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Peter Gess
16,553 PointsFTP Software
Is there a video or walkthrough on installing FTP software? I have used CyberDuck, is FileZilla better?
1 Answer
Mike Wagner
23,559 PointsWebsite Basics briefly touches on it, and I know that some of the other courses have mentioned/used it before, but I don't think there is an actual course devoted entirely to this. It's also worth pointing out that FTP and even sFTP are sort of on their way out according to most things I've come across. The norm now is SSH, but there are other methods as well. If you're using FTP, there are a lot of clients out there that each have good and bad points. I don't FTP much any more, so I use a FireFPT a browser extension for Firefox that has all the features I need and makes it easy to edit files without necessarily needing to pull them down and reup them. I know there are a few decent ones for other browsers, but I couldn't name any off the top of my head. I used Cyberduck quite a bit in the past (even had Cyberduck alongside FireFTP while I was testing it out for a while) and FileZilla, but I always liked Cyberduck more. FileZilla wasn't as approachable and seemed a bit overkill for the usage I was giving it. My advice... if you use Cyberduck and it meets your needs, it's probably better to stick with what you know. Unless you're going to be a powerhouse FTP user and use it all the time, there's not really much benefit in learning the "monster" of FileZilla.
Peter Gess
16,553 PointsPeter Gess
16,553 PointsThanks Mike. Yeah Cyberduck seems to work ok, but it is outdated. If I am using Chrome do you know a good browser extension? Does that fulfill the same purpose of not making live changes?
Mike Wagner
23,559 PointsMike Wagner
23,559 PointsPeter Gess - I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "it is outdated" without some context, though I know Cyberduck has been consistently updated and patched over the last while. If you mean interface, sure, I would agree with that. A lot of free FTP stuff will seem a bit dated, but Cyberduck still looks to be just as capable at doing most things as the general market. I can't personally vouch for any Chrome extensions, since I don't use them, but you might have a look at sFTP Client v2.
There doesn't seem to be much of a market for Chrome extensions that handle FTP, as most have shifted to SSH or HTTP. That makes the pool to choose from a bit small with Chrome. I know there are ways to convert Chrome extensions to be compatible/installable on Firefox browsers, so I'm guessing the same process could be reversed and then you could bring FireFTP to Chrome. Obviously, this might be a process that's a bit more complicated than you're looking for and, in that case, it might be better to check out other installable apps for FTP handling.
If you're looking for a standalone replacement for Cyberduck, you might have a look at SmartFTP, which has a slightly more modern and intuitive interface. It has a free version which might meet your needs just fine and seems easy enough to use (though, to be honest, I only tried it out for about half an hour before recommending it). If you're willing to devote a bit of energy into configuration and learning something, you might try a more server-side solution like Monsta which offers a web front-end for managing FTP/sFTP/SCP.
I know there are other solutions out there, but I think what it will really come down to is this:
Once you can determine what your needs are and if there are other, possibly better solutions that exist, you might find that continuing to use Cyberduck isn't a bad tradeoff while you wrap your energy up into learning alternatives like HTTP, pure SSH, or some other solution that might better meet your needs, be more secure, or allow for more extensibility than a bit of old-fashioned FTP.