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While the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol is more closely associated with collaboration activities, it’s also equipped with file transfer functionality. But how good is it as a file transfer solution? Can it, for instance, match the capabilities of the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)? Let’s find out.  

Despite the growing adoption of cloud-based alternatives, many organizations still use theWeb Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol for file sharing, versioning, transfer and management. Some companies support it for backward compatibility. Others, by virtue of company data privacy policies that prohibit the use of cloud-based solutions, turn to self-managed WebDAV servers instead. 

Overview: What is WebDAV?

Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning, or WebDAV, is a protocol whose basic functionality enables users to share, copy, move, and edit files through a web server. It can also support collaborative applications with file locking and revision tracking features. This blog post will introduce you to the basic functions of WebDAV, its similarities and differences with FTP and other file transfer protocols, and a few examples showing what you can do with it.