How-to · Beginner · 15 minutes
How to Connect With FTP and FileZilla
Shift files in bulk with the standard desktop client, over an encrypted connection — a practical, jargon-free walkthrough with the classic mistake flagged before you make it.
Straight answer first
In a line: shift files in bulk with the standard desktop client, over an encrypted connection — a beginner-level task that takes 15 minutes.
The walkthrough below covers every step, the mistake most people make, and the shortcut worth keeping. On Hosting Seller plans several of these steps are already done for you, and we say where.
Written by the Hosting Seller staff · Checked 1 August 2026
Beginner
Difficulty level
15 minutes
Time to allow
5
Stages
24/7
Help at any hour
You do not need to be technical for this. The walkthrough is written for first-timers, tested on our own platform, and honest about which parts are genuinely fiddly and which are merely unfamiliar.
One promise before you start: nothing in this guide is irreversible. Where a step could bite, we say so and give you the undo.
The route, start to finish
The job breaks into a few clear stages: choose sftp, not plain ftp, save the connection in site manager, read both panes before dragging, drop files into the right document root and check the failed transfers tab.
No stage needs code or a terminal unless the guide says so outright, and where it does, the exact commands are printed. The full step-by-step sits below; the sections around it give the context that makes it stick.
The mistake nearly everyone makes
A big upload that stops halfway and leaves the site half-copied — hundreds of files across, a few dozen quietly missing. Open the failed-transfers tab, re-queue what is listed, and finish the job honestly.
It is worth learning because it is not some rare edge case — it is the single most common reason this task turns into a support ticket. Knowing it up front turns the whole job from risky into routine.
The shortcut, straight from the support desk
When a contractor needs access, make them an FTP account locked to one folder. cPanel's FTP Accounts page issues per-project logins in a minute, and none of them can see the rest of your account.
Small habits like this are the real difference between people who find hosting easy and people who find it stressful. The tools are identical; the working method is not.
The parts we have already done for you
Several steps in this guide exist only because hosting historically made you do them. On our plans SSL issues itself, backups run daily without being asked, and one-click installers replace the manual setup entirely. What is left is the part that is genuinely yours.
And when a step misbehaves anyway, support answers at any hour with the actual fix, not a knowledge-base link and a shrug. Half our best guides began life as a pattern in the ticket queue.
The hosting this guide is written against
Every walkthrough on our how-to shelf is tested on the platform we actually run — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the instructions match your screen instead of gesturing vaguely at it.
Backups run every day on every plan, and putting a file or a database back takes one click from the panel.
- Step by step, tested exactly as printed
- The snag flagged before you reach it
- The dull steps are already automated
- People on hand at any hour if you stall
Why Hosting Seller
On every plan, as standard
No jargon toll
Terms are explained where they appear or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
Scoped honestly
Shift files in bulk with the standard desktop client, over an encrypted connection is a beginner-level task — this guide budgets 15 minutes and says which steps the platform absorbs.
Help on the counter
Stuck on step three at midnight? Support answers at any hour, mid-guide included.
Works exactly as written
Every step tested on the platform we run — no 'your host may differ' hand-waving anywhere.
5 steps, no filler
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, with the fiddly parts marked as fiddly.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come off the support desk, so the snags flagged here are the ones people genuinely hit.
First Steps
From choosing to live
- 1
Choose SFTP, not plain FTP
Same FileZilla, encrypted connection: host sftp://yourdomain (or the server hostname), port 22, your hosting credentials. Plain FTP sends your password across the wire in the clear.
- 2
Save the connection in Site Manager
File → Site Manager keeps the host, protocol and login together. One click to reconnect, instead of retyping into the quickconnect bar for the rest of your working life.
- 3
Read both panes before dragging
Your computer on the left, the server on the right, drag between them. Transfers queue along the bottom and each file reports back whether it made it.
- 4
Drop files into the right document root
Website files go under public_html, or the document root of whichever domain you are working on. Same folder-to-URL map as File Manager uses.
- 5
Check the failed transfers tab
After a big move, look at the failed-transfers tab. Network hiccups skip files without a word, and that tab is the only place they own up to it.
In the Box
Packed with every plan
- Nothing added at setup — no joining fee, ever
- cPanel, the panel the rest of the trade already knows
- A 30-day money-back guarantee on every hosting plan
- A backup taken daily, with restores you run yourself
- Staging copies so changes get tested before they go live
- The Softaculous installer for one-click application setup
- One-click installs for WordPress and 400+ other applications
- SSH, Git and Composer on the plans built for developers
- A 99.9% uptime commitment, watched by monitoring day and night
- Site migration done for you by our staff, at no charge
Across the Counter
The questions we get asked most
FTP, FTPS or SFTP — which one should I pick?
SFTP wherever it is offered, and it is offered on all our plans: it runs over the SSH service and encrypts the lot. FTPS is encrypted old-style FTP. Plain FTP belongs in a museum. FileZilla speaks all three, and you choose in the protocol dropdown.
Why does FileZilla crawl when there are thousands of small files?
Every file carries its own protocol overhead, so a thousand tiny files cost far more than one archive of the same total size. Zip them locally, upload the single archive, extract it in File Manager — the mixed approach is the quick one.
Which control panel comes with the account?
cPanel, which the whole trade already knows. That means every tutorial online matches what you see, your backups restore onto any cPanel host anywhere, and what you learn here stays useful for life. Plesk and DirectAdmin are stocked on specific plans for anyone who prefers them.
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.
Does the price climb when the term is up?
No. What you pay to order is what you pay to renew, year after year. We do not run teaser rates, so there is no year-two ambush waiting in the calendar, and your bookkeeping can treat the hosting line as a fixed number.
Can I bring a domain I already own?
Yes, and transfers in are routine. Unlock the name at your present registrar, collect the auth code, then start the transfer from your client area. Whatever registration time is left comes across with it, and DNS keeps answering the whole way through.
What uptime do you commit to, and who is watching?
We commit to 99.9% uptime and watch it continuously. That figure is an operational target rather than a poster line, and the alerting behind it usually has an engineer on a problem before the first customer notices anything is wrong.
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