Alternatives to WinRAR for all platforms with any license

  • 7-Zip

    The main features of 7-Zip High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression Supported formats: Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ...

    • Higher compression (LZMA2), Better encryption (AES-256), optional configurator for icons. Guest • Oct 2019 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It is free, works very good and open more kind of files williambrown • Mar 2018 • 10 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • 7-Zip is highly efficient, open source archiver. KuboFHromoslav • May 2017 • 20 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • 7-Zip is much faster than winrar and has better compression. God bless 7-zip!!! Guest • Dec 2016 • 19 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Eventually .7z will be the replacement since it's has a better compression algorithm InsaneFromEarth • Jun 2016 • 18 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Free and open source, powerful, and with great support for different file formats. Guest • Jun 2017 • 4 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Faster and lighter compression software. Guest • Nov 2017 Disagree   Agree
    • Because it's free and have 7z algorithm. Guest • Aug 2017 Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Windows BSD PortableApps.com ReactOS

    Lightweight AES encryption File Compression Benchmarks ... Built-in File Manager Context Menu extension Easy to use Encrypted backups Encryption Windows Explorer integration File Compression Compression File management Installer extraction Portable Shell integration Support for Unicode User friendly Add a feature

    7-Zip icon

  • PeaZip

    PeaZip is free file archiver utility, based on Open Source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, FreeArc, PAQ, and PEA projects.

    • Its basically a de-uglified 7-zip, support various compression formats and has its own compression format PEA (pack encrypt and autenticate) the only cons it has are 1. it takes longer than other apps to open (its not the compression time thats slow its the app opening) 2.it sometimes gives you an error when extracting files and 3. you have to delete ALL of its related files in regedit otherwise it will still be classified as an option to open archived files even after deleting Guest • Sep 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • 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... classic57 • Feb 2019 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • I think the extract time faster than winrar, also support many file extensions. One of the lightest file manager & archiver that I use. rickysantoso • Jul 2018 • 3 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It is fast, has many file extensions and always updated. don1 • Feb 2017 • 3 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Windows Linux BSD PortableApps.com

    Drag n drop Encryption Compression AES encryption ... File Compression Compression File management Portable Add a feature

    PeaZip icon

  • Bandizip

    Bandizip is an Archiver for home and office. Main Features • Supported OS: Windows Vista/7/8/10 (x86/x64/ARM64) • License: Freeware(EULA) • All-inclusive...

    • Tottaly free, support basically every type of compressed file, is customizable, multi language, always updating, and have other cool things to help you Guest • Jul 2019 • 0 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Fast, modern, with cool features and FREE! Highly reccomended! yarko • Dec 2018 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Commercial $ $ $ Mac Windows

    Ad-free Auto update Built-in themes Windows Explorer integration ... File Compression Compression Interface Overlay Multiple languages Support for Right-to-Left Support for Unicode Add a feature

    Bandizip icon

  • WinZip

    The world's best file compressor in the world. Start saving your time with the world's #1 compression software. Zip, protect, manage and share all your files...

    Commercial Mac Windows Android iPhone Android Tablet ... iPad ReactOS

    File Compression Compression Add a feature

    WinZip icon

  • The Unarchiver

    The Unarchiver is a small and easy to use program that can unarchive many different kinds of archive files. It will open common formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5)...

    • Simple. In Winrar, you can see in the program, and copy files inside. You can only take out files with this. Guest • Feb 2016 • 7 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Mac

    File Compression Add a feature

    The Unarchiver icon

  • File Roller

    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...

    • Can't even extract multi-part archives. Can't show CRC or anything at all. Suprised this poor app has that high votes. Guest • Nov 2017 • 5 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Linux GNOME

    File Compression Compression Add a feature

    File Roller icon

  • B1 Free Archiver

    B1 Free Archiver is a free multi-platform universal archiver. Currently it works on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android; moreover B1 Online Archiver allows you to uncompress...

    • it does not uncompress files more than 500MB Guest • Jul 2015 • 0 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Freemium Mac Windows Linux Web Android ... Android Tablet

    File Compression Compression Add a feature

    B1 Free Archiver icon

  • HaoZip

    Haozip is a powerful free archive manager. It can compress and extract archives in 7z, ZIP and TAR formats and can extract RAR, ISO, UDF, ISZ, ACE, UUE, CAB, Bzip2, ARJ...

    • Discontinued The program is no longer updated. Last version, 3.0, released in July 2012, can be still downloaded from the official website.
    • Warning Even if the installer is clean after a VirusTotal scan, the website is reported as malicious by Firefox and Chrome

    Free Windows

    File Compression Compression Add a feature

    HaoZip icon

  • Know any more alternatives to WinRAR?

    Suggest an application to this list

  • 7z SFX-Creator

    A simple and easy to use GUI based on 7zip for creating self-extracting archives and self-extracting installers.

    • Discontinued The project seems to be no longer maintained. Last version, 1.3, released in October 2012, can be still downloaded from Google Project Hosting.

    Free Open Source Windows

    File Compression Portable Add a feature

    7z SFX-Creator icon

  • BetterZip

    Extract Only Files You Really Need. Create Archives. Update Archives. Protect Your Data. Open Archives Without Extracting (ZIP, SIT, TAR, GZip, BZip2, RAR, 7-Zip...

    • Great, works well, fast, highly configurable and no bloatware!! Guest • Jun 2018 Disagree   Agree

    Commercial Mac

    Compression Add a feature

    BetterZip icon

Platforms

Desktop

Mobile

Tablet

Show 18 less popular platforms

License

WinRAR Comments

Comment by peterstaack
about WinRAR · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful 3 Helpful Report as spam

I too continue to use WinRAR due to a long-standing familiarity with the program. It hasn't failed me yet, since I first started using it in 1994. I can still open archives that are 10+ years old, even some that were corrupted if they had a recovery record (better yet, if they had PAR2 parity files). The command line feature is extensively utilized for a lot of my backup jobs, and I don't see myself switching from WinRAR any time soon.

However, if I HAD to switch, 7Zip is also quite good. I'm also starting to take a liking to ALZip (and portable variants), especially for my less-tech-savvy clients.

reply
7tisix · Jan 2019

We use Rar when archiving computer forensic jobs. Zips are too fragile. When you absolutely need to not lose data, Rar with recovery record is the best I have found. We had many problems with huge zip files. They would get corrupted very easily. We store many huge Rar files (over 50GB) per case and have had no issues with corruption. We paid for 25 licenses, but the demo never stops working. I also use it personally at home.

wisblade · Sep 2019

@7tisix : Use better archiver for compression (7ZIP for example) and then protect the archive with MultiPar. You can achieve better compression and/or have more resilience for the same size. Reconstruction of a damaged PAR set is really impressive. And all this is free, and even portable if required.


Comment by JonM33
about WinRAR · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful 2 Helpful Report as spam

Great program but it isn't free. It certainly isn't worth the cost that RarLab is asking for.

reply

Comment by hamzakhan4754007
about WinRAR · Oct 2019 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

They keep changing file format, causing a lot of trouble for people who have archiving software with outdated to unrar library.
They distribute unrar library in a way not friendly for developers.

reply

Comment by alirezanet
about WinRAR · Jul 2019 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

it's Free (kind of :)) and very powerful

reply

Comment by DevilishVicious
about WinRAR · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Well, been using it for years now, in those days there were no viable alternatives, but today a lot has changed and that is no longer the case. In spite of that, I find myself still using it, even when it's not free. If you take into account all it's features, things like, the extensive file support, the themes support, the main interface and other options, it still is a great piece of software. It should be cheaper, that's a given, but personally I can´t use anything else. Call me old fashioned :P

reply

Comment by Alcedema
about WinRAR · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

The one thing that I need this for is the ability to extract all files needed when running an executable from within an archive. This allows the program to run with all files local and available to it rather than just executing the one file.

reply
User5956928 · Aug 2013

i use cmd line for auto backups of documents, winrar makes ir incremental with up to 20 versions, its a very cool mufti-functional archiver