Use SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) to manage your files
Definitions
SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is a secure method for managing and transfering files between your computer and hosting account.
Before you start
✅ If you’re the main owner of your hosting account, you should always use SFTP or your file manager to manage your files. For external users, you can create FTP user accounts instead.
⚠️ You require an FTP application on your computer to use SFTP.
ℹ️ This guide covers each step in a general guidelines format. If you’ve previously completed a step, go directly to the section that corresponds best to your requirements.
Step by step
Get an SFTP application
You need to have an FTP application on your computer. In this guide, we will use FileZilla.
1. Go to the FileZilla website
2. Click on Download FileZilla Client under Quick Download Links
3. On the next page, choose the correct FileZilla version for your operating system
4. Follow the prompt to download and install FileZilla on your computer
Get your SFTP details
Your SFTP username and password are the same as your hosting control panel username and password.
1. Open a secure note on your computer or password manager
2. Open this guide and complete all the steps: Find your hosting control panel username
3. On your secure note, take note of your username
4. Open this guide and complete all the steps: Find your hosting control panel password
5. On your secure note, take note of your password
Connect via SFTP
1. Open a new session on your file transfer application, we will use FileZilla for our session.
⚠️ Note: The order and field names will vary depending on your file transfer application.
2. In the Host: field, put in your domain name
🚨Note: If your domain uses external DNS or a CDN (Cloudflare, etc.), use your hosting account’s IP address as the Host instead of the domain name.
3. In the Username: field, put in your hosting control panel username
4. In the Password: field, put in your hosting control panel password
5. In the Port: field, put in 22
6. Review your details, make sure they’re all correct. Once ready, click the Quickconnect button.
7. You’ll get a popup to verify your connection. Check the box next to Always trust this host, add this key to cache and then click the OK button.
8. Once connected via SFTP, you’ll see your computer’s folders and files on the left and your hosting account’s files and folders on the right. You can securely manage or transfer files between them.
9. If you’re not sure where your website files are located on your hosting account, use this guide:
Once you find your website file path, you would navigate to it on your FTP application, on your ‘hosting account’ side.