FTP, or “File Transfer Protocol” is a popular method of transferring files between two remote systems.

SFTP, which stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol, or Secure File Transfer Protocol, is a separate protocol packaged with SSH that works in a similar way over a secure connection. The advantage is the ability to leverage a secure connection to transfer files and traverse the filesystem on both the local and remote system.

In almost all cases, SFTP is preferable to FTP because of its underlying security features and ability to piggy-back on an SSH connection. FTP is an insecure protocol that should only be used in limited cases or on networks you trust.

Although SFTP is integrated into many graphical tools, this guide will demonstrate how to use it through its interactive command line interface.

How to Connect with SFTP

By default, SFTP uses the SSH protocol to authenticate and establish a secure connection. Because of this, the same authentication methods are available that are present in SSH.

Although passwords are easy to use and set up by default, we recommend you create SSH keys and transfer your public key to any system that you need to access. This is much more secure and can save you time in the long run.

Please see this guide to set up SSH keys in order to access your server if you have not done so already.

If you can connect to the machine using SSH, then you have completed all of the necessary requirements necessary to use SFTP to manage files. Test SSH access with the following command:

ssh username@remote_hostname_or_IP

If that works, exit back out by typing:

exit

We can establish an SSH connection and then open up an SFTP session using that connection by issuing the following command:

sftp username@remote_hostname_or_IP

You will connect the the remote system and your prompt will change to an SFTP prompt.