The program provides more options for compression than WinRAR and can also unpack over a dozen formats as well. The company claims they support “all” popular compression formats, and while we couldn’t find a full list, rest assured, it can handle all the popular and commonly used formats.ħ-Zip provides more options for packing files with GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM, 7z, XZ, and BZIP2. RAR, ZIP, JAR, TAR, LZH, ISO, ARJ, CAB, and GZIP are just a few of the formats WinRAR supports.

The company’s software can compress files in three formats with RAR, RAR4, or Zip, but it can extract a wide range of compressed data from other containers. 7-Zip comparison, but things are closer with file formats these programs can open. WinRAR has a slight edge with compatibility through Android in our WinRAR vs.

Although WinRAR is geared for Windows, it is compatible with Linux, macOS, and Android smartphones. It also doesn’t work with Linux, although there’s an excellent port of this program called p7zip for that. 7-zip works with Windows systems from Windows 2000 through current versions, but not on a Mac. It’s not exactly user-friendly if you’re using an Apple product for obvious reasons.Īs for 7-zip, the developers took a similar approach. You can use the program on PCs that run Linux or macOS, but there are better options for Mac users considering you only get a command line interface to work with. It’s also available for Android smartphones and tablets through the Play Store, but you won’t find it for the iPhone or iPad. If you’re running Windows, you can download 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the software. We’ve seen developers name programs after Linux, macOS, and Windows, which is the operating system WinRAR is geared for.ĭespite the name, this program actually works on more than one platform. When a developer names their software after an operating system, it’s safe to say they are a fan of the platform.

They are comparable in a variety of ways and have features on par with WinZip and other popular file-archiving programs.Įach of these programs performs the same functions in different ways, but there are some things you’ll want to be aware of when choosing between the two. WinRAR and 7-Zip are two of the older file archiving and compression programs, and both are widely used each day by people around the globe.

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