Transmit: An exhaustive review

I always use Transmit for connecting to my .Mac storage. Finder is sooo slow at uploading and usually hangs forever at the end of a transfer.

This app is totally worth the $$$.

It seems to me you are mostly paying for cool design here, which is fine if that's what you want to do, but there are other options. Some people act as though the only other option is Cyberduck, but that's not the case - for example most dual-pane file managers (programs loosely based on Norton/Midnight/Total Commander) have an FTP client included. A great free dual-pane manager that includes FTP capability is muCommander - I'm running that under Leopard, and am very happy with the way it works for FTP transfers.

It's also worth pointing out that you don't actually need an FTP client at all - you can probably use your web browser to access many FTP sites (by using ftp as the prefix instead of http) for downloads only (particularly at sites that allow anonymous logins), or if you know how to set it up, you can make FTP connections direct from Finder. From the Finder menu bar click on Go, then Connect to Server, and enter the details as you would in a web browser (starting with ftp://). If there's a username and password required and/or you want to got to a specific directory then enter the address like this:

ftp://optional_username@some.site.address/optional_directory/

A popup box will prompt you for the password (and username if you didn't include it on the line above). The one disadvantage of this is that although it offers to remember the password on your keychain, at least for me it doesn't even if I check the box - a bug perhaps? - but you can either re-type the password each time, or if you feel like experimenting you can go into the utilities folder and run the Keychain Access app and try to enter it manually (that didn't work for me either, but then I didn't try all possible ways of entering the address). anyway, once you do this the directory on the FTP server will appear in a Finder window.

Personally I happen to like muCommander. Those who feel that free software can't possibly be any good (or who are willing to spend $$$ just because they like the design of a particular program) may not care for that option, but it works great for me and I'm happy with it.

From the article: "But there is a reason the for-pay apps are for-pay."

I agree.

I like and use Transmit. But I can't trust it - under certain repeatable conditions it will trash your data.

This happens when:

* I'm using TextWrangler to edit CSS or PHP on a server
* the FTP connection idles and times out
* I make a new change to the file and save

Sometimes Transmit will reconnect and put the file correctly.

Sometimes, Transmit will leave an empty file on the server.

This happens with a variety of local/remote host combinations.

Several users have reported the bug, but it's still there in the most recent release.

Transmit is probably Panic's most disappoint app. With so much great stuff, I wonder how Transmit slipped through the cracks as a mediocre ftp client.

I think it is clear that once you use Yummy FTP, it is lightyears ahead of every other client available.

I'm a happy Transmit customer; the guys at Panic have the gift of elegance in their apps.

That being said - I also move tons of digital files (hough none to S3). For me, Yummy FTP has turned out to be a better fit for uploads of thousands of files at once.

"errrum is this really $30 better than cyberduck? it's just ftp!" - Jeff

Until Cyberduck can do Amazon S3, yes.

errrum is this really $30 better than cyberduck? it's just ftp!

Ahh ... the Beagle Bros ... I remember them.

Transmit rocks. I've used the good (and free) Cyberduck quite a bit, but it really doesn't hold a candle to Transmit. I love how I can edit a file in Transmit (it'll launch whatever external app you need), then when I "save", it re-uploads the edited version. Nice. It also handles huge uploads better than Cyberduck...