FTP vs SFTP: The Differences and Which One You Should Use
Most users don’t think twice about how they connect to the internet, although if you’re a site owner, you’ll likely use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP). It’s a typical and standard way to access your site’s server, although you’ll also see the mention of Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) too. As such, FTP vs SFTP warrants further discussion.
The good news is that you can often select the protocol you want from within your dedicated client. FileZilla, Cyberduck, Transmit, and others all let you choose how you connect. You may even begin to use Secure Shell (SSH) too, which is closer to SFTP than FTP.
For this tutorial, we’re going to talk about FTP vs SFTP, and break down the differences of each. We’re also going to take a quick detour and talk about where SSH fits in too. Spoiler alert: You should use SFTP or SSH by default, but you’ll find out why throughout the post.
In a nutshell, a transfer protocol facilitates the connection and file transfer between two computers across the web. For example, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a core protocol for serving websites.
An every day scenario where you’ll use a transfer protocol is a file download. Your computer will connect to the distant server, establish that connection, and move the file across to your machine. A transfer protocol is the underlying code and technology that makes this happen.
These transfer protocols also ensure the success of the file transfer. However, as the web evolves, more of these protocols appear in order to match the needs of the modern web. While we’ll talk about FTP vs SFTP in this post, you’ll see various mentions of other protocols too.
FTP vs SFTP: Introducing Both Protocols
Given that FTP and SFTP facilitates data transfers, you’ll find a number of similarities between them. This can add to the confusion, because these similar pieces of functionality don’t tell the full story. For example:
Both protocols let you use a dedicated client, such as FileZilla or Cyberduck, to connect to the server using a familiar interface.
You’re able to connect to a server and browse the file directory.
You can work with files without restriction. For example, you can download, upload, edit, and myriad other actions.
For an end-user, FTP vs SFTP is negligible, because the protocols work the same way at a core level. However, there are key and vital differences to understand. We’ll break this down next.
FTP
FTP is the elder statesperson of data transfer. It predates the internet, and is the first networking protocol that allows for standardized data transfers.
While we’ll get onto the differences between FTP vs SFTP in more depth later, the short versions is that FTP lacks security:
The protocol uses two channels – the command and data channels – to pass information between the client and server. However, neither offer encryption from outside ‘eavesdropping.’
As such, it uses a direct method between the client and server to transfer files using a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) service.
FTP uses port 21 to connect to a server, which doesn’t offer any security provisions.
Once you get into the details of each protocol, you’ll find that the apparent similarities are just that. In fact, SFTP is a different type of protocol altogether. Let’s discuss this next.
SFTP
It’s true that SFTP offers a similar experience and base feature set to FTP. However, that’s where the similarities end. You can also call SFTP “SSH File Transfer Protocol,” which should give you a clue as to how it differs.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was responsible for developing SFTP around 2001, and based it on SSH. We’ll talk more about this shortly. However, you’ll note that both FTP and SFTP are like chalk and cheese when it comes to functionality:
For starters, SFTP offers security and encryption as standard using the SSH architecture, rather than the client-server model.
You’ll only use one channel with SFTP transfers, and SFTP will encrypt the data before sending.
Rather than a direct transfer method, SFTP uses ‘tunneling.’ This obfuscates the connection between client and server, to provide better security.
SFTP will use port 22 for transfers, which (in a nutshell) offers built-in security.
The short way to sum up what SFTP offers is “security.” However, it’s worth talking about SSH too, as this is central to SFTP (and other similar protocols).
How SSH Slots Into the Mix
SSH is a cryptographic protocol that provides encryption over an unsecured network. It’s a mid-90s tool that still stands up today because of its architecture. Its initial success came to the attention of the IETF, who provided standardization of the protocol, then developed SFTP on top of it.
However, between the advent of FTP and the release of SFTP, users still had a need for encrypted data online. As such, you’ll also find another protocol – File Transfer Protocol Secure (FTPS). Let’s clear up the confusion.
Don’t Confuse SFTP and FTPS
Mixed into the history of FTP and SFTP, we also have FTPS. You can also call this FTP-SSL, and it’s closer to FTP than other protocols.
In short, this uses a Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection to encrypt data. It offers the same kind of benefits as using SSL, such as the need for certification, and built-in support from many internet communication frameworks.
For most applications, you won’t want to use FTPS, because SFTP is just as straightforward to use and offers greater encryption.
How SFTP Differs (In More Depth)
There are three central ways that SFTP can provide a better experience (specifically relating to security) than other protocols, especially FTP.
Encryption. As well as the security you get from encrypted data, you also need this to comply with general data privacy directives. For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the US could mean you need to use SFTP as standard.
Vulnerabilities. FTP presents a few ways that data could fall into the wrong hands that SFTP minimizes. For example, human error, data interception, and the verification you get through using SSH host keys all contribute to a better ‘culture of security’ when you use SFTP.
Firewall security. In some situations, you may find that firewalls block FTP transfers due to the number of connections you need to make. However, due to the one-channel approach of SFTP, you have a less complex configuration to get through your computer’s security.
However, although SFTP offers more security with fewer drawbacks, FTP still has its merits. In the next section, we’ll look at the positives and negatives of both in more detail.
FTP vs SFTP: The Pros and Cons
Because of its simplicity, FTP does represent a straightforward way to transfer files across the web. What’s more, because it’s more open with regards to encryption, you have a little more flexibility in how you transfer files:
For example, you can suspend, resume, and schedule data transfers from within your client.
You have no size limitations for larger files.
You’re able to use scripting within an FTP client to boost efficiency.
However, we already know the disadvantages of using FTP, in that it’s not secure, compliance can be a sticking point, and these connections can play havoc with your firewall.
In contrast, SFTP offers a good array of benefits too:
You’re also able to transfer larger files, and in some cases, you may prefer using SFTP to other types of file transfer system.
Everything you do within an SFTP-based setup is secure and encrypted. Of course, plain text such as passwords or file data also has encryption through SFTP.
You have the option to communicate with clients and other SFTP servers, for greater accessibility.
In general, you have lower risks with SFTP because you are ‘locking up’ the data.
Even so, SFTP does have some negatives. For example, SSH keys are difficult to maintain, especially for new users. It’s a double-edged sword because you can inadvertently keep a user out of the system, at the same time you do so with malicious ones.
Whether You Should Use FTP vs SFTP to Connect to Your Site
The quick answer is that you should almost always use SFTP to connect to your site’s server. This is because its level and implementation of security and encryption is a base standard for modern web usage.
In contrast, FTP is not secure. Its design doesn’t take any type of security into account, because at the time it arrived, there was no need for it. You can make a kind of analogy with WordPress here.
Of course, the platform is secure without question. However, FTP vs SFTP is akin to a vanilla WordPress installation. Whereas themes and plugins boost the functionality of the platform, SFTP takes the good parts of FTP, and re-imagines it to provide a robust way to transfer files across the web.
On the whole, FTP vs SFTP is a comparison of two different protocols, albeit with similar names and top-level features.
Wrapping Up
Transfer protocols standardize the way we connect to the internet in lots of situations. However, the technology evolves much like any other. Because of this, we have a few different protocols to use, and not all of them offer top notch security.
The key difference between FTP vs SFTP is in the name. The latter is more secure, and is the one we recommend as default. If you currently use FTP only (and you can check this within FileZilla, Cyberduck, or your chosen client), you’ll want to make a switch and encrypt your data.
Do you have any questions about FTP vs SFTP? If so, let us know in the comments section below!
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Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. 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Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! 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