Which FTP client do you prefer and why?

Question

I have question about FTP clients. Could anybody assist me with it? Which FTP client do you prefer and why?

I can not add new tags, but anybody who have rights, please add, ftp-client tag into my question. — Syed Tayyab Ali, Jul 07 '09 at 16:09
Can you define "best" a little more? What are you looking for: fast, powerful, small, a GUI, some specific feature? — lc., Jul 07 '09 at 16:12
Because there is no right or wrong answer to this question, but rather you are asking for an opinion, this question should probably be made Community Wiki. — eleven81, Jul 07 '09 at 16:30
And since it has very little to do with Server Management, and FTP is an antiquated protocol that should not be used for anything but anonymous file repositories, it should be modified to encompass something relevant to servers - like which FTP daemon is most secure. — jtimberman, Jul 07 '09 at 16:40
on the console ncftp with integrate bookmark feature is the best. For automation lftp ist really cool. — ThorstenS, Jul 07 '09 at 16:43

score 19 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:12

19

I use filezilla

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:12

Jure1873

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I prefer this because it's feature-rich, it's free, it's updated frequently, and the interface isn't bad. If there are additional ftp client features to be desired, I've never needed em. – Kara Marfia Jul 07 '09 at 17:03
Possibly most importantly, my users can figure it out. – Kara Marfia Jul 07 '09 at 17:05

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:20

10

Contrary to other opinions I'm not happy with Filezilla.

I prefer WinSCP on Windows (not pretty but full-featured) and Cyberduck on OS X.

WinSCP is nice because of it's decent SFTP and SCP integration, and synchronised browsing. Also, it integrates with Pageant so I can login to all my server via my ssh keys.

Cyberduck is also full featured, but with quite an OS X interface. Nice is the support for Amazon S3 and CloudFiles cloudstorage services.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:20

Martijn Heemels

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your answer is make sense to me. But I have no rights to vote you. – Syed Tayyab Ali Jul 07 '09 at 16:42
Now I'll have to go try this out, thanks for the detail. – Kara Marfia Jul 07 '09 at 17:04
@Kara Marfia: I like WinSCP features. – Syed Tayyab Ali Jul 07 '09 at 17:43
I use WinSCP as well- it's got a better UI by default, and is self-contained, as well. – SilentW Jul 07 '09 at 18:28
@SilentW: It is also secure client. – Syed Tayyab Ali Jul 16 '09 at 20:51

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:37

5

Total Commander - The one and only.

If you're looking for SFTP / SCP support, go for WinSCP.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:37

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:28

For command line ftp clients, there's a few options:

ftp - The original FTP client. It works, but it's not the most friendly or featureful.
lftp - Included by default on Red Hat based systems, it adds lots of useful features like tab completion for filenames/directories, and lots of other stuff.
ncftp - Popular command line ftp client that also offers a 'visual' mode using the curses library.
wget/curl - Not technically ftp clients, but they can handle ftp downloads. Handy for scripting and one-off pulls where you know the URL (although lftp and ncftp can also handle one-off ftp pulls).

For GUI clients there's dozens of options, but most people will just use their web browser, which has an ftp client built in, for convenience.

+1 for lftp, and i wished i could vote twice for curl. – petrus Dec 03 '10 at 17:35 — petrus, Dec 03 '10 at 17:35

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:20

2

If you use Firefox, take a look at the FireFTP plugin. I love it.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:20

Russ Warren

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:40

Presumably the "best" ftp program would read your mind and get the file for you.

I like to use scp (in *nix or Cygwin) because it works like a copy command; there's no session where you have to log in, then change directory, then ask for the file, etc. Being secure is a bonus, if that matters to you.

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:45

2

I prefer WinSCP over Filezilla on Windows. I use Cyberduck on OSX and gFTP on Linux for GUI-based FTP clients.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:45

Jason Navarrete

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score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 23 '09 at 03:06

2

Cyberduck for OS X
gFTP in Linux
Filezilla for Windows.

edited Jul 23 '09 at 03:06

p.campbell

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answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:47

HappyCodeMonkey

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:55

2

I have always used NcFTP, here is one comparison with some other clients.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:55

nik

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:13

1

ftp - file transfer program

man 1 ftp

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:13

daeltar

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:13

1

Which platform?

On MacOS, I like Transmit (it's not free though), on Linux (and MacOS) I often use ncftp (CLI), otherwise Filezilla on every platform.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:13

Sven

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I will use ftp client on Windows – Syed Tayyab Ali Jul 07 '09 at 16:36

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:15

1

I am a big fan of Core FTP. http://www.coreftp.com/

Note, this is non-commerical only for the free version, they do offer a paid version for around 24.95

I also believe it is Windows Only.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:15

Matt

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:18

1

Windows: FileZilla
MacOS X: Cyberduck FTP
Linux: What ever is built in. :-)

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:18

Frank V

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:23

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Filezilla is a good one, wget may be usefull.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:23

Maxwell

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score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:00

1

tnftp - small, yet comfortable. (Similar to NcFTP but without the annoying bits.)

answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:00

Toto

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score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:30

Like others here, Cyberduck on MacOS and FileZilla on Windows. I haven't found a better free one for Windows, and Cyberduck is really fully-featured and talks to a bunch of stuff. For example you can synchronize against WebDAV repositories including Sharepoint which is pretty cool.

Rodent43 · Answer 17 · 2009-07-07T19:01:21.093

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I know most will frown on this as its better to have a dedicated client really

If I am being lazy and using a web browser (firefox) then i normally use fireftp which can just be used as a firefox tool

or

web based version like net2ftp if im on someone elses computer who dont normally do any ftp transfers

WinSCP is great when you need to secure access

edited Jul 07 '09 at 19:01

answered Jul 07 '09 at 18:36

Rodent43

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score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 19:04

Filezilla has the nicest support for multiple connections / protocols, though I wish the interface was a bit more customizable. I'd rather no local view, just a remote view within filezilla and drag/drop from my own explorer windows. As it stands right now, the only way I've found to hide the local view is to drag the separator to the far left, which isn't quite adequate.

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 19:40

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Konqueror is pretty good, if you're using KDE. It integrates with KWallet to save passwords. Using Konqueror with Kate you can seamlessly edit files on a remote server.

For console there is ncftp or mc.

answered Jul 07 '09 at 19:40

niteria

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score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 19:59

Currently I use two for the majority of things I do:

Filezilla as a general purpose FTP client (though there are some interesting alternatives with high very high levels of windows integraton).
FTPSync link text - this is absolutely brilliant for keeping local and remote folders in Sync.

Murph

score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Jul 23 '09 at 03:26

If you want a CLI, then lftp is hands down the winner in my opinion. It includes support for ftp, ftps, http, https, hftp, fish, sftp and file. More importantly it has good built-in scripting capabilities. You can easily automate sftp transfers using password authentication - something which is normally difficult to do without resorting to expert or something similar.

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Jul 07 '09 at 16:17

Yeah, define best... I don't use ftp that much, and when I do:

I use Internet Explorer internally because it's already on my PC and I can drag and drop files easily.
I use Firefox for most ftp downloading.
I use the command line ftp on windows as much as I use either of the others because it works fine for a couple files here and there and I can use it to get firefox if I don't have it for some reason.

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Aug 23 '16 at 14:07

0

I haven't seen WebDrive here yet, so I will add it. I like it because it's easy to set up and use, and you can map persistent drives. Also, for sysadmins, you can create settings and push them out to all of your users which really saves time.

answered Aug 23 '16 at 14:07

KimSRT

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score -1 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 19 '22 at 10:46

I use "Auto FTP Manager". Auto FTP Manager moves files between any combination of FTP servers, PC folders, Android mobile devices and remote PCs. All the features are free to use. The automated and scheduled transfers are a breeze to setup. This product provides speed and security with SFTP and FTPS. Definitely better than Filezilla in experience.

Which FTP client do you prefer and why?

24 Answers24