Files.com vs. Kiteworks

Modern File Orchestration — Without An Appliance To Run

Files.com is the #1-rated managed file transfer platform in Gartner Peer Insights. It’s cloud-native and runs on a multi-tenant deployment that scales with your load. Kiteworks ships you a hardened appliance you size, run, and scale yourself. 4,000+ companies, including Equifax, Cognizant, and Banner Health, secure their file exchange on Files.com.

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Every protocol included

SOC 2 Type II audited

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4,000+ organizations rely on Files.com every day

Real companies. Real file flows. Real results.

A Platform You Use, Not An Appliance You Run

Files.com is the modern, cloud-native platform for secure file exchange, rated #1 in Gartner Peer Insights for managed file transfer. We run it and patch it, and you are live in days on a self-serve trial. Your team logs in and the file transfer works.

Kiteworks does the secure-exchange job as a hardened virtual appliance you deploy, size, and run yourself. There is no published price; the quote comes through a sales process, and the first file moves only after the appliance project is done.

Kiteworks also stops at the transfer. Files.com is built to be operated by AI, connects 50+ tools and clouds out of the box, and drives every action through a REST API and SDKs.

Where Files.com Wins

#1 In Gartner Peer Insights For Managed File Transfer

Files.com is also #1 across every G2 rating for Managed File Transfer. Those ratings come from the IT teams of 4,000+ organizations running the platform in production, across 15+ years.

Patching Is Our Responsibility, Not Yours

Every Files.com customer is on the latest version, always. We patch the platform centrally the moment a fix ships, so there is no gap between a patch existing and your platform having it. A self-run Kiteworks appliance is patched when your team gets to it.

Built To Be Run By AI

Files.com ships an AI assistant and API agents and a hosted MCP server that operate the platform from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client.

50+ Native Integrations

Files.com connects the 50+ clouds, identity providers, SIEMs, and tools you already run, out of the box: storage backends mounted as remote servers, SSO and SCIM, and event streaming to your SIEM.

Live In Days, On Published Pricing

A self-serve 7-day trial lets your team validate the platform today, and Files.com publishes its pricing. Kiteworks is quote-only: a sales process, then an appliance deployment, before the first file moves.

Malware Scanning And The Outbound-Only Agent

Virus and malware scanning runs on inbound files inside the platform, and the on-premise Agent reaches your internal servers over an outbound-only connection: no inbound firewall rule, no appliance exposed to the internet.

Support That Reaches A Senior Engineer

Every Files.com support request goes straight to a senior engineer who knows the platform, with no tier-1 scripts and no outsourced desk, and Files.com is #1-rated for support on G2.

An Appliance Has A Ceiling

An appliance is sized for a fixed load. A big partner onboarding, a quarter-end batch, or a new partner pushing millions of files takes you past the capacity you provisioned for. Then the fix is more hardware and a re-architecture. This is the ceiling teams running a hosted appliance keep hitting.

Files.com runs on the multi-tenant platform that processes billions of transactions a week, and it scales with your load automatically. You never size it, provision capacity, or plan for the spike. That’s our job, not yours.

Archway Replaced Kiteworks With a Files.com Portal That Isolates 90-Plus Client Organizations

A divestiture forced Archway to rebuild confidential document exchange around authenticated, isolated client spaces while preserving the controls its financial-institution clients audit.

Read The Archway Group MFT Story

One Platform To Replace Your Whole File Stack

Every capability legacy MFT licenses as a module, plus the ones it never had — on one platform, with published pricing.

Cloud SFTP, FTP & MFT Server

Dedicated, fully managed SFTP, FTPS, and FTP endpoints, with every protocol your partners already use. No servers to patch and no DMZ to maintain.Replaces IBM Sterling, GoAnywhere, MOVEit, Axway, AWS Transfer Family

See Cloud SFTP Server

File Sharing & Collaboration

Branded portals, secure share links, and request inboxes, plus co-editing for Office documents. Partners and customers get access with no account and nothing to install.Replaces Box, Dropbox, ShareFile, Egnyte

See Collaboration

Fast File Transfer & Acceleration

Move files up to 5 TB at full speed over any distance, with chunked, resumable transfers on standard protocols and custom UDP acceleration in the Agent.Replaces IBM Aspera, Signiant

See Fast Transfers

Automation & Workflows

Trigger on a file arriving, a schedule, or an event, then route, convert, and notify, with retries and alerts built in. The reliable replacement for the scripts and cron jobs nobody wants to own.Replaces fragile custom scripts and cron jobs

See Automations

Data Transformation & Format Conversion

Reshape files inline as they move: convert formats and pull fields out of EDI, HL7, XML, JSON, and CSV, so downstream systems get exactly what they expect.Replaces hand-built parsing and conversion scripts

See Transform & Extract

Desktop Drive & File Server Replacement

Native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android mount your cloud storage as a local drive, so you can retire aging file servers and NAS without changing how people work.Replaces NetApp, Nasuni, aging NAS, Windows file servers

See File Server Replacement

Every capability runs on one platform — SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA BAA available, with a complete audit trail on every action.

Security And Compliance, Built In

Files.com has run for 15+ years with zero breaches. The controls your auditors ask about are standard here, not add-ons.

SOC 2 Type II

Independently audited, every year.

FedRAMP Certified

Certified under FedRAMP 20x at Class A, with Class B in progress.

HIPAA & GDPR

BAA and DPA available, with EU and regional data residency.

Encrypted End To End

AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2 and 1.3 in transit.

SSO, SCIM & MFA

SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, MFA, and granular role-based access.

Complete Audit Trail

Every action logged immutably and streamed to your SIEM.

See Our Compliance Center

Every Support Request Reaches A Senior Engineer

No Level 1 runaround, no script, no callback queue. When something breaks, you reach a seasoned file transfer expert who can actually fix it.

All-Engineer Support Desk

Talk to file transfer experts who understand how you work.

Replies in under an hour
Talk straight to engineers
We watch for problems
We own the escalation

See How Support Works

Onboarding Services

A dedicated Customer Engineer and a step-by-step plan — most teams are live within five business days.

Migration planning
Help on go-live day
Workflow tuning
Training for your team

See How Onboarding Works

Resources & Training

Clear documentation, training materials, and how-to guides.

API documentation
Video tutorials
How-to guides
Yearly in-person customer events

View Our Documentation

“Files.com's strengths are simplicity, ease of use, and the cloud connectors. We don't have to invent custom infrastructure for every partner.”

Tommy Chapley

Senior Software Engineer, Equifax

“Files.com is versatile — it can manage many different situations from a single platform. We've consolidated multiple tools onto it.”

Regis Litre

Chief Information Officer, Rag & Bone

“Files.com is robust and scales to a large enterprise. We get multiple files per minute, per second — and we're a 24/7 organization, so everything has to always be up.”

Nelson Miranda

Sr. Systems Engineer, Spirit Airlines

Files.com Vs. Kiteworks FAQ

What buyers ask most when comparing Files.com to Kiteworks.

No. Kiteworks ships a hardened appliance your team deploys, sizes, and scales as load grows. Files.com is a cloud-native platform we run for you, on a multi-tenant deployment that scales with your traffic automatically, with nothing to provision or re-architect when volume spikes. The only on-prem component is the optional, outbound-only Agent.

Yes. Files.com carries SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP certification under the current 20x program, a HIPAA BAA, a GDPR DPA, AES-256 encryption with TLS 1.2/1.3 in transit, an immutable audit log, SIEM integration, and SSO with granular permissions, backed by 15+ years running the platform.

Yes. Files.com publishes its plans and prices, so you can price the platform before anyone calls you. Kiteworks is quote-only: the price arrives through a sales process.

Yes. 50+ native integrations cover storage backends (S3, Azure, Google Cloud, SharePoint) mounted as remote servers, identity providers for SSO and SCIM, and event streaming to your SIEM. Automation, the REST API and SDKs, and a hosted MCP server drive all of it programmatically.

Every Files.com support request reaches a senior engineer who knows the platform, with no tier-1 queue and no outsourced desk, and Files.com is #1-rated for support on G2.

Kiteworks is the right choice when a workload requires a FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic module or an air-gapped install; Files.com holds neither. FedRAMP is not the difference: Files.com is certified under the current FedRAMP 20x program at a Moderate impact categorization, and the Kiteworks authorization is a Rev5 Moderate from 2017, on the standard FedRAMP is retiring. For the broad commercial market of secure exchange, partner workflows, and governed sharing, Files.com does the job cloud-native, in days, with nothing for your team to patch.

The Decision

If you need a FIPS 140-3 validated module or an air-gapped install, choose Kiteworks. On FedRAMP itself, Files.com is certified under the current 20x program at a Moderate impact categorization; the Kiteworks authorization is a Rev5 Moderate from 2017.

Otherwise, choose Files.com. You run secure file exchange on the #1-rated MFT platform: cloud-native, run and scaled by us, connected to the tools you already use, priced transparently, live in days. The appliance is just overhead: a fixed-capacity box to stand up, run, and scale yourself, for capabilities the platform already runs for you.

Move To A Platform You Don’t Have To Run