Top FTP Clients

May 8, 2011 by Zachary Lassiter

When using File Transfer Protocol more commonly known as FTP you have a server and a client. There are a wide variety of FTP clients out there on the internet. Some are built into your favorite browser and some are just programs by themselves. Choosing a FTP browser is very important as you will get used to what you use and you will want it to be capable of everything that you want to do in the future. Here are my favorite and by far the best File Transfer Protocol Clients out on the internet.

Windows Secure Copy (WinSCP)

Windows Secure copy is a very thin and small program that not only supports FTP but also Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and Secure Copy (SCP). For being a very lightweight program it’s great that it supports advanced features such as remote text editing. A version for portable phones is also available for those with a smart phone.

Fire FTP

Fire FTP is a File transfer protocol client that is built into Mozilla’s web browser Firefox. While it is not heavy on the features it is definitely nice not to have to open up a separate window if you are a user of FireFox. This was my client of choice when I was a FireFox user. If you are just using FTP for a small and simple task and don’t need to be changing permissions or editing text files this a great client for you to use if you use FireFox.

File Zilla

File Zilla is a free open source project that works cross platform (meaning there are versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux). File Zilla is a great way to start using File Transfer Protocol as a novice user as its ease of use. To add to the benefit it has all the features of the most expensive programs out there including remote file editing, the ability to change permissions on a file as well a remote previews of files. To add to it if you need to edit files on someone else’s computer there is remote version of the file available to FTP users as well.

Cyber Duck

Cyber Duck is a free and open source not only FTP client for the MAC OS X operating system. Not only does it support FTP but it supports Web DAV, Amazon S3, Quick Look and Growl. With Cyber Duck you can also use the rich features of many of the commercial FTP clients such as remote text file editing, the ability to change permissions on the fly as well as the ability to remotely preview jpeg and text files.

Tips For Selecting An FTP Client

When selecting an FTP client you should keep the following in mind

• What are you doing to be using it for
  You won’t need a rich feature set for just light use
• Security is important
  If possible look for clients that support secure ftp or secure copy and if you server has it available use it.
• Cost
  Most likely the most important factor, but with all the open source options that are great this really should not be a consideration.

What People Are Looking For:

cyberduck vs filezilla, filezilla vs cyberduck, cyberduck vs filezilla 2011, best ftp client, winscp logo, winscp vs filezilla, filezilla growl, cyberduck versus firezilla, filezilla vs cyberduck 2011, secure copy torrent.