Connecting to SFTP for Shared Hosting

While FTP access has always been allowed on our Shared Hosting plans, we have recently added the ability to use Secure FTP, or SFTP. This procedure is a little different and does not use the normal cPanel login procedure to access the account. Below is our guide on using FileZilla and connecting to SFTP for shared hosting accounts.

Generate access keys via cPanel

If you have not already done so, create your public and private keys as per the instructions in the SSH access for Shared Hosting article. If you already have created keys for SSH access, the same keys will be used for SFTP.

Create the FileZilla profile

After your keys have been generated, you will need to create your SFTP profile in your FileZilla application. There are twos steps to this process. First you will need to attach your private keyfile to FileZilla and then you will need to create your connection profile.

Attach your private keyfile.

Step 1: Log into your FileZilla application.
Step 2: From the upper toolbar, click on Edit and then Settings.
Step 3: A settings popup will appear. From there click on SFTP in the left-hand toolbar. In the right panel, click on the Add keyfile… button.

Step 4: Using the popup window, navigate to the ppk file you saved for your private key and click Open.

Step 5: The keyfile will appear in the list. Click the OK button to save the information.

Set up the SFTP connection profile

Step 1: Using the upper toolbar, click on File and then Site Manager.
Step 2: A popup will appear for you to create a new profile. Click on the New Site.
Step 3: The right hand form will appear brighter, indicating you can now enter data in it. Be sure to enter data into the following fields:

Step 4: Once all data has been entered, click Connect to let FileZilla connect to your server.

Once you have completed the above, you should be able to connect to your shared account using SFTP.