Apple - quick to install and set up FTP server on homebrew for OSX

As of writing, brew search ftp returns the following FTP servers:

• pure-ftpd
• vsftpd
• proftpd

Based on their websites, pure-ftpd appears to be your best choice for easy installation.

pure-ftpd

Beginners can install a Pure-FTPd server in 5 minutes. It can be as simple as installing the package, typing pure-ftpd & and… that’s all. You already have a running server, and clients can start to connect.

So for the two step, install and set to start each boot commands:

brew install pure-ftpd
brew services start pure-ftpd

vsftpd

vsftpd is a GPL licensed FTP server for UNIX systems, including Linux. It is secure and extremely fast. It is stable.

ProFTPD

ProFTPD grew out of the desire to have a secure and configurable FTP server, and out of a significant admiration of the Apache web server.

Strange that no one mentioned the simplest way, which is to just load the built-in FTP server:

sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

It does work fine in 10.12 Sierra. However, it might not be available anymore in 10.13 High Sierra.