6 Best Free Portable FTP Client Software for Windows

Here is a list of Best Free Portable FTP Client Software for Windows. These free FTP clients come in portable packages which can be carried in portable storage devices (pen drive, USB, etc.) and can be used on the go. You don’t have to install them to run these software. Some software also come in installer packages. So, in case you want to permanently install a FTP client software on your system, you can download their installer counterpart.

These software let you establish connection between local and remote sites and transfer data using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). In most software, you can connect with multiple FTP servers and synchronize data between local and different remote sites simultaneously in multiple tabs. To build connection, you have to enter correct credentials including server name, username, password, and port number. Apart from FTP, these clients also support other data transfer protocols including FTPS, SFTP, SCP, S3, etc.

A feature rich set of functions are provided in these FTP clients that enable you transfer data smoothly. Some of these feature are drag and drop transfer method, view file, edit file, filter files, search files, and site manager. A handy synchronous browsing feature is also offered in some of these portable FTP clients. Besides that, compare directories, limit download/ upload speeds, file attribute manager, keep alive feature, and more features are available in these.  All in all, these are great FTP clients which come in lightweight portable packages.

My Favorite Free Portable FTP Client Software for Windows:

FileZilla is my favorite software as it provides standard as well as advanced features that enable you transfer data between local and multiple remote FTP servers.

WinSCP is another good software which offers some great functionalities like synchronous directory browsing, lock files, and more.

You may also like some best free FTP Client, Folder Sync Software, and Folder Compare Software for Windows.

FileZilla

FileZilla is a free, open source, portable FTP client for Windows, Linux, and Mac. It is a great, feature-rich File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software that lets you transfer files between local site and remote server. Apart from FTP, it supports other protocols including FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). It is also very simple and easy to use. You can quickly establish connection with remote server by entering details including host, username, password, and port number. When the connection is build, you can start transferring files between local and remote sites.

Now, let us checkout its main features.

Key Features:

• You can send and receive files to/ from remote site in a parallel fashion.
• It contains a handy Site Manager to add, edit, or delete multiple remote sites.
• It has a multi-tab interface that shows different sites in new tabs.
• You get a Directory Listing Filters option that allows you to filter out source control directories, temporary and backup files, configuration files, images, and useless explorer files.
• You can quickly transfer files from remote site to local site using drag and drop function.
• It supports HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5, and FTP proxy.
• It provides a network configuration wizard to configure routers and firewalls.
• It supports transfer of large files, greater than 4 GB.
• It provides an inbuilt search feature to find a specific remote file.
• You can also view list of successful as well as failed transfers in separate tabs.
• It lets you add and manage bookmarks.

Additional Features:

• A nice feature to compare directories at local and remote site is offered in this software.
• You can configure download and upload speed limits as per your requirements.
• It offers synchronized directory browsing environment between local and remote sites.
• You can edit remote files in a supported editing software. It also lets you view files that are currently being edited.

Conclusion:

It is one of the best portable FTP client software which is packed with advanced features as well as comes in a clean and intuitive GUI.

WinSCP

WinSCP is another featured portable FTP client for Windows. It is quite a powerful FTP software that supports multiple other protocols to transfer files between hosts on a network. SFTP, SCP, S3, and WebDAV are the protocols supported by this FTP client. You can simply connect to a remote site using correct credentials including host name, port number, username, and password. File transfer can be started once connection is successfully established.

Key Features:

• You can add multiple sessions to connect with multiple servers at once for transmission of files. You can customize color code for individual session. Furthermore, some more features to manage sessions are provided in it such as duplicate session, delete session, generate session URL/ code, view sever protocol information, etc.
• It lets you transfer files from remote to local site or vice versa using drag and drop method.
• It offers a lot of file management features including File Viewing, File Editing, Download, Duplicate, Move To, and more. For text file editing, it provides an inbuilt editor. As for editing of other files like images and PDF, you can manually add and configure editing software in this software.
• You can easily find a specific file in remote site or local site using dedicated option.

Additional Features:

• It lets you compare directories and files between local and remote site.
• You can synchronously browse directories in remote and local sites.
• It also lets you lock files which you don’t want to transfer at all.

Conclusion:

It is a good portable FTP client software which supports other file transferring protocols and provide all essential features to let you transfer data between local site and remote sever.

FTP Rush

FTP Rush is yet another portable FTP client software for Windows. It is another handy software that supports FTP protocol to transfer files between remote and local sites. Additionally, it also supports other protocols for data transfer including FXP, SFTP, and TFTP. You can easily connect with remote sites using host, username, password, and port number. It provides all standard functionalities that you must be looking for; let’s checkout its key features.

Main Features:

• You can connect to multiple remotes servers at a time and easily toggle among them.
• It provides a multi-tab interface that help you transfer data between local and remote directories without much hassle.
• You can use simple drag & drop method to transfer data between directories.
• It provides several file related tools including file access permission changer, calculate FTP space used, find file at site, export file tree list, etc.
• It provides flexibility to customize transfer options including download/ upload speed limits, TCP/ IP buffer size, transfer mode, etc.
• It also offers Keep Alive functionality.

Additional Features:

• It contains a Tools menu which offers various additional features including Compare Folder Content, Commands, Script Designer, Hotkey Manager, IP Address Translate, etc.
• You can also edit a file in a default editor.

Limitation:

It provides a more functional version which is paid. If you want, you can purchase the pro version from its official website.

Conclusion:

It is a nice portable FTP client which you can use to smoothly transfer files between local and multiple remote sites. You can also download its installer version if needed.

FTPbox

FTPbox is a basic portable FTP client for Windows. In it, you can simply establish connection with remote sites using correct credential and synchronize your files between local and remote sites. You can connect to multiple remote accounts at once in this software.

Main Features:

• You can customize way of synchronization to transfer data from local to remote, or remote to local, or both ways.
• It provides selective synchronization feature to uncheck items that you don’t want to sync.
• You can add extensions to ignore files with specific file extension. Also, you can ignore temporary files and dotfiles as per your requirement.
• You can limit download and upload speed as well as customize sync frequency.
• Some general preferences like tray notifications, enable logging, language, and more can be tweaked by users accordingly.

Conclusion:

It is a very simple portable FTP client that you can use to transfer data from remote to local site and vice versa.

i.Ftp

i.Ftp is one more portable FTP client for Windows. In it, you can connect to one remote site at a time to synchronize data between remote and local directories. To synchronize and manage files at both local and remote locations, it provides some standard features which are mentioned below, lets check out.

Main Features:

• You can add multiple accounts and use one remote site at a time.
• It lets you create new folders at local and remote sites.
• You can set access permission for files, open a file, view text, delete a file, and do more.

Conclusion:

It is a very basic portable FTP client software. If you want more functional software, I suggest you use some other FTP client from this list.

UpFTP

UpFTP is the next free portable FTP client for Windows. It is basically a free FTP client to upload data to FTP server. Unlike other software, you can download data from FTP server to local site using it. Also, to make connection with remote FTP server and upload data there, you need to edit its “upftp.ini” configuration file. You need to manually enter host name (server), username, password, and port number in this file. After making changes, save the file and run the UpFTP.exe file and enter the file that you want upload on FTP remote site. As simple as that.

Conclusion:

This software is only suitable if you want to easily upload data over remote site using FTP. Otherwise, it is not up to mark.