A dual-pane Cyberduck alternative for FTP & SFTP

Cyberduck is a great multi-protocol browser. Upstream is a focused FTP/SFTP workhorse with a true two-panel workflow. Which one fits depends on what you connect to.

Download Upstream free See all features

Cyberduck’s superpower is breadth: beyond FTP and SFTP it speaks S3, Azure, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Dropbox and more, with Cryptomator encryption on top. If your day revolves around cloud buckets, keep it — honestly.

If your day revolves around servers — hosting, a NAS, a VPS, a Raspberry Pi — Upstream trades that breadth for depth: a dual-pane view with your local disk always in sight, a concurrent transfer queue with automatic resume, folder sync with a dry-run preview, and a 100% Swift & SwiftNIO engine.

Upstream vs Cyberduck, feature by feature

An honest snapshot — a ✓ means the feature ships today, notes mark the differences that matter.

Feature	Upstream	Cyberduck
Price	Free · FULL 19,99 € once	Free, open source (donation key)
FTP, FTPS & SFTP	✓	✓
Cloud storage (S3, Azure, B2, Drive…)	—	✓
Dual-pane local + remote view	✓	Single-pane browser
Engine	100% Swift & SwiftNIO	Java core, Cocoa UI
Concurrent queue with auto-resume	✓	Transfers window
Folder sync with dry-run preview	FULL	Sync via Mountain Duck (paid app)
Passwords in the macOS Keychain	✓	✓
⌘K command palette	FULL	—
Client-side encryption (Cryptomator)	—	✓
Windows version	—	✓
Import sites from FileZilla / SSH config	FULL	—

Where Cyberduck is still the right choice

You connect to cloud storage — S3, Azure, Backblaze, Google Drive, Dropbox — not just servers.
You want Cryptomator client-side encryption for what you upload.
You need the same tool on Windows, or you prefer open source end to end.

Where Upstream pulls ahead for server work

Dual-pane layout: local and remote side by side, with drag & drop between panes and Finder.
A transfer queue built for big jobs — configurable parallelism, exponential-backoff retries, automatic resume.
Folder sync with a color-coded dry-run preview, built in (no second app to buy).
Native Swift & SwiftNIO throughout — no Java runtime under the hood.
⌘K palette, tabs and fuzzy search to jump between dozens of servers without touching the mouse.

Common questions

Does Upstream support S3 or Google Drive like Cyberduck?

No. Upstream is deliberately limited to FTP, FTPS and SFTP so those three protocols work flawlessly. For cloud buckets, Cyberduck remains an excellent choice.

Is Upstream free like Cyberduck?

The core is free with no limits. FULL — folder sync, watch-mode editing, SSH keys, tabs, ⌘K — is a one-time 19,99 € purchase, similar in spirit to Cyberduck’s registration key but with a defined feature set.

Which one is faster for FTP and SFTP?

Both are capable. Upstream’s engine is built on SwiftNIO with a concurrent queue and configurable parallelism, which shines on large recursive transfers to ordinary FTP/SFTP servers.

Try Upstream free, decide later

The core is free forever — unlimited FTP, FTPS and SFTP sites, the concurrent queue, Quick Look and full file management. No trial clock, no subscription.

Download on the Mac App Store

More comparisons: Upstream vs FileZilla · Upstream vs Transmit