Add to Chrome
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Add to SafariWhen comparing WinSCP vs SmartFTP, the Slant community recommends WinSCP for most people. In the question“What are the best FTP clients for Windows?” WinSCP is ranked 1st while SmartFTP is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose WinSCP is:
In new versions also supports WebDav.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports FTP and SFTP
In new versions also supports WebDav.
Pro Free and open-source
It has very good compatibility with the other tools of this segment (e.g. PuTTY).
Pro Supports WebDAV
Pro Not bundled with Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP)
Does not attempt to install unwanted software on installation.
Pro Supports PPK Keys
You can use the SSH server public/private key files from putty to log in.
Pro Supports Amazon S3
You can use in the last versions S3 so you're good if you use Amazon AWS.
Pro Portable
No Installation required.
Pro Integrated basic text editor
It has a integrated basic function text editor to create/edit/update files directly from client.
Pro Can protect stored passwords by strong AES cipher
Pro Can be automated with batch scripts
Put a line in bat file ""D:\Program Files\WinSCP\winscp.com" /console /script="D:\ftp\scripts\transfer.txt". All the info can be found on their site.
Pro SSH Key Setting
Can set different SSH Key for each connection, whereas in CuteFTP it's set for the whole application.
Pro Visual compare
SmartFTP is capable of comparing two folders and display visually the differences between them.
Pro Has an integrated editor
SmartFTP has a capable integrated text editor with support for syntax highlighting, folding, auto-complete, brace and indent highlighting, utf-8 characters, etc.
Pro Interface similar to windows explorer
Pro Built-in tty
SmartFTP includes a terminal emulator.
Cons
Con Keyboard shortcuts not editable
Con Slow
In my opinion, it's slower than Filezilla.
Con No x64 version
Con Does not support UNC
Does not support UNC. This makes working with the "Library"-function in Win 7, 8, 10 not possible when working over a network.
Con Weird keyboard selection handling
If you are accustomed to several commanders, the selection method in WinSCP behaves unexpected - most often selects too much.
Con Certain functionality is behind a paywall
