Best FTP Server for Windows

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FTP servers are important for transferring files between your computer and a FTP server. You need a server that is easy to use, reliable, and has many features. We’ve gathered the best FTP servers for Windows, best ftp server for windows 10, best ftp server for linux and the best free ftp server for windows so that you can choose the one that is right for your needs.

Best FTP Server for Windows

FTP stands for “file transfer protocol”. FTP servers communicate with clients over the Internet to upload, download, and manage files. FTP servers come in a variety of flavors, including Windows FTP servers and Unix FTP servers.

The three main types of FTP servers are ftp1 (Windows), ftp2 (Unix), and rsync (Linux). Each type has its own set of benefits and drawbacks.

ftp1 is the most popular type of FTP server and is easy to use. It’s perfect for people who don’t have a lot of experience with computers or who just want to transfer files quickly between devices. ftp1 can be used on both localhost and remote hosts.

ftp2 is more versatile than ftp1 and can be used on different platforms such as Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux, AIX, HP-UX, DOSBox, CentOS 6+, Oracle Linux 5+, FreeBSD 9+, Netscape Communicator 4.x+, Mozilla Thunderbird 3.5+

rsync is the newer version of ftp2 and is more reliable than past versions. It can transfers large files faster than ftp1 and doesn’t require a password to access files. rsync also works on different platforms such as Mac OS X 10_8 Mountain Lion+, Windows 7 through 8., FreeBSD 8+.

What are the Different Types of FTP Servers

There are three main types of FTP servers:

• FTPServer: This typeof server stores data on a local computer only and does not allow users to transfer files over the Internet (i.e., it’s an HTTP server).

• SFTPserver: Thistypeofserverstores data on a local computer but allows users totransferfilesovertheInternet (it’s an SFTP server).

• FTPServer Plus: This typeofserverallowsusers tovestransferfilesovertheInternetandoffersadditionalfeatures(such as remote sharing).

In addition tpserver4 Lisownloadable from the command line enables youtosharefileswith othersonlineforthespreadingof Filesharing On Demand software products.

What are the Different Benefits of FTP Servers

Some of the benefits of using a FTP server include:

• Increased Speed: A FTP server can speed up the process of transferring files by allowing you to access them from anywhere in the world.

• Simplified File Management: With a FTP server, you can manage your files more easily and efficiently than ever before.

• Reliable Connection: FTP servers are typically reliable, meaning that they won’t let you down when you need them to.

• Multi-Platform Support: If you’re using a FTP server on multiple platforms, you can ensure that your data is stored correctly on each platform.

How to Use FTP Servers to Share Files.

FTP servers can be used to store and share files. To use a FTP server, you first need to create an account and set up your preferences. After creating an account, you can access your FTP server by logging in to your computer. Once logged in, you can use the following command to share a file:

ftp -s /path/to/file my ftpserver

The -s option tells FTP to send the file (specified by the path) to the specified FTP server. The my ftpserver argument tells FTP where to find your FTP server.

Best FTP Servers for Windows

1. Wing FTP Server

Wing FTP Server is FTP software for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS that is simple to use, secure, and powerful. It supports a variety of file transfer protocols, including FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, and SFTP, allowing users to connect to the server in a variety of ways.

It gives administrators access to the server via a web-based interface from anywhere. You can also keep track of server performance and online sessions and receive email notifications regarding important server events.

Features

  • The Android/iOS app allows you to easily transfer and manage remote FTP files while you’re on the go.
  • Event manager to execute Lua script, send an email notification, or run a 3rd party program.
  • Windows AD/LDAP authentication is supported, and data is stored in XML files or an ODBC/MySQL database.
  • Wing Gateway provides high availability via a cluster.

The free version of Wing FTP solutions has limited functionality, whereas the commercial versions are more secure, robust, and handle numerous domains and users.

2. FileZilla Server

FileZilla is an open source FTP server for Windows. It supports FTP and FTP over TLS which provides encryption between the server and client. 

FileZilla server has a simple and easy to use interface. It provides basic functionality that you would expect in an FTP server like creating user accounts, speed limits, logging, IP filtering, groups, and granular permissions. 

It is a good choice for basic FTP tasks such as uploading and downloading files internally. It lacks enterprise features so I would be cautious about making this available externally. It used FTP by default so it is insecure, you will need to enable FTP over TLS to encrypt traffic. 

Setup is easy just run the installer, select an admin port and launch the server interface. Then you just need to create users or groups with permissions to a home directory and you’re ready to go. 

3. Xlight FTP Server

What We Like

  • Lightweight.
  • Supports secure file transfers.
  • Remote administration feature.
  • Supports multiple connections at once.

What We Don’t Like

  • More difficult to use for FTP novices.
  • Can be complicated to configure.

Xlight is a free FTP server that’s more modern-looking than FileZilla Server and also includes tons of settings that you can modify to your liking.

After you create a virtual server, double-click it to open its settings, where you can modify the server port and IP address, enable security features, control bandwidth usage for the server, define how many users can be on your server, and set an explicit maximum login count from the same IP address.

An interesting feature in Xlight is that you can set the maximum idle time for users to get kicked out if they aren’t communicating with the server.

The Xlight FTP Server can use SSL and can require clients to use a certificate. It also supports ODBC, Active Directory, and LDAP authentication.

Xlight is free for personal use only and works with Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

You can download this FTP server as a portable program so that it doesn’t need to be installed, or you can install it on your computer like a regular application.

4. Titan FTP Server

Titan FTP Server offers the industry’s most secure file transfers. It is the most comprehensive FTP Server accessible, with powerful security features and top-tier technical support.

Cisco Systems recommends it as one of the few SFTP Server solutions for backing up their full Unified Communications (UC) Suite.

Titan FTP Server has a WebUI that allows users to upload and download files quickly without any additional software or plugins. It has simple administrator and configuration settings that allow administrators to oversee and administer at granular levels.

Its management console, which includes real-time monitoring, disc quotas, and other features, may be managed remotely to control server settings, events, and users.

Features

  • Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms are all supported.
  • Compatibility with several browsers
  • For secure file transfer, HTTPS protocol is used.
  • Multiple files and folders can be transferred with a single drag and drop.

Titan FTP Server supports FTP, FTPS, and SFTP and is available as an Azure or AWS-based application or as an on-premises license.”

5. SolarWinds SFTP/SCP Server

SolarWinds SFTP/SCP server is designed for network and system administrators. It is an ideal FTP server for backing up configuration files, downloading images, and large file transfers. 

It is secure by default and uses TCP port 22 to securely transmit data over an unsecured connection. 

I personally use this for backing up the configurations on Cisco routers and switches. 

The install is super easy, requires minimal configuration (just a username and password) and you are all set. It can be set to run as a service so it is always available. 

Best Ftp Server For Windows 10

1. FileZilla Server

What We Like

  • Intuitive interface.
  • Perform file transfers simultaneously.
  • Supports secure file transfers.
  • Bookmarks for fast connections.

What We Don’t Like

  • Can’t edit files from inside the app.
  • Does not refresh folder views automatically.

FileZilla Server is an open-source and free server application for Windows. It can administer a local server as well as a remote FTP server.

You can choose which ports the program should listen on, how many users can be connected to your server at once, the number of CPU threads the server can use, and timeout settings for connections, transfers, and logins.

Some security features include auto-banning an IP address if it fails to login successfully after so many attempts, an option to enable FTP over TLS with the ability to disallow unencrypted FTP, and IP filtering so that you can prevent certain IP addresses or IP address ranges from connecting to your FTP server.

It’s also effortless to take your server offline or quickly lock the FTP server with one click to ensure that no new connections to your server can be made until you unlock it.

You also have full access to the creation of users and groups with FileZilla Server, which means you can throttle bandwidth for some users and not others and provide select users with permissions like read/write, but others with only read access.

2. Serv-U FTP

SolarWinds offers an on-premise collaboration solution called Serv-U File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server that allows businesses to share files with their commercial partners.

File management, user group formation, and rights management are all important aspects of this software. Serv-U offers to upload, browse, and download files through a mobile device interface and a web client through robust security.

It also has a drag-and-drop feature for transferring files and creating user groups. The solution includes a built-in plugin called Web Client Pro that allows users to send huge files. Users can also send multiple files at once.

It is possible to set a number of sessions on the server to avoid bandwidth throttling. It also aids file transfer administration by allowing users to watch and monitor sessions in real-time.

Features

  • File transfer over IPv4 and IPv6 networks using FTP and FTPS
  • To avoid data loss during transfer, encrypt files using SSL/TLS protocols.
  • Transfer multiple and huge files larger than 3GB.
  • Corporate sensitive files can be automatically transferred or erased after transfer.

Serv-U Managed File Transfer Server is the next upgraded version, with greater security, management controls, and compliance.

3. Cerebus FTP Server

Cerebus FTP server supports several file transfer protocols such as FTP, SFTP, FTPS, HTTP/S, and SCP. 

Cerebus is a commercial product that comes in four different versions, personal, standard, professional and enterprise. 

Features include multiple protocol support, enhanced security features like 2 factor authentication, password policy settings, full active directory integration, API support, event notification, web transfer client, file retention and compliance tools.

Cerebus also includes great options for reporting and auditing of data and user activity. It also includes robust file integrity checking using strong checksums. 

With the four different versions, Cerebus provides options for personal use up to enterprise business use. 

4. CompleteFTP

What We Like

  • Simple installation.
  • Supports encrypted file transfers.
  • Many customization options.
  • More features than most FTP servers.

What We Don’t Like

  • Full menu hidden by default.
  • Has occasional performance issues.
  • Limited features in free version.

CompleteFTP is another free Windows FTP server that supports both FTP and FTPS.

This program has a full graphical user interface and is easy to use. The interface is pretty bare, and the settings are hidden in the side menu and are simple to access.

Step-by-step guides are built into the CompleteFTP install, so you can select Step-by-step guides at the top of the program at any time to learn how to use the different features and options.

This program installs as a trial of the professional edition. See the instructions on the download page to learn how to activate the free edition of CompleteFTP (all the features above are in the free version).

Best Free Ftp Server For Windows

1. Core FTP Server

What We Like

  • Quick setup.
  • Supports encrypted file transfers.
  • Supports Active Directory.
  • Simple interface.

What We Don’t Like

  • Free version only supports three domains.

Core FTP Server is an FTP server for Windows that comes in two versions.

One is a minimal server that’s simple to understand and easy to set up in about a minute. It’s 100 percent portable and has you choose a username, password, port, and root path. There are a few other settings as well if you want to configure them.

The other version of Core FTP Server is the full-fledged server. You can define the domain name, have it auto-start as a service, add multiple user accounts with detailed access permissions and restrictions, designate access rules, and more.

Both versions of this FTP server come as 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows. 

2. Filezilla

Filezilla is a free and open-source FTP client. The FileZilla Client provides a secure FTP connection through FTPS and SFTP.

FileZilla offers help through its forums, wiki, and bug and feature request trackers.

If you are looking for secure protocol support like FTPS and SFTP, then Filezilla Pro is recommended. It even supports WebDAV, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Microsoft Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage, etc.

For debugging purposes, events are logged to a file and saved at a specific place.

Features

  • FTP and encrypted FTP, such as FTPS (server and client) and SFTP, are used to transfer files.
  • The latest version of internet protocol, IPv6, is supported
  • Transfer speed limitations can be set to limit the pace at which files are transferred, which helps to reduce file transfer errors.
  • HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5, and FTP-Proxy are all supported.

It comes in client and server versions. Server edition can be utilized if you want to share your data with others.

3. Titan FTP Server

Titan FTP is a commercial product for small to large businesses, it also comes in different versions. 

Just like the other FTP server programs Titan supports multiple protocols that allow for secure file transfers. 

Titan allows you to configure granular control down to the user level, set permissions by servers, groups or users.  Titan also includes a web interface in the enterprise edition and allows clients to access and upload files without an FTP client. 

Titan has hacking prevention mechanisms built into the product. If unauthorized attempts of password guessing are detected the server can ban future access from the client IP. 

Best Ftp Server For Linux

1. Pure-FTPd – modern, cross-platform FTP server

Pure-FTPd is a free, open source FTP server which aimed primarily at Unix/Linux operating system. The program has even been ported to Android. Pure-FTPd was designed with security in mind, and thanks to the open nature of it, the codebase is always up-to-date and audited for exploits by the community. Pure-FTPd installation is easy, in fact, a beginner can get a Pure-FTPd based FTP server up and running in under 5 minutes without much configuration other than the default values.

Pure-FTPd features
  • Can be ran as non-root user as an extended security measure. Supports built-in chroot() emulation and virtual users.
  • Pure-FTPd supports SSL/TLS encryption with OpenSSL library.
  • Compiles and runs natively on Linux, MacOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, FreeBSD, Solaris and derivatives, Tru64, Irix, HPUX and AIX. Pre-built binary packages are available for many different operating systems.
  • Server messages are available in many languages, including English, German, Romanian, French, Polish, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Slovak, Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian and Catalan. Users can further translate these messages into other languages easily.
  • Automatically hide dot-files such as .htaccess or .env files to anonymous users by default, avoiding common brute-forcing attacks against FTP server configuration files.
  • Companion FTP server analytics program available. Running pure-ftpwho command shows a table with active sessions, user bandwidth, filenames, locations, and many details about the server.

2. ProFTPd

ProFTPd is the most configurable and popular free FTP server provider. It uses an original design and implementation. However, it is not a branch of FTPd.

Its numerous service providers allow delivering update access to the web pages of users without even running Unix shell accounts. Hence, it is the best free and open-source software.

Features

  • Configuration of multiple virtual FTP servers and anonymous FTP services is relatively effortless.
  • In contemporary Internet environments, the SITE EXEC command is considered inappropriate. Thus, ProFTPd does not have this command.
  • Source code for audit is only and always available to administrators and developers.
  • It is designed in such a way that it can run either as an independent server or by using inetd/xinetd that depends upon the system load.
  • It has one primary configuration file that includes directives and directive groups. It is inherent to the administrator who is familiar with the Apache webserver.
  • No specific directory structure, system binaries, or other system files are necessary for Anonymous FTP root directories.
  • It’s per directory (.ftpaccess) configuration is similar to Apache’s .htaccess.
  • FTP has shadow password suite support that includes support for expired accounts.
  • It has IPv6 support.

3. bftpd

bftpd is a lightweight, versatile FTP server that is meant to function right out of the box with little or no setup. Beginners may simply install bftpd and get a FTP server up and running without any manual configuration.

bftpd is designed to run as smoothly and securely as possible. Thanks to its nifty size, bftpd can run on a wide range of platforms, including computers, servers, embedded devices, and media centers. The program may be futher configured to operate in read-only file systems, making it appropriate for use with live CDs. bftpd officially supported Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and MINIX.

bftpd can be ran in either standalone or inetd mode.

bftpd features
  • Easy to use and user-friendly configuration.
  • Written in C, ensuring stellar performance.
  • Support most FTP commands according to RFC protocol standard.
  • In-the-fly compression/archiving with .tar.gz files.
  • Built in chroot support without user configuration.
  • Extensive logging system, can log to logfile or syslog, supports wtmp logging/
  • Support for SITE CHOWN/CHMOD.
  • Runs natively on Linux, BSD/OS, FreeBSD, and many other operating systems.

4. Vsftpd

The vs in vsftpd stands for “Very Secure.” It is an FTP server or daemon that uses inetd based services. It can attain ~4000 concurrent users in a production environment of a machine. Moreover, it has 86 Mbyte/sec download over Gigabit ethernet between Linux-2.4.x.boxes.

Features

  • Sturdy per-user configurability
  • IPv6 support
  • Per Source-IP limits
  • Bandwidth Throttling
  • Virtual users
  • Independent or inetd configurations
  • Virtual IP configurations
  • Support of encryption with the help of SSL integration
  • Per Source-configurability

Conclusion

FTP servers can be a great way to share files with friends and family. However, it’s important to use them correctly to avoid data loss or even system damage. By following these simple steps, you can easily make use of FTP servers to share files safely and efficiently.

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