FTP Client Software

An FTP client connects your computer to a server and lets you move files between the two — uploading a website, fetching backups, managing files on a remote host. For anyone who maintains a site or works with a web server, it is a routine tool, and the better clients make a transfer feel like dragging files between two folders.

Security is the detail that matters most. Plain FTP sends everything, passwords included, without encryption, which is a poor idea over the open internet. The safer choices are SFTP and FTPS, which encrypt the connection. The clients here support all of these, so the practical advice is to use a secure protocol whenever the server offers one.

Clients differ in the extras around the core transfer. Some keep a synchronized mirror between a local folder and the server, some include a text editor for quick remote edits, and some manage many saved site connections at once. FileZilla is free and cross-platform; WinSCP pairs file transfer with a built-in terminal.

A few listings here are FTP servers rather than clients — software that turns your own machine into the host other people connect to. Those serve a different need and call for attention to access permissions and firewall rules. Match the tool to your side of the connection before installing.