Internet security wasn’t yet “a thing” at the time of its creation, and that’s why FTP wasn’t planned as a secure protocol. It typically runs on port 21 and the passwords are sent over the network in a clear text form. Understanding Important Features for Free FTP Software FTPįTP is the original file transfer protocol and it’s been around longer than the world wide web. Side-by-Side Feature Comparison Client Name Similarly to Cyberduck, it also has support for cloud services like Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and more. WinSCP is the only FTP client that allows you to fully rearrange its visual interface, which is a big plus if you use FTP on a daily basis. It’s open-source and very popular with the Windows community. Last, but not least, WinSCP is the best free FTP client for Windows only. This includes listing, viewing, editing, copying, moving, downloading, uploading, compressing, and comparing files. When it comes to hosting, we usually use them to exchange data between local computers and servers. FTP clients are useful for using on servers such as Cloud VPS. It’s just a piece of software that we use to transfer data between devices on a network. What is an FTP Client?įTP stands for file transfer protocol, which perfectly describes and sums up the purpose of FTP clients.

After all, that’s what matters most when making a decision on which one to use. We will also dig into all the important features and protocols for these four free FTP programs. Most of these free FTP programs work with both Windows and Mac. Want to learn which free FTP software or program is the best? Looking for a convenient way of managing the files on your server? Getting tired of the limited functionality of your browser or your control panel’s file manager? We created this list of free FTP clients based on client capabilities, user interface, and security.

Best ftp programs windows