Best File Compression Software in 2026
29 file compression software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
29ranked
23free plans on this page
2 Oct 2026last checked
| # | Platform | Score | Why | From | Free plan | Paid from | Archive formats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  7-Zip | 7.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Create/extract: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM; extract: APFS, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, XAR, Z | View |
| 2 |  PeaZip | 7.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Creates 7Z, ARC, BZ2, GZ, PAQ/LPAQ/ZPAQ, PEA, QUAD/BALZ/BCM, RAR conditionally, TAR, UPX, WIM, and ZIP/ZIPX; extracts 200+ types | View |
| 3 | Bandizip | 7.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Creates ZIP, 7Z, ZIPX, EXE (SFX), TAR, TGZ, LZH, ISO, GZ, XZ; extracts 7Z, ACE, AES, ALZ, ARJ, BH, BIN, BR, BZ, BZ2, CAB, MSI, DAA, DEB, EGG, GZ, IMG, ISO, ISZ, LHA, LZ, LZH, LZMA, PMA, RAR, RAR5, SFX, TAR, TBZ/TB2, TGZ, TLZ, TXZ, UDF, WIM, XPI, XZ, Z, ZIP, ZIPX, ZPAQ, PEA, UU, UUE, XXE, ASAR, ZSTD, NSIS, LZ4 | View |
| 4 | NanaZip | 7.0 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM, APFS, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, XAR, Z, Brotli, Lizard, LZ4, LZ5, Zstandard, UFS/UFS2, .NET Single File, Electron ASAR, ROMFS, ZealFS, WASM, CB7, CBZ, CBR | View |
| 5 | Ark | 6.9 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | tar, gzip, bzip2, zip, rar, 7z, xz, rpm, cab, deb, xar, AppImage | View |
| 6 |  Keka | 6.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Create: 7Z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, DMG, ISO, BROTLI, ZSTD, LRZIP, AAR, WIM; extract: 7Z, ZIP, ZIPX, RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, DMG, ISO, BROTLI, ZSTD, LRZIP, LZMA, EXE, CAB, WIM, MSI, PAX, JAR, WAR, IPA, XIP, APK, APPX, XPI, WPRESS, IS3, CPGZ, CPIO, CPT, SPK | View |
| 7 |  B1 Archiver | 6.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Creates B1 and ZIP; extracts more than 40 archive formats | View |
| 8 | PowerArchiver | 6.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | 60+; creates ZIP, ZIPX, 7Z, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, CAB, BH, JAR; extracts RAR, ACE, ARJ, ISO, MSI, DMG, RPM, CPIO, LHA, ZOO, and more | View |
| 9 |  Zipware | 6.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | ZIP, ZIPX, 7Z, RAR, RAR5, ISO, VHD, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, CPIO, XZ, DEB, DMG, RPM, XPI, EXE | View |
| 10 |  File Roller | 6.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | 7z, ace, alz, ar, arj, cab, cpio, deb, dmg, iso, jar, ear, war, lha, rar, cbr, rpm, tar, tar.gz, tar.br, tar.bz, tar.bz2, tar.bz3, tar.Z, tar.lrz, tar.lz, tar.lzo, tar.7z, tar.xz, tar.zst, snap, squashfs, sit, zip, cbz, zoo, gz, br, bz, bz2, bz3, Z, lrz, lz, lzo, rz, xz, zst | View |
| 11 | The Unarchiver | 6.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | ZIP, ZIPX, RAR, 7z, TAR, Gzip, Bzip2, LZMA, XZ, CAB, MSI, NSIS, EXE, ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG, CDI, StuffIt, StuffIt X, DiskDoubler, Compact Pro, PackIt, Cpio, Compress, ARJ, ARC, PAK, ACE, Zoo, LZH, ADF, DMS, LZX, PowerPacker, LBR, Squeeze, Crunch, XAR, RPM, DEB, AR, ALZip, WARC, NSA, SAR, NDS, SWF, PDF | View |
| 12 |  p7zip | 6.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | 7z, APFS, APM, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, ISO, LZH, RAR, SquashFS, TAR, WIM, XZ, ZIP, Zstandard | View |
| 13 | IZArc | 6.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | ZIP, 7-Zip, CAB, TAR, BZip2, GZip, LHA, YZ1, RAR | View |
| 14 |  ZArchiver | 6.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Create: 7z, ZIP, BZip2, GZip, XZ, LZ4, TAR, Zstandard; extract: 7z, ZIP, RAR, RAR5, BZip2, GZip, XZ, ISO, TAR, ARJ, CAB, LZH, LHA, LZMA, XAR, TGZ, TBZ, Z, DEB, RPM, ZIPX, MTZ, CHM, DMG, CPIO, CRAMFS, IMG, WIM, ECM, LZIP, Zstandard, EGG, ALZ | View |
| 15 |  ALZip | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | ALZ, EGG, ZIP, LZH, TAR, JAR; extracts split ALZ, EGG, ZIP, RAR, and ACE archives | View |
| 16 |  RAR for Android | 6.1 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | Create: RAR, ZIP. Extract: RAR, ZIP, ZIPX, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, 7z, ISO, ARJ | View |
| 17 |  8 Zip | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | ZIP, 7z, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, RAR, ZipX, ISO, ARJ, CAB, CHM, MSI, NSIS | View |
| 18 | bzip2 | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | BZ2 (.bz2), BZ (.bz), TBZ2 (.tbz2), TBZ (.tbz) | View |
| 19 |  BetterZip | 5.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | ZIP, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TXZ, 7-ZIP, DMG, Zstandard, Brotli, RAR; extracts TNEF, ARJ, LZH, ISO, CHM, CAB, CPIO/CPGZ, DEB, RPM, SIT/SITX, BinHex, and MacBinary | View |
| 20 |  Universal Extractor 2 | 5.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | 7z, ACE, ALZ, ARC, ARJ, bzip2, CPIO, gzip, LZH, LZMA, RAR, StuffIt, TAR, XZ, ZIP, ZOO, ZPAQ, and other formats | View |
| 21 |  Zstandard | 5.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | .zst, .gz, .xz, .lz4 | View |
| 22 |  Engrampa | 5.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | — | — | 7z, ACE, ALZ, AR, ARC, ARJ, CAB, CPIO, DEB, EPUB, ISO, JAR, EAR, WAR, LHA, RAR, CBR, RPM, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BR, TAR.BZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.Z, TAR.LRZ, TAR.LZ, TAR.LZO, TAR.7Z, TAR.XZ, BIN, SIT, ZIP, CBZ, ZOO, GZ, BR, BZ, BZ2, Z, LRZ, LZ, LZO, RZ, XZ, ZST | View |
| 23 |  XZ Utils | 5.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | .xz, .lzma, raw streams; .lz extraction | View |
| 24 | lzip | 5.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | lzip (.lz) | View |
| 25 |  lrzip | 5.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | Free | Yes | — | LRZ; TAR-compressed LRZ via lrztar | View |
Is your platform on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which file compression software is ranked first on Inferse?
7-Zip is ranked #1 of 29 with a score of 7.5. PeaZip is second and Bandizip third.
How many of these have a free plan?
23 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, open and connectable first: a public API, open-source code, the depth of its documentation and a free tier to try it on. Model lists are sorted by the figure in their title, exactly as each provider publishes it. Paid placements never change a rank.
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