Walkthrough · Beginner · 15 minutes
How to Connect With FTP and FileZilla
Move files in bulk with the standard desktop client, encrypted from end to end — a hands-on walkthrough in plain words that names the classic mistake before you reach it.
The short answer
One line covers it: move files in bulk with the standard desktop client, encrypted from end to end — a beginner-level job of roughly 15 minutes.
Below is the full run of steps, the error most people trip over, and the short cut worth remembering. On Hosting & Domains plans several steps are already automated away — the guide marks each one.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 18 August 2026
Beginner
Experience required
5
Stages, start to finish
Free
Support included
Proven
On the platform itself
No technical background needed. This walkthrough was written for first-timers, proven on our own hardware, and honest about which parts are genuinely tricky rather than merely unfamiliar.
A promise before step one: nothing here is a one-way door. Any step with teeth is flagged, and the way back is printed beside it.
The route, mapped end to end
The work falls into a few clean stages: choose sftp over plain ftp, keep the details in site manager, get your bearings in the two panes, aim at the right document root and look at the failed transfers afterwards.
No part of this needs code or a terminal unless the guide says so plainly — and where it does, the exact commands are printed. The step-by-step is below, with the surrounding sections supplying the context that makes it hold.
The error nearly everyone hits
A large upload dying partway and leaving a half-copied site, with hundreds of files delivered and dozens quietly absent. That list lives in the failed-transfers tab; re-queue every entry on it and finish the job off properly.
It earns a section of its own because it is no obscure edge case — it is the single commonest reason this task reaches a support queue. Knowing it in advance turns the whole job from risky into routine.
The support desk's own short cut
Give contractors an FTP account fenced into one folder. cPanel's FTP Accounts page creates per-project logins in under a minute, and none of them can wander outside their directory.
Habits this small are what separate the people who find hosting effortless from the people who find it draining. The same tools on both sides — a different way of working.
The steps already done before you arrive
Some steps in this guide exist only because hosting traditionally forced them on you. Here the SSL issues itself, the copy is taken daily without being asked, and one-click installers remove the manual setup. What is left is the part that was always genuinely yours.
Should a step still misfire, support answers at any hour with an actual fix rather than a knowledge-base link and a shrug. Half the guides on this site began as repeat patterns in our ticket queue.
Why this job is shorter on our plans
Every walkthrough in this library is run on the platform we actually operate — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the instructions match your screen rather than gesturing at it from a distance.
A free SSL certificate comes with every plan and reissues itself before the old one lapses — the padlock is never yours to diarise.
- Every step checked exactly as published
- The snag named before it arrives
- The dull steps taken out of your way
- People reachable at any hour you stall
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Jargon never charges you
Every term is defined on the spot or linked to the jargon buster — nothing assumes prior knowledge.
Honest about how big it is
Move files in bulk with the standard desktop client, encrypted from end to end is a beginner-level job — set aside 15 minutes, with the platform-absorbed steps marked.
Help that keeps your hours, not ours
Stuck on step three at midnight? Support answers at any hour, mid-walkthrough included.
Works exactly as printed
Every step is proven on the platform we run — none of the 'your host may vary' hedging.
5 steps, nothing padded
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, and the fiddly moments are labelled fiddly.
Taken from real tickets
These guides came out of the support queue, so every snag flagged is one people genuinely hit.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Choose SFTP over plain FTP
Same FileZilla, secure transport: host sftp://yourdomain or the server hostname, port 22, your hosting login. Old-style FTP sends your password in the clear.
- 2
Keep the details in Site Manager
File → Site Manager gathers host, protocol and credentials into one saved entry. After that, reconnecting is one click rather than an eternity of retyping into quickconnect.
- 3
Get your bearings in the two panes
Your machine on the left, the server on the right, and files dragged across between them. The queue along the bottom tracks each transfer and says whether it arrived.
- 4
Aim at the right document root
Site files belong under public_html, or under the document root of whichever domain is in question. The folder-to-URL mapping works exactly as it does in File Manager.
- 5
Look at the failed transfers afterwards
When a large job finishes, open the failed-transfers tab. Connection blips drop files without comment, and that tab is where the casualties are recorded.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- A renewal figure identical to the one you registered at
- People on the support desk every hour of every day
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for any client
- No set-up charge at any point, and no joining fee
- cPanel, which is what most of the industry already runs
- Money back within 30 days on hosting plans, 7 on reseller
- A daily copy, with restores you run yourself from the panel
- Staging copies for trying a change before it goes live
- Softaculous included for one-click application installs
- WordPress and 400+ further applications installed in one click
Frequently Asked
The questions that come up most
FTP, FTPS or SFTP?
Take SFTP wherever it is available, and it is available on every plan we sell: it runs over the SSH service and encrypts everything. FTPS is old FTP with encryption bolted on. Bare FTP is finished. FileZilla handles all three from the protocol dropdown.
Why is FileZilla so slow with thousands of small files?
Every file pays its own protocol overhead, so a thousand fragments cost far more than one archive of the same size. Zip locally, push one file up, extract with File Manager, and the hybrid route wins on time.
Which control panel do accounts use?
cPanel, the panel the industry standardised on long ago. Every tutorial you find online will match what is on your screen, your backups restore onto any other cPanel host, and the skills stay useful for life. Plesk and DirectAdmin are available on particular plans if you prefer either.
Where does the hardware physically sit?
The platform runs from a London datacentre with redundant power, cooling and several upstream carriers, with server-level caching in front that keeps cached pages quick for visitors anywhere. For most sites how the platform is built — NVMe disks, LiteSpeed, restrained account density per machine — counts for far more than where it sits.
Keep reading
How to Upload Files With File Manager
Get files onto your site from a browser tab, with no FTP software involved — beginner level, about 10 minutes.
How to Set Up MX Records
Direct your domain's inbound email to the mail service that should handle it — intermediate level, about 10 minutes plus propagation.
FTP (Glossary)
The plain-English definition this page rests on, with a worked example.
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A plain order of work for a move nobody visiting will notice: which files go over first, how to carry the mail across without losing a message, when exactly to repoint DNS, and the two mistakes behind nearly every outage we are asked to rescue.
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