Fetch for Mac

Editors' review

by: Jason Parker on October 25, 2011

Fetch is one of the oldest and most well-loved FTP clients, whose cute fetching-dog animation has been running--literally--on Macs since 1989. Fetch can handle all your basic FTP needs, including SFTP and FTP with TLS/SSL, along with support for AppleScript and one-click remote file editing (with any kind of file and any kind of application). In addition to a fairly minimal and intuitive visual interface, Fetch saves you time with extras like Quick Look previews (optimized for OS X), easy drag and drop (including droplet shortcuts that save you from having to retype connection information), progress-tracking Dashboard widgets (shaped like, what else, doggie bones), autoresume of failed or stalled downloads, and a WebView feature that makes it easy to preview and share Web page updates.

Mac users have many more choices now for FTP clients than they did in 1989, including some free alternatives, and Fetch now falls into the middle ground in terms of price and features, with some notable shortcomings such as lack of support for Amazon S3.

Overall Fetch remains a solid FTP option with handy features that users have been appreciating for years, and a developer that listens to user comments to make the app better. Even when you do have problems, Fetch offers comprehensive help and active user forums.