Sean Monahan

I’ve been using SmartFTP for some time now and aside from the too frequent crashing in the middle of an upload it’s a pretty nice FTP client. I like that it supports tabs and is just easy to use effectively. What I most certainly do not like is the system SmartFTP has in place to force users who paid a “one-time” licensing fee to upgrade.

I recently upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 and as part of process I reinstalled SmartFTP. I had purchased the version 3.0 license and I was happy enough with the software to continue using it. However, version 4.0 had since come out and it was impossible to find version 3.0 anywhere on the web. It seems the SmartFTP folks had done an excellent job of erasing the 3.0 version from existence. So even though I had a license that lasted until the end of time for version 3.0 is was screwed since I had neglected to keep the installer file.

Having just been robbed on about $25 I’m keeping my installer file and license key in a safe place so I can’t be taken again. I would love to recommend making a switch to some other FTP client, but sadly, I think SmartFTP is the best one available for Windows. So instead I’ll recommend that everyone who purchases a license for SmartFTP keep the installer file and license file in a safe place.