Public preview
The short crossing between your Mac and your server.
Ferry is a native Mac app for FTP and SFTP. Your files on one side, the server on the other.
Aboard
Everything you need for the trip
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Both sides, side by side
The server on one side, your Mac on the other, and both work like a Finder window: sort a column, rename a file, take a quick look inside. Want the sides the other way around? Swap them whenever you like.
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Always know where things are
A quiet bar along the bottom shows what’s moving, how far along it is, how much longer it’ll take, and the file it’s working on right now. Everything still queued is one click away. Ferry works through it at whatever pace the server can take.
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Mirror one side onto the other
Mirror local to remote or remote to local: point at the side you want changed, and Ferry marks every file it would replace or remove — right in the file list, before anything happens. Nothing moves until you say so, and what it does remove is kept in a backup folder.
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Permissions without the puzzle
Open Get Info on a file on the server and its permissions are right there, ready to change: check a box to say who can read or write, for a single file or for everything inside a folder.
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Edit as if the file were yours
Open a file from the server in the app you already use, make your changes, and save. That’s it — Ferry sends it back for you.
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Passwords where they belong
Your passwords and keys live in the macOS Keychain, as safe as everything else you’ve trusted your Mac with. Type them once and forget about them.
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Two servers, two windows
Staging in one window, live in the next. Each window keeps its own connection and its own transfers, so there’s no way to mix the two up.
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When something goes wrong
A file that doesn’t make it lands in its own window with the reason beside it, and one click puts it back in the queue. And when a name is already taken, Ferry asks first: replace, keep both, or skip.
Made for the Mac, and it shows. Press space for a Quick Look, drag straight into the Finder, real menus and keyboard shortcuts, light and dark mode. Ferry feels like it belongs on your Mac — because a file transfer app is allowed a little style.
More features don’t make an app better. Doing its one job properly does. Ferry’s job is moving files between your Mac and a server, and that is where the work goes.
Casting off
Three steps to your first transfer
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Add a server
Fill in the details your provider sent you. Keep as many servers as you like, tucked into folders once there are a few.
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Connect
Pick a server, click Connect, and it’s simply there in one pane with your Mac in the other. Sort it, open a folder, look inside a file — like it’s sitting on your desk.
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Move things
Drag it across — that’s the whole trick. Not a fan of dragging? Download and Upload are a right-click away.
Why this exists
Nobody asked us to build this
We’re a small team — developers, designers, and a few people who are unreasonably picky about Mac software. Ferry didn’t come out of a roadmap meeting. It came out of hunting for a good FTP client, not finding one, and getting tired of settling.
So we built the one we wanted: simple, modern and good-looking. The features you actually use — and none of the hundred you don’t need.
Which is also why Ferry can’t make coffee. If you want one of those, stop by — we’ll put on a pot, and you can tell us what Ferry should do next.
Fine print
What “preview” means here
Ferry is an app we use ourselves every day — but it’s early, and some of it will still change. Here’s what that means for you:
- It’s free while it’s in preview. No account, no license key. How Ferry will be sold once it grows up hasn’t been decided yet.
- Each build stops working after 30 days. Ferry keeps itself up to date, so in practice a newer build arrives long before that. It says the date in Ferry → About Ferry and reminds you a few days ahead.
- Expect a rough edge here and there. Features may move or change shape between builds, and there are bugs we haven’t met yet. Nothing here is a toy, but keep a backup of anything that matters — as you would with any file transfer.
- Tell us when something feels off. Even the small annoyances — a label in the wrong place, an error message that explains nothing. Use Help → Send Feedback… in the app, or write to ferry@mamp.info. That’s where a preview earns its keep.
Installing
Unzip the download and drag Ferry to your Applications folder. From then on it checks for updates on its own and can install them for you, so this is the only time you’ll need to come back here for a download.
Requirements
macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. Ferry speaks FTP, FTP over TLS, and SFTP — between them, that covers just about every provider. And if a server turns something down, like a permission change, Ferry tells you what came back instead of pretending it worked.
