I think, that you have most likely stumbled upon these two very different protocols while searching for a hosting package of your dreams, or while searching for something else. There is a good chance, that you tend to use only FTP and think using SFTP is the same and it does not matter which of the two you are using. But this is wrong!
FTP
FTP stand for File transfer protocol and it’s used to access a server, or another computer in a different location. It’s used to transfer files between one or more computers and it’s pretty good at this task. A few years ago it was a standard, and still is, to transfer files and it did not matter what the clients think, or if it’s secure or not.
The problem with FTP is, that it sends all the data in a not encrypted form and this is a big problem! You send all your data to the server and back from the server to your computer in “plain text”. At first sight you could think, why should you care, right? Well, you should care a lot, because your user name and password are send as a plain text as well.
And everything what’s send in plain text is easily intercepted with a e.g. packet sniffer. It’s even worse if you want to access your FTP account on a public network like a library WiFi. You can not know if there is no one with a sniffer and does not perform sniffing 
SFTP
This protocol is what I would use more often if not always if you have such an option. You are sending the data in a secure way. The data is encrypted and thus not asily read, by anyone. There are techniques to decrypt it, but it takes lots and lots of time and computer power. And if you are using a very strong password you should be safe.
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A strong password should contain at least: 10+ characters and it should include at least one of these different characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and a special character like ” / , ? } etc.
Conclusion
You can never be sure about the security of the network link you are using and thus using a secure method instead of an insecure one is always better and it helps to protect what you care about the most – your data!
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