Comparison of file archivers
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file archivers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.
General information
Basic general information about the archivers: creator/company, license/price etc.
Creator(s) | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-Zip | Igor Pavlov | October 1, 2001 | 4.57 | Free | LGPL, Proprietary (RAR plugin) |
Alpha ZIP | Alpha ZIP | 2004 | 1.3 | $29.95 | Proprietary |
ALZip | ESTsoft | 1999 (as a WinZip translation) | 6.7 | Free for personal use, $20 for commercial or government use | Proprietary |
Archive Utility | Apple Computer | October 24, 2003 | 6.3.3 | Part of Mac OS X CoreServices | Proprietary |
Basic zip | A programmer | June 23, 2007 | 1.0 | Free for personal uses, $10 for other uses to support software development | Proprietary |
Beezer | Ramshankar | January 21, 2005 | 0.09 | Free for non commercial use | Proprietary |
BitZipper | Bitberry Software | 2000 | 5.0.1 | $24.95 | Proprietary |
Disk ARchiver | Denis Corbin | 2002 | 2.3.0 | Free | GPL |
Filzip | Philipp Engel | ? | 3.06 | Free | Proprietary |
FreeArc | Bulat Ziganshin | 2005 | 0.40 | Free | GPL |
tar (file format) | GNU Project | 1989 | 1.15.1 | Free | GPL |
Info-ZIP (Wzip) | Samuel Smith | March, 1989 | 5.03 (as "WiZ") | Free | BSD-like |
IZArc | IZSoftware | ? | 3.81.1550 | Free | Proprietary |
jZip | Discordia Limited | October 15, 2007 | 1.2 | Free | Proprietary |
KGB Archiver | Tomasz Pawlak | ? | 1.2.1.24 | Free | GPL |
PeaZip | Giorgio Tani | September 16, 2006 (as "Pea-Peach") | 1.11 | Free | LGPL |
PKZIP | Phil Katz | 1989 | 11.0 | $29.00 | Proprietary |
PowerArchiver | ConexWare | March, 1999 | 10.2 | $19.95 | Proprietary |
Squeez | Speedproject | ? | 5.50.4810 | €24.90 | Proprietary |
StuffIt | Allume Systems | 1987 | 11 | $49.99 Standard; $79.99 Deluxe | Proprietary |
The Extractor | Urban Dahlberg | January 1, 2007 | 1.3.1.4 | Free | Proprietary |
The Unarchiver | Circlesoft | ? | 1.4 | Free | LGPL |
TUGZip | Christian Kindahl | August 18, 2002 | 3.4.0.2 | Free | Proprietary |
WinAce | e-merge GmbH | ? | 2.69 | $29.00 Standard; $39.00 Plus | Proprietary |
WinHKI | Hanspeter Imp | ? | 1.79 | $29.00 | Proprietary |
WinRAR | Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal | 1993 | 3.71r | $29 | Proprietary |
WinRK | M Software Ltd. | May 26, 2004 | 2.1.6 | $29.95 | Proprietary |
WinUha | Salvatore Ravidà | June 9, 2003 | 2.0 RC1 | Free | |
WinZip | WinZip Computing, Inc | 1990s | 11.1.7466 | $29.95 Standard; $49.95 Pro | Proprietary |
XAD a.k.a. XADMaster.library | Dirk Stoecker | Circa 1998 | 13.1 | Shareware, Free for non commercial use | Proprietary |
ZipGenius | Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software | May, 2003 | 6.0.3.1150 | Free | Proprietary |
Zipeg | Leo Kuznetsov | November, 2006 | 1.4.0.768 | Free | BSD-like |
ZipitFree | MicroSmarts LLC | Free | Proprietary | ||
ZipZag | Xtreme Soft | ? | 1.80 | $19.95 | Proprietary |
Creator(s) | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Software license |
Operating system support
The operating systems the archivers can run on.
Windows | DOS | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | AmigaOS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-Zip | Yes[1] | Command-Line interface is available [2] | Command-Line interface is available [2] | Command-Line interface is available [2] | Command-Line interface is available [2] | Command-Line interface is available [2] | No |
Alpha ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ALZip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Archive Utility | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Basic zip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Beezer[6] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BitZipper | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Disk ARchiver | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Filzip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
FreeArc | Yes | Command-Line interface is available | No | Yes | No | No | No |
GNU tar | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Info-ZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
IZArc | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
jZip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
KGB Archiver | Yes[5] | Partial | No | No | No | No | No |
PeaZip | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | No |
PKZIP | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PowerArchiver | Yes | ? | Command-Line interface is available | No | No | No | No |
Squeez | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
StuffIt | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
StuffIt Expander | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
The Extractor | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
The Unarchiver | No | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No |
TUGZip | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
WinAce | Yes | ? | Yes[3] | Yes[3] | No | No | No |
WinRAR | Yes | Yes | Yes[4] | Yes[4] | Yes[4] | Yes | No |
WinRK | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
WinZip | Yes | Command-Line interface is available | No | No | No | No | No |
XAD | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ZipGenius | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
Zipeg | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No |
ZipZag | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
Windows | DOS | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | AmigaOS |
Notes:
- ^ There is a special 64-bit version for Windows x64 Edition also available.
- ^ The Unix-like system port is known as p7zip. p7zip also is provided by FreeDOS.
- ^ The programs for other platforms are called Unace, do not have the same GUI, and can only perform decompression.
- ^ The programs for other platforms are called RAR.
- ^ This program also has a POSIX version available.
- ^ Beezer works on BeOS and ZETA platforms only.
Archiver features
Information about what common archiver features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).
Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Multiple volumes | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion | Unicode file / directory names[5] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Alpha ZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No |
ALZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
Archive Utility | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | Yes | ? |
ARJ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ?
|
Basic Zip | Yes | No | No | ? | No | No | No | ? |
Beezer | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | ? |
BitZipper | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes[4] | Yes | No |
Disk ARchiver | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
Filzip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | ? |
FreeArc | Yes | File extension only | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes[3] | No | Yes |
GNU tar | Yes[2] | Yes | No | Yes | No | Separate | Yes | No |
Info-ZIP | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
jZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | ? |
KGB Archiver | Yes | Not enabled by default | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | ? |
PeaZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PKZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Separate | Separate | No | No |
PowerArchiver | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[7] |
Squeez | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
StuffIt | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
StuffIt Expander | No[1] | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
The Extractor | No[1] | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
The Unarchiver | No[1] | No | ? | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
WinAce | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
WinRAR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[3] | Yes | Yes[6] |
WinRK | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
WinZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No |
XAD | No[1] | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
ZipGenius | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | No |
Zipeg | No[1] | No | No | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes |
ZipZag | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Multiple volumes | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion | Unicode file / directory names[5] |
Notes:
- ^ Application is only for decompression.
- ^ GNU tar calls the external programs gzip and bzip2 to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain GNU tar.
- ^ Allows adding of a variable amount of redundancy for much better error recovery. See also RAR (file format).
- ^ BitZipper uses various methods to extract data from damaged files.
- ^ Extracting/adding file and/or directory names into archive in either UTF-7, UTF-8 or UTF-16/UCS-2 encoding to support single file/directory name which contains characters from different languages. Currently, only supported by 7z (7-Zip), RAR (WinRAR) and RK (WinRK) archives.
- ^ In WinRAR 3.60, when opening 7-Zip archives which contains Unicode file/directory names, they will not be displayed correctly. There will be no problem extracting them, however.
- ^ Does support Unicode names, but not under the default (initial) option settings: the user must tick "Use OEM conversion for filenames" under "General" on the "Miscellaneous" tab in the Configuration dialog to enable Unicode name support. Full support for Unicode files names by default is supported only for 7-Zip and RAR archive formats.
Archive format support
Reading
Information about what archive formats the archivers can read. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the archiver or extensions that provide such functionality.
ZIP | TAR | GZ | BZ/BZ2 | 7z | RAR | LHA/LZH | ACE | SIT | SITX | ARJ | KGB | DAR | ARC | CAB | ALZ | ISO/CD Image | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-Zip | Yes[8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No[1] | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
Alpha ZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
ALZip[6] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Archive Utility | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | No | ? | No[7] |
Basic Zip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Beezer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[10] | Yes[10] | Yes[10] | No | No | No | Yes[10] | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BitZipper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Disk ARchiver | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Filzip | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
FreeArc | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
GNU tar[2] | No[2] | Yes | Yes[2] | Yes[2] | No[3] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Info-ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
jZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
KGB Archiver | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PeaZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
PKZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
PowerArchiver | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Squeez | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
StuffIt | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
StuffIt Expander | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
The Extractor | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
The Unarchiver | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
WinAce | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
WinRAR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Partial |
WinRK | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
WinZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes[4] | Partial[5] | No | No | No | Partial[5] | No | ? | Partial[5] | Yes | Yes | No |
XAD | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] |
ZipGenius | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[11] | Yes | No | No | Yes[11] | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Zipeg | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
ZipZag | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ZIP | TAR | GZ | BZ/BZ2 | 7z | RAR | LHA | ACE | SIT | SITX | ARJ | KGB | DAR | ARC | CAB | ALZ | ISO/CD Image |
Notes:
- ^ Used to, but no longer does, due to technical and legal issues. More info
- ^ GNU tar calls external programs[1] (like compress, gzip or bzip2 or any other programs working with abstract streams and supporting the "-d" option) to perform (un)compression, and allowing you to implement your own filters[2]. These external programs may be shipped with your Operating System.
- ^ GNU tar let you to implement your own filters[3], allowing you to use others compression program (p7zip, ...) and others filters (GPG, ...).
- ^ Starting from version 11.
- ^ Requires external program. More info
- ^ ALZip also reads: alz, ace, arc, arj, b64, bh, bhx, bin (hex files), bin (CD images), bz2, cab, ear, enc, gz, ha, ice, iso, jar, lcd, lha, lzh, mim, pak, rar, tar, tgz, uue, uu, war, xxe, z, zip, zoo, 7z, and 001
- ^ Archive Utility itself is unable to open ISO files, but Disk Utility, which also comes with Mac OS X, is able to mount them as virtual disks.
- ^ Decompression of ZIP archives can fail with 7-Zip, depending on which archiver was used for the ZIP.
- ^ XAD is modular and supports virtually up to 300 archive methods and file types. Its GUI (Voodoo-X) supports 80 archive types. So all archives included in the comparison list should be (more or less) managed by XAD.
- ^ Requires external programs.[4]
- ^ Requires external program.[5]
Writing
Information about what archive formats the archivers can write and create. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the archiver or extensions that provide such functionality.
ZIP | TAR | gzip | bzip2 | 7z | RAR | LHA | ACE | StuffIt | StuffIt X | ARJ | KGB | DAR | ARC | CAB | ALZ | ISO/CD Image | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-Zip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Alpha ZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
ALZip[7] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
Archive Utility | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Basic Zip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Beezer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No [8] | No [8] | No [8] | No | No | No | No [8] | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BitZipper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Disk ARchiver | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Filzip | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
FreeArc | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
GNU tar | No | Yes | Yes[1] | Yes[1] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Info-ZIP | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
IZArc | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
jZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ?
|
KGB Archiver | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PeaZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PKZIP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PowerArchiver | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Squeez | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? |
StuffIt[4] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
TUGZip | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No[2] | Yes | No[5] | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
WinAce | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
WinRAR | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
WinRK | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
WinZip | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No[3] | No | No | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
ZipGenius | Yes | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes[9] | Yes | No | Yes[10] | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | Yes[9] | No | No |
ZipZag | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
ZIP | TAR | GZ | BZ/BZ2 | 7z | RAR | LHA/LZH | ACE | SIT | SITX | ARJ | KGB | DAR | ARC | CAB | ALZ | ISO/CD Image |
Notes:
- ^ GNU tar calls the external programs gzip and bzip2 to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain GNU tar.
- ^ Requires rar.exe from WinRAR.
- ^ Requires external program. More info
- ^ StuffIt Expander not included in this list because it only expands archives.
- ^ Requires Ace32.exe from WinAce.
- ^ The Extractor and XAD are not included in this list because they only expand archives.
- ^ ALZip can also write to the following formats: BH, JAR, and LZH
- ^ Requires external program.[6]
- ^ Updating archives is not supported.[7]
- ^ Requires external program.[8]
Comparison of efficiency
The table below is meant for comparison purposes and are approximate. [9] The percentage figures are the percentage of the size of the uncompressed file: the lower the percentage, the better compression.
Name | Text % | Text time (s) | Executables % | Executables time (s) | Raw images % | Raw images time (s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7-zip | 19 | 18.8 | 27 | 59.6 | 50 | 36.4 |
bzip2 | 20 | 4.7 | 37 | 32.8 | 51 | 20.0 |
rar | 23 | 30.0 | 36 | 275.4 | 58 | 52.7 |
advzip | 24 | 21.1 | 37 | 70.6 | 57 | 41.6 |
gzip | 25 | 4.2 | 39 | 23.1 | 60 | 5.4 |
zip | 25 | 4.3 | 39 | 23.3 | 60 | 5.7 |
lha | 27 | 3.7 | 40 | 13.2 | 61 | 9.3 |
Note: RAR version used was an old version that is different from current versions (see source).
Uncommon archive format support
Some archivers support file extraction from .msi and .iso formats as well. These include WinRAR, PowerArchiver, ALZip, IZArc, and 7-zip.
PeaZip has full support for LPAQ and some PAQ formats (PAQ8F/JD/L/O), and for its native PEA format.
See also
- Comparison of archive formats
- Comparison of file systems
- List of archive formats
- List of file systems
Corpora
Data collections useful for comparing data compression systems.
External links
- SQUEEZECHART: See which archiver performs best on the world's largest file sets
- Maximum Compression - Comparison of many archivers
- Lossless Data Compression (links and spreadsheets)
- Archive Comparison Test
- Compression Tools Compared, Linux Journal, September 2005
- Comparison of various softwares of compression (french)