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GoAnywhere MFT vs SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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)
2nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Serv-U File Tran...
Ranking in Managed File Transfer (MFT)
19th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.1
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Managed File Transfer (MFT) category, the mindshare of GoAnywhere MFT is 8.6%, up from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Earl Diem - PeerSpot reviewer
Key to our workflow and our workload automation strategy, helping us trade and consume files
File monitors are one of the most valuable features. We have about 400 file monitors running in GoAnywhere. They monitor the NAS locations where files arrive, and they kick off workflows. When a file arrives, GoAnywhere will identify that the file is there, move it to a consumption zone, then reach out to our enterprise scheduler through a REST API call. The solution helps centralize the exchange of data between systems, employees, customers, and trading partners. It's very central and that's pretty important. We generally move about 3,000 files a day, between our partners and internal workflows. My team really likes the intuitiveness of GoAnywhere's user interface. For example, my automation team has a file coming in from a bank, a file that needs to be unzipped, reformatted, re-zipped up, and then put into another folder where another team is going to consume it. Because of all the progressive elaboration—the project started a year ago—the format of the file is not the same. We addressed it with GoAnywhere instead of having the producer of the file change the format. That's how flexible it is for us. And looking at the comprehensiveness of GoAnywhere's workflow features, we use it pretty extensively for working with files. Stonebranch is our enterprise automation platform, but we don't really do any file work with Stonebranch. We chose to use GoAnywhere, our MFT tool, to move and manipulate files. The solution also connects to popular ICAP servers and that's pretty important to our security guys when it comes to preventing malware and other malicious content from entering our organization. The connection to popular ICAP servers, so that content is inspected for sensitive information like credit cards, is pretty important. We're a financial institution and a lot of the data we work with has PAN data and card numbers in it, coming in from partners.
reviewer2292672 - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution can be used for internal file transfer, but its technical support and third-party integrations should be improved
I am comparing SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server, WS_FTP, and Wing FTP for my current company. We use the solution for multiple purposes, and it should be user-friendly when integrating something. We cannot always depend on the support team to come and fix the issues. Overall, I rate SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server a seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is customer data transfers for traditional SFTP. Some of our biggest customers are on the platform, and it works out very well for us as a big selling point."
"When users say, 'I'm building spreadsheets that I would like to be uploaded on a regular basis into the IBM i,' we are able to accommodate that request within a matter of hours rather than the days it would take to create programs to do that. That is very useful. It has eliminated several dozens of scripts for us."
"Another nice feature is that you can invoke a native program from GoAnywhere. That helps you because you don't have to get fancy with agents. If a native program runs on the server that GoAnywhere is running on, like sed or perl, you can use it,"
"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT supports the PeSIT protocol."
"The use of this product has helped improve our organization and its ability to send or receive. It has done this by allowing us to remove any homegrown process and centralize needed actions."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to call a workflow from another workflow. That really gives you an edge by increasing reusability and speeding up development time. You can create a workflow which is a type of template and then call that workflow from any other workflow... It has sped up development time by 80 to 90 percent."
"I like the versatility GoAnywhere provides, allowing transfers through HTTPS and different protocols. It can also transfer through a server and a client."
"The most valuable feature of MFT is the security it provides for our data. MFT allows us to add additional authorization and passwords to any file attachments we send via email, and also to limit the number of times the recipient can download the file."
"We use SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server for internal file transfer."
 

Cons

"On the platform side, I would like to see some improvements in the dashboarding and telemetry data."
"I tried to copy a file from an S3 bucket to another storage class. I don't know if it is a limitation from AWS, not the MFT. If I copy a file from the AWS S3 bucket to that storage class, it can't be transferred. It says that I can't remember the exact error, but it cannot be processed. I want MFT to be more compatible with cloud-based applications or services like AWS."
"There's not a lot of improvement I can think of. Maybe in the tools section, they have an SQL Wizard and a URL Wizard, which are really good. I think that the SQL Wizard might need some improvement. I don't know how to improve it, but it's just a little slow here and there."
"In some scenarios, when you are in a cluster environment, the load-balancing capabilities of the gateway need to be improved a little. This functionality needs some improvement."
"For training, there should be some sites or resources on YouTube or Udemy. They do not have that currently."
"The security features must be updated regularly."
"The reporting could be more customizable."
"GoAnywhere's interface could be a little more intuitive."
"The solution’s technical support should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"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."
"I get the invoices, and its price is fine and appropriate. It is well priced. Even if it was double the price, we'd use it. For us, it is indispensable. We're not going to go anywhere else. There are no additional costs. Its licensing is good. There is just one charge that we get. That's it."
"It would be good for the company to explore a modular approach to selling the product so it could be cheaper and more attractive to users."
"Pricing is based on a one-time license."
"Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT pricing is competitive."
"HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT is very reasonably priced for the value it brings."
"GoAnywhere's price is justified by its features and the time it saves me."
"The pricing of the solution is INR 3,00,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Media Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT?
The technical support response time has room for improvement.
What do you like most about SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server?
We use SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server for internal file transfer.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server?
The pricing of the solution is INR 3,00,000. The pricing of the solution should come down.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server?
The solution’s technical support should be improved. The solution's initial setup and third-party integrations could be improved.
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere MFT, GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer,
Serv-U File Transfer Protocol Server, Serv-U FTP Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McKesson City of Modesto, California Kwik Trip Northwestern University Charter Communications
Information Not Available
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