Hosting Terms
What is SFTP?
What SFTP really means, with the jargon taken out — plus the example that makes it obvious.
Straight answer first
SFTP is secure file transfer carried over SSH — encrypted from end to end, using your SSH credentials, through the same drag-and-drop clients you already know.
Below: the fuller explanation, a picture that makes it stick, why it matters in practice, and where you will actually run into it.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
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Terms left unexplained
100+
Definitions, cross-linked
Real
Examples from real kit
Free
To read, naturally
Despite the name it is not FTP with a wrapper round it but a separate protocol living inside SSH: one port, number 22, full encryption of both credentials and content, and key-based login wherever it has been set up.
It is the professional default for working with server files. Everything the FileZilla-style workflow offers, without the plaintext exposure that makes classic FTP a liability on any shared network.
The picture that makes SFTP stick
The same removal van, but sealed and tracked. Identical loading procedure, identical destination, with the contents and the paperwork shut away from every curious eye along the route.
Comparisons simplify, naturally — but this one holds together well enough to reason with, and reasoning is the whole point of a glossary.
What is actually at stake
This is the transfer method you ought to be using. It is supported on every plan we sell, it works with every major client, and it is immune to the credential sniffing that plain FTP invites the moment you connect from a network you do not own.
That is the test for any technical term, incidentally — not 'do I understand it fully' but 'do I know when it is the answer to my problem'. For this one, you now do.
One concrete example
A developer on café wifi pushes site files up over SFTP without a second thought. Everyone else on that network sees encrypted noise, credentials included.
Multiply that example by every website on the internet and you have the concept's entire job description in one go.
Where you will meet it on our platform
On our hosting this largely looks after itself — the platform applies sensible defaults, and the panel hands you the controls when you want them. The concepts worth reading next: FTP, SSH, Document Root and Encryption.
Mailboxes on your own domain are part of the plan, never an add-on sold back to you at checkout.
A glossary written by the people on the counter
Every confusing term in hosting turns into a support ticket sooner or later, so we defined the hundred most common ones properly, once, in the plain English we would use across the counter.
What you pay on day one is what you pay at renewal, so the year-two invoice holds no surprises worth opening early.
- 100+ terms, all in plain English
- Everyday comparisons and real examples
- Related concepts linked together
- Written by the people on the desk
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
Linked, never siloed
Related terms cross-reference each other, so one lookup grows into a working understanding.
One term, fully landed
SFTP defined, pictured by comparison and placed in your own control panel — recognise-level in a single read.
Honest about what to skip
Most terms are recognise-level rather than operate-level, and the glossary says which is which.
Pictures that stick
Each concept gets a comparison you will still remember at the moment you actually need it.
The next reads, mapped
Read on into FTP and SSH — terms rarely stand alone, so the neighbours are linked.
Grounded in real kit
Examples point at hosting you would actually use, not at an abstract diagram.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Find it in your own account
Open the control panel and find where this concept lives — seeing it attached to your own site is what turns a definition into understanding.
- 2
Check what the defaults are
Our platform ships sensible defaults for this — check rather than assume, and you will know your setup instead of hoping about it.
- 3
Follow the terms next door
Concepts travel in packs — FTP, SSH and Document Root finish this one's picture, and each is a two-minute read away.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for your own client
- The renewal price printed on the tag matches the order price
- The Softaculous installer for one-click application setup
- DDoS filtering handled out at the network edge
- A backup taken daily, with restores you run yourself
- Mailboxes that carry your own domain name
- Staging copies so changes get tested before they go live
- NVMe SSD storage on every shelf, not just the top one
- Nothing added at setup — no joining fee, ever
- One-click installs for WordPress and 400+ other applications
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
How do I connect over SFTP?
In your client, set the protocol to SFTP, the host to your domain or server name, the port to 22, and use your hosting credentials — or SSH keys if you want to skip the password. From there it behaves exactly like an FTP workflow, minus the exposure.
Why does SFTP use the same port as SSH?
Because it is a subsystem of SSH: one hardened service providing shell access, file transfer and tunnels together. That means one port to firewall, one credential system to look after, and no separate FTP daemon to keep patched.
Can one plan hold more than a single website?
From the Pro tier upward, yes — several sites, each with its own domain, mailboxes and certificate, all under one account. If those extra sites belong to clients rather than to you, reseller hosting is the better fit: it gives each one proper separation.
Is there a refund if it does not suit?
Yes — thirty days. Put the hosting through real work, and if it is not right, ask for the money back and you get it; there is no retention script to survive first. Domain registrations are the one carve-out, because registries take that fee the moment the name is placed.
What does round-the-clock support actually stretch to?
People at the counter at every hour, and a scope that takes in the practical work: mailbox setup, DNS records, WordPress trouble, restores. Not 'the server responds, ticket closed'. Ask us something hard before you order — the reply is a fair sample of what you would get afterwards.
Where do the servers actually sit?
Our hosting runs from European datacentres with London at the centre, behind server-level caching that keeps cached pages quick for visitors anywhere. For most sites the build of the platform — NVMe disks, LiteSpeed, sensible numbers of accounts per machine — decides the speed far more than the postcode does.
Who actually runs the company?
Hosting Seller is a trading name of Bohzo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales — a real business with a public record and terms published under English law. Looking that up is worth doing about any host before you hand over your domain.
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