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Comparison of file archivers

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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 unless noted otherwise) Software license
7-Zip Igor Pavlov October 1, 2001 4.64 Free LGPL, Proprietary (RAR plugin)
ALZip ESTsoft 1999 (as a WinZip translation) 6.7 After Dec 1 2008, $20 for home, commercial or government use Proprietary
Archive Utility Apple Inc. October 24, 2003 6.3.3 Part of Mac OS X Core Services Proprietary
Bitzipper Bitberry software. [1999] 5.1 30-day free trial; $24.95 for single-user license Proprietary
Disk ARchiver Denis Corbin 2002 2.3.0 Free GPL
Filzip Philipp Engel ? 3.06 Free Proprietary
tar AT&T 1979 1.20 Free Various
Info-ZIP (Wzip) Samuel Smith March, 1989 5.03 (as "WiZ") Free BSD-like
IZArc IZSoftware ? 3.81.1550 Free Proprietary
KGB Archiver Tomasz Pawlak ? 1.2.1.24 Free GPL
PeaZip Giorgio Tani September 16, 2006 (as "Pea-Peach") 2.4.1 Free LGPL
PKZIP Phil Katz 1989 11.0 $29.00 Proprietary
PowerArchiver ConexWare March, 1999 10.2 $19.95 Proprietary
Squeez Speedproject ? 5.61.5260 €24.90 Proprietary
StuffIt Allume Systems 1987 Deluxe 2009 for MacOS X, 12.0.1 for Windows [1] Free (email registration required) for expander; $49.99 Standard; $79.99 Deluxe Proprietary
The Unarchiver Circlesoft July 1, 2006 1.6.1 Free LGPL
TUGZip Christian Kindahl August 18, 2002 3.5.0.0 Free Proprietary
WinAce e-merge GmbH ? 2.69 $29.00 Standard; $39.00 Plus Proprietary
WinRAR Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal 1993 3.80 $29[1] Proprietary
WinZip WinZip Computing, Inc 1990s 12 $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
Creator(s) First public release date Latest stable version Cost (USD unless noted otherwise) Software license

Notes:

  1. [1] "Stuffit Deluxe 2009" is the next version after version 12, thus the Windows version currently lags one version behind.

Operating system support

The operating systems the archivers can run on without emulation or compatibility layer.

Windows DOS Mac OS X Linux BSD Other Unix AmigaOS
7-Zip Yes[1] Command-line interface[2] Command-line interface[2] Command-line interface[2] Command-line interface[2] Command-line interface[2] No
ALZip Yes No No No No No No
Archive Utility No No Yes No No No No
Beezer[6] No No No No No No No
bsdtar/libarchive Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Disk ARchiver Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Filzip Yes No No No No No No
GNU tar Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Info-ZIP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
IZArc Yes ? No No No No No
KGB Archiver Yes[5] Partial No Yes No No No
PeaZip Yes ? No Yes Yes No No
PKZIP Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No
PowerArchiver Yes ? Command-line interface No No No No
Squeez Yes Yes No No No No No
StuffIt Yes ? Yes X86 only, older version (5.2.0?) No older version (5.2.0?) No
The Unarchiver No ? Yes No No No No
TUGZip Yes ? No No No No No
WinAce Yes Command-line interface Command-line interface X86, Command-line interface No No No
WinRAR Yes Yes Command-line interface[4] X86 and x86-64, Command-line interface[4] Command-line interface[4] Command-line interface[4] No
WinZip Yes Command-line interface No No No No No
XAD No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
ZipGenius Yes ? No No No No No
Windows DOS Mac OS X Linux BSD Unix AmigaOS

Notes:

  1. ^ There is a special 64-bit version for Windows x64 Edition also available.
  2. ^ The Unix-like system port is known as p7zip. p7zip also is provided by FreeDOS.
  3. ^ The programs for other platforms are called Unace, do not have the same GUI, and can only perform decompression.
  4. ^ The programs for other platforms are called RAR.
  5. ^ This program also has a POSIX version available.
  6. ^ 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
ALZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[8] No
Archive Utility Yes Yes No ? No No Yes ?
ARJ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
bsdtar/libarchive Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
Disk ARchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Filzip Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No No ?
GNU tar Yes[2] Yes No Yes No Separate Yes Yes
Info-ZIP Yes No Yes ? Yes Yes ? No
IZArc Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KGB Archiver Yes Not enabled by default Yes ? Yes No No ?
PeaZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PIM Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
PKZIP Yes Yes Yes No Separate Separate No Yes
PowerArchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[7]
Squeez Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
StuffIt Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ?
The Unarchiver No[1] No some formats Yes No No Yes Yes
TUGZip Yes 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]
WinZip Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes
XAD No[1] Yes Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
ZipGenius 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:

  1. ^ Application is only for decompression.
  2. ^ GNU tar calls the external programs gzip and bzip2 to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain GNU tar.
  3. ^ Allows adding of a variable amount of redundancy for much better error recovery. See also RAR (file format).
  4. ^ BitZipper uses various methods to extract data from damaged files.
  5. ^ 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. More recent versions of the zip file format have support for Unicode filenames.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Commandline batch compression is available only for ZIP and ALZ 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
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 No No No[7]
bsdtar/libarchive Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes
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
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
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 No 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 ? ? ? ? ?
The Unarchiver Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial Yes No No No ? Yes Yes ? ?
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
WinZip Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[4] Yes No No No Partial[5] No ? Partial[5] Yes No Yes
XAD Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Partial Yes No No No ? Yes Yes ? ?
ZipGenius Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[11] Yes No No Yes[11] No No Yes Yes No Yes
ZIP TAR GZ BZ/BZ2 7z RAR LHA ACE SIT SITX ARJ KGB DAR ARC CAB ALZ ISO/CD Image

Notes:

  1. ^ Used to, but no longer does, due to technical and legal issues. More info
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ GNU tar let you to implement your own filters[3], allowing you to use others compression program (p7zip, ...) and others filters (GPG, ...).
  4. ^ Starting from version 11.
  5. ^ Requires external program. More info
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Decompression of ZIP archives can fail with 7-Zip, depending on which archiver was used for the ZIP.
  9. ^ Requires external programs.[4]
  10. ^ 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
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 No No No No No
bsdtar/libarchive No Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No 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 ? ? ? ? ?
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 No No Yes 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 No Yes 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 No[11] 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 ? ? Yes ? Yes
WinRAR Yes No No No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No
WinZip Yes No No No No No Yes No No No No No ? Yes No No No
ZipGenius Yes Yes[9] Yes[9] Yes[9] Yes No Yes[10] No No No No No No ? Yes[9] No No
ZIP TAR GZ BZ/BZ2 7z RAR LHA/LZH ACE SIT SITX ARJ KGB DAR ARC CAB ALZ ISO/CD Image

Notes:

  1. ^ GNU tar calls the external programs gzip and bzip2 to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain GNU tar.
  2. ^ Requires rar.exe from WinRAR.
  3. ^ Requires external program. More info
  4. ^ Requires Ace32.exe from WinAce.
  5. ^ The Extractor and XAD are not included in this list because they only expand archives.
  6. ^ ALZip can also write to the following formats: BH, JAR, and LZH
  7. ^ Requires external program.[6]
  8. ^ Updating archives is not supported.[7]
  9. ^ Requires external program.[8]
  10. ^ Stuffit supported file formats [9]

Comparison of efficiency

See also: Data_compression § Comparative

Numbers in the table below are meant for comparison purposes and are approximate. [10] The percentage figures are the percentage "size of the compressed file compared to size of the uncompressed file": the lower the percentage, the better compression. An old shareware version of rar was used.

Name Text % Text time (s) Binaries % Binaries 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 (2.80) 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

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 various LPAQ and PAQ formats, QUAD and BALZ (highly effcient ROLZ based compressors), FreeARC format, and for its native PEA format.

See also

Corpora

Data collections useful for comparing data compression systems.

References

  1. ^ WinRAR and RAR support site
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