
Ask HN: What is your favorite FTP client? - nodivbyzero
The latest news about FileZilla [https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10668546] pushed me to look for new FTP client. What do you use?
======
simon_vetter
I'd strongly recommend against using ftp in 2015. sftp [1] should do
everything that ftp did in with a good level of security (encryption, server
authentication and key based user auth). It uses ssh as transport protocol
which means that if you have an ssh server set up, you don't need anything
else.

To answer your question, lftp [2] on the command line, cyberduck [3] on osx.
Both of these tools are capable of connecting to sftp servers, too.

Also, sshfs (+ osxfuse for osx) [4] is definitely worth a try.

[1] [https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-secsh-
filexfer-13](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-13)

[2] [http://lftp.yar.ru/](http://lftp.yar.ru/)

[3] [https://cyberduck.io/](https://cyberduck.io/)

[4] [https://osxfuse.github.io/](https://osxfuse.github.io/)

~~~
BorisMelnik
I agree, many times people just say "FTP" when they are using sFTP

------
akerro
I never could understand why people use anything different than filezilla. I'm
stick to filezilla and scp, depending on server destination, scp if faster
because it's windowless, I did ssh-copy-id so it's also passwordless for me,
then I made alias so I can use `scp` the same way as normal `cp`.

~~~
BorisMelnik
Filezilla all day for Windows. It has every feature I want and need. I've been
using it for prob 10+ years now almost every day, recently started poking
around in the preferences and found some really cool features.

------
atarian
I used to switch FTP clients all the time until I stumbled upon Transmit
around 4 years ago: [https://panic.com/transmit/](https://panic.com/transmit/)

I've convinced several coworkers to buy it as well because it's so easy to
use. My most favorite features is the ability to mount a server as a disk.

~~~
atmosx
I owned (via bundles) a series of FTP client and used even more over the years
(2002 till today.

The most full-featured is by far the command line "lftp" client.

The best mac-client is by far Transmit.

------
islandtech
I don't use FTP, nor do I allow it on my network. SSH or no go.

~~~
akerro
OP is asking about FTP client not protocol. Clients are compatible with many
protocols. Is sftp a go for you?

~~~
nailer
I'd call an SFTP client or SCP client an SFTP client or SCP client.

~~~
joefarish
What would you call a client that supports FTP and SFTP?

~~~
nailer
An SCP and SFTP client.

------
pjungwir
Back in the 90s Fetch FTP was a charming and ergonomic FTP client for the Mac.
(And it still exists.) It's fascinating how back then there were so many
software products I felt _affection_ toward. BBEdit Lite too, Aldus PageMaker,
FileMaker. I don't know what software I feel that for nowadays. Bash, vim,
Postgres, Ruby, but no commercial GUI apps. Oh and scp is really great, you
should check it out. ;-)

------
cheerioty
LeechFTP , FlashFXP... ;)

On a more serious note. If you ask for GUI clients here, Filezilla is still
quite good. But better don't get it from SourceForge, as the package it with
malware, adware, trojans and what not. Oh man, crazy how much SF messed things
up in the past decade... but different story.

------
insoluble
WinSCP -- supports all the encryption goodies, is lightweight, and easily
handles connecting to a bunch of servers at once.

------
businessgeek
I prefer transmit!

------
jordsmi
I second cyberduck.

------
a3n
lftp or curl.

