FREE FTP Clients of Choice

Posted by
December 10, 2008

While FireFTP was my FTP Client of choice for some time, as it can do pretty much anything you want from within the browser, it had it’s drawbacks when dealing with large files. It takes long time, and the progress count is not accurate at all then. Another thing is that, for all the strength it has, it remains a web browser and thus it’s more resource intensive.

 

 

Another nice option was WinSCP Windows FTP client as well. Pretty good for SFTP and updating files on the fly, and it even has a terminal for firing up commands the old fashioned way. You can also change file permissions right from the editor through a GUI interface.

 

The latest FTP Client I’m using and finding also so much attractice is the FileZilla. It is also capable of SFTP, file updates, and file permission changing. It does not come with a command terminal however. The good thing on the other hand is, FileZilla is an open source, multi-platform client so you can get used to it and use it every where.

 

Which one is your favorite?

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  • maryam

    pretty much drag and drop through windows explorer!

    Definitely I’ll try out these clients, though companies are kind of hesitant when it comes to using free softwares!!

  • http://blogallalong.com/ Bashar

    maryam: I just dont get this silly mentality. Do you know the best Kuwaiti hosting company is fully based on open source. Even secretary deskptop is Linux based. They cut down cost, and take control.

    I remember my senior in first job when I spoke of Tomcat as FREE, he said no anyone can hack it. Statistically, open source projects are more secured, and patched much quicker than commercial ones :)

    Windows Explorer is definitely a lot of headache I feel sorry for you :)

  • maryam

    LOL, it’s a lot of headache but I don’t FTP alot! and I didn’t come across good free FTP clients, sometimes one is just LAZY to search, so we wait and come across recommendations ;P and then try them out :D

    3ad when downloading a huge file and suddenly disconnects, have to start all over again! Now I feel sorry for my stupid self ;P

  • http://blogallalong.com/ Bashar

    maryam: Aren’t well human full of stupid mistakes? I see our days as a series of mistakes with some rights in the middle. Being all human, we tend to overlook those massive amount of mistakes and shine with the little rights we do :)

  • http://3baidsblog.wordpress.com/ 3baid

    I used to use SmartFTP, and a bit of CuteFTP back before I switched to Macs.

  • http://barracudaserver.com/products/BarracudaDrive/FileServer.lsp Mark

    FTP is an obsolete and outdated protocol.
    Anyone using FTP should seriously consider using WebDAV.

    Since DAV works over HTTP, you get all the benefits of HTTP that FTP cannot provide. For example: strong authentication, encryption, proxy support, and caching. It is true that you can get some of this through SSH, but the HTTP infrastructure is much more widely deployed than SSH. Further, SSH does not have the wide complement of tools, development libraries, and applications that HTTP does.

    DAV transfers (well, HTTP transfers) are also more efficient than FTP. You can pipeline multiple transfers through a single TCP connection, whereas FTP requires a new connection for each file transferred (plus the control connection).

    Do a Google search for BarracudaDrive, which is an easy to use WebDAV server.
    http://barracudaserver.com/products/BarracudaDrive/FileServer.lsp

    You do not need a client if using Windows or Mac since a client is integrated into the operating system.

  • http://blogallalong.com/ Bashar

    3baid: I may have tried CuteFTP, not sure. Though they’re both commercial softwares :)

    Mark: Thanks Mark for this long and detailed helpful insight. I do use WebDav for some sites, however FTP/SFTP is still my favorite choice.

    I will be giving it further lookup however. Thank u

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  • Ben Kaufmann

    FTP Manager Lite is a better freeware FTP and SFTP client software. The clean interface is super easy to use. It will perform your files transfers quickly and efficiently. It is one of the best freeware FTP clients that also supports FXP.
    http://www.deskshare.com/ftp-manager-free.aspx