Transmit and Coda Software by Panic

[Mark]

A little back story on my search for FTP software for Mac. Back when I switched to Mac I was trying to find some FTP software that I liked and suited my needs and everyone kept saying to use a program called Fetch. I had used Fetch a few years back in college and didn't really like it then, but I decided to try it again as it had seen many updates over the years. Needless to say, still didn't like it. So I decided to turn to Apples 3rd party downloads list on their website.

A couple of other clients later I came across a program called Transmit by Panic which was pretty low in the most popular internet utilities for the Mac preceded by (at the time) two other FTP programs. I decided to give it a try and after a week of using it I had finally found the program I was looking for. It's feature rich, straight forward, and very conducive to quick navigation and working with FTP. And with that, I went ahead and purchased it. All was well and good in the FTP world, that is, until last week when I actually browsed the Panic website outside of just purchasing a Transmit license.

As it turns out, they also have this awesome program called Coda. It's basically the poor mans Adobe Dreamweaver, except better? Yes, I did say better than Dreamweaver! At least in my opinion. It has sites which keeps track of all your files for one website on a sidebar rather than having to locate and open the files you need. It has remote editing (which I love) which allows you to edit files right on your sever without having to download the file (well manually at least) then upload it allowing you to save space on your hard drive (I've taken this route to editing my website and every month or so I will probably make backups of files I've changed). To add to that it had a robust CSS editor and a built-in terminal window if you need Shell access. And finally it includes books for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP that you can reference right within the program!

Only problem I have is that on the Panic website, it says Coda's FTP functionality is built on Transmit so you don't need a standalone FTP program. But I find that it's still necessary for uploading things quickly especially if it's just to a file server rather than an actual website. And lucky for me, as I found Transmit first, I can get a Coda license for a discounted rate which I will probably purchase when my trial is up in a couple of days.

As a side note, I'm in love with Panic's homepage. Not only is it simple, but I've got to find out how they went about creating drag and drop downloads on a website! Go ahead, on the homepage drag one of the program icons to the arrow on the upper right corner. SO COOL!