File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows users to transfer files from one hosting provider to another over a TCP-based network, such as the internet. FTP hosting refers to a hosting service that allows users to store and manage their website files on a server using FTP. It is typically used by website developers and designers who need to transfer large files or manage multiple websites.
To use FTP hosting, users will need an FTP client, such as FileZilla or Cyberduck, to connect to the FTP server, browse and manage their files, and transfer files between their local computers and the server. FTP hosting is a simple and effective way to manage and maintain a website, and it is often used in combination with other hosting services, such as web hosting or cloud hosting.
At HostAdvice, we researched hosting providers that offer FTP hosting as part of their web hosting services. Our in-house hosting experts left no stone unturned and considered the most important details, from disk space to uptime and pricing. The top 10 FTP hosting providers were bought, tested and ranked using our rating methodologies and factors.
Here Are the Top FTP Hosting Providers
- HostArmada – Best FTP Hosting Overall
- A2 Hosting: Best for fast page loads
- Hostens – Cheap FTP Hosting Provider
- InterServer: Best for affordable Cloud VPS
- FastComet – Best Linux VPS Hosting
- Verpex Hosting – Best for Managed WordPress Hosting
- HostGator – Best for Scalability
- Bluehost: Best for WordPress hosting
The Best FTP Hosting Providers (Bought and Tested)
During our research, HostArmada came up as the best overall FTP hosting provider as it allows you to manage FTP accounts on all its hosting plans. You can access and manage your FTP accounts via your cPanel dashboard, and you can learn how to do various activities regarding FTP with the many step-by-step tutorials that HostArmada offers in its Learning Center.
- Overall Score: 5.0
- Pricing: 4.9
- Features: 5.0
- Performance: 5.0
- Support: 5.0
- User Friendly: 5.0
Pricing: HostArmada offers monthly, annual, biannual, or triennial billing periods for its shared hosting plans, which are its cheapest hosting options. The entry-level plan costs $2.59/month (if you go for the monthly billing option) and includes one website, 15GB SSD, 2GB RAM, and 2 CPU Cores.
Features: All HostArmada shared hosting plans come with a free cPanel Control Panel, free daily backups, a free domain, unlimited databases, unlimited email accounts, unlimited subdomains, malware scans & removals, WAF & IP Firewall, with free SSL, free website migration, free web server caches, and FTP management.
Performance: You’ll get fast-paced SSD storage and the best-in-class hardware with this provider. Also, you’ll get a 99.9% uptime guarantee and the ability to choose from data centers on three different continents.
Support: HostArmada offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and a ticketing system. It also offers an average response time of 10 minutes, has a 99% support case resolution, and an extensive Learning Center filled with tutorials and guides.
User Friendly: All HostArmada plans come with free cPanel included, which is one of the most popular and user-friendly control panels on the market. You’ll also get a drag-and-drop SiteBuilder, 1-click WordPress install, and “Prepare for Launch” features.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Top-notch performance and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
- FTP access and management on all hosting plans.
- Excellent value for money.
Cons:
- No money-back guarantee on the monthly plan (but all other plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee).
A2 Hosting offers FTP hosting as part of its VPS hosting plans, which allow you to store and manage your website files on a server. You can access your website files using an FTP client, such as FileZilla, to upload, download, and manage your website files. A2 Hosting also offers additional features, such as FTP accounts, to help you manage your website files more efficiently. With A2 Hosting’s FTP hosting, you can enjoy a fast and reliable FTP service to easily transfer large files, such as images and videos, to and from your website.
- Overall Score: 4.7
- Features: 4.7
- Reliability: 4.7
- User Friendly: 4.7
- Support: 4.7
- Pricing: 4.6
Reliability (4.7): With A2hosting, your account will be topped off with ultra-reliable service backed by a 99.9% Uptime Commitment.
User-Friendly (4.7): A2 Hosting’s FTP hosting service includes SSH access, which allows you to securely connect to your website’s server and manage your website files from the command line.
Support (4.7): A2 Hosting’s FTP hosting service includes a 24/7/365 Guru crew support team, so you can get help whenever you need it.
Pricing (4.6): This provider offers several hosting plans that include FTP access. Prices for these plans vary depending on the specific features and resources included. You can get started with any of their customized plans optimized with state-of-the-art VPS servers and dedicated resources. Here is a breakdown of their hosting plans for FTP hosting and their renewal costs:
- Runway 1: $4.99/month – 1 GB RAM, 150 GB SSD, 2 TB transfer, and 1 core. Renews at $8.99/month.
- Runway 2: $7.99/month – 2 GB RAM, 250 GB SSD, 3 TB transfer, and 2 cores. Renews at $14.99/month.
- Runway 4: $9.99/month – 4 GB RAM, 450 GB SSD, 4 TB transfer, and 4 cores. Renews at $19.99/month.
- Supersonic 8: $34.99/month – 8 GB RAM, 150 GB NVMe, 2 TB transfer, and 2 cores. Renews at $59.99/month.
PROS
- Up to 20x faster turbo to boost SEO rankings
- Anytime money-back guarantee
- Good and reliable customer support by the Guru Crew
- Strong track record of uptime and fast page load times
CONS
- A2 Hosting may try to upsell you on additional products and services during the sign-up process, which can be annoying for some users.
Hostens is a super-affordable FTP hosting provider that allows you to manage your server files via the FileZilla program. You’ll also get cPanel, via which you can access your FTP files directly. In addition, Hostens offers an “Installatron” tool that allows you to install and manage hundreds of scripts and CMS’ with a few simple clicks.
- Overall Score: 4.4
- Pricing: 4.6
- Features: 4.3
- Performance: 4.4
- Support: 4.4
- User Friendly: 4.5
Pricing: You can get a Hostens hosting plan for one month, one year, two years, or three years. The entry-level monthly plan costs $4/month and includes 10GB of storage, 1TB of bandwidth, hosting for 10 websites, and 10 databases.
Features: Some of the features that you’ll get from Hostens include cPanel, PHP, Ruby, Python, a free website builder, FTP access, FileZilla, daily/weekly backups, a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate, SSH access, Cloudflare Railgun, free DNS manager, malware removal, and more.
Performance: Hostens offers a 99.95% uptime guarantee. Its servers use fast-paced ECC REG RAM to function, SSD RAID storage, and enterprise-grade Intel Xeon processors. It has data centers in three different continents, including Europe, Asia, and North America.
Support: This provider offers 24/7 customer support via live chat, a ticketing system, and email. It is also available on social media and has a knowledge base filled with tutorials and guides.
User Friendly: Hostens offers an “Installatron” tool that allows you to install, update, and back up more than 100 scripts and CMS’, including WordPress, with a few clicks. It also has a free easy-to-use website builder and offers cPanel to all users.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Affordable prices and a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans.
- Excellent for beginners.
- Offers free domains and many other freebies.
Cons:
- There is no separate WordPress hosting plan (but Hostens still works with WordPress).
If you want unlimited FTP accounts on standard web hosting or VPS hosting, Interserver is your go-to. You can create and remove FTP accounts via your cPanel dashboard and set up your preferred FTP client software to connect to the server. Your FTP client software will allow you to transfer files to and from the server using FTP commands. With its easy-to-use control panel, you can eliminate the confusion you may have while trying to navigate your command line. Interserver uses only 50% of its server capacity to support the growth of your website without experiencing any issues. You will get instant provisioning whenever you buy any hosting solution to manage and store your website files.
- Overall Score: 4.4
- Features: 4.4
- Reliability: 4.4
- User Friendly: 4.4
- Support: 4.3
- Pricing: 4.5
Features (4.4): Interserver offers several hosting plans with different features and pricing. Some of the features that may be included with any hosting plan you choose are unlimited FTP accounts, DDOS protection (against Denial-of-service attacks), SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) access, unlimited storage space, unlimited data transfer, free SSL, hack and malware protection, plus automatic backups available as an add-on.
Reliability (4.4): This hosting company’s infrastructure is empowered with high-performance SSD storage, which guarantees a 99.9% uptime for their hosting services, meaning that your website should be available to visitors almost all the time.
User-Friendly (4.4): Interserver offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for their hosting services, allowing you to try their service with no risk.
Support (4.3): The company also offers 24/7 technical support to help you with any issues you may have while using their FTP hosting service.
Pricing (4.5): Interserver allows you to select and customize your server resources as you want. You can get unlimited storage space and data transfer to store and transfer as many files as you need without worrying about reaching a limit. Kindly check the screenshot below to see how to select your server resources.
PROS
- Unlimited FTP Accounts
- Ultra-Fast Web Server
- Unlimited Data Transfer and storage
- Easy to use DirectAdmin control panel
- Free Intershield security to block web attacks
- Transparent and customizable hosting solution
CONS
- No free domain name registration
FastComet is an ideal FTP hosting solution for all Linux users out there. With FastComet, you can access and manage your FTP files via cPanel and a few other clients, including FileZilla, WinSCP, CuteFTP, WS_FTP, SmartFTP, FlashFXP, FTP Voyager, and Leap FTP. This provider also offers top-notch performance and overall excellent hosting services.
- Overall Score: 4.8
- Pricing: 4.7
- Features: 4.8
- Performance: 4.8
- Support: 4.9
- User Friendly: 4.8
Pricing: FastComet offers four Linux VPS hosting plans. The entry-level plan starts at $46.16/month and includes one 2.50GHz CPU core, 2GB ECC RAM, 50GB SSD storage, and 2TB bandwidth.
Features: FastComet comes with a wide range of useful hosting features, such as cPanel, SpamExperts, Cloudflare, Softaculous, WHM, AMD EPYC, Imunify360, NVMe SSD Storage, WordPress LiteSpeed Cache, always-on DDoS protection, free website migration, and more.
Performance: With FastComet, you’ll get a 99.9% uptime guarantee and access to 11 data centers located in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. It provides SSD-only servers with RAID 10, a free CDN, NVMe SSD, AMD EPYC CPUs, and WordPress LiteSpeed Cache.
Support: FastComet offers 15-minute response times and 24/7 customer support via email, live chat, and phone. It also has a ticketing system, tutorials, and an extensive knowledge base.
User Friendly: This provider allows you to install and manage your apps via the 1-click Softaculous installer. Also, it has a one-click App Marketplace and offers free website setup and transfer services.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Round-the-clock customer support with 15-minute response times.
- FTP access via multiple FTP clients.
- Excellent performance and fast loading speeds.
Cons:
- Higher prices on renewal (but still worth it due to the features included in the plans).
If you’re looking for a hosting provider that offers great performance, managed hosting solutions, and frequent deals and discounts, then Verpex is the right solution for you. Its managed WordPress hosting solutions are among the best on the market, offering a fast and easy setup process and excellent performance and security.
- Overall Score: 4.9
- Pricing: 4.8
- Features: 4.8
- Performance: 4.9
- Support: 4.9
- User Friendly: 4.9
Pricing: Verpex offers three managed WordPress hosting plans that you can get on a monthly or yearly basis. The entry-level managed WordPress hosting plan costs $14.99/month and includes 10GB of storage, 50GB of bandwidth, 1GB database size, and free domain registration/transfer.
Features: All managed WordPress hosting plans come with free migrations, a free domain, CloudLinux, Imunify Web App Firewall, daily backups, a free SSL certificate, a custom-built control panel, automatic CDN, a load balancer, WP-CLI, SSH access, staging, and more.
Performance: Verpex offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee and 2.5s load times, making it one of the fastest hosting providers on the market. It has data centers in 12 locations worldwide, covering Europe, North America, South America, and Asia & Oceania.
Support: With Verpex, you’ll get 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, email, and a ticketing system. You’ll also have access to a large knowledge base that contains many useful tutorials, articles, and guides.
User Friendly: Verpex’s managed WordPress hosting plans come with a custom control panel through Google Cloud’s Kubernetes. Via the control panel, you can easily launch your WordPress site and leave the management of your hosting and website in the hands of professionals.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Affordable prices with managed services.
- Excellent for beginners and people who don’t have the time to manage their hosting plans themselves.
- All managed WordPress hosting plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Cons:
- Prices are higher on renewal (but still affordable and cheaper than most other providers).
HostGator is a highly scalable web hosting provider offering several hosting services. It allows you to access and manage your FTP files either via your cPanel dashboard or by downloading FTP clients like FileZilla, Core FTP, SmartFTP, and CuteFTP. This provider also offers great value for money and a few freebies, which are always welcome.
- Overall Score: 3.7
- Pricing: 3.8
- Features: 3.8
- Performance: 3.7
- Support: 3.6
- User Friendly: 3.8
Pricing: With HostGator, you can choose from three shared hosting plans, starting at $3.75/month. The entry-level plan comes with hosting for one website, unmetered bandwidth, 10GB of storage, and unlimited email addresses. All three HostGator plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Features: You’ll get features like unmetered bandwidth, a free domain for the first year, free domain transfers, one-click WordPress installs, auto-renewed SSL, cPanel, website statistic tools, unlimited FTP accounts, website backups, 24/7 server monitoring, and more.
Performance: HostGator offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and reliable performance. It uses Intel and AMD processors to provide fast loading speeds.
Support: This provider offers great customer support available 24/7 via phone, live chat, and Twitter. It also has useful tutorials and guides on its knowledge base and blog.
User Friendly: HostGator is one of the best providers for beginners as it comes with easy-to-use control panels like cPanel and WHM, Softaculous 1-click installer, and expert management tools.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Unmetered bandwidth and unlimited FTP accounts on all plans.
- Easily scalable solutions.
- Great overall performance and functionality.
Cons:
- More expensive on renewal (but still affordable).
Bluehost is a web hosting company that provides a variety of hosting services, including WordPress hosting, virtual private server (VPS) hosting, and dedicated server hosting. One of the features that Bluehost offers with its hosting plans is FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access, which allows you to transfer files between your computer and your website’s server. Bluehost also offers secure FTP (SFTP) access, which uses a secure connection to transfer files over an encrypted channel. This can be useful if you are concerned about the security of your data while transferring files.
- Overall Score: 2.8
- Features: 2.9
- Reliability: 2.8
- User Friendly: 2.9
- Support: 2.7
- Pricing: 3.0
Features (2.9): Bluehost offers a range of features that can make it easier to set up, manage, and maintain FTP hosting. Some of the key features of Bluehost’s web hosting plans include Firewall, daily malware scans, Free domain, Free CDN, Free SSL, and automated backups.
Reliability (2.8): With Bluehost, you will get 99.9% uptime and 75% faster seeds for your website.
User-Friendly (2.9): As a Bluehost customer, you can take your website online in minutes with the amazing tools in the Bluehost marketplace.
Support (2.7): Bluehost provides 24/7 support for WordPress users via live chat and phone, so you can get help to resolve any issue. This includes access to a team of WordPress experts who can answer any questions you may have.
Pricing (3.0): Bluehost offers web hosting plans that fit your WordPress website ambition plus customizable themes and plugins to control your website’s appearance. The screenshot below shows Bluehost’s WordPress hosting plans and their renewal costs:
PROS
- Free domain & SSL for 1 year
- Recommended WordPress hosting provider
- Customizable themes and easy-to-install plugins
- Chat and Phone support
- Bluehost marketplace
CONS
- There is no monthly billing cycle.
Ranking comparison between the Top Providers
FTP Hosting Providers – Final Recommendation
When choosing an FTP hosting provider, it’s important to determine your budget and look for a provider that offers a plan that fits your needs and price range. The hosting provider you have chosen must offer secure FTP options, such as SFTP or FTP over SSL, to protect your data during transfer or upload.
It’s always a good idea to research and compare the features and pricing of several FTP hosting providers before making a final decision. You may also want to consider reading customer reviews and testimonials to get a sense of the level of service and support you can expect from each provider.
We recommend Kamatera as the best FTP hosting provider overall, however different providers may be more suitable for different users depending on their specific needs and requirements.
Our Ranking Methodology: How do we rank?
Each of our top 10 FTP hosting providers has been tested to analyze the features, hardware resources, and support offered to you. Hence, we have created an overview of each host based on their FTP service and considered important criteria such as features, reliability, user-friendly, customer support, and pricing. Hostadvice’s hosting experts continually update review methodologies to provide quality hosting reviews, making it easy for you to choose your next host.
Our Ranking Factors
- User reviews30%
- Performance and reliability10%
- Types of hosting offered5%
- Customer support10%
- Site speed8%
- Bandwidth and storage3%
- Traffic volume4%
- Scaling potential4%
- Features included10%
- Ease of use4%
- Starting price4%
- Money back guarantee3%
- Other factors5%
We give top marks to the FTP host that offers FTP access and allows you to select and customize your server resources to suit your needs. Each of our ranking factors above has been assigned a certain percentage due to their importance in our review.
What is FTP Hosting?
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) hosting is a service that allows users to upload and download files to and from a remote server over the internet. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, including sharing files with others, storing files in a centralized location, backing up important data and managing the files that make up a website.
FTP allows you to easily transfer files to and from your web hosting account without the need for special software or programming knowledge. You can use FTP to upload and download files, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, images, and other media.
Some popular FTP (File Transfer Protocol) clients include FileZilla, Cyberduck, WinSCP, Transmit, and lftp.
What is the difference between FTP and SFTP?
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol or Secure File Transfer Protocol) are both network protocols that are used to transfer files between computers. However, there are a few differences between the two:
- Security: FTP is an unencrypted protocol, which means that the data being transferred is sent in plain text and can be intercepted by third parties. SFTP, on the other hand, uses encryption to secure the data being transferred, making it more secure than FTP.
- Authentication: FTP uses a separate set of credentials (username and password) for authentication, while SFTP uses the same credentials as the secure shell (SSH) protocol. This means that if you have access to the SSH login for a server, you also have access to the SFTP server.
- Port number: FTP uses port 21, while SFTP uses port 22.
- Compatibility: FTP is an older protocol supported by most operating systems and FTP clients. SFTP is a newer protocol and may not be supported by older systems or FTP clients.
In summary, SFTP is generally considered to be a more secure and modern alternative to FTP, but it may not be as widely supported.
What are the benefits of FTP Hosting?
FTP hosting refers to a service that allows users to store and access their files on a remote server using FTP. Some of the benefits of using FTP for web hosting include
- The ability to transfer large files quickly and easily, the ability to transfer multiple files at once, and the ability to transfer files between different operating systems.
- FTP hosting allows users to access their files from anywhere with an internet connection, making it a convenient option for users who need to access their files from different locations.
- It enables users to share files with others and collaborate on projects in real time.
- FTP hosting allows users to easily scale their file storage and transfer needs as their business grows.
- Many FTP hosting providers offer customizable options, such as the ability to set user permissions and customize file transfer settings.
- FTP hosting servers are typically well-secured, providing an additional layer of protection for users’ files.
How Should You Choose your FTP Hosting Provider?
Consider the following selected rating factors below to choose your next web host. By considering these factors, you should be able to find an FTP hosting provider that meets your needs and budget.
Performance and reliability:
- Does the FTP hosting provider offer up to a 99.9% uptime guarantee?
It’s important to note that uptime guarantees are not a guarantee that a website hosted by the hosting service will be available 100% of the time. Hosting companies that offer uptime guarantees typically have systems in place to monitor their servers and take steps to minimize downtime as much as possible.
Features included:
- Will the FTP host provide the FTP access and accounts?
- Does the FTP host offer robust security features?
When you sign up for an FTP hosting plan, you will typically receive a user account with a username and password that you can use to log in to the FTP server and access your files. The provider will also typically provide you with instructions on how to connect to the FTP server and transfer files using an FTP client. Some providers may also offer web-based interfaces or other tools for managing and transferring files on the FTP server.
Also, make sure the provider has robust security measures in place to protect your data and prevent unauthorized access. This includes encryption, secure login protocols, and regular security updates.
Money-back guarantee:
- Does the FTP host offer a hassle-free money-back to try out their services risk-free?
It is possible that an FTP host may offer a money-back guarantee or a trial period during which you can test their services. However, the specifics of these offers may vary from host to host. Some hosts may offer a money-back guarantee for a certain period of time after you sign up, while others may offer a trial period during which you can test their services for free before committing to a paid plan.
Server resources:
- Does the host offer scalable hosting plans?
- Will the FTP host allow you to select and customize your server to suit your needs?
If you expect your FTP needs to grow over time, look for a provider that can accommodate your future needs with options for more storage and bandwidth. Some FTP hosts may allow you to customize your server to a certain extent, such as by allowing you to choose the operating system or by providing options for the amount of storage or bandwidth that you need.
However, the specific options available to you will depend on the FTP host you are using and the hosting plan you have chosen. It is generally recommended to carefully review the hosting plans and options offered by the FTP host to ensure that you are getting the server configuration that meets your needs.
Customer support:
- Will the FTP host offer quality and reliable support?
Choosing a provider that offers reliable customer support is a good idea, so you can get help if you run into any issues with your FTP server.
User Reviews:
- Does the FTP host have a good track record?
Some factors that may be relevant to consider when evaluating an FTP host’s track record include the uptime and reliability of their servers, the quality of their customer support, and any issues or concerns that have been reported by previous users. It may be helpful to do some research and read reviews on Hostadvice or ask for recommendations from others who have used the FTP host in question to get a better understanding of their track record.
Key Takeaways
- Make sure the provider offers enough storage and bandwidth to meet your needs
- Look for a provider with reliable customer support in case you have any issues or questions.
- Consider whether the provider offers a user-friendly interface and documentation to help you get started.
- Choose a provider that offers secure FTP connections and takes other measures to protect your data.
- Some providers have limits on the size of files that can be uploaded or downloaded. If you need to transfer large files, make sure the provider you choose allows it.