7-Zip vs WinRAR vs WinZip: Which is Better?

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7-Zip (Best Open-Source)

7-Zip was first released in 1999 by Igor Pavlov. It is under the GNU LGPL licence with unRAR restrictions. It comes with a full-featured graphical interface and a powerful command-line interface as well. The native format is .7z, but it has an open architecture, which means the developers can easily plug in new compression methods. For the .7z format, it uses the LZMA and LZMA2 compression algorithms. The dictionary size can be up to 4GB. The program supports multithreading, allowing for performance and a very high compression ratio. It also supports PPMd (Prediction by partial matching), BZip2, Deflate, Zstandard, and AES-256 encryption (for 7z format only).

7-Zip is fully scriptable and which is useful for automation, batch jobs, and server-side compression. Another great thing is that it achieves integrity using the built-in testing tools. You can also split large volumes into smaller ones.

I use 7-Zip because of its fairly enough list of supported formats and lightweight. It does the job without any cost. I am an avid user of its AES-256 encryption to create secure archives. So, I would recommend it to someone looking for basic compression/extraction software.

Pros	Cons
High Compression Ratio	Slow Compression (at High Settings)
Free and Open Source	Basic and Outdated GUI
Wide Format Support	No Native RAR Creation
Powerful Command-Line Interface
Lightweight and Efficient

Key Features of 7-Zip

Supports compression to 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, XZ, and WIM formats
Can extract from 7z, ZIP, RAR, ISO, TAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, VHD, VMDK, and many more
Uses high-ratio compression algorithms: LZMA and LZMA2
Offers AES-256 encryption
Supports solid compression to improve ratios for similar files
A Built-in file manager with drag-and-drop support
Command-line interface for scripting and automation
Integrates into Windows Shell
Creates self-extracting archives (SFX) using the 7z format

Supported Archive Formats in 7-Zip

Read + Write:

.7z, .ZIP, .GZIP, .BZIP2, .TAR, .XZ, .WIM

Read-Only (Extract):

.RAR, .CAB, .ISO, .ARJ, .LZH, .CHM, .NSIS, .UDF, .DMG, .CPIO, .RPM, .DEB, .Z, .VHD, .VMDK, and more.

7-Zip Compression and Extraction Test

As I added the folder to the 7-Zip archive, I see these options. Here, I can select archive formats like 7z, tar, zip, and WIM. Then, I get to see the compression levels. After that, I can select compression methods like LZMA or LZMA2. Then, we see the option to select dictionary size, word size, and solid block size. You can also change the number of threads from the total threads. For encryption, you can set your password, and the only encryption method you can select is AES-256. I like to keep everything default except the compression level. But here I am keeping it normal.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the total size of the folder was 36916MB, and the compression size became 5607MB at a compression ratio of 15%. The total time it took was 3 minutes and 16 seconds.

When I extracted the same file, it took just 25 seconds to complete. However, I have seen 7-Zip perform a little slower with other compression formats