SFTP vs MFT: why managed file transfer is better

Words By John Carl Villanueva
Learn more about how to choose between SFTP vs MFT for secure file transfers. Compare security features, scalability, compliance requirements, and automation capabilities.
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When you first start identifying the right file transfer solution for your organization, you’ll encounter these two acronyms: MFT and SFTP. SFTP stands for SSH file transfer protocol, and SFTP uses Secure Shell (SSH). While SFTP is indeed a protocol, MFT isn’t. Nevertheless, these two acronyms become increasingly intertwined once you explore advanced, secure and automated file transfer solutions.

If you plan on using a secure file transfer protocol in a business environment, it’s essential to understand the relationship between SFTP and MFT and how to distinguish one from the other.

Key takeaways

  • Assess needs, cost, integrations, process complexity, file types and compliance; enterprises often choose MFT over SFTP for centralized control
  • Most platforms bundle SFTP; a managed file transfer solution like JSCAPE by Redwood supports MFT, SFTP and AS2
  • SFTP and MFT secure LAN/WAN/internet transfers; MFT adds broader data security features, automation, reporting and compliance
  • SFTP provides encryption, authentication and integrity; MFT layers security measures like data-at-rest encryption, high availability (HA), nonrepudiation and multifactor authentication (MFA)

Secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) explained

SFTP is essentially a method for transferring files over the internet. It uses SSH functions to encrypt data, authenticate users and check data integrity. SFTP is a popular choice for enterprise organizations that transfer sensitive data, such as financial information, medical records and personal data.

When you use SFTP in your organization, it will typically be through an SFTP server — a server-based file transfer software that allows you to set up and manage your SFTP file transfers. To exchange files, your users and trading partners would connect using that SFTP server.

Here’s an example of how you can use an SFTP server: You work for a financial institution and need to transfer financial data between your company and another financial institution. You can deploy an SFTP server to perform secure data transfers and protect any transmitted financial data from network-based cyber threats.

What is MFT?

MFT is a more advanced method for file sharing. In addition to SFTP, an MFT solution will support other secure protocols such as FTPS, AS2, OFTP, HTTPS and others to give your organization more ways to connect to business partners. Moreover, it provides additional features such as automation, scheduling and reporting. These features help enterprises streamline file transfers and their business processes.

Most MFT solutions are delivered through an MFT server, which is a server-based software application that allows you to set up file transfer automation and manage all file-related tasks. It provides a centralized location for managing all file transfer workflows while protecting your data at rest and in transit.

Here’s an example of how you can use MFT to transfer files: You work for a healthcare organization and need to submit health claims to an insurance company through electronic data interchange (EDI).

You can use an MFT server to:

SFTP and MFT can both be used for secure transfers over the internet, with MFT being a more advanced solution.

Comparing SFTP vs. MFT

SFTP moves a file securely and stops there. MFT wraps that same protocol (and others) in scheduling, retries, auditing, alerts and partner onboarding workflows. One is a secure conduit; the other is a governed system for thousands of exchanges, SLAs and regulatory compliance checks. If your organization is writing scripts to patch gaps — for logging, notifications and escalation — you're doing MFT work without the platform. Other key differences between SFTP and MFT can be found when comparing their security features, performance and scalability and compliance standards.

Security features

Enterprises don’t just encrypt packets — they also prove custody, limit blast radius and monitor every transfer. SFTP covers encryption in transit and basic authentication, but it leaves gaps around data‑at‑rest protection, malware screening, key rotation schedules, HA failover and tamper‑evident logging. An MFT platform closes those gaps: it enforces least‑privilege access, automates end‑to‑end encryption, triggers AV/DLP scans, issues signed delivery receipts and mirrors services for continuity. Evaluate their security features more in depth:

SFTP

SFTP solutions offer most of the security features you would expect, as the protocol was built with security in mind. Some of these features include:

  • Client/user authentication: This enables the host to check whether the person or client attempting to connect is registered on the server. Client/user authentication uses a password and/or an SSH key.
  • Data-in-motion encryption: This preserves data confidentiality during transmission. It’s usually implemented through cryptographic solid algorithms like AES-256.
  • Data integrity: This verifies that the received data wasn’t manipulated while in transit.
  • Host/server authentication: This ensures the client always connects to the correct host.

MFT

Since an MFT platform supports SFTP and similar secure file transfer protocols, it includes the abovementioned capabilities and additional security features such as:

  • Automated virus scans and notifications: These minimize the risk of malware infections during file transfers.
  • Data-at-rest encryption: This preserves data confidentiality while the data is stored on the server.
  • Electronic receipts (e.g., through AS2 MDNs): These enable senders to confirm that a file reached its intended destination.
  • End-to-end encryption: This integrates data-in-motion encryption and data-at-rest encryption through an automated mechanism.
  • Granular user access control mechanisms: These strictly enforce the principle of least privilege.
  • HA: This ensures that the file transfer service is as accessible as possible whenever users or trading partners need it. It requires two servers to achieve this.

These are just some of the many security features in an MFT platform, which makes it a more suitable option than an SFTP server for enterprise organizations that have stringent security requirements.

Performance and scalability

SFTP is a well-designed protocol optimized for security and performance. SFTP works seamlessly with firewalls and other similar network devices.

However, SFTP doesn’t inherently scale. It’s only designed to ferry secure file transfers. Thus, its scalability depends highly on its underlying infrastructure. If, for instance, you deploy your SFTP server in the cloud, then you can make that server somewhat scalable.

In comparison, some MFT solutions — like JSCAPE MFT Server by Redwood, for instance — are already equipped with clustering features that allow you to easily add nodes and scale up your MFT environment without leveraging cloud infrastructure. This will enable you to accommodate more traffic while maintaining optimal performance. Then, if you need greater scalability, some MFT vendors also offer managed, cloud-based versions of their MFT solutions.

While SFTP can help you meet basic performance and scalability requirements, it can’t beat MFT, especially when considering the needs of an enterprise-grade business.

Compliance standards

Due to its selection of security features outlined earlier, SFTP can help you meet some of the requirements specified in data protection laws and regulations like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX and GDPR. However, SFTP still lacks many security features in MFT.

For instance, SFTP doesn’t have built-in malware protection, which is a key requirement of PCI DSS compliance. SFTP also doesn’t have data-at-rest encryption. Hence, it can’t fully meet HIPAA’s encryption requirements, which suggests that electronic protected health information (ePHI) be encrypted while in transit and stored.

MFT offers a more comprehensive security feature set that gives it a clear advantage in meeting more data protection/security standards, laws and regulations.

Deployment models

There are three primary deployment models for secure file transfer solutions: on-premises, cloud and hybrid. Each model has advantages and disadvantages; the right choice will depend on your organization's needs and requirements.

On-premises deployment

In an on-premises deployment, you deploy your secure file transfer solution on your infrastructure within your organization's network. This model gives you complete control over your data and allows you to customize the solution to your needs. On-premises deployments are often used by organizations bound by privacy and compliance requirements specifying that data be kept in-house. SFTP servers and MFT servers are traditionally designed for on-premises deployment. Many enterprise organizations bound to compliance mandates may opt for an on-premises deployment as they gain full control over their processes and infrastructure.

Cloud-based deployment

Cloud-based deployment involves putting your secure file transfer solution on a cloud infrastructure managed by a third-party provider. This model offers scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness, as you (typically) only pay for what you use

Managed file transfer as a service (MFTaaS) is an example of a cloud-based file transfer solution. MFTaaS, or MFT SaaS, is a cloud-based solution that provides secure file transfer capabilities without needing on-premises infrastructure. It is a fully managed service that includes all the necessary features for secure file transfer, such as encryption, authentication and auditing, without the management headaches.

Hybrid deployment

Lastly, hybrid deployments involve deploying a secure file transfer solution that combines both on-premises and cloud-based models. This model offers the best of both worlds and allows organizations to leverage the benefits of both models.

Organizations with complex file transfer activity requirements often use hybrid solutions. For instance, you might need a hybrid deployment if you engage in regular data exchanges with global trading partners while supporting internal file transfers involving highly sensitive data. A cloud-based MFT component can support the first workflow, while an on-premises MFT component can support the second.

Unless your file transfer solution is built for it, hybrid deployments require a lot of custom integration capabilities. Unfortunately, SFTP solutions aren’t built for this type of deployment, so you’ll need to put a substantial amount of effort into architecting, integrating and maintaining disparate environments.

In comparison, some MFT vendors offer on-premises MFT servers and cloud-based MFTaaS solutions that readily integrate. This is the more accessible, more cost-effective and less risky option.

Six benefits of MFT solutions

MFT turns scattered scripts and ad hoc servers into a service you can run, measure and defend. It pulls policy, logging and automation under one roof so operations aren’t chasing failures and security isn’t blind to who moved what. With MFT, you’ll be able to:

  • Apply real controls with encryption at rest and in motion, MFA, AV/DLP scans, signed receipts and least‑privilege access.
  • Hand auditors a clean trail with tamper‑evident logs and role-based permissions that map to policy.
  • Integrate faster through APIs, prebuilt connectors and onboarding templates instead of custom code.
  • Keep transfers alive with clustering, load balancing and failover so maintenance or outages don’t halt traffic.
  • See every flow, user, key and partner session on a single dashboard.
  • Stop watching jobs and instead use automated scheduling, retrying and alerting when a step stalls or fails.

Leveraging an MFT solution will help your enterprise have fewer fire drills, clearer accountability and a file transfer backbone that scales with the business instead of holding it back.

The future of cloud MFT

Cloud MFT is shedding the “server in a VM” model. Platforms are being rebuilt as elastic, multi-tenant services that autoscale, isolate workloads and push controls through APIs instead of GUIs. Zero-trust hooks — OIDC/SAML to IdPs, customer-managed keys, region pinning and continuous malware/DLP inspection — are becoming table stakes as privacy laws tighten and traffic spans multiple clouds.

The workflow layer is evolving too. Schedules are giving way to event triggers, policy-as-code, low-code builders for ops teams and automatic retries that reroute around a dead endpoint. Audit output is no longer a CSV pulled at quarter end; it’s a real-time stream of signed events flowing into SIEM and GRC systems. Large enterprises want faster partner setup, consistent controls across protocols and evidence they can hand to PCI or HIPAA auditors without a scavenger hunt.

That’s the lane JSCAPE SaaS drives in. It delivers SFTP, AS2, HTTPS and more under a cloud-native, managed service with clustering, end-to-end encryption, RBAC and append-only audit logs built in. You get centralized policy enforcement, elastic capacity and upgrades handled for you — no extra ports to open and no weekend patch windows. In other words, it turns file movement into an operated service your security, compliance and operation teams can rely on and adapt as requirements shift. Book a JSCAPE demo to see SFTP’s secure tunnel turn into a governed, automated MFT service with end-to-end encryption, HA clustering and evidence-ready audit trails.