What is Prapl FTP Client?
Prapl FTP Client is a free Windows app for moving files between your PC and your servers. Your computer sits on the left, the server on the right, and files move with a drag, a keypress or a click — over FTP, FTPS or SFTP.
It's deliberately calm and minimal. The whole app is three pages:
- Servers — where you connect, and where your saved servers live as one-click cards.
- Files — the two-pane workspace: This PC ⇄ your server, with the transfer queue and activity log underneath.
- Settings — preferences that apply immediately, from concurrent transfers to speed limits.
Underneath the calm surface it's a serious tool: parallel transfers, resume after interruptions, automatic retries, size verification on every file, edit-in-place with your own editor, and server-side search. And it's free — no trial timer, no license key, no account.
What can you connect to?
Three protocols cover almost every server you'll meet:
| Protocol | What it covers | What you enter |
|---|---|---|
| FTPS — the default | FTP with TLS encryption — the modern standard on most web hosts | Host, port 21, username + password |
| FTP | Plain FTP for older servers and local devices | Host, port 21, username + password |
| SFTP | SSH-based transfer — VPS, dedicated servers, NAS boxes | Host, port 22, username + password |
Installing the app
Installation is deliberately boring:
- Download the installer from the FTP Client product page.
- Double-click it. That's the whole installation — a desktop icon is optional, and the app can launch straight from the last screen.
There's no sign-up, no license key and no trial countdown — the app is simply free, from the first launch onward.
| Requirement | What you need |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit |
| Storage | Around 150 MB of free disk space |
| Memory | No special requirement — runs comfortably on any PC that runs Windows 10 |
| Internet | Needed to reach your servers; the app itself works without sign-in |
| Extras | None — everything the app needs ships inside it |
To uninstall: open Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find Prapl FTP Client and choose Uninstall. Your saved servers are kept in your user folder, so if you ever reinstall, they're right back where you left them.
A quick tour of the app
The bar at the top has three pills — Servers, Files, Settings — plus a notification bell and a status pill that always tells you whether you're connected and to what. That's the whole map:
- Servers — a connection form at the top (New connection) and your Saved servers below it as cards. Click a card and you're connected.
- Files — This PC on the left, the server on the right, big UPLOAD → and ← DOWNLOAD buttons between them. Along the top, one tab per open connection — you can work on several servers at once. At the bottom, the Transfer Queue (Active / Done / Failed tabs) and the timestamped Activity Log.
- Settings — five short sections: Transfers, Connection, Editor, View, About & Updates. Every change applies immediately.
Connecting & saved servers
Fill in the connection form
On the Servers page pick the Protocol (FTPS, FTP or SFTP), enter the Host, Username and Password — the port fills itself in. Under ⚙ Advanced settings you can also set the transfer mode (Auto tries passive, then active), a start folder on the server, the local folder This PC should open at, and a comment for the saved card.
Connect — or save it first
Click → Connect to go straight in, or Save connection to keep it. Saved servers appear as cards showing the name, protocol, host and your comment — clicking a card connects immediately, and the pencil and trash buttons edit or remove it.
Open as many as you need
Every connection gets its own tab on the Files page — hop between servers with a click, and open another with the + button. The This PC pane is shared, so it stays where you left it.
Your saved details never leave your PC: passwords are encrypted with Windows' built-in per-user encryption, so another user on the machine — or anyone who copies the file — can't read them. Prefer not to store a password at all? Tick "Ask for password each time" and the app prompts on every connect instead.
Uploading & downloading
With a server connected, moving files is a three-second job:
- Select files or folders on either side — Ctrl and Shift work like in Explorer, and folders move with everything inside them.
- Click UPLOAD or DOWNLOAD, press F6, or just drag the selection across to the other pane. You can even drop files straight from Windows Explorer into either pane.
- Watch the queue. The Active tab shows the current file's progress and speed; finished files move to Done, problems to Failed.
A few behaviours worth knowing:
- Several files move at once. By default the app transfers up to 4 files in parallel over extra connections (set 1–8 in Settings).
- Start more while it's busy. New selections queue up as batches and start automatically when the current one finishes.
- Browsing feels instant. Folders you've already visited re-open from cache — press F5 for a fresh listing. The filter box narrows long listings as you type, and the path bar is clickable (or press Ctrl+L to type a path).
- Stop anytime with Ctrl+. — transfers halt after the current file, and cancelled files land in Failed so nothing is lost track of.
- Retry from the queue. Right-click rows in Failed for Retry selected / Retry all failed, in Done for Re-transfer selected — or export either list as CSV or TXT for records.
Editing files on the server
Need to fix one line in a config or tweak an HTML file? Don't download it anywhere. Double-click any file in the server pane (or press F4):
- The first time, the app asks which editor you prefer — it detects what's installed (Notepad++, VS Code, Sublime Text, JetBrains IDEs and more) and remembers your choice. Edit with… in the right-click menu picks a different editor for just one file.
- The file downloads to a temporary folder and opens in that editor.
- Every time you hit Save, the file uploads back to the server automatically. The log confirms each save with a ✓.
Settings → View → Open Active Edits… lists every file being watched, with buttons to upload immediately or stop watching. Close the app with unsaved uploads and it warns you first. If you'd rather confirm each upload, turn on Settings → Editor → Ask before saving to server.
ZIP, search & file tools
Right-click in the server pane and the everyday jobs are all there: new folder, new file, rename, delete (folders recursively) — plus three tools that save real time:
- 🗜 Compress to ZIP — select files or folders on the server and pack them into a ZIP created right there on the server. Ideal before downloading a whole site.
- 📂 Extract here — the reverse: right-click a
.zip,.tar.gzor similar archive on the server and unpack it in place. - 🔍 Search on server (Ctrl+F) — find files by name with wildcards (
*.log,report*) across subfolders, with results streaming in live. Double-click a result to jump to its folder.
The This PC pane has its own conveniences — Open in Explorer, home and drive-list buttons — and both panes support the full keyboard: F2 rename, F5 refresh, F7 new folder, Ctrl+H hidden files, Alt+←/→ back and forward, type-ahead jumping, Delete.
Resume, retries & overwrite rules
Transfers fail for boring reasons — a Wi-Fi blip, a server timeout, a full disk. The app treats those as hiccups, not disasters:
- Resume, not restart. An interrupted file continues from where it stopped instead of starting over.
- Automatic retries. A failed file retries 3 times with growing delays (adjustable), and at the end of the batch every still-failed file gets one more pass.
- Size verification. Every completed file's size is checked against the source — "OK" in the log means the bytes are provably all there.
- Auto-reconnect. Dropped connections rebuild themselves; if a server drops you while browsing, one click on the pane brings it back.
- Nothing vanishes. If the app closes mid-transfer, unfinished files reappear in the Failed tab on next launch, ready to retry.
When a file already exists at the destination, the rule under Settings → Transfers → On conflict decides:
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ask (default) | A dialog offers Overwrite, Overwrite All, Skip or Skip All for the rest of the batch |
| Skip | Skips files that already exist with the same size; a half-finished file is completed, not skipped |
| Overwrite | Replaces without asking |
| Rename | Keeps both — the new file arrives as name (1).ext |
Settings
The Settings page has five short sections; every change applies immediately:
| Section | What you control | Defaults |
|---|---|---|
| Transfers | Completion notification, how many files move at once, transfer mode, conflict rule, download/upload speed limits, skip patterns (e.g. *.tmp; Thumbs.db) | Notify on · 4 files · Ask · Unlimited |
| Connection | Connect timeout, retry count, delay between retries | 15 s · 3 retries · 5 s |
| Editor | Default editor for remote files, ask-before-upload toggle | Chosen on first edit · Off |
| View | Show/hide the activity log and transfer queue, open the Active Edits window | Both shown |
| About & Updates | Version info, manual update check, export your saved settings | — |
Updates & notifications
The app checks quietly for updates and tells you through the bell icon in the top bar — a red badge means there's something to read. Nothing ever installs itself: you click Download update, the installer downloads and is checked for integrity, and the familiar setup wizard runs when you choose.
You can also check manually anytime — Settings → About & Updates → Check for updates answers with a clear "You're up to date ✓" when there's nothing new.
Troubleshooting
The connection fails
- Re-check the basics. Host, port, username, password — most failures are a typo. Copy-paste instead of retyping.
- Right protocol? If FTPS won't connect, your server may only speak plain FTP or SFTP — try the other options. SFTP uses port 22, the others 21.
- Firewall in the way? The Auto transfer mode already tries passive first and falls back to active. If a strict firewall still blocks transfers, set Advanced settings → Transfer mode to Passive explicitly.
"Connection lost" appears on the server pane
Servers drop idle connections — it's normal. The app sends keep-alives and reconnects by itself where it can; if the pane greys out, one click on Connect (or on any folder) brings it back. Running transfers aren't affected — they rebuild their own connections and resume.
A big transfer was interrupted
Just run it again. Files that made it are skipped (same size = done), partial files resume from where they stopped, and anything in the Failed tab retries with two clicks.
I saved a file in my editor but the server still has the old version
The app must still be running — it watches the file and uploads on save. Check Settings → View → Open Active Edits…: if the file is listed, Upload now forces it. Your edited copy is never lost — if an upload fails, the log shows exactly where the file is on disk.
The file list looks out of date
Listings are cached for speed. Press F5 (or the refresh button) for a fresh listing from the server.
Is it really free?
Yes — Prapl FTP Client is completely free. There's no trial period, no license key, no account, no locked features and no upsell inside the app. If your work grows into server-to-server moves or mounting servers as folders, our paid tools — FTP to FTP File Transfer and Cloud Mount Manager — are there when you want them.
Getting help
If this guide didn't answer your question, a real engineer will. Include which screen you're on, what you expected, and what happened instead — a screenshot of any error message, or a copy of the activity log, is perfect.
