SmarterFTP - A Guide to FTP programs, and a smarter way to use them!

My testamonial - I used to use SmartFTP but was constantly bugged by a "feature" that autmatically disabled their software at a pre-determined expiration date. This is certainly what most people would consider to be a demo. The catch is, according to their license, it was free for personal use. You could download the new version and reset this expiration... until it decided to expire again. And so on and so forth.

Well this little game of cat and mouse really started to affect my productivity. I found myself spending more time messing with the forced upgrades of SmartFTP and less time using it to actually transfer my files to my personal sites. So I approached their support forums. This was a mistake.

I was greeted by a few of their paying customers who warned me that it was a rude and unpleasant place to be, and that I was unlikely to find any help. Quickly thereafter my post was deleted. Another post cropped up the next day with the same complaint I had about their crippleware "feature." It was again deleted. I found myself upset about how rudely users, potential customers, and paying customers were treated on this forum. A response I got on a topic before it was abruptly deleted:

"Welcome to the suppression of these forums. I'm a PAYING customer who is ignored in Premium support, they are nothing but rude here and I would expect nothing from them. Don't get your hopes ups. The feature I want in the program is going into beta in a week when it was first requested SIX years ago, and they said it was "coming soon" three years ago."