If you are new to the world of creating your own site and find yourself asking, “How do I upload my website?” then the FTP program is your answer.
An FTP program assists you in transferring files from your local computer to the server containing your website files. If you have files, images, videos or documents that you would like to put on a website, then you will need an FTP program to put them there. Plenty of FTP programs are available on the internet, some costing quite a bit. We, however, don’t feel that you should have to pay anything when there are so many great ones available for free!
In order to find the best free FTP program out there, we will need a little help from you, our readers. We are going to start this debate off by showcasing four popular programs and then opening up the comments for feedback.
- FileZilla – FileZilla runs cross-platforms (Windows, Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and more) and supports FTP, FTPS and SFTP. It features an easy to read comparison screen of both the local files and server folders with drag and drop support, remote file editing, and readability in many other languages. There is even an FTP Server version available.
- Core FTP – Core FTP offers most of the same features as FileZilla. Visually, it also appears much like FileZilla and boasts drag and drop support, file editing and viewing and command line transfers to name a few.
- FireFTP – FireFTP is interesting because it actually works as a Firefox add-on. So, if you are a Firefox supporter, you can now FTP your website files in another tab of your browser. FireFTP also runs cross-platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) and supports a secure connection. It features drag and drop use, directory comparison and is made to work in over 20 different languages.
- Cyberduck – Cyberduck is an open source FTP program made for use with Mac OS X. It supports both FTP and the secure SFTP protocols and allows for server side file editing. Cyberduck is available in over 30 languages so users around the world can enjoy its added features of being able to manage Amazon CloudFront and Rackspace Cloud files.
And there you have it! The rest of this post is up to you. Digital Pacific recommends FileZilla, but which free FTP program would you rate as the best, and why?
