Then the GUI (Graphical User Interface) versions were developed, which helped ftp clients get to the number 1 spot in the file transfer category, and they are still there today, even though more advanced web interfaces & protocols are slowly taking over.

The drawback of most of those clients was that they were not free. You had to pay a per-user license fee, which could sometimes mean tens of thousands of dollars spent for small businesses (the enterprise sector was already spending millions getting licenses or developing their own tools).

Everything changed when open-source software (which is basically free software, like Linux, of which most of you heard) became more widespread, big companies started supporting the movement and its quality & functionality started being on par or even higher than paid solutions. Suddenly everyone had access to a big list of FTP client software, and a lot of developers started working on their own projects.

There are now hundreds of working FTP clients available, most of them abandoned, but the best ones are still free and being constantly developed. A lot of former paid software is now becoming free, too, which means users have free access to tools which used to cost $30 and more per license.

Now that you know a little bit of the history behind FTP clients, it’s time to see which ones are the absolute best. After testing more than 20 popular clients, I selected Filezilla, Fireftp and Bitkinex as the best based on functionality, usability, stability, performance and price (or to be more precise, the lack of it). All three of them are free, so it costs you nothing to try them out.

Most of the old clients were single-threaded or supported a limited number of concurrent connections (and as all the clients today are based on old code, this major drawback still exists). Cuteftp, Easyftp and even Filezilla & Fireftp support a maximum of 10 concurrent connections.

How does this affect you, the user?

In a most direct way, I’m afraid: the number of concurrent connections stands for the number of files that can be transferred at the same time, and as most web masters know, a web site or web-based software can contain thousands and tens of thousands of files, which take a loooong time to upload, regardless of your Internet connection speed (imagine having a 50Mbit/s connection and waiting half an hour for your site to upload .

Bitkinex is the only client I’ve seen that is free and supports up to 50 concurrent connections (though it used to cost $30 before 2009 and is not open source… yet).

Anyway, let’s get to the reviews:

First one up is Filezilla, which is the most popular cross-platform (runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS), open-source FTP client. Everyone recommends it (and it is a good client), but it doesn’t differ much from other solutions (the only big difference is that it is open-source, which is very important, as all the bugs and security holes are found and removed fast, so it’s essentially trouble-free).

Unlike many other clients, it supports FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS; essentially a simple FTP connection running through an encrypted channel) and SSH/SFTP (which is a totally different protocol that is used as a more secure method of connection; Filezilla uses the SFTP component from Putty, an utility which allows one to connect directly to a server and run any commands remotely).

It supports FXP transfers (direct transfers between 2 different FTP servers; without this, the file is first transferred to your computer, then to the other server, which limits the maximum speed to your internet connection speed), but it doesn’t support drag-n-drop from multiple instances of the program (useful when you want to easily copy a file from one ftp server to another), so it’s a little hard to copy or move files.

It has a nice feature called “Quickconnect” which stores all your previous connections information, so you don’t have to type the address, username and password every time you start the program. It is also sort of theme-able: you can change the icons used (not really a useful feature in a FTP client).

That’s about it for Filezilla, next up is Fireftp, which has become very popular in a short amount of time, and is quite a special case: it is an add-on for Mozilla Firefox (arguably the best browser available) which means it runs inside Firefox as a tab or new window.

I was quite impressed with it: it takes very little space, it seamlessly integrates with other web tasks (like administrating a website or a script) and it works without a glitch.

Functionality wise it’s is very similar to Filezilla, meaning it supports FTPS, SSH, 10 concurrent connections, multiple open connections, drag-n-drop, etc. It also has the Quickconnect feature and uses Putty’s SFTP implementation (which led me to believe it was created using Filezilla as a base).

Nothing else to say except that FireFTP is the best choice if you want a lightweight yet powerful FTP client.

Moving on, I’d like to present Bitkinex, the absolute best (in my opinion) free FTP/SSH client on the market. I’ve used it since 2007 and still haven’t found anything more powerful. Moreover, since the beginning of 2009, it is absolutely free (though I hope this doesn’t slow down or stop its development; I’d much rather pay $30 to use it and know for sure that they’ll make better versions in the future).

It is very similar to Filezilla and Fireftp, meaning it includes support for FTPS, SSH, Proxy and all other features that the other 2 have. In addition, it has support for http/https and WebDAV connections. What makes it really special is the excellent FXP support (direct server to server transfer), drag-n-drop functionality (you can do it between Windows Explorer and Bitkinex AND between 2 different FTP connections, which is very useful), the support for 50 simultaneous connections and a unique caching system which makes navigating directories much faster. It is very fast, using all of my available bandwidth (8Mbit/s download and 1Mb/s upload) at all times (even when uploading 20,000 files).

The interface is a little different from others, too. It has a main window with all your saved connections, and separate minimalistic windows for all your open server connections (kind of like Skype, MSN and other messengers). This is a very effective layout, as you can easily access all your sites and switch between them.

As a pleasant add-on, the resume/pause/restart functionality is very well implemented. You can close Bitkinex and shutdown your computer, and when you start the program again, it’ll ask what you want to do: resume, restart or cancel your transfers.

This is all I have to say about these 3 FTP clients individually. If I had to recommend any one of them for a particular purpose, I would say this: Bitkinex is the absolute champion in speed and usability, Fireftp is very lightweight, easy to install and use and gives you the least headache of all, and Filezilla is just a good all-around FTP client, with the advantage that it is open-source and is constantly developed.

But to really make a choice, you’ve got to try them out (they’re free, after all) and see which one you like the most.

There are a lot of alternative web server software and scripting languages, but none of them have the widespread popularity and use of these two.

As with any other great software, PHP and Apache can be easily customized and fine tuned to fit the needs of most of the webmasters, server administrators and software developers. There are a lot of modules for Apache and optimizers for PHP, specifically for the purpose if increasing their performance and stability, and they’re practically a must have, especially because you gain benefits while losing nothing except a few Megabytes of space, at most.

mod_deflate. This Apache module will allow you to reduce your site’s pages loading time and bandwidth consumption, which is very useful for the millions of site visitors on slow Internet connections. It works very simple – it just compresses the data that is sent from the server to the client. The compression level and other details are user customizable and you should also test the module with all of the available browsers and disable it on those that don’t work well (Internet Explorer 7, for example). As you may have guessed, the drawback of this module is that it uses more processor time, but if you use a caching software like eAccelerator below, you can easily get around this problem.

mod_gzip. This module performs exactly the same function as mod_deflate, except it’s more efficient and uses another compressing utility (gzip, as you may have guessed). It compresses files 20-30% more effectively than mod_deflate, saving much ore bandwidth every month. The drawback is also the same: it uses processor time to compress the files, which is bad when your CPU is already fully loaded. It also has a higher latency (time between receiving the request and starting the compression and sending it to the client computer), so it’s better used together with mod_deflate (for example, use mod_gzip when you’re serving lots of static files and mod_deflate when sending an email newsletter or serving dynamic pages).

mod_bw. This is a module whose only purpose is to throttle download speed and save bandwidth. It is an output filter for Apache, through which all of the data goes, so you can set the speed limit to only 15Mbps for one site and it will automatically keep it that way. This can be very useful when, for example, you’ve used up almost all of you bandwidth and don’t want to pay for more, so you throttle the speed down until the end of the month. Or you could use it when you have a video sharing site and a site that has just been featured on the front page of Digg and needs all of the speed possible. If you’ve got a 100 Mbps connection to your server, you can limit the speed on the video sharing site to about 20Mbps, and have 80Mbps guaranteed for your Digged site, which will result in it being accessible and not going down because of limited bandwidth.

Zend Optimizer. This is nice runtime software that makes it possible to run Zend Guard encoded PHP scripts and more importantly, accelerate the operation code for higher speed when running PHP scripts.

There are a lot of PHP scripts that are encoded with Zend Guard, and Zend Optimizer lets you run them, plus there’s no downside to just having it installed (besides the faster execution of PHP files .

eAccelerator. This is a great application, which is practically a must have for all web servers (there are alternatives similar to eAccelerator, if it doesn’t work for you). What it does is reduce server loads by about 3-10 times by caching all of the PHP scripts that run in their compiled state, so that any time they’re run again, they won’t have to be recompiled. As you might’ve thought, this greatly speeds up the launch of any PHP scripts (of which almost 70% of all sites are composed of), frees up a lot of RAM memory and processor time, which also increases the overall speed of the server.

As you can see from their descriptions, the above “add-ons” (they’re not technically add-ons) for PHP and Apache can really help you and your server gain a higher performance and be more reliable. And the best thing is that there are literally no drawbacks to installing and having them (I’m not talking about actually using them, but there should be no problems there either)!

Finding a quality hosting provider may often proof to be a daunting task. The majority of webmasters will often testify from experience when they inform others of the number of moves they had to undergo between hosting providers before finding the one that suited their needs.

Whether you are a business looking to establish a business-related website, a private individual looking to host a personal blog or a webmaster creating websites on behalf of clients, you need a reliable hosting service, one that would allow visitors to surf your website effortlessly, download files, view images and yet still ensuring your online presence 24-hours per day.

The webhosting market around the world is, to say the least, saturated. There are so many hosting providers offering cheap hosting services, it may often be a difficult decision choosing one. It may also often be the wrong hosting provider you settle upon.

In order to find the correct hosting provider, one that would suit your hosting requirements, we have compiled some recommendations you are free to look at.

The Hosting Company

Always conduct research on the hosting company you are looking at. Determine the age of the hosting company and always be sure to conduct search engine queries on the hosting company. Search engine results may often provide you with information as to how popular the service is and identify any complaints or compliments.

It is recommended that users make use of Google.com, and enter the hosting company’s name in the search field. Then, take a look at all comments from the many websites that will be listed in the results.

Visiting a WHOIS website, such as www.whois.sc and entering the hosting company’s domain name will reveal the correct age of the company.

Disk Space and Bandwidth

A large number of webhosting companies often advertise hosting packages, which range in terms of bandwidth or disk space size. What users should know is that bandwidth is of utmost importance when developing and launching a website. If you run out of bandwidth, your website will go offline. It is important that you look at providers offering large amounts of bandwidth. Reliable companies, such as Hostgator or Godaddy may offer ‘unlimited bandwidth’, which is a good option to go with.

These companies do not really offer unlimited bandwidth, but do restrict website usage by other means, such as inode usage. Still, these companies are large, established companies who are often capable of hosting very large websites without any bandwidth or disk space issues.

Be careful of companies offering minimal bandwidth, such as 1GB per month. Websites or blogs generating 100 to 300 unique visitors per day could easily utilize 300MB of bandwidth per day. This could lead to the closure of your website by the fourth day of the month.

When looking at disk space, users need to estimate the amount of space required. Again, keep in mind that if you establish a website which you intend to update on a daily basis with information and images, you will require large amounts of disk space.

Always ensure that you ask from the hosting company information on the costs of additional bandwidth and disk space before signing up with them.

Programming Tools and Operating System

Often, users may need hosting for a specific script and would therefore require a specific server, such as Linux or Windows, depending on your website’s programming language requirements.

In the majority of instances users will find the Linux operating system sufficient and more cost-effective than other systems available. Always ensure that you shop around at different hosts for the specific operating system.

Another, very important factor is whether the hosting company involved makes use of the latest operating system software. For security purposes, operating system software are released to enhance security on the server. If the hosting company does not make use of the latest software or update them frequently, they have no interest in providing a quality hosting experience.

Users should also determine whether a hosting provider offers access to a control panel. These systems are useful for clients to manage their websites online from one central point and often provide useful tools. One highly recommended system is cPanel, which is easy to use and offer an array of website tools, services and a number of additional add-ons such as DNS control, statistics and much more.

Support

When you experience problems with your hosting, you need to be able to rely on your hosting provider to provide you with support any time of the day or night. Always ensure that you familiarize yourself with the support structures the company offers its clients.

• Is the support available 24-hours per day?
• How do you get in touch with the support on offer? Email, Online Contact Form, Online Chat?
• Will you be assisted with immediate effect, or do you need to wait 1 to 2 days for support?

Quality and reliable hosting providers will often allow users with access to an online chat facility, with is manned 24-hours per day, and offers immediate support. Users will also have access to e-mail support or telephonic support.

Uptime and Backups

A quality hosting provider will, at least, make local backups of all hosting accounts once per week. Be wary of hosting providers not making any backups of websites hosted on their servers. Be sure to ask the hosting provider as to whether they do make backups and the intervals between the backups.

Uptime refers to the number of times the hosting server goes down per day or month. Poor hosting providers could often leave websites offline for hours on end per day. This is not the hosting provider you want to host your website with. Always conduct research on the uptime of a hosting provider.

Services, like hostingdock.com, are a good point to start researching the uptime of well-known hosts from around the world.

Pricing

Always remember the saying: “You get what you pay for”. Don’t just settle for the cheapest hosting available. Many smaller hosting companies will often provide cheap hosting, but cram their servers full of websites, which will slow down all websites hosted on the server. In many instances, this may even lead to websites going offline.

If you need to pay a dollar or two more for hosting your website with a better-rated host, do so.

There are a few key facts you should know about VPS hosting in order to evaluate if it is the best option for your website. You will find the necessary information in this article.

VPS hosting means virtual private hosting. It is a more evolved idea of shared hosting. In order to understand VPS hosting, we should understand shared hosting. Shared hosting is the most inexpensive paid hosting. It involves multiple websites being hosted by the same server. This can lead to problems in terms of performance and security. The RAM, CPU and disk space are all shared between the existent websites being hosted on the same server.

If you have a growing business that generates more and more traffic, you should definitely think about upgrading your hosting solution. The only way you can do that is through choosing a better option from dedicated servers and VPS hosting.

The advantages of VPS hosting are as it follows:

a) It is a very flexible hosting solution.

b) It is a scalable and economical solution.

The VPS hosting is actually an intermediate solution between shared hosting and dedicated servers in both terms of price and performances. You can opt for VPS hosting if you have an increased traffic but you do not require a very secure website or incredibly high performances out of it.

The difference between VPS hosting and dedicated servers is that you will benefit from a much cheaper price. This is because the server is only virtually private. Actually, the server is partitioned with special programs for higher security and higher performances. The support offered for VPS plans is greater than the one for shared hosting.

Also, another great thing is that you can customize the features of a VPS hosting plan. Shared hosting does not allow you that as you are not the only one using the server. With VPS hosting, you can consider yourself being the only one who uses a small part of the server.

There are companies that offer managed and unmanaged VPS hosting solutions. If you do not know a lot of things about servers and hosting, it is better to choose a managed account. On the other hand, if you know your way around you can customize your server the way you like with VPS hosting. With VPS hosting you can enjoy some of the features dedicated servers offer for just a little more money than you spend on shared hosting.

There are many benefits that entice people to use shared hosting. The most important advantage that it has over dedicated hosting is its lower cost. Many people will be sharing the cost of running and maintaining the server.

This means that you’ll end up paying less to host your websites. In many cases, you can find a basic shared hosting package for less than $10 a month. If you need an upgraded plan, it shouldn’t cost you more than $20 or $30 or month.

With dedicated hosting, you can expect to pay up to three times as much as a minimum. This is usually not an affordable option if you’re just looking to host a few websites with minimal traffic. That’s why most beginners typically opt for shared hosting.

Beginners can often benefit from shared hosting because it doesn’t require a lot of expertise to get started. Many packages offer templates to help users get a basic website up and running as quickly as possible. You may have to configure your own server settings if you get dedicated hosting. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then this can be a real problem.

While shared hosting does offer these advantages, there are a few disadvantages as well. For one, only one server is used to host many different sites. If some sites hosted on the server get a lot of traffic, other websites may experience loading delays. Your visitors certainly won’t appreciate that very much.

Shared hosting also doesn’t give you the ability to use custom software or hardware. You will have to use the same thing that everyone else is using. Again, if you’re just starting out and running a small website, then this shouldn’t be much of a factor for you.

One of the biggest disadvantages of shared hosting is the potential for security concerns. If a malicious program is uploaded to the server, it may affect all of the websites hosted on it. Similarly, if someone attacks the server, then all of the websites will be affected. Your website may even be blacklisted if other website owners that share your IP address engage in illegal activities.

You should certainly weight these benefits and drawbacks when thinking about getting shared hosting. You will also need to choose the hosting company that you work with very carefully. There are certain things to think about when making your decision.

One of the first things you need to consider when choosing a shared hosting company is the level of support they offer. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then you’ll likely need all the help you can get. Look for a company that offers email and phone support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It’s also important that you consider their up-time guarantee. You don’t want your website to experience downtime much, if at all. Everyone minute that it’s down may cost you money. Therefore, you should join a company that offers a 99.9% up-time guarantee. You can verify this by reading reviews of their past customers. Simply go to your favorite search engine and type the “company name + review”.

When choosing a shared hosting company to work with, you should also make sure that they offer common software packages like WordPress, Joomla, etc. They should also only use current versions that can be installed by the end-user with ease.

It’s good to think about the future when choosing a shared hosting company. Although you may be starting out small, you will likely expand your efforts in the future. Make sure that you choose a package that allows for add-on domains to your hosting account.

If you think that your websites will receive a lot of traffic which can be problematic on shared hosting, make sure that you can easily upgrade to a dedicated server.

One of the next things that you need to look for in a shared hosting company is advanced scripting and database technology. Modern websites often use ASP, MySQL, or PHP, so your hosting company should offer the latest versions of these technologies for you to use.

It’s vital that you take your time and choosing your shared hosting company carefully. It can be a chore changing hosts after you’ve gotten everything up and running. If you don’t know much about the whole process, then make sure that you choose a company that offers plenty of support and guarantees 99.9% up-time.