Transmit is a file transfer app, and a very good one. Hydra is a workspace that includes file transfer alongside your databases, terminals and repositories.
If all you do is move files between your Mac and servers or cloud storage, Transmit is cheaper and connects to more consumer cloud services. If the server you upload to also has a database you query, a shell you open and a repository you deploy from, Hydra keeps all of them in one window, under one library.
Many people will be happy with either. The difference is how many other apps you keep open next to it.
From each product's own website, checked October 6, 2026. Prices in US dollars.
| Hydra Dev Studio | Transmit | |
|---|---|---|
| File protocols | SFTP, FTP and FTPS, WebDAV, SMB2 and SMB3, local folders | FTP, SFTP, WebDAV |
| Cloud storage | Amazon S3 and S3-compatible services, Azure Blob Storage | Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Box, Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, Azure, OpenStack Swift, Rackspace Cloud Files, DreamObjects |
| Editing remote files | Built-in editor for 36 languages that saves back to the server in place, keeping encoding and line endings | Opens files in the editor of your choice |
| Compare and sync | Compare a server folder with a local one, file by file, and sync either way | File Sync, local-to-local and remote-to-remote |
| Databases | Nine SQL engines and DynamoDB | No |
| Git | Stage by the hunk, commit, branches, push and pull, three-way merge | No |
| SSH | Terminals in a tab and SSH tunnels | Open in Terminal |
| AI agents and scripts | Claude Code and your scripts use your connections through Hydra without seeing a password, and every call is logged | Not listed |
| Syncs your setup across Macs | iCloud | Panic Sync |
| Runs on | macOS 26 or later, Apple silicon | macOS 13 or later |
| Price | $99 once, with twelve months of updates; the version you have keeps working after that. Fourteen-day trial with everything unlocked. | $45 once |
You use Google Drive, Dropbox, Box or OneDrive as places to put files: Hydra does not connect to them.
You need an older Mac or an older macOS. Hydra needs macOS 26 on Apple silicon.
You want the least expensive tool that does file transfer and nothing else.
Your servers come with databases, shells and repositories, and you are tired of keeping four apps in step. One library holds all of them, grouped by client or project, with shared credentials.
You edit configuration files on servers. Hydra's editor saves straight back over SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, S3, Azure and SMB, without a round trip through another app.
You want to know whether what is deployed matches the repository: compare the server folder with your working copy, read the result as a patch, and copy the differences either way.
You use Claude Code or other agents. They can list, read, upload and query through your existing connections without ever being given a password, and you can read what they did afterwards.
Transmit keeps its favorites in its own format. In Hydra, add each server once under New › File Server; credentials can be shared between connections, so the same deploy key serves SFTP and the SSH terminal.
The trial is fourteen days with everything unlocked, so run them side by side before deciding.
Fourteen days, everything unlocked, no account required.
Download for macOS