What is FTP and SFTP?

FTP or “File Transfer Protocol” is a standard protocol for transferring files between two servers. FTP can also be insecure if not properly encrypted. If you’re using one of our Managed VPS or our shared platform then your FTP connection will be encrypted and secure.

SFTP, SSH File Transfer Protocol or Secure File Transfer Protocol is a different protocol that comes with SSH and works similarly. Unlike FTP, SFTP is always made over a secure connection. This connection can then be used to transfer files between servers and to traverse the filesystem on both servers.

When connecting to us, as both protocols are secure, you can use your protocol of choice. However, if you’re connecting to a system you’re unfamiliar with, in most cases you’re best off using SFTP for the connection. It’s more secure.

SFTP is part of many UI-based tools, and for those, we recommend referring to a guide for the tool in question. In this guide, we’ll demonstrate the use of SFTP through its command line interface.