Stands for File Transfer Protocol. An FTP account refers to a setup where you can log in to the area of the hard disk on the web server that contains your web files. This feature is standard for paid web hosting accounts.

After you sign up with your web host, you will be given a username and a password which you can use with an FTP program (like WS_FTP) or an HTML editor (like HTML Kit) to access, upload, download, view and —depending on the program— even edit the web files stored on your web host's server computer. Access to your web server will typically be limited to the root folder and subfolders containing all the files related directly to your website.