# sftp

5 Hacker News commenters recommended sftp and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend sftp as a simple, secure way to transfer files over SSH, fast on data-center and accelerated links. Critics say it is slow on high-latency connections.

## Why people recommend it

- Preferred for simple secure transfers (3 comments): "there are better options for secure bulk transfers (sftp, rsync, etc)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47539613)) "SFTP is just simpler and better, if available." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49324413)) "rsync and sftp, like god intended" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49994439))

## What people warn about

- Slow on high-latency connections (2 comments): "The design of sftp is such that it cannot exploit "TCP sliding windows" to maximize bandwidth on high-latency connections." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46290127)) "The main problem is that it packetizes the data and waits for responses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46290877))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Magic Wormhole](https://hackerapproved.com/p/magic-wormhole.md): 21 recommend
- [croc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/croc.md): 13 recommend
- [OpenSSH scp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/scp.md): 12 recommend
- [FileZilla](https://hackerapproved.com/p/filezilla-pro.md): 12 recommend
- [Transmit by Panic](https://hackerapproved.com/p/transmit.md): 10 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "sftp", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sftp/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).