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9 Best Free FTP Server Software

The best free FTP server software for Windows, Mac, and Linux

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by Bradley Mitchell
Updated December 13, 2017

An FTP server is necessary in order to share iles using the File Transfer Protocol. An
FTP server is what an FTP client connects to for ile transfers.

There are lots of FTP servers available but many of them are only usable at a cost.
Software & Apps Below is a list of the very best freeware FTP server programs that run on Windows,
macOS, and Linux - you can download and use them to share iles as often as you
Backup & Utilities
like without paying a dime.
Browsers & Internet
01 zFTPServer
Video & Audio of 09

Social Networking zFTPServer has an amazing user interface since the management controls run in
your web browser. Just install the server and log in with the admin password through
News & Reference the web link you're given.

Antivirus & Security Every window you open through the management console can be dragged around
on the screen and used simultaneously, much like if it were running on your desktop.
Email & Messaging
You can enable FTP, SFTP, TFTP, and/or HTTP access, as well as watch server activity
Windows Only live, set up automatic server updates, throttle connection speed, ban IP addresses,
and generate random passwords for users.
Mac Only
Below are some more options and features you can use with zFTPServer:
iOS Only
Timeout after so-many seconds
Android Only
Speed schedules that apply only to certain days of the week or times of the
day

Case sensitive username

IP-based connection control

Windows authentication integration

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Users can be given admin privileges

Disallow new connections but keep existing ones

Per-user restrictions and options like account expiration, bandwidth control,

concurrent login limit, protocol access, denied login, Windows login, storage
limits, event and stat information, and more

Speci ic settings for the log ile

Download zFTPServer

The free edition of zFTPServer is only free for private, non-commercial use. All of the
same features enabled in paid versions are available in the free one except that only
a maximum of three connections can be made to your server at once. More »

02 FileZilla Server
of 09

FileZilla Server is an open source and completely free server application for
Windows. It can administer a local server as well as a remote FTP server.

You can choose which ports the program should listen on, how many users can be
connected to your server at once, the number of CPU threads the server can utilize,
and timeout settings for connections, transfers, and logins.

Some other features in FileZilla Server include:

Passive mode FTP

The ability to adjust the transfer and socket buffer size

Logging to a custom LOG ile

Bandwidth control to limit bandwidth usage Advertisement

File transfer compression with per-IP address compression exclusions

Some security features include auto-banning an IP address if it fails to successfully

login after so-many attempts, an option to enable FTP over TLS with the ability to
disallow unencrypted FTP, and IP iltering so that you can prevent certain IP
addresses or even IP address ranges from connecting to your FTP server.

It's also really easy to take your server o line or quickly lock the FTP server with one
click, to ensure that no new connections to your server can be made until you
unlock it.

You also have full access to the creation of users and groups with FileZilla Server,
which means you can throttle bandwidth for some users and not others and provide
select users with permissions like read/write, but others with only read access, etc.

Download FileZilla Server

The FileZilla Server FAQ page on their o icial website is the best place for answers
and help if you need it. More »

03 Xlight FTP Server

of 09

Xlight is a free FTP server that's a lot more modern looking than FileZilla's and also
includes tons of settings that you can modify to your liking.

After you create a virtual server, just double-click it to open its settings, where you
can modify the server port and IP address, enable security features, control
bandwidth usage for the whole server, de ine how many users can be on your server,
and set an explicit maximum login count from the same IP address.

An interesting feature in Xlight is that you can set the maximum idle time for users
so that they'll get kicked out if they aren't actually communicating with the server. Advertisement

Here are some other unique features you can toy with that aren't found with FileZilla
Server and other servers:

Server banner message

Email noti ications

Execute a program after a user logs in

Execute a program when a ile is uploaded, downloaded, or deleted

Auto-delete partially uploaded iles

Upload SFV check

Send deleted iles to the Recycle Bin

Access control list for directories and iles

Anti-leech protection

The Xlight FTP Server can use SSL and can require clients to use a certi icate. It also
supports ODBC, Active Directory, and LDAP authentication.

Download Xlight FTP Server

Xlight is free for personal use only and works with Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit
versions.

You can download this FTP server as a portable program so that it doesn't need to be
installed, or you can install it to your computer like a regular application. More »

04 Complete FTP
of 09

Complete FTP is another free Windows FTP server that supports both FTP and FTPS. Advertisement

This program has a full graphical user interface and is really easy to use. The
interface itself is pretty bare but all the settings are hidden away in the side menu
and are simple to access.

One thing unique about this FTP server is that after changing one or more settings,
they aren't applied to the server until you click the APPLY CHANGES button.

Here are some things you can do with Complete FTP:

Enable/disable FTP and/or FTPS

Enable anonymous logins

Choose how many anonymous users can log in at the same time

Show hidden iles and folders

Allow backslash separators

Adjust timeout settings for logging in, stalled transfers, passive FTP, and idle
sessions

De ine how many login attempts can be performed before the user is kicked off

Enter a custom welcome message

A whole "Monitoring" section of the server lets you watch real-time logging,
con igure the log ile, watch connections as they happen, and ban users

Download Complete FTP

Step-by-step guides are built-in to the Complete FTP install, so you can click Step-
by-step guides at the top of the program at any time to learn how to use the
different features and options.

This program installs as a trial of the professional edition. See the instructions on the
download page to learn how to activate the free edition of Complete FTP (all the
features above are in the free version). More »

05 Core FTP Server

of 09

Core FTP Server is an FTP server for Windows that comes in two versions.

One is a very minimal server that's simple to understand and easy to set up in about
a minute. It's 100% portable and just has you choose a username, password, port,
and root path. There are a few other settings as well if you want to con igure them.

The other version of Core FTP Server is the full- ledged server where you can de ine
the domain name, have it auto-start as a service, add multiple user accounts with
detailed access permissions and restrictions, designate access rules, etc.

Download Core FTP Server

Advertisement
On the download page, choose one of the upper links to get the full program; the
portable, minimal FTP server is available toward the bottom of that page.

Both versions of this FTP server come as 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows. 
More »

06 War FTP Daemon

of 09

War FTP Daemon was a really popular FTP server program for Windows after its 1996
release, but since then has been overtaken by newer and better applications like the
ones above.

This FTP server still has an old look and feel to it but it's de initely still usable as a
free FTP server and lets you do things like add users with special permissions, run
the server as a service, write events to a log, and adjust dozens of advanced server
properties.

Download War FTP Daemon

To get this server to run, you must irst run the server ile and then open the War FTP
Daemon Manager to administer to it to add users, adjust server settings, etc.

Both the server and the manager are portable, so neither are actually installed to the
computer. More »

07 vsftpd
of 09

vsftpd is a Linux FTP server that claims security, performance, and stability are its
core selling points. In fact, this program is the default FTP server used in Ubuntu,
Fedora, CentOS, and other similar OSs.

vsftpd lets you create users, throttle bandwidth, and encrypt connections over SSL.
It also supports per-user con igurations, per-source IP limits, per-source IP address
con igurations, and IPv6.

Download vsftpd

Check out the vsftpd manual if you need help using this server. More »

08 proFTPD
of 09

proFTPD is a good option for Linux users if you're looking for an FTP server with a
GUI so that it's easier to use than messing around with command line commands.

The only catch is that after installing proFTPD, you must also install the gadmin GUI
tool and connect it to the server.

Here are some features you get with proFTPD: IPv6 support, module support,
logging, hidden directories and iles, can be used as a standalone server, and per-
directory con igurations.

Download proFTPD

proFTPD works with macOS, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Cygwin, IRIX, OpenBSD, and
other platforms. More »

09 Rebex Tiny SFTP Server

of 09

This Windows FTP server is very lightweight, completely portable, and can get up
and running in mere seconds. Just unzip the program from the download and
click Start.

The only downfall with this program is that any settings adjustments you want to
make have to be done through the RebexTinySftpServer.exe.con ig text ile.

This CONFIG ile is how you change the username and password, set the root
directory, change the FTP port, auto-start a program when the server starts, and
adjust security settings.

Download Rebex Tiny SFTP Server

After extracting the contents of the ZIP ile you download through the link above,
use the "RebexTinySftpServer.exe" ile to open the program. More »

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