India with the help of IBM. One large bank which we have sold this solution to is SB...

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Globalscape EFT

December 2025

Download Globalscape EFT product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Sterling File Gateway

December 2025

Download IBM Sterling File Gateway product report

Also Known As

Globalscape GlobalSCAPE Managed File Transfer

No data available

Overview

Globalscape EFT, a robust file transfer platform, offers ease of setup, strong security, and user-friendly automation features suitable for secure data exchange across Windows and Linux environments.

Globalscape EFT supports centralized management, strong security protocols, and simplified automation, making it an ideal choice for businesses requiring secure file transfers. It integrates seamlessly with Active Directory and provides advanced features like PGP encryption, API support, and compliance controls. Users appreciate its efficient setup process, graphical interface, and reliable customer service. However, there is a need for enhancements in cloud capabilities, faster file transfers, and a transition to a web-based admin. Challenges include folder monitoring, concurrent use issues, and complex upgrades in high-availability environments. Users seek improved alert systems and reporting capabilities.

What are the most important features?

Ease of Setup: Facilitates quick deployment without complex configuration.
Security: Includes PGP encryption and compliance controls for safe data handling.
Automation: Offers an advanced workflow engine for streamlined processes.
Integration: Compatible with Active Directory to manage user accounts efficiently.

What benefits should users look for?

User-Friendly: Intuitive interface reduces the learning curve for administrators.
Compliance: Ensures regulatory requirements are met with built-in controls.
Support: Reliable customer service assists with any operational issues.

Industries rely on Globalscape EFT for secure file exchanges, SFTP storage, and file encryption, integrating it with diverse systems for custom automation. Common uses include internal/external file transfers, compliance reporting, and secure communications across regions. It's implemented in both on-prem and cloud settings, maintaining managed file transmissions for multiple sites.

Fortra

Securely manage transfer files with authentication, encryption and audit trails while you retain administrative control of data using a library of templates.

Sterling File Gateway can help you increase secure and dependable file transfer with your trading partners. It consolidates disparate centers of file transfer activity and facilitates the security-rich exchange of file-based data over the Internet. It helps companies avoid the risk and operational issues that can result from using loosely controlled file-transfer servers.

IBM

Buyer's Guide

Globalscape EFT vs. IBM Sterling File Gateway

December 2025

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