I ran a quick SFTP performance test with #curl built to use #libssh 0.11.1 vs one built that uses #libssh2 1.11.1 over a 400ms latency connection.

One of them managed to perform this at 1049K/sec, the other reached only 249K/sec.

And the winner is...

libssh2

Funny detail: I sped it up for this kind of use case **fifteen years ago** and blogged about it: daniel.haxx.se/blog/2010/12/08…

Making SFTP transfers fast

SFTP, the SSH File Transfer Protocol, is a misleading name. It gives you the impression that it might be something like a secure version of FTP, perhaps something like FTPS but modeled over SSH instead of SSL.

^{daniel.haxx.se}