Comparison of file archivers
This article compares several notable file archiver utilities. Unless otherwise noted, comparisons are for full release versions and for installations without extra aspects such as add-ons, extensions or external programs.
General information
Legend:| File archivers | Developer | Initial release | Platform | Latest release version | Latest release date | Status | License | Cost |
| 7-Zip | Igor Pavlov | 1999-01-02 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| ALZip | ESTsoft | 1999 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| Archive Manager | Paolo Bacchilega | 2001-05-12 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| Archive Utility | Apple | 2003-10-24 | macOS | Active | ||||
| Ark | KDE team | 1997 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| B1 Free Archiver | Adam Buyer | 2011-08 | Cross-platform | ,,, | ,,, | Active | ||
| BetterZip | MacItBetter | 2006-05 | macOS | Active | ||||
| Commander One | Eltima Software | 2015-08-04 | macOS | Active | ||||
| Compressed Folders | Microsoft | 1998-06-25 | Windows | Windows 8.1 | 2013-08-27 | Active | ||
| Disk ARchiver | Denis Corbin | 2002 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| Expander | Haiku | 2002 | Haiku | Active | ||||
| Filzip | Philipp Engel | Windows | Inactive | |||||
| FreeArc | Bulat Ziganshin | 2007-11-01 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| iArchiver | Dare to be Creative Ltd. | 2007-10-21 | macOS | 1.4.1 | 2008-10-30 | Inactive | ||
| Info-ZIP | Samuel Smith | 1989-03 | Cross-platform | 6.0 | 2009-04-29 | Active | ||
| KGB Archiver | Tomasz Pawlak | 2006-04-01 | Cross-platform | Inactive | ||||
| PeaZip | Giorgio Tani | 2006-04-19 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| PKZIP | Phil Katz | 1989 | Cross-platform | 12.4 | 2009-09 | Active | ||
| PowerArchiver | ConexWare | 1999-03 | macOS | , | , | Active | ||
| StuffIt | Smith Micro Software | 1987 | Cross-platform | 15.0.7 | 2011-12-01 | Inactive | ||
| TAR | AT&T | 1979, 1987, 1997 | Cross-platform | 3.5.2,, 1.6.0 | 2021-08-23,, 2019-04-15 | Active | ||
| The Unarchiver | Circlesoft | 2006-07-01 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| Terse | IBM | 1984-07-01 | Active | |||||
| TUGZip | Christian Kindahl | 2002-08-18 | Windows | Inactive | ||||
| WinAce | e-merge GmbH | Windows | Inactive | |||||
| WinRAR | Eugene Roshal Alexander Roshal | 1993 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| WinZip | WinZip Computing, Inc | 1991 | Cross-platform | ,,, | ,,, | Active | ||
| XAD | Dirk Stoecker | 1998 | Cross-platform | 13.1 | Active | |||
| Xarchiver | Giuseppe Torelli | Cross-platform | Active | |||||
| ZipGenius | Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software | 2003-05 | Windows | Active | ||||
| ZPAQ | Matt Mahoney | 2009-03 | Cross-platform | Active | ||||
| File archivers | Developer | Initial release | Platform | Latest release version | Latest release date | Status | License | Cost |
'''Notes:'''
Operating system support
The following table identifies the operating systems that archivers can run on directly without emulation or a compatibility layer.'''Notes:'''
Archiver features
The following table indicates which archivers implement various archiver features natively without third-party add-ons.| File archivers | Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Multiple volumes | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion | Unicode file / directory names | Encryption | Filename Encryption |
| 7-Zip | ||||||||||
| ALZip | ||||||||||
| Archive Manager | ||||||||||
| Archive Utility | ||||||||||
| ARJ | ||||||||||
| Ark | ||||||||||
| B1 Free Archiver | ||||||||||
| BetterZip | ||||||||||
| bsdtar/libarchive | ||||||||||
| Commander One | for 7z | |||||||||
| Disk ARchiver | ||||||||||
| Filzip | ||||||||||
| FreeArc | ||||||||||
| GNU tar | Separate | |||||||||
| iArchiver | ||||||||||
| Info-ZIP | ZipCrypto and AES | |||||||||
| KGB Archiver | Not enabled by default | |||||||||
| PeaZip | ||||||||||
| PKZIP | Separate | Separate | ||||||||
| PowerArchiver | ||||||||||
| StuffIt | ||||||||||
| The Unarchiver | some formats | |||||||||
| TUGZip | ||||||||||
| WinAce | ||||||||||
| WinRAR and RAR | ||||||||||
| WinZip | ||||||||||
| XAD | ||||||||||
| Xarchiver | ||||||||||
| ZipGenius | ||||||||||
| ZPAQ | ||||||||||
| Data compression | Shell integration | Password protection | Multiple volumes | Self extraction | File repairing | Batch conversion | Unicode file / directory names | Encryption | Filename Encryption |
'''Notes:'''
Archive format support
Reading
The following table identifies the archive formats that each archiver can read. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are compression formats rather than archive formats.'''Notes:'''
Writing
The following table identifies the archive formats that each archiver can write and create. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are compression formats rather than archive formats.'''Notes:'''
Uncommon archive format support
PeaZip has full support for Brotli, Zstandard, various LPAQ and PAQ formats, QUAD / BALZ / BCM, FreeArc format, and for its native PEA format.7-Zip includes read support for .msi, cpio and xar, plus Apple's dmg/HFS disk images and the deb/.rpm package distribution formats; beta versions have full support for the LZMA2-compressed.xz format.