Comparison of FTP server software packages
Graphical
Name |
License |
Platform |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Cerberus FTP Server |
Windows only |
FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SCP, HTTPS web client, IPv6, SOAP-based web services API, Windows Active Directory / LDAP authentication, HTTP / HTTPS remote administration, public key and client certificate authentication |
|
CompleteFTP |
Windows only |
FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SCP, HTTP, HTTPS, Windows Active Directory authentication, SQL authentication, SAML Single Sign-On authentication, groups, virtual file-system, process/e-mail events, data at rest encryption, protocol conversion for back-end servers, SSH tunnelling, file-sharing (via client app), web-app hosting via server-side JavaScript, remote administration, public key and client certificate authentication, Plugin API (.NET/Javascript), fail-over, load-balancing, dockable dashboard |
|
macOS, Windows (all), Linux (all) |
Portable file server with accelerated resumable uploads, dedup, WebDAV, SFTP, FTP, TFTP, smb/cifs, zeroconf, media indexer, thumbnails++ all in one file |
||
CrushFTP Server |
macOS, Windows (all), Linux (all), *BSD, Solaris, IBM. |
FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SCP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV(SSL), AS2, AS3, Plugin API, Active Directory / LDAP authentication, RADIUS authentication, SQL authentication, SAML SSO Authentication, CrushBalance load balancer, Web UI administration, Groups, Layered Inheritance, Events / Alerts, Protocol Conversion (incoming FTP/FTPS/SFTP/HTTP(s) protocols converted to a back end FTP(ES)/SFTP/HTTP(s)/S3/WebDAV server.), SSH Tunneling, HTTP(S) Tunneling, CrushTask, client certificate authentication, ad-hoc file sharing, keywords search, PGP in stream encryption / decryption, bandwidth acceleration (CrushTunnel), file revisions and synchronization, DMZ front end server mode can also cluster with load balance (supports proxy protocol v1 and v2), DDOS protection, High Availability Virtual IP, data replication and session replication, Job scheduling and monitoring, user config via API, scriptable command line file transfer client. Supports cloud storage via S3, Azure, [Citrix] file storage, Hadoop and Google Drive for file data. |
|
FileZilla Server |
Windows, macOS, Linux |
FTP, FTPS, supports autoban, speedlimits, IP Filter, Groups, Shared folders, compression |
|
Microsoft Internet Information Services |
Windows only |
FTP, FTPS, WebDAV and WebDAV over SSL (FTPS is supported in IIS 7 and later) |
|
Sysax Multi Server |
Windows (All Editions) |
Secure FTP Server that also supports Secure Shell Access and Web browser based secure file transfer. Protocols supported include FTP, FTPS, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, Telnet, and Secure Shell. Features include web UI administration, server event triggers and scripting, and authentication using Windows, ODBC, or Active Directory. Certified for Windows Vista. |
|
War FTP Daemon |
Windows 9X/2000/XP/2003 |
One of the original FTP servers made for the windows platform and still available. |
Console–terminal
Name |
FOSS |
Platform |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|
CrushFTP Server |
, proprietary |
macOS, Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, etc. |
FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SCP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV and WebDAV over SSL, AS2, AS3, Plugin API, Windows Active Directory – LDAP authentication, SQL authentication, GUI remote administration, Events – Alerts, X.509 user auth for HTTPS/FTPS/FTPES, MD5 hash calculations on all file transfers, Protocol Conversion (incoming FTP/FTPS/SFTP/HTTP/HTTPS protocols converted to a back end FTP/SFTP server.), SSH Tunneling, HTTP(S) Tunneling, CrushTask, Headless (Web browser management, or you can edit XML files directly, or issue terminal commands to add users, manage groups, inheritance, permissions, query server statistics, etc.) Supports cloud storage via S3, Azure, Citrix file storage, Hadoop and Google Drive for file data. Support for CrushBalance load balancer, or others via proxy protocol v1 and v2. |
glFTPd |
, proprietary |
Linux, BSD, macOS |
Virtual users and groups, private paths, bandwidth throttling, upload/download ratio support, on the fly CRC calculating of files being uploaded, script support on almost all commands and operations, online user management, built-in statistics viewable using site commands, FTPS and ACL support. Supports FXP. |
ProFTPD |
, GPL |
Unix-like (Linux, BSD, macOS, more), Windows with Cygwin |
Feature rich and popular FTP daemon for Unix-like platforms. Many third party Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) available. SFTP can be supported via add-on module. |
Pure-FTPd |
, BSD License |
Linux, BSD, macOS, more |
Supports FXP. |
vsftpd |
, GPLv2 |
Linux, BSD, more |
FTP, FTPS, FTPES. Supports X.509 client cert auth. deny–enable lists for user access. Logging data can be compatible with wu-ftpd format. vsftpd is default FTP daemon in Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Slackware (along with ProFTPD), NimbleX and RHEL. Others like Debian need an added installation. GPLv2 license with exception for linking with OpenSSL. |
WU-FTPD |
, proprietary |
Linux, BSD, Solaris, macOS, more |
Main website seems offline, but continues development in the newer CC series |
, AGPL |
Linux, macOS, Windows |
SFTP, FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV. Supports multiple storage backends (local, S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage). Web-based administration UI, virtual folders, LDAP authentication, database authentication, event-driven actions, Prometheus metrics, multi-factor authentication. Docker support. |
|
, MIT License |
Linux, macOS, Windows |
Minimalist FTP and FTPS server written in Go. Supports multiple storage backends including local disk, S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, and remote SFTP. Small memory footprint, IPv6 support, passive and active modes. |
|
Graphical UI based FTP servers
Cerberus |
Complete |
CrushFTP Server |
FileZilla |
IIS |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
License type |
proprietary |
proprietary |
proprietary |
proprietary |
||
Operating |
Linux |
|||||
macOS |
||||||
Unix |
||||||
Windows |
||||||
User interface |
CLI |
, via PowerShell |
||||
GUI integrated |
||||||
GUI(s) separately |
||||||
Web-based GUI |
||||||
Services |
FTP |
|||||
SFTP |
||||||
FTPS |
||||||
SCP |
||||||
WebDAV |
||||||
HTTP/HTTPS |
||||||
AS2 |
||||||
Authentication |
LDAP |
|||||
Active Directory |
||||||
Local |
||||||
Database |
||||||
High availability |
Failover cluster |
|||||
Load balancing |
||||||
Automation |
Event-handling |
|||||
Scripting |
||||||
Cerberus |
Complete |
CrushFTP Server |
FileZilla |
IIS |
||
Terminal–console based FTP servers
CrushFTP |
ProFTPD |
Pure-FTPd |
vsftpd |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
License type |
proprietary |
|||||
Operating |
Linux |
|||||
macOS |
||||||
Unix |
||||||
Windows |
||||||
User interface |
CLI |
|||||
GUI integrated |
||||||
GUI(s) separately |
||||||
Web-based GUI |
||||||
Services |
FTP |
|||||
SFTP |
||||||
FTPS |
||||||
SCP |
||||||
WebDAV |
||||||
HTTP/HTTPS |
||||||
AS2 |
||||||
Authentication |
LDAP |
|||||
Active Directory |
||||||
Local |
||||||
Database |
||||||
High availability |
Failover cluster |
|||||
Load balancing |
||||||
Automation |
Event-handling |
|||||
Scripting |
||||||
CrushFTP |
ProFTPD |
Pure-FTPd |
vsftpd |
|||
See also
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Comparison of FTP client software
- FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS)
- FTP over SSH
- SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- Comparison of SSH servers
- Comparison of SSH clients