How to create an FTP account on hosting

The main FTP account is created along with your hosting service automatically. It provides access to all hosting folders. The main FTP account password matches your control panel password and you can find it in the welcome email.

You can create an additional FTP account granting access only to a certain folder. The total amount of FTP accounts you can add to your hosting depends on your plan and the number of added domains.

DirectAdmin

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My Services” section and click the “Open DirectAdmin” button;
2. The DirectAdmin panel will be opened. Go to the “Account Manager” section and click the “FTP Management” button;
   • While visiting this section for the first time, you can only see your main FTP account whose name and password are equal to your panel login name and password;
3. Click the “Create FTP account” button (you can see how many accounts you can add within your plan if you move your cursor over this button);
4.  A new window where you can specify the following information will be opened:
   • FTP Username – the account name must be typed in in one word, like a manager. As a result, your FTP login name will be manager@domain.com (domain.com part matches the domain selected in the top menu bar);
   • Enter Password – your account’s password (the button with dices allows you to generate a random password, the button with an eye allows you to unhide your password symbols);
   • Domain – your FTP account will be having access to the root directory of the domain selected in the top menu bar and all of its subfolders;
   • FTP – your FTP account will be having access to the public_ftp directory of the domain selected in the top menu bar;
   • User – a new folder whose name matches this FTP account name will be created inside the public_html directory of the domain selected in the top menu bar. Your FTP account will only be having access to this folder;
   • Custom – if this option is selected, you will be allowed to type a custom path of this account’s root directory manually (in case the folder name you typed in does not exist, it will be created). Your FTP account will be having access to this folder and all of its subfolders;
5. After all the information is specified, click the “Create” button;
6. Once the FTP account is created, a new window displaying your FTP parameters will appear. Copy this data to a safe place and close this window. Done.

If you want to delete an FTP account, hit the checkbox near the needed account and click the “Delete” button.

cPanel

By default, you already have an FTP account in your cPanel. Use your cPanel username and password to log into it.

You can create new FTP accounts to give access to other users without giving them your cPanel login credentials. For each additional FTP account created, you can also give each user different levels of access by assigning the user to a specific directory.

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My Services” section and click the “Open cPanel” button;
2. The cPanel will be opened. Go to the “Files” section and click the “FTP Accounts” button;
3. You can specify the following data while adding a new account:
   • In the “Login” field, type the name of the FTP user. A full FTP username will always be formatted as username@yourdomain.com;
   • Select the required domain in the “Domain” menu;
   • In the “Password” fields, enter a password that will be used to authenticate this FTP account. For help generating a strong password, click the “Generate Password” button;
   • In the “Directory” field, cPanel will auto-populate an assumed directory based on the FTP username, but that is normally incorrect. You can delete everything and mention the directory you want the user to access. You can also type a single / with which the user will get access to your home directory;
   • Set a quota for the FTP account. The quota is the maximum amount of bandwidth the FTP user may use. If you leave the quota as unlimited, the FTP user will have the ability to use the total amount of bandwidth for the cPanel account;
4. After entering the data, click the “Create FTP Account” button.

Once created, the new FTP account will be displayed in the list of accounts in the “FTP Accounts” section. In the same section, you can manage the created FTP account, namely: change the password, set a quota (disk space), and delete the account.

The section “Special FTP Accounts” provides a list of FTP administrative accounts for your cPanel account. This also includes the main FTP account and the logging account.

ISPmanager

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My Services” section and click the “Open ISPmanager” button;
2. You can database by going to the section “Dashboard – FTP users”;
3. Click the “Add” button at the top of the columns on the right;
4. You can specify the following data while adding a new account:
   • Name – enter the name of the FTP account you want to add. This will also be the FTP username to get access to this FTP account;
   • Password, Confirmation – password for the created database user. Note that you can click the “Generate Password” button next to the question mark for the Password in order to have a more secure password;
   • Home directory – enter FTP account home directory;
5. Upon completion of entering the data, click the “Ok” button.

To edit properties of the FTP user, locate the user you wish to edit, click the “Edit” button and modify the settings you want to change.

To delete an FTP user, select it from the list and click the “Delete” button. Confirm that you want to delete the selected FTP user by clicking “OK” in the following form.

To get the FTP-access settings – select the desired user in the list and click the “Settings” button. In the form, you can see the fields with connection data: “FTP username”, “FTP server address”, and “FTP server port”.

Plesk

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My Services” section and click the “Open Plesk” button;
2. The Plesk panel will be opened. Go to the “Websites & Domains” section and select ”FTP Access” and сlick the “Add FTP Account” button;
3. You can specify the following settings while adding a new account:
   • FTP account name – enter the name for the FTP account you want to add. This will also be the FTP username to get access to this FTP account;
   • Home directory – type the root(home) directory for the user. Alternatively, click the folder icon and then select the directory. By default they have access to / for the “Subscription”;
   • Generate a password by clicking the “Generate” button;
   • Read permission – to allow the FTP user to view the contents of the home directory and download files from it, select the Read permission checkbox;
   • Write permission – to allow the FTP user to create, view, rename and delete directories in the home directory, select the Write permission checkbox;
4. Upon completion of entering the data, click the “OK” button.

To edit the properties of the FTP user, on the “FTP Accounts” section, click the name of the account you want to modify.

To delete an FTP user, select it from the list and click the “Remove” button. Note that the primary FTP account cannot be deleted.