But it loses points for a dated, unattractive interface – including when synching – and for its baffling decision to use a single-pane layout. It also offers the ability to synch up a local and remote directory, a powerful feature more often found in paid apps. This veteran contender boasts crazy fast file transfers and an impressive roster of cloud service options: Amazon S3, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Backblaze, Dropbox, OneDrive, and DRACOON. And its ridiculous update system, which downloads an entirely new copy of the app, then obliges you to copy it manually into the Applications folder every time a new version rolls out, would be less obnoxious if it didn't seem to roll out new updates every five minutes.

It won't remember your server passwords from one session to the next, which can be a real pain with a long, complex password. The program works admirably fast when uploading or downloading your files, but that's about all it has in its favor. Getting around FileZilla may be rational, but it isn't pretty. FileZilla (The FileZilla Project, )įileZilla is an open-source, cross-platform app, and that means exactly what you think it does: a boxy, utilitarian, non-Mac-like interface designed by professional programmers, for professional programmers. Unless you're desperate, consider other options. But in my tests, this ran relatively slowly, and I could download files but not upload them. Technically, you can use the Finder's Go > Connect to Server… command to log into FTP or SFTP servers. Let's just say there's a reason people make, sell, and use third-party apps. They don't tend to be as feature-rich as the paid apps we'll discuss later, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're a poor choice. You can find several FTP apps for a cool zero dollars.

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