Deploy pipelines and git hooks handle the big moves. They don’t handle the small ones: open a folder on a remote Linux box, drop in a file, tweak a config, close the laptop, pick it up again tomorrow.
That’s SFTP — file browsing and transfer over SSH. Not FTP. Same encrypted connection, same port, real paths like /var/www/site. For a VPS, a staging server, or a box in the garage, it’s still the most direct way to work on a remote filesystem.
What a good SFTP app should get right
- Stay out of your way. Connect, see local and remote side by side, move files — without a ritual every time.
- Remember where you work. Same host, same folders. Not back at $HOME on every reconnect.
- Respect small edits. Open a remote text file, change it, save it back. No download → edit → upload loop.
- Do one thing well. SFTP, properly — not a junk drawer of protocols and sync engines you’ll never open.
- Feel at home on a Mac. Tabs, shortcuts, a UI that matches how you already work.
Beaver SFTP is built around that list: a native macOS two-pane client, tabs for multiple hosts, quick-edit with save-back, a transfer queue, and saved local and remote paths so you continue where you left off.
SFTP only. No bloat — just the client for when the server is the workspace.
Beaver SFTP on the Mac App Store · macOS 14+
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