Comparison of file archivers

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

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.

Archivers

Note: Archivers names in purple are no longer in development.

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	January 2, 1999[1]	15.14 (December 31, 2015) [±][1]	Free	LGPL (RAR plugin is proprietary)
ALZip	ESTsoft	1999 (as a WinZip translation)	8.51.0.0 (9 September 2011) [±]	A free general serial number was published on developer's website altools.com in August 2012	Proprietary
ALZip for Mac	ESTsoft	1999 (as a WinZip translation)	1.11 (June 13, 2012) [±]	A free general serial number was published on developer's website altools.com in August 2012	Proprietary
Archive Manager	Paolo Bacchilega	May 12, 2001	3.8.3[2] (July 2, 2013) [±]	Free	GPL
Archive Utility	Apple Inc.	October 24, 2003	10.10 (October 16, 2014) [±]	Included with Mac OS X Core Services	Proprietary
Ark	KDE team	1997	15.12.3 March 15, 2016	Free	GPL
B1 Free Archiver	Adam Buyer	August 2011	1.5.86 November 25, 2013	Free	Proprietary
BetterZip	BetterZip	May 2006	2.3.4 (December 1, 2014[3]) [±]	$19.95 USD	Proprietary
Bitser	Bitser	January 1, 2009	1.4 August 22, 2015	Free	Proprietary
BulkZip	Northstone Consulting Ltd.	January 5, 2015	7.2 July 1, 2015	$50.00 USD	Proprietary
Commander One	Eltima Software	August 4, 2015	1.1 September 29, 2015	Standard Free; $29.95 Pro Pack	Proprietary
Compressed Folders	Microsoft Inc.	June 25, 1998	Windows 8.1 August 27, 2013	Included in Microsoft Windows Windows Explorer shell since Windows 98.	Proprietary
CRAX Commander	Soft4U2	September 1, 2013	1.10.9 March 2, 2016	$19.99 USD	Proprietary
Disk ARchiver	Denis Corbin	2002	2.4.17 January 31, 2015	Free	GPL
Expander	Haiku, Inc.	2002	R1 Alpha 4.1 (November 14, 2012) [±]	Free	MIT
Filzip	Philipp Engel	Unknown	3.06 (July 19, 2006) [±]	Free	Proprietary
FreeArc	Bulat Ziganshin	November 1, 2007 v0.36	0.666 (May 20, 2010[4])	Free	GPL[5]
iArchiver	Dare to be Creative Ltd.	October 21, 2007	1.4.1 October 30, 2008	$26	Proprietary
Info-ZIP (Wzip)	Samuel Smith	March 1989	6.0 April 29, 2009	Free	BSD-like
IZArc	IZSoftware	Unknown	4.1.9 August 23, 2014	Free	Proprietary
KGB Archiver	Tomasz Pawlak	April 1, 2006	1.2.1.24 November 1, 2006	Free	GPL
PeaZip	Giorgio Tani	September 16, 2006	6.0.0 February 27, 2016	Free	LGPL
PKZIP	Phil Katz	1989	12.4[6] (ca. September 2009)	$29.00	Proprietary
PowerArchiver	ConexWare	March 1999	15.00.41 January 21, 2015	$19.95	Proprietary
StuffIt	Smith Micro Software	1987	15.0.7 December 1, 2011[7]	Free expander; $49.99 Deluxe,[8] $79.99 French Deluxe;[9] Windows: $14.99 Standard,[10] $29.99 Deluxe,[11] $49.99 French (or German) Deluxe[12][13]	Proprietary
TAR	AT&T	1979	GNU tar: various (there are various tar implementations) (various) [±]; star: 1.5.3; BSD tar: 2.6.0	Free	Various
The Unarchiver	Circlesoft	July 1, 2006	3.9.1 October 4, 2013	Free	LGPL
TUGZip	Christian Kindahl	August 18, 2002	3.5.0.0 April 2, 2008	Free	Proprietary
WinAce	e-merge GmbH	Unknown	2.69 November 23, 2007	Free expander (GNU/Linux & Mac only); $29.00 Standard; $39.00 Plus	Proprietary
WinRAR	Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal	1993	5.31 (February 4, 2016[14]) [±]	Free expander; $29[15]	Proprietary
WinZip	WinZip Computing, Inc	1991	20.5.12118 (April 28, 2016) [±]	$29.95 Standard; $49.95 Pro	Proprietary
XAD a.k.a. XADMaster.library	Dirk Stoecker	1998	13.1	Shareware, Free for non commercial use	Proprietary
Xarchiver	Giuseppe Torelli	Unknown	0.5.4 September 14, 2014	Free	GPL
ZipGenius	Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software	May 2003	6.3.2.3112 August 8, 2014	Free	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 without emulation or compatibility layer. Linux 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."

	Windows	DOS	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Other Unix	AmigaOS	Android	Windows Mobile	Windows Phone
7-Zip	Yes^[1]	Command-line interface^[2]	Yes^[2]	Yes^[2]	Command-line interface^[2]	Command-line interface^[2]	Command-line interface^[4]	No	Yes	No
ALZip	Yes	Command-line interface[16]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ALZip for Mac	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Archive Manager	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Archive Utility	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ark	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
B1 Free Archiver	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
BetterZip	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Bitser	Yes^[1]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BulkZip	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Unknown	Unknown	No
Commander One	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CRAX Commander	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Disk ARchiver	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Filzip	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
FreeArc	Yes[4]	No	No	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
GNU tar	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
iArchiver	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
Info-ZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes^[8]	No
IZArc	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
KGB Archiver	Yes^[7]	Partial	Command-line interface	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
PeaZip	Yes^[1]	Unknown	Under Development[17]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	?
PowerArchiver	Yes	Unknown	Command-line interface	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
Star	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	?
StuffIt	Yes	Unknown	Yes	X86 only, older version (5.2.0?)	No	older version (5.2.0?)	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
The Unarchiver	Command-line interface	No	Yes	Command-line interface	No	No	No	Unknown	No	?
TUGZip	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
WinAce	Yes	Command-line interface^[5]	Command-line interface expander only^[5]	X86, Command-line interface expander only^[5]	No	No	Command-line interface expander only	Unknown	Unknown	?
WinRAR	Yes^[1]	Yes	Command-line interface^[6]	X86 and x86-64, Command-line interface^[6]	Command-line interface^[6]	Command-line interface^[6]	Command-line interface expander only	Yes[18]	Yes	?
WinZip	Yes^[1]	Command-line interface	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	?
XAD	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	?
Xarchiver	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	?
ZipGenius	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	?
	Windows	DOS	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	AmigaOS	Android	Windows Mobile	Windows Phone

Notes:

1. ^ A separate 64-bit Windows x64 Edition version is also available.
2. ^ The Unix-like system port is known as p7zip. p7zip also is provided by FreeDOS.
3. ^ A Windows Mobile release (version 9.05-alpha onward) is available.
4. ^ Aminet contains several solution for 7zip under both classic and newage Amiga OS.
5. ^ The programs for other platforms are called Unace, do not have the same GUI, and can only perform decompression.
6. ^ The programs for other platforms are called RAR.
7. ^ This program also has a POSIX version available.
8. ^ General Windows CE version.

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]	Encryption	Filename Encryption
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ALZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[8]	No	Unknown	Unknown
Archive Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Archive Utility	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
ARJ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Ark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
B1 Free Archiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BetterZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bitser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
BulkZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
bsdtar/libarchive	No^[2]	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Commander One	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes for 7z
CRAX Commander	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Disk ARchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
FreeArc	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[4]	Yes[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes[4]	Yes
GNU tar	No^[2]	Yes	No	Yes	No	Separate	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
iArchiver	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Info-ZIP	Yes	No^[11]	Yes	Yes^[12]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[12]	Weak	No
IZArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KGB Archiver	Yes	Not enabled by default	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[9]	Yes^[10]	Yes
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Separate	Separate	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[7]	Yes	Yes	Yes
StuffIt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown
The Unarchiver	No^[1]	some formats	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[1]	Yes
TUGZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Unknown
WinAce	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown
WinRAR	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[3]	Yes	Yes^[6]	Yes	Yes
WinZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[10]	Yes	Yes	Yes
XAD	No^[1]	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Xarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
ZipGenius	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown
	Data compression	Shell integration	Password protection	Multiple volumes	Self extraction	File repairing	Batch conversion	Unicode file / directory names^[5]	Encryption	Filename Encryption

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 a variable amount of redundancy for much better error recovery. See also RAR (file format).
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Commandline batch compression is available only for ZIP and ALZ formats.
8. ^ UTF-8 file/path-names support was completed in release 3.0.1 on Unix systems, and in release 5.8.0 on Windows systems. GUI UTF-8 support for full internationalization of the application was completed in release 2.2.0. Optionally, extended characters can be set to be replaced by jolly "?" character for exporting scripts to legacy systems; scripts creation screen informs if commands are ANSI-safe, OEM-codepage-safe (on Windows), or requires UTF-8 compliant environment to run (system, command interpreter, etc).^[19]
9. ^ Commandline batch compression and expansion requires free add-on software downloaded from the WinZip website.
10. ^ Peazip supports file encryption and file name encryption, although only in certain types of archives, including its own Pea format, 7-zip, zip and Arc.
11. ^ Many shells have built-in zip file support. Windows Explorer has "Send To"->"ZIP-compressed folder".
12. ^ Since version 3.0 (2008).

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. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are rather compression formats than archive formats.

	ZIP	TAR	GZ	BZ/BZ2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	ACE	SIT	SITX	ARJ	KGB	DAR	ARC	CAB	ALZ	ISO/CD Image	ZPAQ
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No^[1]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
ALZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Archive Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Archive Utility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No^[7]	No
Ark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
B1 Free Archiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No^[11]	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
BetterZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Bitser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
BulkZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	Yes	Yes^[10]	Yes^[10]	Yes	Yes^[10]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
cpio	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Commander One	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CRAX Commander	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Disk ARchiver	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
FreeArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No^[1]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No^[12]	Yes	No	Yes	No
GNU tar^[2]	No^[2]	Yes	Yes^[2]	Yes^[2]	No^[3]	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
iArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Info-ZIP	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
IZArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
KGB Archiver	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Star^[2]	No^[2]	Yes	Yes^[2]	Yes^[2]	Yes^[2]	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
StuffIt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
The Unarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial^[11]	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TUGZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
WinAce	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
WinRAR	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
WinZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes^[4]	Yes	No	No	No	Yes^[5]	No	No	Yes^[5]	Yes	No	Yes	No
XAD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Xarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
ZipGenius	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes^[10]	Yes	No	No	Yes^[10]	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
	ZIP	TAR	GZ	BZ/BZ2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	ACE	SIT	SITX	ARJ	KGB	DAR	ARC	CAB	ALZ	ISO/CD Image	ZPAQ

Notes:

1. ^ Used to, but no longer does, due to technical and legal issues.
2. ^ Tar implementations call external programs (like compress, gzip or bzip2 or any other programs working with abstract streams and supporting the "-d" option) to perform (de)compression, and allowing you to implement your own filters. These external programs may be shipped with your Operating System.
3. ^ GNU tar lets you implement your own filters , allowing you to use other compression programs (p7zip, ...) and filters (GPG, ...).
4. ^ Starting from version 11.
5. ^ Requires external program. More info
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Requires external program.
8. ^ Only partial support for reading proprietary SITX format.
9. ^ FreeARC uses .arc as its filename extension, but this format is not the same as the traditional ARC file.
10. ^ Supports these formats as compression stream of other archive formats like tar.bz2 or iso.xz but does not support the format as an archive itself.
11. ^ B1 Free Archiver for Android and B1 Online Archiver support ARJ format.

Writing

Information about what archive formats the archivers^[5] can write and create. External links lead to information about support in future versions of the archiver or extensions that provide such functionality. Note that gzip, bzip2 and xz are rather compression formats than archive formats.

	ZIP	TAR	gzip	bzip2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	ACE	StuffIt	StuffIt X	ARJ	KGB	DAR	ARC	CAB	ALZ	ISO/CD Image	ZPAQ
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes^[14]	Yes^[14]	Yes	Yes^[14]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ALZip^[6]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No
Archive Manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No^[12]	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	No
Archive Utility	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No^[10]	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
B1 Free Archiver	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BetterZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Bitser	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BulkZip	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	Yes	Yes^[15]	Yes^[15]	Yes	Yes^[15]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Commander One	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CRAX Commander	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Disk ARchiver	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
FreeArc	No[20]	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No[20]	Unknown	No[20]	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
GNU tar	No	Yes	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
iArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	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	No	No
IZArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
KGB Archiver	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Star	No	Yes	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	Yes^[1]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
StuffIt^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No^[9]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
TUGZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No^[2]	Yes	No^[4]	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Unknown	No
WinAce	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No
WinRAR	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
WinZip	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No^[3]	No	Unknown	Yes	No	No	No	No
Xarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No^[11]	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
ZipGenius	Yes	Yes^[7]	Yes^[7]	Yes^[7]	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes^[8]	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Yes^[7]	No	No	No
	ZIP	TAR	GZ	BZ/BZ2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	ACE	SIT	SITX	ARJ	KGB	DAR	ARC	CAB	ALZ	ISO/CD Image	ZPAQ

Notes:

1. ^ Tar implementations call the external programs gzip and bzip2, 7z, xz, ... to perform compression; these external programs usually come with systems that contain tar.
2. ^ Requires rar.exe from WinRAR.
3. ^ Requires external program(if you are using WinZip 11.1 or earlier). 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. ^ Updating archives is not supported.
8. ^ Requires external program.
9. ^ Stuffit supported file formats
10. ^ Ark is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Ark; writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.
11. ^ Xarchiver is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Xarchiver; writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.
12. ^ Archive Manager is a front-end only and requires appropriate command-line programs be installed. Programs like bzip2, gzip, tar, zip usually come with systems that contain Archive Manager. writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.
13. ^ If there are more than one, files must be grouped in a .tar before being compressed.
14. ^ supports the formats as stream compression of other archive format and can create compressed format like tar.bz2 or iso.xz but cannot create an archive in these formats
15. ^ it is possible to open war and jar files to extract e add/replace file; files war and jar are still valid after that

Uncommon archive format support

PeaZip has full support for various LPAQ and PAQ formats, QUAD and BALZ (highly efficient ROLZ based compressors), 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 (9.07 onwards) have full support for the LZMA2-compressed .xz format.^[1]

See also

• Comparison of archive formats
• Lossless compression benchmarks
• Comparison of file systems
• List of archive formats
• List of file systems

References

1. "HISTORY of the 7-Zip". www.7-zip.org. 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
2. http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/file-roller/
3. http://www.betterzip.com/version-history/
4. http://freearc.org/
5. "FreeArc : Develop". Retrieved 2009-08-17. license: GPL
6. http://www.pkware.com/support-desktop/product-updates
7. "StuffIt Updates". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
8. "StuffIt Deluxe English|German|Japanese". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
9. "StuffIt Deluxe Mac French". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
10. "StuffIt Windows (Standard)". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
11. "StuffIt Deluxe Windows". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
12. "StuffIt Deluxe Windows French". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
13. "StuffIt Deluxe Windows German". Smith Micro Software. Retrieved 2011-12-01.
14. "Latest changes in WinRAR".
15. WinRAR and RAR support site
16. http://www.altools.com/ALTools/ALZip/Features/Command-Line.aspx
17. "PeaZip FAQ OS X support". Retrieved 6 October 2013.
18. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rarlab.rar
19. http://peazip.sourceforge.net/peazip-free-archiver.html
20. http://freearc.org/FuturePlans.aspx

Further reading

• Maximum Compression site benchmarking compressors for several filetypes (text, executable, jpeg etc.).
• Kingsley G. Morse Jr., "Compression Tools Compared", Linux Journal, issue 137, September 2005
• Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos, (March 10, 2010) "Four Compression And Archiving Solutions Compared", Tom's Hardware