Mac FTP?

November 17, 2005 3:18 PM

Which ftp program on the mac?

Suddenly I'm in need of an ftp application. I've heard so many good things about transmit (plus a few others) which cost 30 bucks. I have no problem paying the money, but I also see that cyberduck is free and has glowing reviews. As someone who knows very little about ftp, and who has to have the software now (no time to try out both), what would I be losing with cyberduck? 30 bucks has to buy something free doesn't, right?

I know I could use cyberduck for now and see if it does the job, but if transmit or another mac pay for ftp program is the better choice I'd rather not spend the time getting to know a program I'll eventually leave.

posted by gtr to computers & internet (38 comments total)

transmit, which you can keep and use for free forever but you're time-limited (to 15 minutes i think).

you used to be able to ftp thru OS9 but i don't know about X.
posted by amberglow at 3:25 PM on November 17, 2005

I love Transmit by Panic. I used SubEthaEdit for HTML and the 2 apps work nice together. Double-click a file in Transmit and it opens in the editor, and saving will upload changes.
posted by terrapin at 3:26 PM on November 17, 2005

OSX comes with an ftp program, but as far as i know, you have to run it from the command line:

1) open up a terminal window
2) cd to the directory you want to save the files in
3) type ftp [e-mail]
4) login and cd to the directory you want
5) type get [filename] (or put [filename])

type man ftp in the terminal window for more info.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 3:27 PM on November 17, 2005

Transmit's my favourite, and I've tried Fetch, Cyberduck and a few others.

I use BBEdit for HTML and CSS, but I might switch to SubEthaEdit soon.
posted by armoured-ant at 3:28 PM on November 17, 2005

transmit! i used to use subethaedit, but now i've been turned on by bbedit, which for some reason works better for me with transmit than subetha.
posted by soma lkzx at 3:28 PM on November 17, 2005

I do love Cyberduck, I've been using it for a couple of months, and haven't felt the need to "upgrade" to Transmit. Then again, I've never seen or used Transmit, so I don't know what's so great about it. Cyberduck is certainly worth more than 0$, in my opinion.
posted by lodev at 3:28 PM on November 17, 2005

Another Transmit here...
posted by i_cola at 3:29 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 to Cyberduck.

Slick donationware.
posted by kjell at 3:30 PM on November 17, 2005

Fugu is nice and free.
posted by istewart at 3:40 PM on November 17, 2005

I like Fetch, because it's easy too change permissions on files. Interarchy is horrible at this.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:53 PM on November 17, 2005

Personally, I'm a fan of Interarchy for a Mac FTP client. It costs $39. However, for free you can't do better than Cyberduck.
posted by RichardP at 3:54 PM on November 17, 2005

Also get acquainted with command line FTP and SSH so you can learn a few things. They're built right into Terminal, and it's uber-1337 to type ftp [e-mail] / mget *.*.
posted by brownpau at 3:56 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 Cyberduck
posted by Sagres at 4:01 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 Cyberduck

+1 Fugu if you need SFTP
posted by omnidrew at 4:09 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 Transmit. Previous version had some bugs but this one's fine.

Semi OT question: Why isn't there an FTP client built into OS X? Well, I know, there is, but why can't you mount FTP servers as easily as other volumes and upload/download/change permissions as easily as with AFP or other servers?
posted by docgonzo at 4:10 PM on November 17, 2005

I use Transmit - always worked well for me, certainly well enough to justify paying for it. Haven't tried Cyberduck much though.
posted by adrianhon at 4:10 PM on November 17, 2005

Happy with Fugu for SFTP.

Happy with Fetch when it was free. (It is still free for nonprofits.)
posted by alms at 4:12 PM on November 17, 2005

Docgonzo has it: I was blown away by how good FTP is on XP compared to X, which can't even write to servers. I suppose it's all part of Fix The Fucking Finder. Hmph.

Are there any FTP clients that reproduce the Finder, without all that two-pane nonsense?
posted by bonaldi at 4:12 PM on November 17, 2005

Another vote for Transmit.

It is possible to connect to FTP servers in the Finder by choosing "Connect to Server…" from the "Go" menu, but as everybody said, it rarely works properly.
posted by designbot at 4:24 PM on November 17, 2005

I vote for Fugu. I see no reason to pay for a FTP client.
posted by gyc at 4:39 PM on November 17, 2005

I use Transmit and love it.

As for using OS X alone, someone mentioned using the Terminal and/or "Connect to Server" from the "Go" menu, but you can also do this: open up Safari, type the ftp address in the address bar, and you will be connected through the Finder as a server.
posted by Robot Johnny at 4:51 PM on November 17, 2005

Another vote for Transmit. Changing permissions is easy. I have to use Fugu at work (I can also use Fetch), and I miss Transmit.

It does seem to crash unexpectedly pretty often though, usually when I quit.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:00 PM on November 17, 2005

One Button
posted by keswick at 5:33 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 for fugu. SFTP, works with textmate, and free as the day you were born
posted by menace303 at 5:36 PM on November 17, 2005

lftp from the terminal is good.
posted by scruss at 6:06 PM on November 17, 2005

Just get Cyberduck (I love it). It will integrate with any text editor you choose, and if you need more features, then buy Transmit. Win-win.
posted by al_fresco at 7:47 PM on November 17, 2005

Cyberduck is excellent.

And you might want to look at this article
posted by dbiedny at 8:01 PM on November 17, 2005

I'd vote for (in this order):
Transmit > Interarchie > Fetch > Cyberduck > (anything else) > Fugu.

Fugu, although free, only does sftp... It also chokes when deleting folders that contain files, or other folders, or anything else. That's no damn good for anybody!
posted by sluggo at 8:16 PM on November 17, 2005

I'm happy with Fetch, which I got for free as a student. It's the only one I've tried, but it works.
posted by danb at 8:20 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 for Transmit. Esp for opening up files in BBEdit and then saving them back to the server directly.
posted by mikel at 8:40 PM on November 17, 2005

+1 for Transmit. Esp for opening up files in BBEdit and then saving them back to the server directly.

You can do that from within BBEdit itself!
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:19 PM on November 17, 2005

I've had some success with fireFTP. Can't go wrong with a free Firefox extension.
posted by anarcation at 10:25 PM on November 17, 2005

Will you be ftping to multiple sites simultaneously? If you will, I'd recommend Interarchy (you can easily open multiple windows). Otherwise, I'd say definitely Transmit. Easy, sleek. Plus, if you're a Quicksilver user (productivity enhancing tool), it integrates beautifully with Transmit.
posted by pollystark at 2:44 AM on November 18, 2005

Thanks everyone.
posted by gtr at 4:17 AM on November 18, 2005

Late to the party and just another "me too!": Transmit is one of the best apps I've ever used on any platform. This seems somewhat lame to be saying about an FTP utility, but there you go.
posted by jdroth at 8:03 AM on November 18, 2005

I also need to chime in for Transmit. It's really quite nice. And the price isn't too bad.
posted by chunking express at 8:13 AM on November 18, 2005

Transmit works fluidly. I have no qualms about having purchased it; it's made my life infinitely easier working with FTP multiple times over.
posted by WCityMike at 10:30 AM on November 18, 2005

I would definitely recommend Cyberduck. It integrates flawlessly with SubEthaEdit (auto-upload on save is great, but I'd be surprised if an FTP app didn't have that feature). It updates you with the fantastic Growl, and I really like how effortless it makes everything.

Also you can't beat the good karma of open source.
posted by Monochrome at 10:21 PM on November 18, 2005