Site Definition Server Type Choice in Dreamweaver CC 2022 Affects Cost and Security for Low‑Traffic Workloads

Answer

The maximum acceptable annual cost for securing a low‑traffic Dreamweaver CC 2022 site with FTPS or SFTP is effectively $0 — the cost of a free TLS certificate (e.g., Let’s Encrypt). Any positive annual expense for a commercial certificate is difficult to justify when the site sees fewer than ten file transfers per month, unless a regulatory or compliance requirement mandates encryption.

Confirmed facts

• Dreamweaver CC 2022 licensing is subscription‑only; choosing FTP, FTPS, or SFTP does not change the Adobe subscription fee.
• Additional cost comes solely from the hosting/server side: a TLS certificate for FTPS or key management for SFTP.
• Let’s Encrypt provides TLS certificates at zero cost; commercial certificates typically range from $10 to $100 per year.
• For workloads under ten transfers per month, the probability of credential interception via plain‑text FTP is low on a trusted network, making the security gain of encryption marginal.

Steps to verify

1. Check your hosting provider’s documentation or control panel to confirm whether a free TLS certificate (Let’s Encrypt) is available and understand the renewal process (usually every 90 days).
2. Review any applicable compliance policies or data‑classification rules for the site to determine if encryption is mandatory.
3. If a commercial certificate is being considered, obtain its annual price from the provider and compare it to your security budget.

Missing diagnostic detail

Do you have any regulatory or compliance obligations (e.g., PCI‑DSS, HIPAA) that require encryption for this site? Knowing this would change the recommendation from “use FTP with mitigations” to “must use FTPS/SFTP regardless of cost.”