Recently while discussing how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress, one of our users asked us for recommended FTP clients. There are plenty of free FTP clients available. In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best FTP clients for WordPress beginners. The goal here is to find the most reliable, secure, and easy to use FTP tool for all your WordPress file editing and uploads.
What is FTP and Why You Need it for WordPress?
File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a special internet protocol that allows you to upload and download files between your computer and a web hosting server.
An FTP client is a software that provides you a user interface to perform file transfer. See our guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress for more details.
FTP Clients for Windows
If you are using a computer running Microsoft Windows operating system, then you are in luck. There are many great free and paid FTP software that you can use. Here are some of our favorites.
1. WinSCP
WinSCP is one of the most powerful and easy to use FTP client for Windows users. Despite the fact that it feels like there are too many things on the user interface, WinSCP is actually quite easy to learn.
On your left hand, you have files on your computer and on your right hand the files on your server. Just click on a file to download, upload, or edit it.
For advanced users, WinSCP has all the features that you would need from a powerful FTP client. It supports SFTP, SSH, and of course the plain old FTP. Handling files and assigning default editors is quite easier.
2. FireFTP
FireFTP is available as free add-on for Mozilla Firefox web browser. The user experience is flawless because FireFTP seamlessly blends into the web browser. Most importantly, since FireFox is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms, you can use FireFTP on any of these operating systems.
3. FileZilla
FileZilla is one of the most popular free FTP clients for Windows, and it is available on all other platforms as well.
It is perhaps, the most easy to use FTP client. However, the reason we have placed it on the third position is because Windows users have reportedly found adware or spyware packaged into FileZilla downloads. You can uncheck the box during the installation to opt-out from adware, but since many of our users are beginners, we are afraid that they may miss it and eventually end up with an adware on their computer.
Our experienced users can install Filezilla from official website. Linux users will find Filezilla available in their distros official repositories.
FTP Clients for Mac
Several FTP clients available for Windows are also available for Mac. Like FireFTP and FileZilla. However, they look a bit out of place in Mac as they do not integrate well with the operating system’s native appearance.
Here are some FTP clients for Mac that are easy to use and also offer a better user experience on Mac.
4. Transmit
Transmit is the most popular FTP client for Mac, particularly among web developers. It comes with an extremely powerful set of features like folder syncing, disk feature, and higher speeds. Transmit beautifully integrates into your native Mac environment which makes it super easy for Mac users to learn and use it quickly.
Transmit is not a free software, and it will cost you around $34 for a single license.
5. Cyberduck
CyberDuck is a free and open source FTP client for Mac and Windows. It is extremely easy to use and integrated beautifully in your native Mac environment. It supports Mac features like storing your login credentials in keychain and locating files in finder. You can even select your preferred editor and open files for editing with the click of a button.
FTP Clients for Linux
Linux based operating systems have a huge collection of FTP programs. Many of these programs run in command line which makes them quite difficult for beginners. You can also use cross-platform FTP clients like FireFTP and Filezilla on linux.
Here are a few more FTP clients for Linux with GUI.
6. gFTP
gFTP is a simple open source FTP client for Linux based operating systems. It has a clean user interface which makes it easy for users to learn its features. It supports FTP, FTPS (control connection only), HTTP, HTTPS, SSH and FSP protocols. Uploading and editing files is similar to FileZilla.
We hope this article helped you find the best FTP client for uploading files to WordPress. You may also want to take a look at our beginner’s guide to pasting code snippets in WordPress.
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