At Files.com, we are one of the largest FTP providers in the world. That said, FTP is a 50 year old protocol and lacks some of the more sophisticated capabilities for security and performance found in our direct integrations, such as our Desktop, Mobile, Web portal, SDKs, API, and Command Line app. Additionally, corporate firewalls commonly interfere with FTP traffic.

Please visit our Preferred Apps For File Transfer page to learn about and download the Files.com native apps as an alternative to FTP.

We offer FTP primarily for customers who are forced to use it, typically because they are interacting with a legacy application, or legacy hardware, that only supports FTP.

For those customers, we are happy to help you get FTP working, but be aware that it will never be as fast or secure as our native apps.

Terminology

The acronym FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, which is defined by the standard RFC 959. It encompasses both the unencrypted "plain" FTP and the encrypted FTP protocols. The encrypted variant is commonly known as FTPS, but it may also be referred to as FTP(S), FTPeS, explicit FTPS, or implicit FTPS.

In our platform settings and documentation, when we use the term FTP, it inclusively refers to both unencrypted and encrypted versions. If a setting or document specifically pertains to unencrypted "plain" FTP, it will be explicitly noted. The same clarity will be provided for encrypted FTP.

Currently, FTP and FTPS are often used interchangeably because encrypted FTP has become the de facto standard. Unencrypted "plain" FTP is now rarely supported, typically only found in legacy systems that cannot be updated to modern security standards.

FTP can sometimes be used generically in conversation to refer to any file transfer method, not just the File Transfer Protocol. For instance, someone might say "I'm FTPing a file to you," which could mean using FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, HTTPS, or another file transfer method. In all instances within our platform and documentation, FTP specifically refers to the File Transfer Protocol as defined in RFC 959.