What is FTP?

Introduction

This article provides a quick overview of what FTP is and how you may use it to upload and manage the files in your web hosting package.

What is FTP?

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is a method by which you can upload and download files between your computer and your website. FTP is the quickest and most reliable way to transfer large number of files to and from your website from your computer.

To be able to upload or download files using FTP, you will need a program called an FTP client. There are many different FTP programs available, some of which are open source (free to use) or commercial products.

Recommended FTP Clients

There are many different FTP clients available. that are either open source (free to use), free with limitations (typically non-co or commercial (purchased). We've used a wide variety of them over the years across different operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS etc) and these are our current recommendations:

Please note that you download, install and use these programs at entirely your own risk

1 FileZilla

Our favourite and the one we use nearly every day is FileZilla. It is an open source FTP client that is very to easy to use, powerful and is available for Windows, Linux (Debian & Fedora) & macOS.

2 WinSCP

WinSCP is another open source application that is an easy to use FTP client. Unlike FileZilla, it also support a number of other file transfer protocol (WebDAV, S3, SCP), so we tend to recommend it for experienced or power users.

3 Cyberduck

If you are looking for something a little different, try Cyberduck. It is still a free solution, but unlike FileZilla or WinSCP it is not an open-source project and so it will disable adverts unless you make a 10USD donation.