Item: FileZilla
Rating: 10
Author: Nicholas De Salvo

Overall Satisfaction with FileZilla

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Filezilla is the default FTP client in our company. Though not everyone uses it, it is installed by default on every single one of our office computers. We use it to quickly transfer files between local machines and client servers. It is a free solution to one of our most common actions in the office; uploading files to servers.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Site manager for storing login credentials.
Easy drag and drop interface for transferring files.
Multiple connections in different tabs.

Cons

I would love a command line interface so I could more easily perform actions on the server. For example, you can upload a compressed folder to the server relatively easily, but there is no easy way to extract it on the server without switching to an SSH client.
Uploading directories with hundreds of files can take a very long time, which is why it's desirable to upload them as zip (or tar) files and extract them on server.

Return on Investment

FileZilla provides a very inexpensive way for us to do a very common action.
It's a tool that is completely dependable and does exactly what it needs to do every time.
It's very easy for beginners to adopt and has many features even power users would want.

Usability

FileZilla is really easy to understand and makes it easy to log into servers to upload files. Moving files around is a breeze (even if it's a little tedious to wait for large quantities to move one by one) and editing html and css files directly is a feature it would be difficult for us to live without.

Support Rating

I've never had to contact FileZilla support, it has always just worked as expected. When interfacing with technology, that's probably the highest praise I can give it. It just works. For the purpose of this review, I did note that there is a Wiki, Forum, and IRC channel available for those who need support.

Alternatives Considered

Previously, I've tried Fetch, WinSCP, CyberDuck, Transmit and countless others. The reason I like Filezilla is because it's cheap (free), it's available on many platforms, and site manager makes it easy to transfer credentials between installations. Overall, it's an easy, cheap, and reliable solution and works just as you expect it to.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Adobe Acrobat DC, Wunderlist

Likelihood to Recommend

FileZilla is great for uploading and downloading files on a remote server. It offers a strong and intuitive drag and drop interface which is easy for even novice users to understand. What it isn't really good at is managing files on the server. It's much easier to move and delete files at the command line than it is to do the same actions via FTP. This isn't specific to FileZilla though, it is an inherent drawback of FTP in general.

Comments

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Low Cost, Easy, and Reliable