Transmit 5

by lorenz_li • 9 years ago

306 146 9 years ago

Used it when I switched from Fetch[0] back in the day when PHP code was deployed with FTP. Great client, definitely the most "native" feeling FTP app I've used. Now I mostly use it for S3, which is very well supported.

[0]: Throwback http://vintagemacmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Fetch...

athenot• 9 years ago

I was surprised to see Fetch is still around:

"Originally developed at Dartmouth, this product is now sold by FetchSoftworks."

https://fetchsoftworks.com

http://tech.dartmouth.edu/its/services-support/help-yourself...

mikepurvis• 9 years ago

Stick around at the top of the page so you don't miss out on the gratuitous rotating 3D truck of awesomeness.

erickhill• 9 years ago

And you can click it and spin it, too. :)

kreetx• 9 years ago

Sad that you can't open the doors, pick the containers, spin the wheels or open the hood :D It is a nice touch though!

33degrees3• 9 years ago

In case anyone else is wondering, for me it works in Safari but not Chrome

brandall10• 9 years ago

Works for me fine on Chrome 59 on OSX.

dewey• 9 years ago

Works fine in Chrome Version 59.0.3071.115 (Official Build) (64-bit)

thehashrocket2• 9 years ago

Works in Firefox Nightly.

anonacct37• 9 years ago

Oh, that explains why my cpu utilization doubled when I opened that page.

rwparmenter• 9 years ago

Took a peak into the source, apparently they thought writing 30,000 lines of code was worth it for a 3D spinning truck.

Kluny• 9 years ago

Well, it is.

jadengeller• 9 years ago

It looks like they just used three.js

ronaldj• 9 years ago

Most of that is just three.js

clentaminator• 9 years ago

Took a look into the source of the OS that I'm reading the Panic web page on. Absolutely disgusting that there's over 1.5M lines of code _in the kernel alone_. This is the kind of software bloat that is the death of our industry.

chuckdries• 9 years ago

they thought writing 30,000 lines of code was worth
implying they wrote most of that

That's absurd. They used a library, and it's a product page, so looking nice is a high priority

nodesocket2• 9 years ago

Was this modeled in a 3d application and then exported to canvas? Curious to hear how something like this is done.

hbosch• 9 years ago

You can load various 3D model types (and textures) via three.js, which uses canvas.

gfaure• 9 years ago

I love that the tires say "Firewatch" instead of "Firestone" :)

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

Glad to see them offer more cloud options (in addition to s3: Google, Dropbox, etc). While perhaps Transmit is "prettier", in recent years there have been many more complete offerings from their competitors.

Looks like they've made some S3 enhancements (which is my primary use). I hope they updated with support for KMS-encrypted files.

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

Yep, it opens KMS-encrypted files without an issue :-)

Osmium• 9 years ago

Congratulations Panic :)

One of my favorite Mac app companies (along with The Omni Group and, more recently, Affinity). I always know I'll be paying for quality, polished software with Panic, and I've been looking forward to this Transmit update.

bleomycin• 9 years ago

I didn't see any mention of segmented download support via sftp? This is something lftp and smartftp support but very few other clients do.

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

Looks like it's no longer on App Store (not surprising or disappointing, though it was convenient when I moved to a new machine)

breadmaster2• 9 years ago

This app store thing just burned me pretty bad when I cleared my machine and did not back up Airmail 2. When I went back to install it, It was no longer on the app store and I was informed that there was no way to get it again unless I paid for Airmail 3.

This is where just having a license key and a dmg somewhere is preferable.

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

Transmit v4 still is in my list of Purchased apps, and appears installable.

nicky03• 9 years ago

Look in your "Purchased" apps list, it will still be there.

favorited• 9 years ago

Pretty awesome that they've been building the "same" app for 20 years – since MacOS 9!

deanclatworthy2• 9 years ago

And yes, Transmit still handles the classics — FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and S3 — better than any. We make complex services drag-and-drop simple.

I love Transmit, but S3 has been broken for a long long time on Transmit 4 [1]. Is it now fixed in 5?

[1] https://twitter.com/derscuro/status/525570239120285697?lang=... (There are earlier references to this issue than this).

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

Can't speak to this feature, but appears features usable in latest s3 API are working that weren't in v4.

deanclatworthy2• 9 years ago

I couldn't perform any operations on S3 buckets due to this issue. If you are going to be in the business of building a client on top of a third-party API with no defined long-term protocol or RFC, you should be in the business of providing ongoing support for it too.

Transmit spent so long developing v5 and didn't provide this (important) update to any v4 users even when it was present for around 2-3 years.

Let's hope they provide better support, for all the other new services they have added, going forward.

aezell• 9 years ago

I haven't used Transmit in a while as I don't have a need for it, but when I did it was a great client.

The Panic app I miss most is Unison. Well, miss in the sense of miss it getting updated. It's still available.

Years ago, Unison and a fat Giganews subscription were fantastic ways to discover music.

pyrophane• 9 years ago

Among other things.

SyneRyder2• 9 years ago

The Panic app I really miss is Audion. The Winamp-alike app that very nearly got bought by Apple to be rebadged as a little music player called 'iTunes'...

https://panic.com/extras/audionstory/

detaro• 9 years ago

When was this retired? (from a quick skim, the article doesn't seem to mention clear dates)

sergiotapia• 9 years ago

Their entire interface and UX persona reminds me of better times when skeuomorphic design reigned supreme. Now all we get is boring flat with single color highlights. Transmit 5 looks fantastic!

mortenjorck• 9 years ago

The funny thing is, there was never anything strictly skeuomorphic about the old versions of Transmit either - Panic has just always had an engaging approach to UI design, independent of trends.

rvanmil• 9 years ago

Fantastic app, instabuy. I'm really happy to see these kinds of native Mac apps being successful for so long. They're a breath of fresh air amidst all the Electron crap lately.

Outofthebot• 9 years ago

Agreed. I get that it's easier to build a singular cross platform app using a JS framework, but the decrease in quality from a well done native app really shows. I'm looking at you Spotify, todoist, Slack and others

ivm3• 9 years ago

I get that it's easier to build a singular cross platform app using a JS framework

More like to wrap a website. I doubt that it's easier than Qt when building from scratch.

cstrat• 9 years ago

Atom, Discord, Etcher are all Electron apps (I am pretty sure?) and I think they work great.

sangnoir• 9 years ago

You can pry Electron-based VS Code from my cold, dead hands. I'm grateful that it's cross-platform and available on Linux - I have pretty much stopped using a fully paid-for PyCharm, which I previously considered the best IDE. Being "native" is overrated, seeing that my top 2 IDEs are both not native apps, or look at any JetBrains product.

cel1ne• 9 years ago

I still think it's possible to build good non-native apps, but it's hard and you need to pay attention to details.

I've written a logviewer with electron. Getting the custom painted table-component and column-reordering to look and feel like Finder or iTunes tables was at least 10 hours of work.

Working on memory allocation so that javascript GC wouldn't introduce lags now and then was another 5 hours. (That is the main performance problem with non-native apps, I think.)

blacksmith_tb• 9 years ago

Transmit has always been slick, but it seems like Cyberduck[1] might have stolen a fair chunk of their clientele? I find it pretty useful on macOS (and/or things like yafc and ncftp on Linux).

1: https://cyberduck.io/

wukerplank2• 9 years ago

Cyberduck is not bad if you don't use SFTP too often. But Transmit is way superior in terms of protocols and speed. Definitely worth the money.

vetinari2• 9 years ago

What's wrong with Cyberduck's SFTP support? I've been using it for a few years already and never had a problem.

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

But Transmit is way superior in terms of protocols

Until today's update, Cyberduck supported many more cloud providers than Transmit.

blipmusic• 9 years ago

I like Forklift[1] but that's more of a Finder-replacement with remote possibilities, I guess.

1: http://binarynights.com/forklift/

kfriede• 9 years ago

I recently switched from Cyberduck (and a Transmit trial) to Forklift. Night and day difference. S3 on Transmit was terrible, and the application seemed a little plain in features in comparison.

kennydude2• 9 years ago

Cyberduck also has Mountain Duck which is incredibly useful. Not sure if Transmit has a similar feature

DavideNL2• 9 years ago

What a surprise it's not a monthly subscription!

</kidding>

drcongo• 9 years ago

I'm buying this just for it not being a monthly subscription.

amazingman• 9 years ago

I don't understand the allergy that so many developers have (in my experience) to subscription software. Software is never finished, golden master style distribution ends up orphaning huge swaths of customers across major updates, and most of the cost of software maintenance is continuous. Continuous income via subscription services goes a long way toward solving these issues.

whorleater• 9 years ago

Because it strips away your right to "own" software. Transmit 4 still works, and I can choose to pay for an upgrade if I wanted to. Transmit 5 is faster, nicer looking, and has more features, but I don't suddenly lose access to Transmit 4 by not upgrading. Charge me and upgrade fee and make versions, don't do a subscription.

mentalpiracy• 9 years ago

Software may not be finished, but I may not care about the design roadmap. Version 3.5 might be feature-complete for my specific needs. Let me compensate you for that snapshot. Then let your power users fuel your continued development.

ivm3• 9 years ago

I don't understand the allergy that so many developers have (in my experience) to subscription software.

Not owning it, keeping data somewhere else, stacking many small subscriptions into a big monthly bill.

Software is never finished

But some apps are not in active development forever. You don't need to add big features endlessly to something like a FTP client:

http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2012/03/thank-god...

themagician• 9 years ago

Because when you stop paying you have nothing.

I'd much prefer a hybrid model. Happy to pay $30 or so for a single version and then $1-$2/mo for updates. If I stop paying at least I have something.

The app Gameshow by Telestream works like this and I really like the model. It's $35 and you get one year of updates. After a year you either stick with whatever the last point release was or you pay another $35. I wish Adobe software was like this.

bhj• 9 years ago

I tend to agree but think some developers do consider certain software "finished" and a subscription model adds undue pressure. Whether that model makes sense really depends on the type of software, its user base and the developer themselves.

pfranz• 9 years ago

I can see a business sense for subscription software. They have an aversion to capital expenditures and much prefer operational expenditures. It helps them scale up and down and stay nimble.

As an individual, I really don't like having to constantly make a judgement call if I'm still getting value out of my recipe manager or my disk usage analyzer. Most of the development was done up front, as with the risk in developing it. There's also not really continuous updates or a lot of new features always needed.

When people sit down to budget, the first things people ask about are reoccurring expenses that can be minimized or eliminated; cheaper cellphone plan, cutting out daily lattes, cable bill--even investment fees. They easily sneak in and add up over time.

wlesieutre• 9 years ago

Because I don't need the latest and greatest of every single piece of software, but subscriptions are always priced as if I do.

"Look, you save 25% versus buying our old yearly releases every year!" they say.

But I wasn't going to buy all their yearly releases. Most software I use isn't my main workhorse. I was perfectly happy running old Adobe software for years, even after high DPI screens came out and it didn't support them. So what really happened is they took my purchase-every-five-years plan and jacked the price up 300% for stuff that I don't need.

Being required to pay for updates that I don't want (and the current version stops working entirely if you stop paying for it) takes away any pricing segmentation and tends to be a terrible deal for hobbyists.

If you're a creative professional maybe Creative Cloud is a great bargain. But it isn't for me, and neither is a $10/month FTP client. So props to Panic for not going that route.

Crontab• 9 years ago

I will never, ever, ever pay for subscription-ware. I don't mind it being offered as an option but the crap that companies like AgileBits is pulling is ridiculous.

drivingmenuts• 9 years ago

When the subscription runs out, so does your ability to use the software.

At least Jetbrains lets you lock in the last version subscribed.

Groxx2• 9 years ago

Just to add to the chorus of "you have nothing when you stop paying" / "it keeps working after they release v2", etc, let me toss in:

If the company shuts down (or gets acquired or simply stops supporting the software), subscription software stops working. Paid usually does not.

I've outlived too many useful products, and lost them entirely. I expect to continue to do so for a lot longer, so I avoid subscriptions-for-non-hosted-software like the plague it is.

bronco21016• 9 years ago

I would be fine with a subscription model if the customer service was actually better as you seem to claim the model provides.

I recently had an issue importing a logbook using arguably the most popular iOS pilot logbook app and it took a week. A WEEK! For the them to attend to my support request. A week could be 30 hours worth of flights for a pilot depending where they work.

Why do you need almost $100/year from me if you can't answer one email in 48 hours?

I've been dreaming of an open source logbook setup ever since this experience. I wish I didn't have to rely on $100/yr subscriptions to be locked into something so critical to my career.

voltagex_2• 9 years ago

Because 5 or 10 bucks a month multiplied by however many apps adds up very quickly.

Subscriptions done right:

* JetBrains - big discount during the change to subscription model, perpetual license to the last version that was released while your sub was active

* Office - gives me OneDrive space, 5 licenses to use in my family, Skype minutes, yearly payment - the subscription is the best value for money.

Subscriptions done wrong:

* Creative Cloud - more expensive in Australia for no reason, no value in choosing just the app/s I need, can't use old versions if my sub lapses.

* Google Apps - holds $300+ of Android apps hostage if I ever cancel my subscription

DavideNL2• 9 years ago

So let's assume that for a particular app the costs between a "one time purchase" and "subscription" would be exactly the same: for example, a subscription of $1/month vs purchasing a new app exactly every year for $12.

Here's the difference:

- People who no longer use the app, will forget about it and the subscription will keep going for some time, which means free $ for company.

- People who don't really need the new features of the app and normally would not re-buy it (perhaps the Developer neglected renewing the app and it only has minor changes) still get it and pay for it through the subscription.

I honestly can't think of a single advantage of subscriptions for customers.

breadmaster2• 9 years ago

Always worth the money I've spent for a Panic app. Coda 2 got me through my previous gig as a web dev.

acomjean• 9 years ago

I've use transmit for over 10 years.. (Yikes). Was just wondering if this was going to get an upgrade.

Same price new/upgrade. Its been 7 years since they've upgraded the previous version so thats fair. I like the "Sync folders" feature quite a bit.

They started making games, and was wondering if thats where the company was headed..

copperx10• 9 years ago

Does the "sync folders" feature support checksumming? Basic file integrity checks would be nice.

overcast2• 9 years ago

FINALLY. So frustrating having to wait all of this time. I couldn't get a definitive answer from them on whether a Trasmit 4 license purchased at present, would be eligible for a Transmit 5 upgrade.

apetresc2• 9 years ago

It's spelled out clearly on the order page – there's no special upgrade pricing, unless you bought v4 on or before June 1st, 2017, in which case it's free.

overcast2• 9 years ago

Yes, thank you. That was not there PRIOR to Transmit 5, for the past 6+ months. I wanted to purchase it, and if I did in May, I'd be paying twice for 4 and 5 in a two month time frame.

nicky03• 9 years ago

Do you mean on or after?

pier25• 9 years ago

Finally.

I've been using Transmit for 10 years and had already moved to Forklift since the Transmit 4 engine was so slow.

Transmit 5 looks awesome and I only miss access to Google Cloud Storage which surprisingly only Cyberduck supports.

kasperset• 9 years ago

While not native but I believe there is a way to access Google Cloud storage with Transmit. Read: https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/interoperability

aficiomaquinas• 9 years ago

I've also been waiting for Google Cloud Storage support for a long time. Please add it, Panic! That's the only thing I'm missing.

copperx10• 9 years ago

Thanks for the heads up. Forklift looks like a great improvement over Transmit.

atYevP• 9 years ago

Yev from Backblaze here -> good news! Backblaze B2 as a destination ;)

kup0• 9 years ago

Very glad to see this :D

smacktoward• 9 years ago

I wish there was a universal file-transfer app like this on Windows & Linux. The best cross-platform solution I know of is FileZilla, and even that (1) only does FTP/SFTP, leaving out S3 and all the other services and (2) features some utterly baffling design decisions (ahem: https://trac.filezilla-project.org/ticket/2914) that make it more or less unusable for serious work.

Sigh.

cateye• 9 years ago

Maybe check https://winscp.net/eng/download.php

cjensen• 9 years ago

I've used the CloudBerry apps on Windows. They work reliably, but the UI is abysmal.

copperx10• 9 years ago

What about Cyberduck?

LeoPanthera3• 9 years ago

Seconding Cyberduck. Great on Windows and Mac.

nbrempel• 9 years ago

I'm always impressed with Panic's software. I'm sure this won't be any different!

terinjokes2• 9 years ago

This says it supports "Amazon S3". Does anyone know if they allow you to configure the endpoint, and thus use an S3 compatible store[0]?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_S3#S3_API_and_competing...

33degrees3• 9 years ago

On transmit 4 you can configure the server you're connecting to, so I would think it would work

terinjokes2• 9 years ago

Awesome, I didn't know it worked in Transmit 4 either. I'd been burned by trying out Commander One and Forklift where it doesn't work.

Based on your comment I downloaded the trial and confirms it works (only with TLS) for the Minio instance I have running.

aidos• 9 years ago

When I moved to a Mac (2004/5) Transmit was one of the first bits of software I purchased. It was a bit of a revelation to discover that software could be so lovely- it really added to the joy of using a new machine.

Having said that, nothing was ever as fast as LeechFTP I used on Windows [http://www.leechftp.de]. That thing was magic - no ftp client has ever felt so fast.

dangayle• 9 years ago

What timing! I was just telling my coworker this morning that Transmit was the best money I ever spent on tools I use for web development. I've been using Transmit for a long, long time and I still feel like I haven't fully utilized it.

Instabuy for me.

copperx10• 9 years ago

Curious, what do you use it for?

danpalmer• 9 years ago

I love Transmit, and version 4 served me well, but I've used it less and less over the years to the point where I don't think I'm the target market, as a web developer, anymore. I wish I had a reason to use this, but I can't find one.

copperx10• 9 years ago

I agree; however, it's invaluable if you use S3 or the like to manually backup files you never want to lose. Arq, for example, works great to backup your entire computer/server, but I like have a manually curated backup.

Exuma• 9 years ago

I've been a fan all the way since the beginning... I'll buy this even though I don't even use FTP and whatnot much anymore. Just for the extreme value this app gave me many years ago when I was getting started.

nodesocket2• 9 years ago

Can I backup my macOS Time Machine to Google Cloud Storage using Transmit? I'd like to store my Time Machine backups offsite just incase.

dawnerd• 9 years ago

I use Duplicati so I can encrypt my backups. Have it sent to google drive.

skinnymuch2• 9 years ago

Arq seems to be the app most people wildly endorse on Mac for backups like that.

copperx10• 9 years ago

Arq forces your files into their own proprietary (although open) containers, which are always encrypted. Being paranoid is nice and all, but it makes it impossible to log in into your cloud storage provider and browse your files or share a public link to one of your files.

Arq is atrocious for backups, but that doesn't seem to be its main use case.

ivanhoe• 9 years ago

Funny how much git changed how we do things. Transmit was one of the apps that I've always had opened on my laptop, and now haven't touched it at all for more than a year.

bdcravens7• 9 years ago

I primarily use it for S3, not FTP (though these days I find myself going to the AWS CLI more and more)

dmix• 9 years ago

They also launched a new sync service which automatically encrypts your files clientside: https://panic.com/sync/

It's great to see encryption is becoming standard practice with new services.

LeoPanthera3• 9 years ago

It's not new, it's been around for a long time in Coda and Transmit for iOS.

gabrielcsapo• 9 years ago

The mac application company, they are the reason I started programming!

jshelly2• 9 years ago

Any way to add SMB? I don't see it in the list of options and I need to copy files to a Windows server.

copperx10• 9 years ago

Isn't SMB natively supported by OS X?

LeoPanthera3• 9 years ago

It is.

jshelly2• 9 years ago

It is, but its a PIA and I'd like to use the mirror function

rangibaby• 9 years ago

I bought Transmit 4 in 2011-ish and was happy with it. The major missing feature (IMO) was segmented downloading. I switched to lftp and never looked back.

_Codemonkeyism• 9 years ago

We use mostly Forklift here for uploads/downloads, the two pane view is a favorite of mine since Norton Commander.

prima-facie• 9 years ago

The remote-remote feature is great! Does any other client have such a thing? I basically need Google drive -> ftp.

pwenzel• 9 years ago

I bought Transmit 3 in 2006, and upgraded to Transmit 4 in 2010. It's always been a shining example of extremely well supported, well designed Mac software.

I'm cool paying $35 for Transmit 5.

Transmit 5

Related Stories