archive utility download mac free Best Zip Program for Mac: 4 Options to Know. Files you may use on your computer will be of different formats and no matter which operating system your computer runs on, you would certainly have come across .zip files. Zipped files or compressed files, as they’re called, are used when you wish to save space on your computer and also when they need to be sent via the internet. Zip files have been in existence for many years now and is helpful when you have to deal with a large number of files that you may need to send to someone via email or reduce the actual size of the files when sharing. Like on Windows, you can also open .zip files on your Mac and create .zip files by compressing other files. In this post, we’ll list the programs you may use to open and compress .ZIP files on a Mac. Mac’s Archive Utility The Unarchiver RAR Extractor Keka. Mac’s Archive Utility. Mac offers a native compressing and decompressing solution in the form of the Archive Utility that’s built right into the macOS system. Not only can you summon the app from the Launchpad or through Spotlight, but the ability to compress a file into archive format is also built right into the Mac’s Finder app. This way, you are not required to open a separate app or preset values for compression. By default, the Archive Utility inside Finder compresses files in ZIP format and leaves the files and archive alone when decompressing or compressing. You can change these options by opening the Archive Utility and going to ‘Preferences’. However, you don’t get additional options to change the compression ratio anywhere within the tool. You can use the Archive Utility to compress files on your Mac by selecting the files you need to compress, Right-clicking or Control-clicking on them, and selecting the ‘Compress’ option from the pop-up menu. The compressed file will be saved with a .zip extension. You can open compressed files on a Mac by simply double-clicking on them. You can also launch the Archive Utility by pressing the ‘Command + spacebar’ keyboard shortcut, then searching for “Archive Utility”, and pressing the ‘Enter’ key. The Unarchiver. For most occasions, Mac’s native Archive Utility will be sufficient but if you want a little more bunch of options when compressing files, you can opt for The Unarchiver from MacPaw Inc. The app can be used to open all major compressed formats including Zip, RAR, 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2 as well as older compressed file formats like StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ, and ARC. The Unarchiver can also be used to open some Windows .EXE installers and disc image file formats – ISO and BIN. Besides that, the program can also detect and handle the filename encoding correctly so that it’s able to open the files properly without showing garbled filenames. You can also open password-protected archives using the app and choose the right encoding for added protection. RAR Extractor. The RAR Extractor is a Mac program that you can use to decompress files with all major archive formats including Rar, Zip, Tar, 7zip, Gzip, Bzip2, XZ, Tar.gz, bz2, iso, pkg, swf, exe, jar, xip, dms, and more. The application supports opening password-protected archive files and with batch-extraction, you can decompress several archived files all at once. When the RAR Extractor is open, you can simply double-click on a file to extract them safely. Another easy way to extract files is to drag and drop them on to the RAR Extractor’s app icon on the dock. Of all the apps listed in this post, Keka is the only paid app for extracting archived files which you can download after paying $2.99 for the app on the Mac App Store. Developed by Jorge Garcia Armero, Keka is a relatively newer app in this list but has been quick to receive praises for being a full-featured file archiver. Keka can extract the following file formats – 7Z, ZIP, RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, BROTLI, ZSTD, LRZIP, DMG, ISO, LZMA, EXE, CAB, WIM, MSI, PAX, JAR, APK, APPX, XPI, IPA, CPGZ, CPIO, XIP and more. When it comes to creating a compressed file, Keka supports 7Z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, BROTLI, ZSTD, LRZIP, WIM, DMG, and ISO file formats. You can not only open password-protected archives but also encrypt your compressed files in 7z and Zip formats. In addition to choosing the compression level, Keka lets you split big files so that you can share them with others without any size limitations. You can read more about how you can compress files with Keka in the guide the developer has prepared here. Which app are you likely going to use to open and compress ZIP files on your Mac? Let us know in the comments below. Most friendly and simple free file archiver. B1 Archiver is 100% free archive manager. You can use it on any computer and you don't have to register or pay anything. Feel free to share B1 Archiver with your friends or co-workers. Available for all OS. B1 Archiver works on all platforms - Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. You no longer need different software on your PC, smartphone or tablet. B1 is the best unified solution for every device. Supports most popular formats - b1, zip, jar, xpi, rar, 7z, arj, bz2, cab, deb, gzip, tgz, iso, lzh, lha, lzma, rpm, tar, xar, z, dmg and others. Works with split and password-protected archives, serves perfectly as a file manager. B1 Archiver is extremely simple to use, you don't need comprehensive manuals or guides. Just install it and enjoy. It also works light speed fast even with large archives and many files. We apply the highest safe standards and care about your privacy. B1 Archiver never gathers any kind of personal information and does not install any malicious software. The Unarchiver 3.5.1 – Replacement for the built-in Archive Utility. The Unarchiver is a much more capable replacement for “Archive Utility.app”, the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. The Unarchiver is designed to handle many more formats than Archive Utility, and to better fit in with the design of the Finder. It can also handle filenames in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. It is localized into Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Portugese and Russian. RX Archive Utility for Mac. A slick, easy to use and reliable application that helps its users to effortlessly expand archives or create new ones from the comfort of their desktop. RX Archive Utility is suitable for those users that need a fast, robust utility to create archives. RX Archive Utility doesn't stop here though, and allows you to expand archives as well, using very intuitive menus. All you have to do in order to use the application is select the desired archive and then press the OK button. RX Archive Utility will automatically unarchive its contents to the desired output folder. In RX Archive Utility's Preferences menu you will be able to choose where to save expanded files as well as what action to perform after expanding archives, if any. On top of that, you can choose reveal expanded items in the Finder or keep expanding, if possible. One can also save archives, select the archive format as well as choose what action to perform after archiving. Bezipped 1.0, Free Compression and Archive Utility for Mac OS X. Clean UI, drag-and-drop functionality, 100% Mac OS X compatible, Growl compatible, free of charge. what more could you ask for? Fruit Stand Software has released Bezipped 1.0 , a free file compression and archive utility built on top of the bzip2 command line tool that comes with Mac OS X. The utility creates smaller archives than those generated by Finder's "Compress" functionality, but also allows one to create "Windows safe" archives (archives without the dreaded ._ files). That's not all, though. Fruit Stand Software's Bezipped also has the ability to place archives where you choose, making it a "one stop compression shop," according to the developers. Users simply use drag-and-drop to add their files to archive, after which Bezipped will handle the rest. As soon as your files have been compressed, click the spyglass to reveal them in the Finder. Bezipped creates files that are 100% compatible with Mac OS X, so you can send your archives to family, colleagues and friends without them having to install special software. If you're sending your archives to folks on Windows, they can use 7Zip to open your archives too. The Growl-enabled application also allows it to tell you exactly when it is done archiving your files, if you needed one more reason to download and try this file compression and archive utility right now. Bezipped uses Sparkle, developed by Andy Matuschak, to keep itself up to date with the latest releases. Sparkle is a module that developers use to throw in Cocoa-developed apps in order to get instant self-update functionality. As such, Bezipped will be able to update itself, not just check for new versions: it'll read the update information from an appcast on your server, download, extract, install, restart, and even offer to show the users release notes before they decide if they want to update, according to the folks at Sparkle. Click HERE to download your free file compression and archive utility for Mac OS X. Also, visit this address to see more free stuff from Fruit Stand Software.