What I like best about GoAnywhere MFT is the XML backend - it makes it a lot easier to understand and build out job logic compared to a pure GUI-only tool, since you can actually see and control the task flow directly. I also like how flexible it is across protocols, being able to handle SFTP, Azure Blob, S3, and SMB transfers all within the same platform makes it easy to standardize jobs even when the vendor or destination changes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike about GoAnywhere is that some of the built-in functions and attributes aren't well documented or don't behave the way you'd expect - things like CurrentDateTime() not actually existing, or sizeFilter being unreliable enough that you have to work around it with FileInfo() checks instead. It leads to a lot of trial and error that shouldn't be necessary. I also find the error handling setup to be a gap - just having a notifysysadmin module in the XML doesn't mean it actually fires, you have to explicitly wire it with onError on every task, and it's easy to miss that during job builds or reviews. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The application is easy to use overall and straightforward to upgrade. It also supports clustering, so production has a failsafe in case a server hosting the application goes down. Setting up workflows is simple, but you do need to stay organized and have a clear understanding of the steps required to get from point A to point B.

Customer Support is great. Once you open a ticket, you can either wait for an email response or, if it’s urgent, call the support line and reference the ticket. Our company uses it daily, and when a failure happens we receive alerts so we can respond as needed. In addition, we also have a call with a Sr. Tech consultant who can help with questions, workflow and setup optimizations, recommendations, and any issues that Support is already working on. Once you understand the product and setup what to do for errors whether it be sending the notification to the appropriate people department or ignore this becomes pure automation. From where we started to how we are now I can say I don't have to be troubleshooting projects as they are working correctly and are fully optimized. Would recommend this product for any MFT setups we only use it for SFTP/FTP and now starting to work with thier Agents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Workflows can feel complex because you’re designing them from scratch. They do offer templates, but I still had to read their support articles to fully understand what you can do. I wish they offered a crash course, but overall it’s not bad. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Maintenance is very straightforward, and once you’ve patched the MFT and Gateways the first time, the process is easy to repeat. Day-to-day management is also simple, and the controls are intuitive. I especially like the security controls and Automatic IP Block List. We also used the IP filter to only allow know IPs of vendors to connect our platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The GoAnywhere console can take a little getting used to because there are a lot of menus and submenus. However, like most enterprise software, it becomes much easier to navigate with regular use. Once you're familiar with the layout, finding what you need is straightforward Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Very flexible, easy to reuse projects with scheduler overrides, Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

no prebuilt verification of file properties in file movements, you need to code your own verifications of file size or related values.

occasional issues when running processes aren't able to send status updates to the database leaving scheduled jobs and monitors in a running status after completion, requiring our team to develop monitoring and resets via SQL (which GA handles fairly well) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

GoAnywhere MFT has helped us make major improvements in our File Transfer process by letting us centralize them into one system. The service works with many file transfer protocols such as SFTP, AS2, AS4, S3 buckets, HTTPS, SharePoint and others so it is a very flexible platform which lets us transfer data to partners in a secure and efficient manor. The workflows allow for file manipulation as well, which means process that were being handled by several individuals can now be completed by one process.

We had great support from the onboarding team when implementing the service. Great user guide that is straight forward to use and easily accessible through workflow setup.

We have never had performance issues or bottlenecks when using the system, and we have internal processes that are running on a constant basis Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The product’s GUI doesn’t have a modern look and feel. Also, some of the logged errors are difficult to understand because they appear as Java errors, and it isn’t always clear what the underlying issue might be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

🔹 1. Strong Mapping & Resource Abstraction (Big Advantage)

One of the best things about GoAnywhere MFT is its resource-based architecture, which keeps integrations clean, secure, and reusable.

You can define storage endpoints as “Resources” (e.g., Azure Blob / ADLS / SFTP). Those resources can then be referenced in workflows without exposing credentials. This helps ensure:

Separation of duties (admins configure, developers consume)

Security (credentials are centrally managed)

Reusability across projects

🔹 2. Seamless Integration with Azure Storage (ADLS / Blob)

GoAnywhere provides native connectors for Azure storage, including ADLS Gen2. Key aspects include:

Supports Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS) integration via Cloud Connector

Uses:

Azure Storage Accounts (Gen2)

Azure AD (App registration: Client ID, Tenant ID)

Enables:

Upload / Download / Move files to ADLS

Treat ADLS as a file repository or virtual folder

📌 Setup typically involves:

Storage account creation

Azure AD registration for authentication

Configuring Cloud Connector in GoAnywhere

➡️ The ADLS connector allows integration and transfer directly with Azure storage services.

🔹 3. Identity & Security Integration (Enterprise-grade)

Another major advantage is how well it integrates with the Azure security stack:

Azure Active Directory (AAD) / Entra ID for identity

Key Vault for secrets (optional)

Secure protocols: SFTP, FTPS, HTTPS, AS2

It also supports end-to-end encryption (AES, PGP).

📌 This helps with:

Centralized IAM control

Compliance readiness (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)

Strong audit + logging

➡️ GoAnywhere integrates with Azure services like AAD for identity and supports secure file transfer protocols.

🔹 4. Powerful Workflow Automation (Core Strength)

For DevOps and data pipeline use cases, the biggest differentiator is the workflow automation:

Drag-and-drop workflow orchestration

Multi-step pipelines (Extract → Transform → Encrypt → Transfer)

Event-based triggers (file arrival in ADLS, scheduled jobs)

API/CLI integration for CI/CD

🔹 5. Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Connectivity

This is especially useful in environments that include Databricks, Snowflake, and SFTP.

It works across:

On-prem systems

Azure / AWS storage

External partners (B2B)

And it can move files between flows like ADLS → SFTP → Databricks → Snowflake.

📌 Overall, it acts as a centralized hub for data movement.

➡️ GoAnywhere supports hybrid cloud environments and integrates with cloud storage like Azure.

🔹 6. Centralized Monitoring & Audit

For governance and process controls, the centralized monitoring and audit capabilities are important:

Full audit logs of who accessed files and what transfers happened

Alerts (success/failure)

Compliance reports

➡️ Provides centralized monitoring and audit capabilities for file transfers.

What I like best about GoAnywhere MFT is its ability to abstract storage systems into reusable resources, enabling secure and scalable integrations with platforms like Azure ADLS. It lets you configure Azure storage as centralized resources mapped to workflows, which supports separation of credentials, stronger security, and reusability. Combined with Azure AD integration, robust encryption, and native connectors, it provides a seamless way to move data across cloud and hybrid environments. On top of that, its workflow automation, event-driven triggers, and centralized monitoring make it highly efficient for managing enterprise data transfers—especially when you’re dealing with SFTP integrations, cloud storage, and governed data pipelines. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I dislike about GoAnywhere MFT is that while it is powerful, it can become quite complex to manage, especially when dealing with multiple resource mappings and integrations. The abstraction of storage systems like Azure ADLS into resources is useful, but maintaining these virtual mappings across environments can be confusing and sometimes difficult to troubleshoot, particularly when issues arise in workflows. The platform also has a noticeable learning curve for new users, as understanding its workflow design, connectors, and configurations takes time. In addition, the user interface can feel a bit dated and not as intuitive for advanced use cases, and integration with some external systems or connectors is not always seamless. There are also occasional performance and stability concerns under heavy workloads, along with limited flexibility in certain features like scheduling and error handling. Overall, while the tool is robust, it requires strong familiarity and careful management to use it effectively at scale Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We use GoAnywhere MFT for process and job automation, moving files, and job scheduling. It has drastically improved efficiency and surprised us with how versatile and useful it is. I love that it integrates with many different platforms and is really user-friendly. I like the job logging, which makes it easy to audit file-level actions, and the change management/change tracking features that help us see when or who made changes. The platform generally has good reliability. The initial setup was extremely easy, and I appreciate being able to set up resources once and reference them by name in GoAnywhere jobs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software comes out of the box with a Derby database, which is powerful, but has limitations for growth and performance. We are at the point where we have outgrown the Derby database, and have experienced a few reliability issues because of it. For example, the database recently became corrupted for no apparent reason, but thankfully GoAnywhere MFT's built-in DB backup allowed us to quickly recover a backup copy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love the ease of use of GoAnywhere MFT and how robust the language is. The file transfer engine works really well, which is important for our operations. The product has a lot of uptime with no downtime, which is crucial for us as we rely heavily on it for managing enterprise-wide file transfers. Also, the setup process was fairly simple despite the networking aspect. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Oh, I think that the support and support site could use a little help. It was a little more robust, and it seems like it has gotten maybe more difficult to find information when I do need help with something. Most of the limitations that I run across are just developmental type issues because it does attach to so many different platforms like Azure and SharePoint that I understand that some stuff has to be built out before it works flawessly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The system offers a wide range of modules and features, such as a web client portal for collaborating with external users, automation functionality to process and move files, and various connector integrations. I also appreciate the quality of support, whether I’m asking general questions or need technical assistance. The administrator portal is simple and straightforward to use and configure. Performance is another strong point for me as well, since I’ve had very few issues related to performance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While the system has a lot of reporting features, many of the reports are static and not customizable. More could be done to expand reporting options, including user and admin reports as well as access reporting.

Another area is the Web Client. It previously had an applet feature that allowed users to upload folder structures along with their files, but it seems this is no longer supported in modern browsers. This is something I would like to see addressed and fixed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The simplicity of implmentation and learning the product. Creating projects and resources is semi-intuitive, as long as you have a basic understanding of workflows and sudo code. Each page you navigate to has a helpful "?" you can click on to get full details on all options available for use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We really like the product, but support has been extremely disappointing and I have no reason to think it will get any better . I believe this is primarily due to the product’s growing popularity and an insufficient support team to handle all technical requests. Additionally, since we are on the IBM i system, I feel that much of the IBM i expertise has been lost over time.

Lastly, Fortra has taken advantage to charge unreasonable license fees every time we do a machine upgrade. We were extremely frustrated with the prices they charged us. We were one of their early customers and have been with them a long time. When we got on a call with our account reps, they gave us the attitude of "deal with it". This set the tone going forward. It's clear that Fortra is not for focused on selling a good product, but could care less about quality support or overcharging their customers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.