SmartFTP Review: Our Rating 7/10

SmartFTP is a file transfer protocol that gives you the capability of uploading, modifying and downloading files between your local machine and Server. SmartFTP is a paid for FTP client for windows that has all features a fully functional FTP client should have.

Features

Multiple protocols
- FTP and FTPS (Secure FTP)
- SFTP over SSH
- WebDAV
- Telnet (over SSH and SSL)
- WEBDAVS
- S3
Multiple Connections
Server to server file transfer
HIPAA 5010 compliant
FIPS 140-2, 186-4 compliant
File/Folder Synchronization
Task Scheduling
File transfer que
Site search function
Connection log
Transfer log
Miscellaneous program settings
UTF-8 Support
Transfer Integrity
Remote file editing
Bulk Rename
Proxy / Firewall support
- SOCKS5, SOCKS4, SOCKS4A, HTTP Proxy
- Wingate, Winproxy, CSM, Checkpoint FW-1, Raptor
Windows OS Support
FTP command line
CHMOD (Properties)

Critique

The cost is too much. It varies from $70 to $150 which is very pricy for an average ftp user.
Expanding folder tree from the navigation pane takes too long most especially when the folder has a lot of sub folders (empty or not).
Folder refresh takes too long.
- When you rename a folder, the rename takes place in the server but in the smartFTP client, it takes a long time for the rename does not show up immediately. You will have to refresh the folder a couple of times or restart the FTP connection to be able to see the effect.
The terminal button is misleading. As a developer seeing the terminal button, I was given the idea that I would be able to connect through a command line interface (CLI) to FTP, FTPS, SFTP, Telnet (over SSL and SSH), but its not like that. The CLI aspect only works with the telnet. When you select the terminal button, you are told to connect through any of their supported protocol, but select anything other than telnet, it connects but open up in the Graphical user interface. This is good for end users but for developers that want to have both the GUI and CLI in one application, SmartFTP can’t help them.
It only Support Windows
Its a lot to handle for a beginner

Summary

Recommendations to others considering the product:
- If you are a windows user but new to the FTP world, SmartFTP is probably not the best first client for you. Otherwise if you have had experience with FTP clients before, it will be easy for to pick SmartFTP up and use it. There is no form of learning curve with SmartFTP but it has a lot of features that will take some getting used to.

References

Quickly transfer files across the Internet