8 Best Free FTP Clients

It’s been a few years since WordPress was first launched and all these years, we have been loving it every day even more. The essence of the lovely characteristics that it comes with is what makes it different and the most preferred of the open source platforms available today. The content management system (CMS) features that it offers is something that you cannot find elsewhere.

Don’t you think that the team behind WordPress is awesome as they have been unveiling a number of updates every now and then, thus helping improvise user experience and a high-level of security. Though it comes with such a wide number of features, WordPress still needs to add a number of features that would make it the most perfectionized platform for the developers and the end users as well. Now, some of the factors that WordPress should be taking care of includes allowing users to carry out functions from within the framework. One of the major functionalities includes file management. The problem is that WordPress now doesn’t provide you with direct access to your files, which is what is not expected. People want a free access to these files from the servers.

So, what could be a key to opening up this access to your files? FTP could be one of the best choices.

Now, the question is what exactly do we mean by FTP? Which are the best free ftp clients?

While searching the internet, you might have come across terms, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP). In fact, the term itself suggests well what it is. FTP is the connection that bridges the gap between your web server and computer. It helps in uploading and downloading files. With FTPs, you can now connect your server and FTP, thereby further facilitating file transfer. Also, the main objective of this software is to allow edit, upload, rename, copy and delete files or folders on your WordPress site. There are some important aspects of FTP that you should be keeping in mind while working with it. This interface is not as friendly as you might think if you are new to it. In fact, people who are least familiar with technical aspects might end up scratching their heads when they use it for the first time. This could be one of the reasons why some WordPress users don’t prefer using FTP. But, there are many who really love FTP for the troubleshooting services that it provides rather than depending on it for file management.

You can always use FTP for fixing any kind of errors related to WordPress. One of the major errors that you can fix using FTP is the white screen, which indicates death. Plugin incompatibility could be one of the reasons for this. With FTP, you can delete all the plugins as it prevents access to the WordPress admin area. It is important that you have a proper idea of WordPress FTP clients to find out whether it fits into your file management needs.

Let us first find out how to implement FTP client.

Ensure that you have a FTP username and password when connecting to your WordPress site.

Remember the first time you had started a blog, search for the time when you had signed for the web hosting account, this information would be available in your registered emails. You can always get your hands on to this information on the web hosting cPanel dashboard or request for support. They will reach you out via emails. With this information, you can connect to your website.

Let us take a look at some of the different types of FTP clients:

 Cyberduck:

This is an open source and cross platform FTP client. Cyberduck is easily compatible with Mac and Windows. The user interface that comes with Cyberduck makes it easier to manage files. Also, another feature of Cyberduck is that there are no hassles involved in downloading it. If you observe, some of the cross-platform FTPs might not be necessarily Mac friendly. But, when it comes to Cyberduck, this problem is solved. The best part is that it fuses in easily with the Mac environment. Apart from this, it supports exclusive Mac features. These features include some of the saving credentials within keychain and discovering files within finders. Cyberduck easily integrates with cloud storages, including Microsoft Azure, OpenStack Swift and Amazon S3. This is why Cyberduck is one of the best free FTP clients.

 FileZilla:

If you are reading this, then you might be very well aware of FileZilla. It is quite popular among WordPress and FTP users. This free FTP client is open source and compatible with all platforms, such as Linux, Windows and Mac. Since it has been around from the year 2001, it is quite popular and the oldest of FTP clients around. It is easy to use and handle. Some of the Windows users have reported the inclusion of spyware and adware while downloading FileZilla. There is a box, which you can uncheck to avoid adware while installing FileZilla. But many of the users fail to notice these.

FreeFTP:

A list of features have been listed on FreeFTP’s package. Just like it says on the package, FTP client is free and is one of the best. FreeFTP has been developed by Coffee House, considered as one of the most popular WordPress FTP. FreeFTP is very easy to use though it is one of the beginner-friendly interfaces. It comes with a bookmarking functionality with support from FTPS, HTTP, SFTP and FTP. The combo bookmark is one of the highlights of FreeFTP.

FireFTP

An extension of the Mozilla Firefox, internet browser, is FireFTP. This FireFTP can be downloaded free of cost. This comes combined with TLS, SFTP, SSL and FTP support. The plugin can be easily executed across the Firefox browser since it comes with the much easier drop and drag feature. If at any point, the file transfer gets disconnected, the file transfer will resume as and when you desire at a later point of time.

CuteFTP is a paid option

We thought that it will be an excellent idea to add some of the paid WordPress FTP clients within the list – CuteFTP is one such option. CuteFTP is found to have an unbound compatibility with Mac and Windows. But the price is different for both for an year. Windows version is expensive because it provides a lot more features when compared with Mac version. CuteFTP provides a wide variety of features including support for protocols and some of these include HTTP/S, SFTP and FTP/S. The most important feature of Windows that makes it stand out is the ability to share files among mobile and computer devices.

Direct FTP

Another paid FTP client is Direct FTP. In fact, it is the paid version of the actually Free FTP. This Windows-exclusive FTP comes at a price of $39. Choose the preview functionality to view your changes before you finalize and save this. With the snippet library, you can always add your favorite code snippet. The image editing facility and in-built text editor is one of the reasons why people choose Direct FTP these days, though it costs a few bucks.

Transmit

This paid FTP client is compatible only Mac and not Windows. It is available at an affordable price of just $34. The speed is one of the reasons that makes it the most preferred choice among users. Transmit 3 is one of the speedy versions, but the latest version Transmit 4 is also fast and secure. Some of the features that Transmit comes with include SFTP. Amazon S3 Cloud transfer and FTP.

WinSCP

It is considered that WinSCP is one of the most up-front WordPress FTP client. It is considered to be simple and effective. It comes with all the things that should be present within an FTP client. It is highly reliable, lightweight and effective. It comes with support for WebDAV, SCP, SFTP and FTP protocols. The in-built text editor and clean user interface are some of the few features that makes WinSCP a people’s choice.

Are you looking for website development services? We are a web development company in India offering all kinds of web design services. We are also a SEO agency offering all kinds of inbound marketing solutions. For more information, contact us today.