SFTP

Last updated March 19, 2024

To ensure your data remains safe and encrypted, we only support SFTP connections at Kinsta.

FTP Clients

If you don’t already have an FTP client installed on your computer, we recommend one of the following:

Cyberduck (Free — macOS or Windows)
WinSCP (Free — Windows)
FileZilla (Free — macOS, Windows, or Linux)
Transmit (Premium — macOS)

FTP Settings

You’ll need to configure your FTP client with the following settings, which can be found in MyKinsta under WordPress Sites > sitename > Info:

Connection type: SFTP (not regular FTP)
Address/URL/Hostname: Found in MyKinsta under WordPress Sites > sitename > Info
Username: Found in MyKinsta under WordPress Sites > sitename > Info
Password: Found in MyKinsta under WordPress Sites > sitename > Info
Port: Varies from site to site, found in MyKinsta under WordPress Sites > sitename > Info

Some FTP clients may default to FTP as the connection type, so be sure SFTP is selected as the connection type. If you don’t you might see an error similar to:

Cannot establish FTP connection to an SFTP server. Please select proper protocol.

Client Examples

Here are a few examples of settings in FTP clients.

Cyberduck

WinSCP

FileZilla

Transmit

Changing Your SFTP Password

If you would like to change your site’s SFTP password, you can do so in MyKinsta.

Steps To Change Your SFTP Password

Log in to MyKinsta.
Click on WordPress Sites in the left sidebar menu.
Select the site you want to change the SFTP password for.
Under the SFTP section, click on the Generate New SFTP Password button.
Click the Generate new password button in the pop-up window that appears to confirm the change.
You will receive a notification at the bottom of the screen in a second or so, at which point the password is updated.
Copy and paste the new password into your FTP client as needed.

More Information

SFTP is a secure way to connect to your website files and the only supported file transfer protocol at Kinsta. For more details about how SFTP is more secure, be sure to check out the difference between FTP and SFTP.