Comments on: Mac FTP?

Question: Mac FTP?

gtr — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:18:03 -0800

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.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:25:52 -0800

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.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:26:15 -0800

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.

By: sergeant sandwich

sergeant sandwich — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:27:05 -0800

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 username@site.domain.etc
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.

By: armoured-ant

armoured-ant — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:28:00 -0800

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.

By: soma lkzx

soma lkzx — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:28:05 -0800

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.

By: lodev

lodev — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:28:12 -0800

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.

By: i_cola

i_cola — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:29:00 -0800

Another Transmit here...

By: kjell

kjell — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:30:13 -0800

+1 to Cyberduck.

Slick donationware.

By: istewart

istewart — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:40:13 -0800

Fugu is nice and free.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:53:16 -0800

I like Fetch, because it's easy too change permissions on files. Interarchy is horrible at this.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:54:22 -0800

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.

By: brownpau

brownpau — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:56:49 -0800

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 you@foo.com / mget *.*.

By: Sagres

Sagres — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:01:21 -0800

+1 Cyberduck

By: omnidrew

omnidrew — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:09:45 -0800

+1 Cyberduck

+1 Fugu if you need SFTP

By: docgonzo

docgonzo — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:10:12 -0800

+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?

By: adrianhon

adrianhon — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:10:33 -0800

I use Transmit - always worked well for me, certainly well enough to justify paying for it. Haven't tried Cyberduck much though.

By: alms

alms — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:12:04 -0800

Happy with Fugu for SFTP.

Happy with Fetch when it was free. (It is still free for nonprofits.)

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:12:34 -0800

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?

By: designbot

designbot — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:24:25 -0800

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.

By: gyc

gyc — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:39:47 -0800

I vote for Fugu. I see no reason to pay for a FTP client.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 16:51:24 -0800

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.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:00:31 -0800

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.

By: keswick

keswick — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:33:16 -0800

One Button

By: menace303

menace303 — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:36:54 -0800

+1 for fugu. SFTP, works with textmate, and free as the day you were born

By: scruss

scruss — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:06:28 -0800

lftp from the terminal is good.

By: al_fresco

al_fresco — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:47:21 -0800

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.

By: dbiedny

dbiedny — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:01:14 -0800

Cyberduck is excellent.

And you might want to look at this article

By: sluggo

sluggo — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:16:50 -0800

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!

By: danb

danb — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:20:38 -0800

I'm happy with Fetch, which I got for free as a student. It's the only one I've tried, but it works.

By: mikel

mikel — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:40:50 -0800

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

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 21:19:32 -0800

+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!

By: anarcation

anarcation — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:25:58 -0800

I've had some success with fireFTP. Can't go wrong with a free Firefox extension.

By: pollystark

pollystark — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 02:44:22 -0800

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.

By: gtr

gtr — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 04:17:04 -0800

Thanks everyone.

By: jdroth

jdroth — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:03:50 -0800

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.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 08:13:20 -0800

I also need to chime in for Transmit. It's really quite nice. And the price isn't too bad.

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:30:34 -0800

Transmit works fluidly. I have no qualms about having purchased it; it's made my life infinitely easier working with FTP multiple times over.

By: Monochrome

Monochrome — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:21:30 -0800

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.