Private and open-source alternatives to WinRAR
8 file archivers rated against the same public privacy criteria as WinRAR, with our picks first.
Why look for an alternative?
- Open source: no. Closed source. The UnRAR extraction code is published separately under a restrictive license.
- No trackers or telemetry: no. The website uses Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics.
- No ads or data sales: partial. Funded by license sales. The unlicensed trial can show a reminder dialog loading a web page that may contain advertising.
- Independent audit: no. No independent audit is published.
The alternatives
Ark Grade B
Open source archive manager from the KDE community that creates, browses and extracts ZIP, 7z, RAR, tar and other archives, and integrates with the Dolphin file manager.
Ark scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the file archivers criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
File Roller Grade B
Open source archive manager for the GNOME desktop, also called Archive Manager, that creates, browses and extracts archives using tools such as tar, zip and 7z.
File Roller scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the file archivers criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
NanaZip Grade B
Open source file archiver for Windows derived from 7-Zip, with Windows 11 context menu integration, dark mode and extra compression codecs such as Zstandard and Brotli.
NanaZip scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the file archivers criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
PeaZip Grade B
Free, open source file archiver and file manager for Windows, macOS and Linux that handles over 200 archive formats, with strong encryption and two-factor authentication for archives.
PeaZip scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the file archivers criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
BetterZip Grade D
Paid file archiver for macOS from MacItBetter that creates, previews and extracts ZIP, RAR, 7z and many other formats, with encryption, presets and Finder integration.
Based in Austria. BetterZip scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the file archivers criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales.
The Unarchiver Grade F
Free archive extraction app for macOS by MacPaw that opens RAR, 7z, ZIP, StuffIt and many older formats. Command-line tools unar and lsar are also available for other systems.
Based in Cyprus. The Unarchiver scores 25 out of 100 (grade F) on the file archivers criteria. It partly meets open source and no ads or data sales.
Keka Grade F
File archiver for macOS that creates 7z, ZIP and other archives and extracts many formats including RAR, with AES-256 encryption and archive splitting. An iOS version is also available.
Keka scores 10 out of 100 (grade F) on the file archivers criteria. It partly meets no ads or data sales.
Bandizip Grade F
File archiver for Windows and macOS from Bandisoft that creates and extracts ZIP, 7z and many other formats. The free Windows edition shows ads, and paid editions remove them and add extra features.
Based in South Korea. Bandizip scores 0 out of 100 (grade F) on the file archivers criteria. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit.