Share this article

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

7-Zip or WinRAR? Which file archiver provides the best value on Windows 11?

2 min. read

Published onAugust 22, 2022

published onAugust 22, 2022

Share this article

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more

In this article

Toggle

Updated: 3/16/2023

Which file archiver do you use, 7-Zip or WinRAR? Which one has the features you want onWindows 10orWindows 11? Whether you use one or the other, in this guide we will look at the upsides and downsides of both.

When you need to deal with a lot of files that need to be moved or transferred to a different computer, it is common practice to compress the files before you send them.

There’s a7-Zip versus WinRAR comparison battle on Redditto discuss which file archiver is more efficient and “better choice.” We’ll be looking at both, detailing their offerings, cost, and limitations. Here’s everything you need to know:

7-Zip

7-Zip is freeand open-source software (FOSS) and allows users to extract and create compressed files in multiple formats.FOSS meansthat the software can be developed and tweaked by anyone. Most of the 7-Zip code is available under theGNU LGPL.

It uses the .7z file extension and works on most operating systems, includingWindows,Linux, andmacOS. According to acompression ratio with WinRAR,7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format and compresses to zip format 2-10% better than WinRAR version 5.20.

It has been widely popular since it was released in 1999, in large part because 7-Zip is free for both personal and commercial use.

WinRAR

Released way back in 1993, WinRAR is a popular tool that uses the .rar file extension to compress and decompress files. One of the main downsides is that you might need tocough up $29 (USD) to buy a licenseto use WinRAR after its 40-day “free” trial period.

For the amount that you pay, WinRAR gets the fastest compression speed, but the compression rate is smaller, so the file size doesn’t shrink as much.

Personal choice

Neither one is better nor worse to use. Personally, I opted touse a fork of the 7-Zip repositorycalled NanaZip.

NanaZipprovides a more modern Windows 11 graphical user interface. It isavailable on GitHubandin the Microsoft Store.

It all comes down to personal choice. If you enjoy using 7-Zip, keep using it. If you are more comfortable using WinRAR because it’s an app that works best for you, no need to switch.

Which file archiver do you use on your PC? Let us know in the comments!

davew

User forum

0 messages

Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes

Comment*

Name*

Email*

Commenting as.Not you?

Save information for future comments

Comment

davew

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

7-Zip or WinRAR? Which file archiver provides the best value on Windows 11?#

7-Zip#

WinRAR#

Personal choice#