The Best Open Source WinRAR AlternativesTop File Archivers & File Compressors like WinRAR

The best open source alternative to WinRAR is 7-Zip. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to WinRAR and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to WinRAR are PeaZip, NanaZip, FreeArc and p7zip.

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WinRAR alternatives are mainly File Archivers, but if you're looking for File Compressors or File Managers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Linux, Mac, Chrome OS, Windows, Android and Android + Open Source. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to WinRAR.
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Alternatives list

  1. 7-Zip icon

    7-Zip

     4752 likes
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    Feature-rich archiving software with top-tier compression in 7z, integration in Windows Shell, AES-256 encryption, and multi-format support, including TAR, ZIP, RAR. Offers strong file management tools and a command line version for Linux/Unix systems.

    111 7-Zip alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PortableApps.com
    • ReactOS
    Main Window
     
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    25
    395
    Comments about 7-Zip as an Alternative to WinRAR
    Comment summary: 7-Zip, as an open-source alternative to WinRAR, receives praise for its faster compression, better compression algorithms (such as LZMA2), and broader format support. Users emphasize its simplicity, absence of ads, and free availability. It is particularly noted for delivering better performance with features such as self-extracting archives, solid compression, and a command-line interface. However, one noted downside is the lack of automatic file association within Windows Explorer.
    Top Positive Comment
    KuboFHromoslav
    34

    7-Zip is highly efficient, open source archiver.

    Alex Rumbera
    Positive
    0

    7-Zip offers open-source and free usage, better compression, wider format support, more features like self-extracting archives, solid compression, and a powerful command-line interface, and regular updates. 7-Zip often delivers better performance

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Jason Brown
    Positive
    1

    Open-source. Huge eyes-on code audience. Much, much simpler for new users.

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    3 of 25 comments
    WinRAR Icon
    7-Zip icon

    • Almost everyone thinks 7-Zip is a great WinRAR alternative.

    • 7-Zip is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to WinRAR.

    • 7-Zip is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to WinRAR.

    • 7-Zip is Free and Open SourceWinRAR is Freemium and Proprietary
    • 7-Zip is Security-focusedWinRAR is not according to our users
  2. PeaZip icon

    PeaZip

     653 likes
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    PeaZip is free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects, for Linux, macOS and Windows.

    97 PeaZip alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    PeaZip
     
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    4
    101
    Comments about PeaZip as an Alternative to WinRAR
    don1
    Positive
    3

    It is fast, has many file extensions and always updated.

    Ricky Santoso
    Positive
    2

    I think the extract time faster than winrar, also support many file extensions. One of the lightest file manager & archiver that I use.

    G Downs
    Positive
    0

    I've been using PeaZip for about 8 years and during that time I've found it to be rock-solid. I've tried 7Zip and a few others during that time but keep coming back to PeaZip. On installation, PeaZip is vastly customizable and covers all the major archive formats that most people are going to use...

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    3 of 4 comments
    WinRAR Icon
    PeaZip icon

    • Almost everyone thinks PeaZip is a great WinRAR alternative.

    • PeaZip is Free and Open SourceWinRAR is Freemium and Proprietary
  5. FreeArc icon

    FreeArc

     52 likes
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    FreeArc is a free and open source file archiver developed by Bulat Ziganshin. It uses LZMA, PPMD, TrueAudio and GRzip algorithms with automatic switching by file type, and also uses set of filters—for instance it can remove repetitions from text.

    81 FreeArc alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Main Window
     
  6. p7zip icon

    p7zip

     29 likes
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    p7zip is a port of the command line version of the 7-Zip file archiver to POSIX-conforming operating systems like Unix (Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Cygwin, AIX, ...), MacOS X and also for BeOS and Amiga.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
     
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    6
  9. Ark icon

    Ark

     23 likes
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    Ark is a program for viewing, extracting, creating and modifying archives. Ark can handle various archive formats such as tar, gzip, bzip2, zip, rar, 7zip, xz, rpm, cab and deb (support for certain archive formats depend on the appropriate command-line programs being installed).

    39 Ark alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Windows
    Ark screenshot 1
     
  10. File Roller icon

    File Roller

     83 likes
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    File Roller is the archive manager of the GNOME desktop environment. It can extract, view, create and modify archives. File Roller is only a graphical interface to archiving utilities such as tar and zip.

    87 File Roller alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
    File Roller screenshot 1
     
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    2
    Comments about File Roller as an Alternative to WinRAR
    Guest
    Negative
    7

    Can't even extract multi-part archives. Can't show CRC or anything at all. Suprised this poor app has that high votes.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Negative
    0

    Capable of almost nothing, and certainly does not offer the feature range of winrar.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    WinRAR Icon
    File Roller icon

    • Some users think File Roller is a great WinRAR alternative, some don't.

    • File Roller is Free and Open SourceWinRAR is Freemium and Proprietary
  12. Xarchiver icon

    Xarchiver

     28 likes
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    Xarchiver is a lightweight desktop independent archive manager built with the GTK+2 toolkit. It was developed with a simple GUI which that could be used with any desktop environment and would operate using the command line rather than API calls.

    88 Xarchiver alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Xfce
    Main window
     
  13. Rapidgzip icon

    Rapidgzip

     1 like
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    Rapidgzip: Parallelized Decompression of Gzip Files with Support for Fast Random Access.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    Rapidgzip screenshot 1
     

  14. Free ARC NEXT

     3 likes
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    A new rewritten Alternative for Free ARC by Bulat Ziganshin.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
     
12 of 30 WinRAR alternatives