File archiver privacy ratings
Apps for creating and extracting zip, 7z, rar and other archives.
11 file archivers are rated against 4 public criteria, and 11 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 5 with a known jurisdiction, 1 is based in a Five Eyes country, and 2 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source file archivers only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
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. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
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. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
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. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
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. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | Austria Outside Eyes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
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. |
Grade F | 25 | 100% | Cyprus Outside Eyes | Partial | No | Partial | No |
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. |
Grade F | 10 | 100% | – | No | No | Partial | No |
Trialware file archiver for Windows that creates and extracts RAR and ZIP archives and opens many other formats, with AES encryption and recovery records. Developed by Alexander Roshal and sold by win.rar GmbH. |
Grade F | 10 | 100% | Germany Fourteen Eyes | No | No | Partial | No |
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. |
Grade F | 0 | 100% | South Korea Outside Eyes | No | No | No | No |
Commercial file archiver for Windows and macOS, with mobile apps, that creates and extracts ZIP and other archive formats, with encryption, cloud storage integration and PDF tools. Sold by Corel Corporation. |
Grade F | 0 | 100% | Canada Five Eyes | No | No | No | No |
7-Zip File encryption Open source file archiver with its own 7z format that can encrypt 7z and ZIP archives with AES-256, including file names in 7z archives. The full graphical app is for Windows, with a command-line version for Linux and macOS. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among file archivers?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are file archivers rated?
Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.