Comparison of FTP client software
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of FTP clients. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.
General information
Basic general information about the clients: creator/company, license/price etc.
| Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALFTP | ESTsoft | 2000 | 4.1 | Freeware | Proprietary |
| Alliance FTP Manager | Patrick Townsend & Associates | 1998 | 4.26 | Commercial on request, Free 30 Day Trial | Proprietary |
| Auto FTP Manager | DeskShare, Inc. | 2002 | 3.60 | Commercial ($39.95), Free Trial | Proprietary |
| WinFTP | SoftTech Design | 2006 | 2.71 | $19.95, free trial | Shareware |
| BitKinex FTP | Barad-Dur, LLC. | 2003 | 2.8 | $34 | Proprietary |
| BulletProof FTP Client | DigitalCandle, Inc. | 1999 | 2.45 | $29.95, Free 30 Day Trial | Proprietary |
| Captain FTP | Xnet | 2001 | 4.5 | $25, $40 (Upgrade Protected) | Proprietary |
| CoreFTP | Core FTP | 2003 | 1.3c | Free (LE lite version), $25 (Pro Version) | Proprietary |
| CrossFTP | CrossFTP | 2005 | 1.27 | Free , $19.95 (Pro Version) | Proprietary |
| CuteFTP | Alex Kunadze | 1994 | 8.0.2 | $39.99 (Home), $59.99 (Pro) | Proprietary |
| Cyberduck | David V. Kocher | ? | 2.7.1 | Free | GPL |
| Direct FTP | CoffeeCup | ? | 6.2 | $34.00, Free 30 Day Trial | Proprietary |
| Fetch | Fetch Softworks | 1989 | 5.1 | $25, Free for education | Proprietary |
| FileZilla | Tim Kosse, et al. | January, 2001 | 2.2.29 | Free | GPL |
| FireFTP | Mime Čuvalo | September, 2004 | 0.94.2 | Free, Charityware | MPL |
| Fling | NCH Software | 2006 | 1.2.0 | Free | Proprietary |
| FTP Client for Microsoft Windows | Stratolabs Laboratories | September, 2005 | 1.0.0 | Demo | Proprietary |
| FTP Commander | InternetSoft Corp. | 1997 | 7.87 (Pro) 8.72 (Deluxe) | Free, $29.95 (Pro Version), $49.95 (Deluxe Version) | Proprietary |
| FTP Explorer | FTPx | ? | 1.0.1.36 | $29.95 | Proprietary |
| FTP Voyager | Rhino Software, Inc. | February, 1997 | 13.0.0.3 | $39.95 (Standard), $49.95 (Secure) | Proprietary |
| Fugu | University of Michigan Research Systems Unix Group | ? | 1.2.0 | Free | BSD |
| gFTP | Brian Masney | 1998 | 2.0.18 | Free | GPL |
| GigaTribe | ShalSoft | 2006 | 2.19 | Free, $19.95 (Premium Version) | Proprietary |
| Interarchy | Stairways Software Pty Ltd | 1993 (as Anarchie) | 8.2.1 | $59.00 | Proprietary |
| Kasablanca | Magnus Kulke | 2002 | 0.4.0.2 | Free | GPL |
| KFTPGrabber | Jernej Kos | 2003 | 0.6.2 | Free | GPL |
| lftp | Alexander V. Lukyanov | August, 1996 | 3.5.4 | Free | GPL |
| MOVEit Freely | Standard Networks, Inc. | 2002 | 4.0 | Free | Proprietary |
| NcFTP | NcFTP Software Inc. | 1991 | 3.1.9 | Free | Clarified Artistic License |
| OneButton FTP | Aaron Jacobs | 2004 | 0.1.1 | Free | GPL |
| pftp-shit | Sander de Rijk | 2003 | 1.9 | Freeware | as-is |
| SftpDrive | Magnetk LLC | 2005 | 1.5.2 | $39 | Proprietary |
| Secure FTP | Glub Tech, Inc. | 1999 | 2.5.9 | $25 commercial, Free noncommercial | Proprietary |
| Secure FTP Applet | JSCAPE LLC | 2004 | 2.8 | $499 | Proprietary |
| SFTPPlus | Pro:Atria Ltd | 2005 | 2.0 | Commercial, flexible edu etc. | Proprietary |
| SmartFTP | SmartFTP GmbH | 2002 | 2.0 | $36.95 commercial, Free noncommercial | Proprietary |
| SSH Navigator | SoftTech Design | 2006 | 1.02 | $19.95, free trial, can run from web page | Shareware |
| SynchronEX+ | Xellsoft | 2001 | 3.0.7 | $19.95, $29.90 (Pro) | Proprietary |
| Total Commander | Christian Ghisler | 1993 | 6.55 | $34 (voluntarily) | Proprietary |
| Panic, Inc. | ? | 3.5.5 | $29.95 | Proprietary | |
| WinSCP | Martin Prikryl | May 2000 | 3.8.2 | Free | GPL |
| Web Maestro | Croce | 2006 | 1.6 | Free | Proprietary |
| WebDrive | South River Technologies | 1998 | 7.20 | $54.95, free trial | Shareware |
| WS_FTP | Ipswitch, Inc. | 1996 | 2007.00 | $39.95 (Home), $54.95 (Pro) | Proprietary |
| Xftp | NetSarang Computer, Inc. | ? | 1.2 Build 0305 | Free eval, $29.00 to buy | Proprietary |
| Yummy | Yummy Software | ? | 1.5.2 | $25 | Proprietary |
| ZipDeploy | IET2004 | 2006 | 1.0 | $10.00 | Proprietary |
| Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license |
Operating system support
The operating systems the clients can run on.
| Client | Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALFTP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Auto FTP Manager | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| BitKinex | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| BulletProof FTP Client | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Captain FTP | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| CoreFTP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| CrossFTP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CuteFTP | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Cyberduck | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Direct FTP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Fetch | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| FileZilla | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| FireFTP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FlashFXP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| FTP Commander | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| FTP Explorer | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| FTP Client 1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| FTP Voyager | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Fugu | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| gFTP | Yes[1] | Yes[2] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GigaTribe | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Interarchy | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Kasablanca | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| KFTPGrabber | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| lftp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MOVEit Freely | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| NcFTP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OneButton FTP | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| pFTP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| pftp-shit | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Secure FTP Applet | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SftpDrive | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| SFTPPlus | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| SmartFTP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| SynchronEX+ | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Total Commander | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Transmit | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| WinSCP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| WebDrive | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| WS_FTP | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Xftp | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| [Yummy] | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| ZipDeploy | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix |
Protocol support
Information about what internet protocols the clients support. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the clients or extensions that provide such functionality.
| FTP | Secure FTP (FTP over SSH) | SSH file transfer protocol | FTPS (FTP over SSL) | FXP (Site2site transfer) | DAV / HTTP(S) | Compression | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALFTP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| BitKinex | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Captain FTP | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| CoreFTP | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| CrossFTP | Yes | No | Yes (Pro only) | Yes (Pro only) | |||
| CuteFTP | Yes | No | Yes (Pro only) | Yes | Yes (Pro only) | Yes (HTTPS - Pro only) | |
| Cyberduck | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| Direct FTP | Yes | No | Yes | ||||
| Fetch | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| FileZilla | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| FireFTP | Yes | No | No | Yes | |||
| FlashFXP | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| FTP Voyager | Yes | No | Yes (Secure only) | Yes (Secure only) | |||
| FTP Explorer | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | |
| FTP Commander | Yes | No | Yes (Deluxe only) | Yes (Deluxe only) | No | ||
| FTP Client 1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| Fugu | No | Yes | No | No | No | ||
| gFTP | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (control connection only) | Yes | ||
| Interarchy | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Kasablanca | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| KFTPGrabber | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| lftp | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Partial) | |
| mc | Yes | No | No | ||||
| MOVEit Freely | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | |
| NcFTP | Yes | No | No | ||||
| OneButton FTP | Yes | No | No | ||||
| pFTP | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| pftp-shit | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Secure FTP Applet | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| SftpDrive | No | No | Yes | ||||
| SFTPPlus | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| SmartFTP | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| SynchronEX+ | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Total Commander | Yes | plugin | plugin | Yes | Yes | plugin | |
| Transmit | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| WinSCP | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| WebDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WS_FTP | Yes | No | Yes (Pro only) | Yes | |||
| Xftp | Yes | No | Yes | No | |||
| Yummy | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| ZipDeploy | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| FTP | Secure FTP (FTP over SSH) | SSH file transfer protocol | FTPS (FTP over SSL) | FXP (Site2site transfer) | DAV / HTTP(S) | Compression |