Comparison of file archivers
File archivers Creator ( s ) First public release date Latest stable version Cost ( USD ) Software license
7-Zip Igor Pavlov January 2 , 1999 ; 21 years ago ( 1999-01-02 ) 19.00 February 21 , 2019 ; 11 months ago ( 2019-02-21 ) Free LGPL ( RAR plugin is proprietary )
ALZip ESTsoft 1999 ; 21 years ago ( 1999 ) ( as a WinZip translation ) 8.51.0.0 ( 9 September 2011 ; 8 years ago ( 2011-09-09 ) ) [ ± ] A free general serial number was published on developer 's website altools.com in August 2012 Proprietary
ALZip for Mac ESTsoft 1999 ; 21 years ago ( 1999 ) ( as a WinZip translation ) 1.11 ( June 13 , 2012 ; 7 years ago ( 2012-06-13 ) ) [ ± ] A free general serial number was published on developer 's website altools.com in August 2012 Proprietary
Archive Manager Paolo Bacchilega May 12 , 2001 ; 18 years ago ( 2001-05-12 ) 3.32.1 April 8 , 2019 ; 10 months ago ( 2019-04-08 ) Free GPL
Archive Utility Apple Inc October 24 , 2003 ; 16 years ago ( 2003-10-24 ) 10.10 ( October 16 , 2014 ; 5 years ago ( 2014-10-16 ) ) [ ± ] Included with Mac OS X Core Services Proprietary
Ark KDE team 1997 19.4.3 July 9 , 2019 ; 6 months ago ( 2019-07-09 ) Free GPL
B1 Free Archiver Adam Buyer August 2011 ; 8 years ago ( 2011-08 ) 1.5.86 November 25 , 2013 ; 6 years ago ( 2013-11-25 ) Free Proprietary
BetterZip BetterZip May 2006 ; 13 years ago ( 2006-05 ) 2.3.4 ( December 1 , 2014 ; 5 years ago ( 2014-12-01 ) ) [ ± ] $ 19.95 USD Proprietary
Commander One Eltima Software August 4 , 2015 ; 4 years ago ( 2015-08-04 ) 1.1 September 29 , 2015 ; 4 years ago ( 2015-09-29 ) Standard Free ; $ 29.95 Pro Pack Proprietary
Compressed Folders Microsoft Inc June 25 , 1998 ; 21 years ago ( 1998-06-25 ) Windows 8.1 August 27 , 2013 ; 6 years ago ( 2013-08-27 ) Included in Microsoft Windows Windows Explorer shell since Windows Me Proprietary
CRAX Commander Soft4U2 September 1 , 2013 ; 6 years ago ( 2013-09-01 ) 1.10.9 March 2 , 2016 ; 3 years ago ( 2016-03-02 ) $ 19.99 USD Proprietary
Disk ARchiver Denis Corbin 2002 ; 18 years ago ( 2002 ) 2.5.14 December 20 , 2017 ; 2 years ago ( 2017-12-20 ) Free GPL
Expander Haiku , Inc 2002 ; 18 years ago ( 2002 ) R1 Alpha 4.1 ( November 14 , 2012 ( 2012-11-14 ) ) [ ± ] Free MIT
Filzip Philipp Engel Unknown 3.06 ( July 19 , 2006 ; 13 years ago ( 2006-07-19 ) ) [ ± ] Free Proprietary
FreeArc Bulat Ziganshin November 1 , 2007 ; 12 years ago ( 2007-11-01 ) v0.36 0.666 ( May 20 , 2010 ; 9 years ago ( 2010-05-20 ) ) Free GPL
iArchiver Dare to be Creative Ltd October 21 , 2007 ; 12 years ago ( 2007-10-21 ) 1.4.1 October 30 , 2008 ; 11 years ago ( 2008-10-30 ) $ 26 Proprietary
Info-ZIP ( Wzip ) Samuel Smith March 1989 ; 30 years ago ( 1989-03 ) 6.0 April 29 , 2009 ; 10 years ago ( 2009-04-29 ) Free BSD-like
KGB Archiver Tomasz Pawlak April 1 , 2006 ; 13 years ago ( 2006-04-01 ) 1.2.1.24 November 1 , 2006 ; 13 years ago ( 2006-11-01 ) Free GPL
PeaZip Giorgio Tani September 16 , 2006 ; 13 years ago ( 2006-09-16 ) 7.1.0 February 2 , 2020 ; 6 days ago ( 2020-02-02 ) Free LGPL
PKZIP Phil Katz 1989 ; 31 years ago ( 1989 ) 12.4 ( ca . September 2009 ; 10 years ago ( 2009-09 ) ) $ 29.00 Proprietary
Archivers -- General information
Basic general information about the archivers : creator/company , license/price etc .
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.