Coolzilla gets you to the folder you need in one click, opens server files in VS Code and puts your saves back, keeps a Mac folder and a server folder in step, and asks before anything risky touches Production. Free, for your Mac.
The real app, on a made-up coffee shop's WordPress server. Pinned folders, your Mac and the server side by side, and what changed marked on both.
The old FTP apps get files across, and that's about it. You click down through /bitnami/wordpress/wp-content/… every single time, download a file to edit it, upload it back by hand, and hope the copy you're replacing on Production wasn't newer than yours. One stray drag and a plugin lands in the wrong folder. Coolzilla keeps the speed and takes away the worry.
Get there
Pin the folders you use every day, or a single file, and they sit under the site in the sidebar. ⌘K finds any pinned or recent folder, a file in the folder you're in, or another site. Start with / to type a path.
Edit
Double-click a file on the server and it opens in VS Code, Cursor, Zed, Sublime, BBEdit, Nova or any app you pick. Save there, and Coolzilla offers to put it back.
If someone changed the server copy while you were working, it stops and shows you both before anything is replaced.
Links
Link a folder on your Mac to one on the server and keep working in your own tools. Coolzilla notices every change, shows it line by line against the server's copy, and publishes the files you tick, or all of them in one click.
Stay safe
Give each site its place: ProductionStagingDevClient. Production gets a red edge, and Coolzilla asks before deleting, before replacing a newer copy and before any move.
When files already exist, you choose Replace, Keep both or Skip for each one, with sizes and dates side by side. Uploads are written to a temporary name and renamed into place, so visitors never get half a file.
And
Drag from Finder or the Mac pane onto a folder row and the files go straight in. Hold over a folder and it opens, so you can go deeper without letting go.
Moving files on the server always shows exactly where they're going before anything happens, never writes over a file of the same name, and can be undone.
Drop the key Lightsail gave you and you're most of the way there. If the key's permissions are too open for SSH, Coolzilla quietly uses a private copy instead of making you chmod.
Import your FileZilla Site Manager in one click, with the key files and start folders you already set up.
"The server didn't accept the key for bitnami", not a wall of protocol codes. The server's own message is one click away when you want it.
Five text sizes, a choice of fonts for names and for paths, and five themes. Everything in the window grows with the text.
Themes
Cool graphite with an ice-blue accent. The original.
And Glass: frosted, with your desktop glowing through. Or let Coolzilla follow your Mac between Graphite and Daylight.
Shortcuts
Install
Get Coolzilla.dmg. It runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs with macOS 15 or later.
Open the download and drag Coolzilla onto the Applications folder next to it.
This early build isn't notarized by Apple yet, so macOS asks before the first launch. Open Coolzilla, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. You only do this once.
FAQ
Yes. Coolzilla is free to download and use on any Mac with macOS 15 or later, and you don't need an account.
Any server you can reach with SSH: Lightsail, DigitalOcean, EC2, Hetzner, a VPS or your own box. Coolzilla signs in with a key file (like the .pem Lightsail gives you) or the keys in your SSH agent. It doesn't do plain FTP.
Yes. Click Import on the welcome screen, or File → Import Sites from FileZilla. Your sites come over with their key files and start folders.
Coolzilla doesn't store passwords at all: it signs in with your key file or your SSH agent, through the OpenSSH that comes with your Mac. Your sites are saved on your Mac. If a key file can be read by other users, which macOS's SSH refuses, Coolzilla uses a private copy only your account can read and leaves your file as it is.
A site marked Production gets a red edge, and Coolzilla asks before deleting anything, before replacing a newer file and before any move. Uploads are written to a temporary name and renamed into place, so visitors never get half a file. Publishing from a linked folder keeps the server's old copies on your Mac, so it can be undone, and publishing by itself is never allowed on Production.
Any Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. One download covers both.
This early build isn't notarized by Apple yet. Allow it once in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
Coolzilla updates itself. When a new version is out it offers to install it, checks the download was signed by Biibisoft, and reopens on the new version. You can also look any time from Coolzilla → Check for Updates…
