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Transferring files securely with FTPS and SFTP

Valid for Web Hosting, ASP.NET Hosting, Managed Servers, and Hosting for WordPress (WordPress contracts purchased until September 26, 2022).

FTP is a protocol that was specially developed for transferring files between computers. With web hosting, you can use FTP to transfer files between your computer and the webspace of your hosting plan. For example, to publish a website that you have created on your computer. You can also use FTP to transfer files from the webspace to your computer in order to back them up, or edit them.

Secure through encryption

To protect your data from third-party access during transmission, we only offer the encrypted FTP variants SFTP and FTPS for access to the IONOS webspace.

Step 1: Set up an FTP account

To access your webspace via FTP, you need an FTP account. However, how you set up an FTP account depends on when you ordered your hosting plan.

I ordered my plan BEFORE September 10, 2024

If you ordered your hosting plan before September 10, 2024, set up your FTP account as described in the article Setting up the main SFTP user.

I ordered my plan AFTER September 10, 2024

If you ordered your hosting plan after September 10, 2024, or changed your contract after this date, set up your FTP account as described in the article Creating an SFTP/SSH account.

Step 2: Install FTP program

To establish an FTP connection from your computer to the webspace, you need an FTP application. Although most operating systems support FTP connections out of the box, we recommend installing a separate FTP program. These FTP programs offer a wider range of functions and more convenient operation. In the following, we present two FTP programs with which you can make optimum use of your FTP access.

  • If you have a Web Hosting or Managed Server contract, we recommend the FileZilla program. FileZilla is free and available for Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, and Linux operating systems. Download FileZilla
  • If you have an ASP.NET hosting contract, we recommend the WinSCP program. WinSCP is free of charge and available for Microsoft Windows. Download WinSCP

Step 3: Set up the FTP program and transfer files to the web space

As soon as you have activated your FTP access and installed an FTP program, you can upload your website to your webspace. The following instructions show you how to set up your FTP access in FileZilla or WinSCP, and transfer files to your web space.

No FTP for MyWebsite, domain, and mail contracts

The FTP function is generally not available with MyWebsite contracts, as you do not have direct access to the webspace. Find out more

Pure domain and email contracts do not include webspace. In contrast to MyWebsite contracts, however, you can switch to a hosting contract at any time in order to obtain webspace with FTP access. You can find out how to change your contract in the article Switching to another hosting plan.

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