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.

Archivers

Note: Archivers in purple are no longer in development.

General information

Basic general information about the archivers: creator/company, licence/price etc.

	Creator(s)	First public release date	Latest stable version	Cost (USD)	Software licence
7-Zip	Igor Pavlov	January 2, 1999 (1999-01-02)	9.20  (18 November 2010 (2010-11-18)) 9.22 beta  (18 April 2011 (2011-04-18)) 9.25 alpha  (16 September 2011 (2011-09-16))	Free	LGPL (RAR plugin is proprietary)
ALZip	ESTsoft	1999 (1999) (as a WinZip translation)	8.51  (September 19, 2011 (2011-09-19))	Free to try (60-day trial); $29.95 to buy - However Korean language version is free	Proprietary
Archive Utility	Apple Inc.	October 24, 2003 (2003-10-24)	10.7 July 20, 2011 (2011-07-20)	Part of Mac OS X Core Services	Proprietary
Ark	KDE team	Unknown	2.14 February 9, 2010 (2010-02-09)	Free	GPL
Bandizip	Bandisoft	April 6, 2011 (2011-04-06)	1.0.4 November 3, 2011 (2011-11-03)	Free	Proprietary
BetterZip	BetterZip	May 2006 (2006-05)	2.1.2 November 18, 2011 (2011-11-18)	$19.95 USD	Proprietary
Bitser	Bitser	January 1, 2009 (2009-01-01)	1.0 Beta January 15, 2012 (2012-01-15)	Free	Proprietary
Compressed Folders	Microsoft Inc.	June 25, 1998 (1998-06-25)	Windows Small Business Server 2011 December 14, 2010 (2010-12-14)	Part of Microsoft Windows Windows Explorer shell since Windows 98.	Proprietary
Disk ARchiver	Denis Corbin	2002 (2002)	2.4.1 May 21, 2011 (2011-05-21)	Free	GPL
File Roller	Paolo Bacchilega	Unknown	3.0.0 April 4, 2011 (2011-04-04)	Free	GPL
Filzip	Philipp Engel	Unknown	3.06  (June 29, 2006 (2006-06-29))	Free	Proprietary
FreeArc	Bulat Ziganshin	November 1, 2007 (2007-11-01) v0.36	0.666 (May 20, 2010 (2010-05-20))	Free	GPL
iArchiver	Dare to be Creative Ltd.	October 21, 2007 (2007-10-21)	1.4.1 October 30, 2008 (2008-10-30)	$26	Proprietary
Info-ZIP (Wzip)	Samuel Smith	March 1989 (1989-03)	6.0 April 29, 2009 (2009-04-29)	Free	BSD-like
IZArc	IZSoftware	Unknown	4.1.6  (March 1, 2011 (2011-03-01))	Free	Proprietary
Keka	aONe	August 26, 2009 (2009-08-26)	0.1.4.2 November 17, 2010 (2010-11-17)	Free	GPL
KGB Archiver	Tomasz Pawlak	April 1, 2006 (2006-04-01)	1.2.1.24 November 1, 2006 (2006-11-01) 2.0 Beta 2 October 7, 2007 (2007-10-07)	Free	GPL
PeaZip	Giorgio Tani	September 16, 2006 (2006-09-16)	4.4 January 29, 2012 (2012-01-29)	Free	LGPL
PKZIP	Phil Katz	1989 (1989)	12.4 (ca. September 2009 (2009-09))	$29.00	Proprietary
PowerArchiver	ConexWare	March 1999 (1999-03)	12.11 January 26, 2012 (2012-01-26)	$19.95	Proprietary
StuffIt	Smith Micro Software	1987 (1987)	15.0.4 (MacOS), 14.0.1 (Windows) December 1, 2011 (2011-12-01)	Free expander; Mac: $29.99 Standard, $49.99 Deluxe, $79.99 French Deluxe; Windows: $14.99 Standard, $29.99 Deluxe, $49.99 French (or German) Deluxe	Proprietary
TAR	AT&T	1979 (1979)	GNU tar: 1.26  (March 13, 2011 (2011-03-13)); star: 1.5.1; BSD tar: 2.6.0	Free	Various
The Unarchiver	Circlesoft	July 1, 2006 (2006-07-01)	2.5 July 13, 2010 (2010-07-13)	Free	LGPL
TUGZip	Christian Kindahl	August 18, 2002 (2002-08-18)	3.5.0.0 April 2, 2008 (2008-04-02)	Free	Proprietary
WinAce	e-merge GmbH	Unknown	2.69 November 23, 2007 (2007-11-23)	Free expander (GNU/Linux & Mac only); $29.00 Standard; $39.00 Plus	Proprietary
WinRAR	Eugene Roshal / Alexander Roshal	1993 (1993)	4.11  (February 20, 2012 (2012-02-20))	Free expander; $29	Proprietary
WinZip	WinZip Computing, Inc	1991 (1991)	16.0 (Build 9715)  (January 10, 2012 (2012-01-10))	$29.95 Standard; $49.95 Pro	Proprietary
XAD a.k.a. XADMaster.library	Dirk Stoecker	1998 (1998)	13.1	Shareware, Free for non commercial use	Proprietary
Xarchiver	Giuseppe Torelli	Unknown	0.5.2 November 12, 2008 (2008-11-12)	Free	GPL
ZipGenius	Matteo Riso of M.Dev Software	May 2003 (2003-05)	6.3.0.2400 January 22, 2010 (2010-01-22)	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.

	Windows	DOS	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Other Unix	AmigaOS	Android	Windows Mobile
7-Zip	Yes	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Unknown	Yes
ALZip	Yes	Command-line interface	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Archive Utility	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No
Ark	Unknown	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Bandizip	Yes	Command-line interface	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
BetterZip	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No
Bitser	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown
Disk ARchiver	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown
File Roller	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Filzip	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
FreeArc	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
GNU tar	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
iArchiver	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
Info-ZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes
IZArc	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No
Keka	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No
KGB Archiver	Yes	Partial	Command-line interface	Yes	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
PeaZip	Yes	Unknown	Under Development	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	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	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No
TUGZip	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
WinAce	Yes	Command-line interface	Command-line interface expander only	X86, Command-line interface expander only	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
WinRAR	Yes	Yes	Command-line interface	X86 and x86-64, Command-line interface	Command-line interface	Command-line interface	No	Unknown	Yes
WinZip	Yes	Command-line interface	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown
XAD	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Xarchiver	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	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

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. [1]
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	Encryption	Filename Encryption
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ALZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown
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	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Bandizip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
BetterZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bitser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Disk ARchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
File Roller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
FreeArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GNU tar	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Separate	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
iArchiver	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Info-ZIP	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Weak	No
IZArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Keka	Yes	Under development	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes
KGB Archiver	Yes	Not enabled by default	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Separate	Separate	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
StuffIt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown
The Unarchiver	No	some formats	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	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	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WinZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XAD	No	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	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 support was completed in release 2.5. On Unix systems the support is full, while on Windows systems, due to limitation of the Windows shell environment, double-character encoded characters cannot currently be displayed in filenames of archived objects, and those chars are replaced by a corrupted character. Optionally, extended characters can be set to be always replaced by a 'corrupted' "?" character to avoid possible issues between archive's and system's character encodings.
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, 7z 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
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
ALZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Archive Utility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bandizip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
BetterZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Bitser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
cpio	No	Yes	No	No	No	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	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
File Roller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
FreeArc	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
GNU tar	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	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
Info-ZIP	Yes	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
Keka	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	?	Partial	No	No	?	?	?	?	Yes	?	Yes
KGB Archiver	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Star	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	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	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The Unarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TUGZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
WinAce	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
WinRAR	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
WinZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
XAD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Xarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
ZipGenius	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	ZIP	TAR	GZ	BZ/BZ2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	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.
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 [4], 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.[5]
8. ^ Only partial support for reading proprietary SITX format. [6]
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.

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. Note that gzip, bzip2, 7z 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
7-Zip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ALZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown
Archive Utility	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ark	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Bandizip	Yes	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
Bitser	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
bsdtar/libarchive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	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	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
File Roller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No
Filzip	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
FreeArc	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
GNU tar	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	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
Info-ZIP	Yes	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
Keka	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
KGB Archiver	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
PeaZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
PKZIP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
PowerArchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Star	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
StuffIt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
TUGZip	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Unknown
WinAce	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Unknown	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes
WinRAR	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
WinZip	Yes	No	No	No	No	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Yes	No	No	No
Xarchiver	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
ZipGenius	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Unknown	Yes	No	No
	ZIP	TAR	GZ	BZ/BZ2	7z	xz	RAR	LHA/LZH	ACE	SIT	SITX	ARJ	KGB	DAR	ARC	CAB	ALZ	ISO/CD Image

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.[7]
8. ^ Requires external program.[8]
9. ^ Stuffit supported file formats [9]
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. [10]
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. [11][12]
12. ^ File-Roller 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 File-Roller. writing in .rar format requires a commercial program.[13]
13. ^ Keka version under development is able to create ISO and DMG files.
14. ^ If there are more than one, files must be grouped in a .tar before being compressed.
15. ^ 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

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.

See also

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

Further reading

• 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