Why Transmit is the best FTP client for macOS
Like most of the web developers out there, when I started playing with servers, my go-to choice was Filezilla. There were several reasons for choosing it, but the most important one was that it is the most recommended FTP client on the internet. Naturally the second most important reason was that it was open-source and hence completely free to use.
I was totally fine with using Filezilla for first couple of years but as my career advanced, I started to resent it. The UI didn’t fit well with the overall aesthetics of the macOS, there were occasional drops in the connections which, more than few times, lead to blank file being uploaded to server, every time I had to traverse through a directory; I had to watch Filezilla load it again etc.
Finally one day I decided to find a more worthy FTP client for my development work and I instantly fell in love with Terminal.
Disclaimer: This is not a paid promotion, in fact I have been paying for Terminal from my own pocket for several years now.
First things first
Transmit for macOS is much more than just an FTP client. It has built in support for SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDav, Google Drive, Azure and more.
The User Interface of Transmit is simply amazing and fits well with the overall aesthetics of macOS.
You can easily customise the local browser ( left side ) with multiple open tabs and see information based on your preferences:
You can also choose how the files should be displayed, just like macOS, including icons, list, column and gallery.
The right side is your Remote area, where you can create folders and organise connections by folders. You can also choose to connect quickly, just like Filezilla.
All your active connections are neatly organised in Tabs on top and each tab shows the status of transfer with a nice loader underneath.
Activity Monitor keeps track of all the active transfers in progress, the ones which have finished and the ones which have failed.
Where it shines
UI is not actually the part where Transmit shines, it’s how it handles transfers and that is exactly where it won me over.
It is very common to work on same server for days and sometimes weeks and how you have to keep logging-in and out of it. What Terminal does is, it keeps a cache of all the directories that you have opened in the past and when you open it next time, it shows you the last cached content while it fetches new data in the background. You may not see the latest folders or files in the directory but at least you can quickly navigate without having to wait for all the changes which may or may not have happened.
File Transfer
In the beginning of this article, I mentioned how I had issues with Filezilla’s connection handling! Well, Transmit has several controls in place to avoid that from happening.
When transferring a file, first thing it does is to create a copy of the file on server. Next it uploads new file and when transfer is successful only then the copy is deleted. Worried that connection couldn’t be established? Terminal has option of keep trying again and again until timeout is reached.
Deep Cache
Despite every control in place, I once had a file on server overwritten by an empty file due to connection failure and I had already closed the local file. Even then Transmit didn’t let me down, Transmit keeps a meticulous cache of all the files that you have downloaded and uploaded in a directory on local system with timestamps, from there I was able to get my file back intact and re-upload.
I know that I could have avoided the issue altogether by using Git for version management but sometimes you have to work on server directly specially when its urgent change and client wants it done asap.
Conclusion
Transmit is not free from quirks but in my experience it is one of the best FTP Clients for macOS right now and is absolutely worth the price. Small details like connection handling, complete cache, UI and integration with macOS set Transmit apart from its competition. If you are not willing to spend money or are on Windows OS then Filezilla is still an amazing client but if you can spare some bucks and want something which augments your experience of working with remote files then Transmit is the way to go.
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