Introduction

If you are in the process of setting up remote file transfer capabilities to your employees, then you might want things to be done as simple and secure as possible. Today an increasing number of organizations are looking forward to moving away from transferring data with FTP. But why so ? Here we have mentioned the top differences between FTP and SFTP to understand the difference better.

The difference between FTP and SFTP

First of all, let’s find out the definitions and its uses of each protocol and then we will move on to the differences to get a clear idea.

FTP

FTP is the short form of File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a technology that has been specially designed to establish a connection to a specific internet server so that the user can transfer files to their computer or the server. It allows all the businesses and private users to send and received the data to and from a remote system. FTP is a network protocol that exchanges the files over a TCP/IP network.

The FTP protocol also includes various commands which can be used to execute operations on a remote computer. For instance, it can be used to show folder contents, create or delete files and folders, or change directors. This protocol is based on the client/server model for communication between the computers.

In this model, the server runs a program which serves data to other computers. The other computers run client programs which request the information and process the replies that are sent by the server. The external computer that is running the server program is referred to as the FTP server.

SFTP

SFTP is the short term of Secure File Transfer Protocol which ensures that the data is transferred securely using a private and safe data stream. Even though we have the FTP protocol for transferring the files from one host to another on the network, it does not come with security which is a major issue.

SFTP is the standard data transmission protocol for use with the SSH2 protocol. SFTP is a network protocol that allows file transfer, access, and management over a data stream. The primary purpose of the SFTP protocol is to transfer data, but it is also used to obtain general access to the FTP server’s file system. This protocol runs on a secure channel with encrypted passwords, and file data are transferred in an encrypted format.

The SSH protocol establishes a secure connection between client and server, and then the SFTP program works similarly to FTP …