WebDAV vs SFTP — When to Use Which for Windows Local Mount

I see this question on Reddit r/sysadmin and on Chinese sysadmin forums at least once a week: "I want to mount my remote storage as a Windows drive letter — should I use WebDAV or SFTP?" Both protocols can be turned into a drive letter with the right client. They are not interchangeable. Here is the practical breakdown from running both in production for over a year.

What each protocol is actually good at

• WebDAV is an extension of HTTP. It speaks well through proxies, CDNs, and corporate firewalls. It supports locking, partial reads, and version metadata. It is verbose and chatty on the wire.
• SFTP is a tunneling protocol over SSH. It is binary, compact, and very fast for bulk operations. It does not support partial reads or random-access writes — the file is either read sequentially or written as a whole.

When WebDAV is the right choice

• You are mounting a Nextcloud / ownCloud / Seafile / Synology share.
• You need random-access reads (Plex scanning, video scrubbing, photo libraries).
• You need byte-range requests (large file partial loads).
• You need locking semantics for collaborative editing.

When SFTP is the right choice

• You are mounting a Linux server's filesystem for backup / archive.
• You are doing sequential reads and writes (log shipping, backup pipelines, rsync-style workloads).
• You are working across an SSH bastion or jump host.
• You do not need random-access reads.

Why this matters for the Windows mount layer

ScsDriver, RaiDrive, and Mountain Duck can mount both WebDAV and SFTP as Windows drive letters. The protocol you choose changes which workloads the mount can serve.

• If you point Plex at a WebDAV mount, Plex can scan and play files. If you point Plex at an SFTP mount, Plex tries to do random reads that SFTP does not support efficiently, and you get stalls.
• If you are running rsync over the mount, SFTP is faster.
• If you are editing a video file in place (Premiere, DaVinci Resolve), only WebDAV can do it without copying the file locally first.

The cross-protocol mistake

Do not pick one and commit your whole workflow to it. A mixed setup (WebDAV for media libraries + SFTP for backup archives) is the normal production answer. Mount each share under its own drive letter via ScsDriver, point your apps at the appropriate letter.

Verdict

WebDAV for random-access workloads (media, documents, anything you open in-place). SFTP for sequential workloads (backups, archives, log shipping). Mount both via ScsDriver if you want real local disk semantics and Chinese-filename correctness.

Want a full protocol decision tree? See WebDAV vs SFTP decision tree.