FTP vs SFTP vs FTPS – Comparison Guide

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We're setting up a web server at our workspace. In conjunction, we're planning to install an FTP server, however I'm stuck at what protocol to employ — FTP, SFTP or FTPS. I googled around, trying to see what protocol offers what, coming across articles like this, but I can't make up my mind. Only simple, once-in-a-while file transfer is desired; however, security is a concern since the file server is intended to be accessible from the internet.

What protocol is the most apt for my use, and why?

Best Answer

So the two sane options these days are:

  1. WebDAV, nice on the server side, nice for Linux and Mac OS clients, however the inbuilt Windows client has issues.

  2. SCP/SFTP, very easy as you're likely to have ssh anyway, GUI clients easily available (FileZilla for example)

Although FTP is still around I'd really avoid setting anything new up based on it.

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