OpenSSH scp
Shares rank 5 of 17 file transfer apps by recommenders
Recommended for simple file copies over SSH because the syntax is easy to remember. Critics say it is slow on round trips, weaker than rsync for syncs, and its flags clash with ssh.
Recommended for simple file copies over SSH because the syntax is easy to remember. Critics say it is slow on round trips, weaker than rsync for syncs, and its flags clash with ssh.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Handles simple file copies well
“transfer a file to a server in one second using `scp`”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “GOG's new owner can't stand Windows either: 'It's such poor-quality software '” “a simple file copy is pretty trivial with scp”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “High Performance SSH/SCP” “‘cp' or ’scp’ almost always meet my needs.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “cp: -r or -R?” Simple, easy to remember syntax
“easy to remember, if you don't use trailing slashes ever, it will just work every time”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Disable Your SSH access accidentally with scp” “It works great and its simple interface is easy to remember.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Disable Your SSH access accidentally with scp” Handy for moving files between hosts
“upload with scp then download with http is easy”
Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?” “scp for moving files (instead of ftp)”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Small programming tricks” Fast, reliable transfers over SSH
“even with scp I can pin GigE with an old Xeon-D system acting as a server”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “High Performance SSH/SCP” “ssh and scp just never fails to impress”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 on Hacker News
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weaker than rsync for syncs
“Note that tar and rsync can handle sparse files, but scp doesn't.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “4x faster network file sync with rclone (vs rsync) (2025)” “there's no reason to use scp when rsync does everything better”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “IPv6 zones in URLs are a mistake” “scp is brittle for bulk syncs”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Disable Your SSH access accidentally with scp” Slow transfers from round trips
“do round trip acks to the remote side which drastically slows things down”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “4x faster network file sync with rclone (vs rsync) (2025)” “doing local copies with scp was slow as hell from the cipher overhead”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “High Performance SSH/SCP” Confusing flags: -p, -r and -R
“Always annoys me -p(port) for ssh clashes with -p(reserve permissions) for sftp and scp.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “A Practical Guide to SSH Tunnels: Local and Remote Port Forwarding” “I really hate that in scp -r and -R mean entirely different things.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “cp: -r or -R?”
Other file transfer apps people recommend
The four most recommended other file transfer apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LocalSend | 81 | 25 | 76% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Magic Wormhole | 21 | 6 | 78% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Kermit | 15 | 4 | 79% | 2 | — | — |
| croc | 13 | 3 | 81% | 5 | — | Approved |
| OpenSSH scpThis page | 12 | 10 | 55% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
23 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“upload with scp then download with http is easy”
“‘cp' or ’scp’ almost always meet my needs.”
“I really hate that in scp -r and -R mean entirely different things.”
“scp for moving files (instead of ftp)”
“scp is generally better for those cases”
“ssh and scp just never fails to impress”
“Always annoys me -p(port) for ssh clashes with -p(reserve permissions) for sftp and scp.”
“there's no reason to use scp when rsync does everything better”
“SCP protocol is fine and convenient as long as people understand that the remote file arguments are server-side shell code”
“easy to remember, if you don't use trailing slashes ever, it will just work every time”
“scp is brittle for bulk syncs”
“It works great and its simple interface is easy to remember.”
“crufty old program from the Berkeley R-Utilities”
“Note that tar and rsync can handle sparse files, but scp doesn't.”
“do round trip acks to the remote side which drastically slows things down”
“am often discouraged that scp, git, and many zip utilities are not (at least by default).”
“transfer a file to a server in one second using `scp`”
“A simple 'scp remote local' once a month will save you from years of”
“are bad, as they do not make exact copies”
“a simple file copy is pretty trivial with scp”
“some years ago there were cases when scp and sftp were losing silently, without warnings, some file metadata”
“doing local copies with scp was slow as hell from the cipher overhead”
“even with scp I can pin GigE with an old Xeon-D system acting as a server”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.