It was always going to happen but the latest update finally broke what was still the best FTP app on iOS. While it did not integrate with the file manager it was still my go to app for FTP tasks and I know a lot of other peoples as well.
Panic decided quite a while ago the miserable prices obtainable on iOS could not justify its continued development, but at least the Mac version is alive and well.
Sad. I appreciated what they tried to do there. I’d thought they might have been more successful with a Mac + iOS bundle for Transmit since Mac users had already demonstrated a willingness to spend some money on a nice client. While there are competitors, there aren’t any who manage keypairs well, and few that do that at all.
I find this excuse/explanation… lacking.
I will admit that at the time, it made sense.
Now there are in-app purchases and subscriptions. Transmit is on the Mac App Store with an in-app purchase.
Heck, BBEdit is in the Mac App Store with a subscription!
Panic seems to write an app and then it goes into what seems like a dormant state where nothing happens to it for a long time.
See, for example, Prompt which is, I think, their only iOS app. There are a variety of improvements that it has needed for a long time. But very little has happened, other than a creative ‘hack’ to get around background timeouts by using location data, which I still can’t believe Apple lets them get away with – but I’m glad they do!
There are Mac and iOS users who would pay for a subscription to Transmit on the Mac and iOS. No one else has made a good app like this, and they’ve been make a good Mac app like this for, what, decades?! How many people on the Mac need an FTP client these days? Not nearly as many as used to, but they still make it. The biggest opportunity they have for growth and profit would be a great iOS app with a sustainable subscription price.
That’s my 2¢’s worth, as a non-developer/non-business person.
Agree. There are numerous times that Transmit and Coda had saved my work just because I can access it on my iOS device. It felt like they don’t care that much anymore. Even their published game, Firewatch, had to deal with bugs that still exist on their Steam and Switch version to this day that I questioned myself why I even double-dipped.
I think panic see iOS as a distraction/novelty, they have been occupied making Nova a really good native Mac code editor, and from what I remember at the time they stated the cost of running a full time dev on Transmit for iOS was not justifiable given the small niche market for a good FTP client against the amount chargeable.
Panic has also avoided subscription based products so far anyway, and I would doubt a sub for an FTP client no matter how good would go down well.
Until iPads can compile code and have Mac parity the dev app opportunities are very very small.
I would definitely subscribe to a new version of Prompt. BTW are there alternatives, other than SSH in a shortcut?
I use all 3 suggestions, but recommend Blink.
When Panic announced they were moving away from iOS I stopped using Transmit and Coda on iPad that week. I’d already been searching for alternatives and had already started using Textastic. I wanted apps that could source documents from iCloud or Dropbox so that my folder of website projects could be accessed via different apps. I was happy to settle on Textastic and for supplementary FTP I ended up with File Explorer (I tried File Browser first but switched because File Explorer seemed to have more reliable Files integration). For accessing serves via ftp or local network servers FE is fantastic.
Interesting, I deleted transmit and re downloaded it and its working again… Thanks panic for the twitter support!