Few Among Many: Top 10 FTP Apps For Mac OS X.

You can tell how well an operating system is doing by the quality, capability, and quantity of applications developed for the platform.

Take File Transfer Protocol; FTP applications. It used to be ruled by Fetch on the Mac. Now FTP is ruled by a dozen Mac FTP applications. Here’s my Top 10 FTP List.

There’s pretty much a single method to transfer files from a Mac (or Windows PC, or Linux) to a remote server. FTP. File Transfer Protocol. It’s been around for many years, first as a command line tool to send and retrieve files.

Wikipedia defines FTP this way:

“FTP or file transfer protocol is a protocol used for exchanging files over the Internet. FTP works in the same way as HTTP for transferring Web pages from a server to a user’s browser, and SMTP for transferring electronic mail across the Internet in that FTP uses the Internet’s TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer.”

“FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (e.g., uploading a Web page file to a server).”

Without getting too complex and detailed in a review of the Top 10 FTP apps, FTP applications on the Mac tend to disguise all the hard work going on behind the scenes while servers are being connected to, and files are being transferred (up to a server, or down to your Mac).

For the Mac, there are many FTP applications available for OS X. Many. Even Mac OS X Tiger (and Panther) has FTP built in at the command line (and the Finder, though I’ll leave that ugly operation for others to slice and dice).

The feature set of the Top 10 FTP apps for the Mac vary considerably, though most handle FTP file transfers with few problems, many do Secure FTP as well, and most have a ‘resume’ transfer feature in case a connection is lost.

The Top 10 File Transfer Utilities

High on the list of requirements is stability, dependability, and ease-of-use, as there can be many options to sending and retrieving files. Here’s the list, in reverse order:

Honorable Mention
This dubious honor goes to YummyFTP. Not because it’s so great. Bambi says it’s better than half those on my list. I just haven’t had time to try it out yet. $25 for two users.

#10 - Simple FTP
You get what you pay for, and SimpleFTP at $15 is a pleasant FTP application with, well, simple features.

If you’re concerned about the complexity of File Transfer Protocol, SimpleFTP is a good choice as it “modeled on the RFC 959 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Internet standard, that emphasizes simplicity and ease of use.”

SimpleFTP is multi-threaded, has file resume, bookmarks for different servers, and drag and drop. Even SFTP is supported.

#9 - Secure FTP
Security is all the rage these days, and $25 gets you the ultra secure SecureFTP from Glub Tech. Use it for personal use (non-commercial) and it’s free.

The claim to fame here is that Secure FTP allows for 128-bit encrypted secure connections to servers that support FTP over SSL (FTPS).

Also unique is the ability to use the application as a GUI with point and click, or from the command line interface, which means you can script Secure FTP to do work while you’re away (not for the faint of heart).

#8 - RBrowser
One of the first secure FTP clients for Mac OS X a few years ago was RBrowser. If you like the palette metaphor, you’ll love RBrowser as it seems there’s a window for everything.

RBrowser isn’t just an FTP or Secure FTP application for the Mac. It also synchronizes folders on your Mac, and from your Mac to a remote server.

Drag and drop is the order of the day, though RBrowser does a good job of remote editing (not available on all FTP applications) and detecting and negotiating different FTP protocols.

The list of features on RBrowser is extensive and growing, with regular updates. A single user license is $35.

One thing you may note is that more money usually begets more features, more frequent application updates, faster service.

#7 - MacSFTP
Also an early entry to FTP on Mac OS X is MacSFTP. This application hasn’t been updated in awhile but always worked well for me.

It’s one of the few Mac FTP applications that still works fine on Mac Classic OS, though the feature set is limited, security works well on OS X and Mac Classic.

#6 - Interarchy
Both feature rich and attractive, Interarchy has a long history on the Mac and a loyal following.

Again, if you love multiple palettes/windows scattered all over the place, then Interarchy is for you.

The feature list is huge for Interarchy which is both Carbon and Cocoa. One notable feature is speed. Interarchy is fast at downloading files.

The interface is also familiar to Mac users with icon view, list view, and column view.

That’s half the Top 10 FTP Applications for the Mac. Click Here for the Top 5.