Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT vs. SolarWinds Serv-U

GoAnywhere is easy to use and easy to learn. Once you get the basics down learning how to do advanced functions becomes even easier. Their support is top notch and is always ready to lend a hand.

For anyone who needs to receive/send files between themselves and others, in an organized fashion, I would strongly recommend Serv-U as a great tool at a sensible cost. In our line of work, we can get several customers signed in at once, each sending in hundreds of Megabytes of data simultaneously. Serv-U has never struggled with this. We don't use the Quota set up for sending/receiving data but I can see it is useful where an exchange of information is the point.

• Data extraction: You can pull data from nearly any database and send it to users/partners in a variety of formats.
• Data transformation: Great for massaging data and transforming it to XML, text, spreadsheets, etc.
• Data Integration: An extremely useful tool for moving data between different systems. I have used it to integrate data from Oracle, Netezza, DB2, SQL Server, and even Interbase.

Incentivized

• The Wizard allows us to create new user accounts very easily and quickly. We do not have a formal IT department so those of us "mere mortals" can use this easily.
• Using the Web Client has made it very simple to set up and instruct our customers on getting to the server from any device with a minimum of fuss. We have many customers with ESL, and school students including middle and high school. Most of them are not computer experts, just regular users so the simplicity allows to do the whole setup over the phone in minutes.
• The newer version of Serv-U does not appear to be very resource-hungry so our computer runs nice and fast, without having to be a top of the range powerbox. We concentrated on large storage to cope with the file sizes we receive daily.

• Reviewing support cases on support web site.
• Testing remote resources is limited without creating a project.
• With so many features, it can take awhile to master it.

• The user interface on large screens becomes tiny and nearly unreadable without the aid of Windows Magnifier.
• Active Directory integration is either absent or not straightforward.
• Settings and configuration aren't always intuitive.

Since using it and having time to work with it, its process and actions are growing on me and once a project is created one can implement across numerous location or platforms

GoAnywhere's support team is absolutely wonderful. They are always very fast to respond and will do anything that they can to help you with whatever dilemma you are facing. They also have a great user forum that is very helpful if you are looking for the solution to a problem or just want some advice from others. They are constantly looking to improve and always looking for suggestions on what customers would like to see next which is refreshing.

Incentivized

Support was the biggest hurdle for us. It definitely needs improvement, but not to the point of being a deal breaker.

Incentivized

Implementation was straight forward. We paid for 50 hours of professional service in case, we need help. We end using only 10 hours. I have only 1 month to convert over 120 scripts from FTP voyager to goanywhere. Old script was had written using bat files. Some of the batch file were written by some other person, who passed away. Documents for old script was not in details. With the professional service, I was able to convert all script within windows

• GoAnywhere adds features as extra modules, allowing you to start with the most basic file transferring solution and scaling up as you find other uses. Adding more modules means that you are building on an existing platform, and you will not need to seek out other vendors.
• Compared to other products such as MoveIt, the projects can take more time to create as it seems less intuitive than MoveIt but adds to its potential as you learn the many extra functions available.

Incentivized

Previously we have used FileZilla and Microsoft FTP services, but neither out-performed Serv-U. although it was easy to use, FileZilla required constant attention from IT staff and did not live up to security protocol in place. The Windows Server FTP was difficult to configure for clients due to the tight integration with Active Directory. This also limited who could help administer the server.

• GA MFT has reduced the time and resources needed to devote to file transfer processes.
• Administration of processes has become easier to manage.
• Files are easily monitored to ensure successful transmissions. No more missed files!

Incentivized

• I have been using it for over 10 years so the ROI was there for sure.
• It is not a constant attention needing program.
• Set up and it does its job.