cPanel File Manager vs FTP – What’s best to use, and when?

Once you have your web space with Hipposerve you need a way of actually getting fines on to that space. There are two realistic options of how to do this. The first is to use a third party FTP program. Software such as FileZilla and CyberDuck are two such FTP clients. These have loads of features AND are also open source – so FREE to use. The other option, which is sometimes more convenient, especially if you need to update a website on the fly, is the built in File Manager application, in your customer cPanel. This allows basic file upload and download features, plus the addition of being able to edit files live. This document looks at the two methods of file management and the merits and disadvantages of both.

FTP software

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It allows two computers who are on the same network, or connected remotely in some way to communicate with each other. They can share files through a standard protocol.

FTP applications work in the same way as the file explorer or file manager on your computer. You simply connect to the network, navigate to the correct folder and drag and drop files. Upload works in exactly the same way as download. Software often has a range of features that allow you to synchronise offline work with online work, automatically when you connect. It’s also great for bulk uploading of files, or uploading of large files as you can be sure that you wont hit the same PHP file limit restrictions.

cPanel File Manager

cPanel File Manager is the online file manager interface that is accessible via your cPanel. Here you can view all the files of your site in a standard file structure.

You can perform a range of actions including uploading, downloading, copying and moving of files. You can also upload zip files and decompress them on the server which is a great way to bulk upload files (a feature that is not great on cPanel).

One of the great things cPanel File Manager can do is let you edit files on the fly. For example is you need to quickly change a CSS value you can do so, and it is instantly changed on your site. The same is true when editing config files for applications. The editor is quite well featured too for an online tool.

If you do go down this route though always be careful with your versioning. I always created a copy of the file I am about to edit – just in case! However the same can be said for FTP. You can suddenly end up synchronising a whole folder full of errors – so whatever system you use – always be sure top take regular backups.

Main Differences

Both File Manager and FTP have similar functionality in their ability to transfer files from one location to another.  See what separates FTP from File Manager in the table below.

In Summary

Personally I use both. I get the bulk of the files on the site using FTP and once it is up and running use cPanel File manager to work on day to day tasks. I like using the file editors on cPanel File Manager and the instant results that they give – however one does have to be careful when doing this on a production site. The key is to always take a back up before any editing or file manipulation of any kind. It is also important to realise that FTP can work on a range of different browsers. This is explained nicely in this article here from InternetAdvisor

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