I am looking for a good FTP client, which can also handle SFTP. I have used Transit on the Mac, and WS_FTP on Windows which were both good. I was just wondering if there is anything better before I part with my money for Transit.
Try Fugu. As far as I know, it's just a really good GUI wrapping for the Terminal's built in FTP (which is fine, if you don't mind the CLI).
I used Fetch, free because I'm a student, for quite a while before I discovered Fugu and I haven't looked back! Fetch is fine for my older systems running various iterations of the Classic OS, but it's kind of dated for OS X.
EDIT: Also, if you want more information, there have been lots of threads about this subject so you could do a search and find a bunch of different responses from people.
I tried Fugu, but it didn't really do SFTP that I could tell. (It had "SCP" which didn't work for me.) All I can say is that I liked Transit well enough after two weeks to pay the fee, and it's been nothing but smooth every time I've used it. And I do a lot of SFTP.
Until Apple gets with the program about Finder and FTP Transmit is the only choice. This is the 50th FTp thread though!
You're not kidding. It seems this thread comes up more often than any other in this forum. Maybe the "definitive" one here should be stickied but that one's in the OS X forum for some reason (mods falling asleep on the job again.... tsk tsk).
But Transmit is the only FTP software I've ever paid for.
Hah. I've never actually seen Transmit although I've seen many people mention it in these FTP threads. Well, I just went to the website and looked at some screenshots... it's nearly the exact same as Fugu! Is there something about Transmit that's so much better that it's worth $25 vs. $0?
Hah. I've never actually seen Transmit although I've seen many people mention it in these FTP threads. Well, I just went to the website and looked at some screenshots... it's nearly the exact same as Fugu! Is there something about Transmit that's so much better that it's worth $25 vs. $0?
Okay, I have NO IDEA what SFTP is. I know that there is a thing called File Transfer Protocol, aka FTP. Fugu is a good, free application much like Transmit to use it. Outside of that, I don't really know anything about how FTP works.
Basically, it just runs FTP through an SSH tunnel. Most FTP servers I've run across do not support this. In fact, I have yet to use one that does because, simply, the server must allow SSH login and a sysadmin typically won't make you an SSH account unless you're a really trusted client/user.
What's the big deal about it? FTP sends your login information across the network unencrypted. That means any nefarious user between you and the server can snag your login and password and other information in transit.
So if you can't usually get an SFTP client anyway, why is having SFTP such a big deal? I can understand why some people would want a client like Transmit, but wouldn't most be suited just as well with Fugu, which is free? Or is there something else I'm missing?
After just a few minutes, I already despise like Fugu's interface.
On the surface, sure, it looks a bit like Transmit. IMO, Fugu's toolbar icons are pretty ugly next to Transmit's, but I'll let that slide since a determined soul could just copy Transmit's icons into Fugu.
As I tinker with it, though, I realize that they're two different beasts. Here are the differences/problems I notice with Fugu:
In Fugu, you have to show both local and remote sides. In Transmit, I simply drag the vertical separator to the left and the local side disappears. I almost never browse locally; I just drag and drop straight from the Finder or from the proxy icon of whatever file I'm working on.
In Fugu, menu items are bizarro. apple-1 to bring up a connection window? What happened to the de-facto standard apple-n? Not only are items placed in a weird layout, Fugu also breaks a number of "standard" shortcut conventions.
In Fugu, I can't have multiple FTP connection windows open. In Transmit, I can. If I can, it's just too well hidden in the menu hell.
Clicking Fugu's dock icon doesn't recreate the main window. Another break from Apple's HIG. This works as it should in Transmit.
In Fugu, I spent several minutes struggling to figure out why the Connect button was greyed out. I entered a server, login, port number, and directory... no dice. Looks like a quit and restart fixes it. Strange.
Fugu doesn't appear to have a way to show a log of the session's activity. Transmit does.
Fugu's included documentation is out of date. The pictures don't match the interface.
In Fugu, when I downloaded a selection of files, after transferring it presented me with an error saying it couldn't launch BBEdit to rename something. WTF?
For some strange reason, when I make a multiple selection and move up a level in the directory, the selection carries over to the new listing.
In Fugu, drag-and-drop support is from the server is nonexistent outside of the app itself. As a longtime Mac user, I live by drag-and-drop in my daily activities. This one seals the deal for me. No more Fugu on this computer.
Ugh!
Of course, that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that the ONLY way I could test this was to connect to my own machine. Being an SFTP-only app, I couldn't figure out how to get it to connect with any of my regular FTP servers.
So if you can't usually get an SFTP client anyway, why is having SFTP such a big deal? I can understand why some people would want a client like Transmit, but wouldn't most be suited just as well with Fugu, which is free? Or is there something else I'm missing?
If you want to get stuff off your own computer via FTP, if you have SSH turned on, you can use SFTP. If I can't do SFTP on other servers, at least I can do it with the one that counts: mine.
My account at the university runs *only* an SFTP server, not an FTP server. Since people can borrow laptops and listen for passwords in a number of buildings here, they trying to minimize the number of plain FTP servers. What this means is that I have almost no use for FTP at all, and I played around with Fugu for a couple of days and couldn't find any way to do the quick and easy FTP-like interface to SFTP that Transmit provided.
Fugu might be free, but so is gum laying on the sidewalk. Either way, it was useless to me.
Comments
I used Fetch, free because I'm a student, for quite a while before I discovered Fugu and I haven't looked back! Fetch is fine for my older systems running various iterations of the Classic OS, but it's kind of dated for OS X.
EDIT: Also, if you want more information, there have been lots of threads about this subject so you could do a search and find a bunch of different responses from people.
Originally posted by Aquatic
Until Apple gets with the program about Finder and FTP Transmit is the only choice. This is the 50th FTp thread though!
You're not kidding. It seems this thread comes up more often than any other in this forum. Maybe the "definitive" one here should be stickied but that one's in the OS X forum for some reason (mods falling asleep on the job again.... tsk tsk).
But Transmit is the only FTP software I've ever paid for.
Also, it should be noted that we've had a "few" threads of this nature before. Next time try the search button on your top right.
Best FTP Client
Best OSX FTP
Whats The Best FTP for X?
Good simple reliable FTP client?
Ftp Program for free
FTP Software reccomendations ?
Originally posted by Brad
Transmit. Hands-down.
Also, it should be noted that we've had a "few" threads of this nature before. Next time try the search button on your top right.
1/100000 of the FTP thread links edited out
Brad, why don't you make it a sticky or FAQ of some sort on top so that people can see it and not make another FTP thread?
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
Hah. I've never actually seen Transmit although I've seen many people mention it in these FTP threads. Well, I just went to the website and looked at some screenshots... it's nearly the exact same as Fugu! Is there something about Transmit that's so much better that it's worth $25 vs. $0?
Is there SFTP support in Fugu that I didn't see?
Originally posted by oniongirl
Is there SFTP support in Fugu that I didn't see?
I guess not... but I don't need SFTP so Fugu's fine for me.
From the Fugu page (http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/ ):
Fugu - A Mac OS X SFTP, SCP and SSH Frontend.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
Okay, I have NO IDEA what SFTP is.
The S is for Secure. Like in SSH.
Basically, it just runs FTP through an SSH tunnel. Most FTP servers I've run across do not support this. In fact, I have yet to use one that does because, simply, the server must allow SSH login and a sysadmin typically won't make you an SSH account unless you're a really trusted client/user.
What's the big deal about it? FTP sends your login information across the network unencrypted. That means any nefarious user between you and the server can snag your login and password and other information in transit.
On the surface, sure, it looks a bit like Transmit. IMO, Fugu's toolbar icons are pretty ugly next to Transmit's, but I'll let that slide since a determined soul could just copy Transmit's icons into Fugu.
As I tinker with it, though, I realize that they're two different beasts. Here are the differences/problems I notice with Fugu:
- In Fugu, you have to show both local and remote sides. In Transmit, I simply drag the vertical separator to the left and the local side disappears. I almost never browse locally; I just drag and drop straight from the Finder or from the proxy icon of whatever file I'm working on.
- In Fugu, menu items are bizarro. apple-1 to bring up a connection window? What happened to the de-facto standard apple-n? Not only are items placed in a weird layout, Fugu also breaks a number of "standard" shortcut conventions.
- In Fugu, I can't have multiple FTP connection windows open. In Transmit, I can. If I can, it's just too well hidden in the menu hell.
- Clicking Fugu's dock icon doesn't recreate the main window. Another break from Apple's HIG. This works as it should in Transmit.
- In Fugu, I spent several minutes struggling to figure out why the Connect button was greyed out. I entered a server, login, port number, and directory... no dice. Looks like a quit and restart fixes it. Strange.
- Fugu doesn't appear to have a way to show a log of the session's activity. Transmit does.
- Fugu's included documentation is out of date. The pictures don't match the interface.
- In Fugu, when I downloaded a selection of files, after transferring it presented me with an error saying it couldn't launch BBEdit to rename something. WTF?
- For some strange reason, when I make a multiple selection and move up a level in the directory, the selection carries over to the new listing.
- In Fugu, drag-and-drop support is from the server is nonexistent outside of the app itself. As a longtime Mac user, I live by drag-and-drop in my daily activities. This one seals the deal for me. No more Fugu on this computer.
Ugh!Of course, that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that the ONLY way I could test this was to connect to my own machine. Being an SFTP-only app, I couldn't figure out how to get it to connect with any of my regular FTP servers.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
So if you can't usually get an SFTP client anyway, why is having SFTP such a big deal? I can understand why some people would want a client like Transmit, but wouldn't most be suited just as well with Fugu, which is free? Or is there something else I'm missing?
If you want to get stuff off your own computer via FTP, if you have SSH turned on, you can use SFTP. If I can't do SFTP on other servers, at least I can do it with the one that counts: mine.
Fugu might be free, but so is gum laying on the sidewalk. Either way, it was useless to me.