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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. They are neither all-inclusive nor are some entries necessarily up to date. Unless otherwise specified in the footnotes section, comparisons are based on the stable versions—without add-ons, extensions or external programs.
General information
Basic general information about the archivers.
Legend:
Free/no cost Paid Cost depends
Open source (licenses) Proprietary
| File archivers | Developer | Initial release | Platform | Latest release version | Latest release date | Status | License | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Igor Pavlov | 1999-01-02 | Cross-platform | 24.07[1] 
|
2024-06-19 | Active | LGPL-2.1-or-later (RAR plugin is proprietary) |
No cost |
| ALZip | ESTsoft | 1999[a] | Cross-platform | 12.22[2]
|
2024-02-07 | Active | Proprietary | No cost[b] |
| Archive Manager (File Roller) |
Paolo Bacchilega | 2001-05-12 | Cross-platform | 44.1[3]
|
2024-04-09 | Active | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost |
| Archive Utility | Apple Inc. | 2003-10-24 | macOS | Active | Proprietary | Bundled[c] | ||
| Ark | KDE team | 1997 | Cross-platform | 23.08.2[4]
|
2023-10-10 | Active | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost |
| B1 Free Archiver | Adam Buyer | 2011-08 | Cross-platform | (Android), (Linux), (macOS), (Windows) | (Android), (Linux), (macOS), (Windows) | Active | Proprietary | No cost |
| Bandizip | Bandisoft | 2011-08 | Windows | 7.32 (Windows), 7.25 (macOS), | 2023-09-14 (Windows), 2023-08-17 (macOS), | Active | Proprietary | Standard at no cost. $30 Pro Pack. $21.99 (macOS) |
| BetterZip | MacItBetter | 2006-05 | macOS | 5.3.4[5]
|
2023-04-11 | Active | Proprietary | $29.95 USD |
| Commander One | Eltima Software | 2015-08-04 | macOS | 3.7.3831[6]
|
2023-08-25 | Active | Proprietary | Standard at no cost. $29.95 Pro Pack. |
| Compressed Folders | Microsoft Inc. | 1998-06-25 | Windows | Windows 8.1 | 2013-08-27 | Active | Proprietary | Bundled[d] |
| Disk ARchiver | Denis Corbin | 2002 | Cross-platform | 2.7.13[7]
|
2023-10-01 | Active | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost |
| Expander | Haiku, Inc. | 2002 | Haiku | R1/beta4[8]
|
2022-12-23 | Active | MIT | No cost |
| Filzip | Philipp Engel | Unknown | Windows | 3.06[9]
|
2006-07-19 | Inactive | Proprietary | No cost |
| FreeArc | Bulat Ziganshin | 2007-11-01[e] | Cross-platform | 0.666[10]
|
2010-05-20 | Active | GPL-2.0-only | No cost |
| iArchiver | Dare to be Creative Ltd. | 2007-10-21 | macOS | 1.4.1 | 2008-10-30 | Inactive | Proprietary | $26 |
| Info-ZIP (Wzip) |
Samuel Smith | 1989-03 | Cross-platform | 6.0 | 2009-04-29 | Active | Info-Zip[11] | No cost |
| KGB Archiver | Tomasz Pawlak | 2006-04-01 | Cross-platform | Inactive | GPL-2.0-only | No cost | ||
| PeaZip | Giorgio Tani | 2006-04-19 | Cross-platform | 9.8.0[12]
|
2024-05-11 | Active | LGPL-3.0-or-later | No cost |
| PKZIP | Phil Katz | 1989 | Cross-platform | 12.4[13] | 2009-09 | Active | Proprietary | $29.00 |
| PowerArchiver | ConexWare | 1999-03 | macOS | 2.00.01[14] (macOS), 22.00.09[15][16] (Windows)
|
2021-11-18 (macOS), 2023-06-24 (Windows) | Active | Proprietary | $22.95 |
| StuffIt | Smith Micro Software | 1987 | Cross-platform | 15.0.7[17] | 2011-12-01 | Inactive | Proprietary | $49.99 Deluxe.[18] $79.99 French Deluxe.[19] Windows: $14.99 Standard.[20] $29.99 Deluxe.[21] $49.99 French (or German) Deluxe.[22][23] No cost for expander. |
| TAR | AT&T | 1979, 1987 (pdtar), 1997 (star) | Cross-platform | 3.5.2 (BSD tar), 1.35[24] (GNU tar), 1.6.0 (star)
|
2021-08-23 (BSD tar), 2023-07-18 (GNU tar), 2019-04-15 (star) | Active | BSD-2-Clause (BSD tar), GPL-3.0-or-later (GNU tar), public domain (pdtar), CDDL-1.0 (star) | No cost |
| The Unarchiver | Circlesoft | 2006-07-01 | Cross-platform | 4.3.6[25]
|
2022-10-20 | Active | Proprietary | No cost |
| Terse | IBM | 1984-07-01 | Active | Proprietary | No cost | |||
| TUGZip | Christian Kindahl | 2002-08-18 | Windows | 3.5.0.0[26]
|
2008-04-02 | Inactive | Proprietary | No cost |
| WinAce | e-merge GmbH | Unknown | Windows | 2.69
|
2007-11-08 | Inactive | Proprietary | $29.00 Standard. $39.00 Plus. No cost for expander.[f] |
| WinRAR | Eugene Roshal Alexander Roshal |
1993 | Cross-platform | 7.01[27]
|
2024-05-15 | Active | Proprietary | $29.[28] No cost for expander. |
| WinZip | WinZip Computing, Inc | 1991 | Cross-platform | 6.9.0[29] (Android), 7.11[30] (iOS), 10.0.6204[31] (macOS), 27.0.15240[32][33] (Windows)
|
2023-06-12 (Android), 2023-06-26 (iOS), 2023-03-21 (macOS), 2022-08-23 (Windows) | Active | Proprietary | $29.95 Standard. $49.95 Pro. |
| XAD (XADMaster.library) |
Dirk Stoecker | 1998 | Cross-platform | 13.1 | Active | Proprietary | Shareware No cost for non-commercial use. | |
| Xarchiver | Giuseppe Torelli | Unknown | Cross-platform | 0.5.4.23[34]
|
2024-02-29 | Inactive | GPL-2.0-or-later | No cost |
| ZipGenius | Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software | 2003-05 | Windows | Active | Proprietary | No cost | ||
| ZipZip.pro | Anatoly Zolotov | 2023-03 | Web | 1.0 | 2023-03-01 | Active | Proprietary | No cost |
| ZPAQ | Matt Mahoney | 2009-03 | Cross-platform | 7.15[35]
|
2016-09-22 | Active | Public domain MIT[36] |
No cost |
| File archivers | Developer | Initial release | Platform | Latest release version | Latest release date | Status | License | Cost (USD) |
Notes:
- ^ As a WinZip translation.
- ^ A general serial number was published on developer's website altools.com in August 2012.
- ^ Included with macOS Core Services.
- ^ Included in Microsoft Windows Windows Explorer shell since Windows Me.
- ^ v0.36
- ^ Linux & macOS only.
Operating system support
The operating systems the archivers can run on without emulation or compatibility layer. Ubuntu's own GUI Archive manager, for example, can open and create many archive formats (including Rar archives) even to the extent of splitting into parts and encryption and ability to be read by the native program. This is presumably a "compatibility layer."