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Add to SafariWhen comparing XZ Utils vs 7-Zip, the Slant community recommends 7-Zip for most people. In the question“What are the best file compression tools?” 7-Zip is ranked 1st while XZ Utils is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose 7-Zip is:
7-Zip is licensed under GNU LGPL, and the *.7z format has support across all major operating systems. There should be no trouble opening the archives under any operating system, and no need to deal with messages bugging you to register or pay for the app. Source code can be found [here](http://www.7-zip.org/download.html).
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Many options
There are many options to choose.
Pro Free and open source
7-Zip is licensed under GNU LGPL, and the *.7z format has support across all major operating systems. There should be no trouble opening the archives under any operating system, and no need to deal with messages bugging you to register or pay for the app. Source code can be found here.
Pro High compression .7z format
Their own file format .7z that ships with 7-Zip is one of the best compression formats. 7z file format is usually more compact than Zip.
Pro Lightweight
Starts quickly.
Pro Explorer right-click menu integration
Makes it easy to open any archive file, or create new archives, without having to go open another program first.
Pro Very fast compression/decompression
7z is muli-threaded, allowing it to do very fast compression and decompression.
Pro Unobtrusive
No nag screen.
Cons
Con No internal checksumming
Should not be used for archiving.
Con Complex
It needs some trial and error to find the best compression algorithm for your filetype.
Con GUI looks dated
Could use a new fresh user interface.
Con XZ/LZMA2 format inadequate for long-term archiving
LZMA2 is unsafe and less efficient than the original LZMA. Use: 7Z LZMA Non-Solid, RAR 5 LZSS/PPMd Non-Solid, or ZIP Deflate. See here.
Con Does not support data recovery
It's not possible with 7-zip to add data recovery records to the archive which could repair minor integrity errors.
