Archive software directory
12 archivers reviewed — free, paid, GUI, command-line, every major operating system.
7-Zip is the gold-standard free archiver for Windows. Open source, no nag screens, no ads, and the reference implementation of the 7z format. Its comp…
WinRAR is the legendary "trial that never ends" Windows archiver. It is the only mainstream tool that can create RAR archives, including multi-volume …
PeaZip is a free, open-source archiver from Italy that wraps 7-Zip's engine plus its own PEA format in a polished Pascal/Lazarus GUI. It supports more…
Keka is the de facto archiver for macOS. It is a friendly Mac-native wrapper around the same battle-tested xz, libarchive, and unar libraries that pow…
The Unarchiver is a free, open-source extraction-only tool for macOS, distributed via the Mac App Store. It handles a vast number of archive formats —…
GNU tar is the universal Unix archiver. Almost every Linux server task that involves bundling files — backups, log rotation, source releases, containe…
Bandizip is a fast Korean Windows archiver that became popular for its clean UI and aggressive multi-core ZIP and 7z compression. The free version is …
p7zip is the Unix port of 7-Zip's command-line tool. It provides the 7z and 7za executables on Linux, macOS, and BSD. Most distributions ship it as th…
Archive Utility is the built-in macOS extractor that opens when you double-click a .zip or .tar.gz. It is competent for everyday ZIP and tarball use, …
Windows File Explorer can create ZIP files via "Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder" and extract ZIPs by double-clicking. Windows 11 added native sup…
ZArchiver is the most-recommended Android archiver. It supports creating 7z and ZIP and extracting almost any archive format you encounter, including …
RAR for Android is the official mobile port of WinRAR's engine, made by the same company. It is the only Android app that can create real RAR and RAR5…