Sandy Bridge Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 On another forum, someone mentioned that they have WinRAR, and it got me wondering... in 2022, is there any reason to prefer WinRAR/WinZIP over 7-Zip, other than having used it forever? 7-Zip is free, and fast, and compresses things really well, and integrates into the Explorer context menu... what could the other ones offer that's better? So I did some DuckDuckGoing, and learned how to set RAR files to open with 7-Zip automatically (cool!), and looked at a few comparisons. Surprisingly, the most informative was from WinZIP's website: https://www.winzip.com/en/learn/tips/7zip-vs-winrar/ It might be the worst "why you should buy our product" page I've ever seen, because I came away from it thinking, "Wow! WinRAR and 7-Zip sound pretty great compared to WinZIP! I should try them instead!" But the only notable feature that 7-Zip might not have was WinRAR having a feature to automatically select the ideal compression method. I could see that being useful in fringe cases, although probably not often enough to switch my default. So what does the forum think? Are there reasons to use one of the paid options, and if so what are they? Desktop: Core i5 2500k "Sandy Bridge" | RX 480 | 32 GB DDR3 | 1 TB 850 Evo + 512 GB NVME + HDDs | Seasonic 650W | Noctua Fans | 8.1 Pro Laptop: MSI Alpha 15 | Ryzen 5800H | Radeon 6600M | 64 GB DDR4 | 4 TB TLC SSD | 10 Home Laptop history: MSI GL63 (2018) | HP EliteBook 8740w (acq. 2014) | Dell Inspiron 1520 (2007) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron44126 Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 I use WinRAR... 2 hours ago, Sandy Bridge said: ...other than having used it forever? Basically this. Actually I also paid for WinZip back in the day, before it was owned by Corel. Pretty sure I picked it up in the late 90's (after using it unlicensed for a while before that, I'm quite sure it's the first compression tool that I ever used). They originally had a lifetime license policy — pay once and you get upgrades forever. When Corel took over, they started making users pay for each upgrade, and I didn't see the value in that so I bailed. 2 Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) • Dell Precision 7560 (work) • Full specs in spoiler block below Info posts (Dell) — Dell Precision key posts • Dell driver RSS feeds • Dell Fan Management — override fan behavior Info posts (Windows) — Turbo boost toggle • The problem with Windows 11 • About Windows 10 LTSC Spoiler Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2023 (personal) M2 Max 4 efficiency cores 8 performance cores 38-core Apple GPU 96GB LPDDR5-6400 8TB SSD macOS 13 "Ventura" 16.2" 3456×2234 120 Hz mini-LED VRR display Wi-Fi 6E 99.6Wh battery 1080p webcam Fingerprint reader Dell Precision 7560 (work) Intel Xeon W-11955M ("Tiger Lake") 8×2.6 GHz base, 5.0 GHz turbo, hyperthreading ("Willow Cove") 64GB DDR4-3200 ECC NVIDIA RTX A2000 4GB Storage: 512GB system drive (Micron 2300) 4TB additional storage (Sabrent Rocket Q4) Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 15.6" 3940×2160 IPS display Intel Wi-Fi AX210 (Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth) 95Wh battery IR webcam Fingerprint reader Previous Dell Precision 7530, 7510, M4800, M6700 Dell Latitude E6520 Dell Inspiron 1720, 5150 Dell Latitude CPi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Fox Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 I can't identify any reason to use WinZip, much less pay for it. 7-zip is better as far as I am concerned, and being free is an added bonus. 5 Banshee // Z690 Dark K|NGP|N | 13900K | 6900 XT OC Formula+Byski Block | 32GB DDR5-8200 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Dark Base Pro 901 Wraith // Z790 Apex | 13900KS | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8200 | RM1200x SHIFT | HC-500A Chiller | MO-RA3 360 || Praxis Wetbench Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About Mr. Fox YouTube Channel | Mr. Fox @ HWBOT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishayin Posted March 7, 2022 Share Posted March 7, 2022 I like to use 7-zip for compression/creating archives due to the (optional) higher compression via the 7zip format and general range of options like password protected encryption and "Split to volumes" option (useful for e.g. archiving to 4GB chunks for FAT32 compatibility). But for opening/previewing and extracting archives I use Bandizip since I prefer it's two panel display with an expanded directory structure which shows you far more content at first glance than 7zip, along with image previews. And even more than that I rely solely on its "Extract Here (Smart)" context menu option for extracting archives since you can use it on multiple archives at once, and it will automatically detect if the contents are already organised within a top level folder that can just be extracted itself, or whether it's an archive of loose files that should instead be extracted to a folder with the same name as the archive. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vasudev Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 I used WinZip but got put off with constant nag screens to purchase or register even on freeware, so was looking for alternative and found 7z. The same thing is available in Linux so haven't looked back ever since. Its been more than a decade. I agree RAR5/6 support was added later in 7zip but for my use case 7z suited my needs. I preferopen source or cross platforms nowadays with one exception being MSO and Libreoffice/Google Docs works to a certain extent, MSO slightly edges them out in terms of performance on huge files be it Excel, Word or Powerpoint. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azther Posted June 5, 2022 Share Posted June 5, 2022 yeah 7-zip is also my goto, been using it for years. only thing i used prior was WinRAR but like others, the nag screen everytime it was opened got annoying lol 2 Alienware M18X R2 | Nebula Red | i7 3740QM [OC'd to 4Ghz] | 32GB RAM | NVIDIA Quadro P4000 | 75hz OC'd Display | MXM to NVMe Adapter with Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB Alienware 17 R4 | i7 6700HQ | 16GB RAM | GTX 1070 | 100hz OC'd LG 1080p Display Alienware M18X R1 | Space Black | i7 2960XM | 16GB RAM | GTX 780M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldarxt Posted June 6, 2022 Share Posted June 6, 2022 On 2/20/2022 at 3:39 PM, Sandy Bridge said: On another forum, someone mentioned that they have WinRAR, and it got me wondering... in 2022, is there any reason to prefer WinRAR/WinZIP over 7-Zip, other than having used it forever? 7-Zip is free, and fast, and compresses things really well, and integrates into the Explorer context menu... what could the other ones offer that's better? So I did some DuckDuckGoing, and learned how to set RAR files to open with 7-Zip automatically (cool!), and looked at a few comparisons. Surprisingly, the most informative was from WinZIP's website: https://www.winzip.com/en/learn/tips/7zip-vs-winrar/ It might be the worst "why you should buy our product" page I've ever seen, because I came away from it thinking, "Wow! WinRAR and 7-Zip sound pretty great compared to WinZIP! I should try them instead!" But the only notable feature that 7-Zip might not have was WinRAR having a feature to automatically select the ideal compression method. I could see that being useful in fringe cases, although probably not often enough to switch my default. So what does the forum think? Are there reasons to use one of the paid options, and if so what are they? Start using 7z and you will see, explore its UI and you will like it! 3 Clevo P870DM3-G i9-9900k-32.0GB 2667mhz-GTX 1080 SLI Alienware M18x R2 i7-3920xm-16GB DDR3-Quadro P4000 Alienware M17x R4 i7-3940XM 16GB DDR3-1866 Quadro P4000 Alienware M17x R4 i7-3940XM 32GB DDR3-1600 GTX 680M 120hz 3D Precision m6700 i7-3840QM - 16.0GB DDR3 - GTX 970M Precision m4700 i7-3610QM-8.00GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz-K2000M GOBOXX SLM G2721-i7-10875H RTX 3000-32GB ddr4(Gave to my Wife) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K4sum1 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 For general purpose stuffs I use the fork 7-zip-zstd. For long term archival I use FreeArc. I think a long time ago I had a pirated copy of WinRAR (I think it came with a pirated version of a game), but I've mainly used 7-zip for as long as I can remember. 1 Precision M4800 - i7 4810MQ, 32GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro M2200 Thinkpad T430 - i7 3630QM, 16GB RAM, Intel HD 4000, 1080p display mod Main PC - AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, 64GB RAM, RTX 2080 Ti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defcon42 Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 I have a WinRAR license since eternity. No reason to switch. 1 Clevo P670HP6-G @OBSIDIAN-PC (2017), 17,3"//GTX1060//i7-7700HQ//512GB M2.SSD, external 32" UHD Display (defying BGA haters since day 1)😋 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMSMajestic Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 7-zip Even if they have a 10+ years old bug of using C drive for decompression and a very ugly logo. I'd still support freeware and opensource no matter what. Tired of the big techs/ corps 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-batab- Posted July 29, 2022 Share Posted July 29, 2022 I'm a Peazip fan. Also open source and free. I prefer its UI to the good old 7-zip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidus1983 Posted July 29, 2022 Share Posted July 29, 2022 I use both WinRAR and 7ZIp. {Main Laptop:} PCS Recoil 17.3" (Clevo X170KM-G) Spoiler {CPU:} Intel i7 11700K {RAM:} 2x 16GB DDR4 Crucial 3200MT/s {GPU:} Nvidia RTX 3070 Mobile {Screen:} BOE NE173QHM-NY2 165hz 1440p {Storage:} WD SN570 2TB (Data/ShadowPlay/UserProfile), WD SN770 in 1TB (OS), 2TB WD SN770(Firmware/Drivers/Junk) and 2TB WD 850X (Games) {OS:} Windows 11 Pro Benchmarks: {TimeSpy}: Normal Extreme {Firestrike}: Normal Extreme {Port Royle}: Result Realtek Nahimic 3 Modded Driver for MSI Systems:Latest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeekBear80 Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 On 7/29/2022 at 12:54 PM, -batab- said: I'm a Peazip fan. Also open source and free. I prefer its UI to the good old 7-zip I second this. PeaZip turned into my go-to solution back in the XP era and I still use it as my sole option supplanted by the built-in ZIP functionality of Directory Opus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epguy3 Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 On 7/29/2022 at 5:01 AM, solidus1983 said: I use both WinRAR and 7ZIp. so do I. have both winrar & 7zip installed on my bedroom pc (7zip got an update in mid July 2022; winrar got recent 6.20 beta 3 on the rarlab.com site) I use winrar to create/edit rar files while I use 7zip to create/edit 7z & zip files 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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