Best Archive Utilities for Mac

The short answer. For most people Keka is the answer, because its free tier already covers the formats you will meet and it handles password-protected archives. Reach for BetterZip when the task is editing an archive without unpacking it first. The Unarchiver is the right choice only if you never create archives, just open the ones people send you. ZipGood is for people who want a native app, a broad set of compression formats, and a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.

This guide covers 4 archive utilities for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment. Last verified 2026-10-05.

Quick comparison

Disclosure. ZipGood is a product published by Nuanyue. This page is a product listing, not an independent review.

What actually decides this

• Extract-only versus create and modify. These are different jobs that get sold under the same word. An extract-only tool opens what arrives; an archiver also makes new archives and can change one in place. Buying the wrong one is the most common mismatch in this category.
• Working inside an archive without extracting it. If you routinely pull one file out of a large archive, a tool that lets you browse and edit in place saves you from unpacking everything and cleaning up afterwards.
• Encryption, and which kind. Password-protected archives need a tool that actually supports the encryption scheme in use. AES-256 is the one to look for; a tool that only reads legacy ZIP encryption will fail on archives made by a modern one.
• How it behaves in the Finder. The difference between a utility you launch and one that takes over the default double-click is mostly about how often you will forget to use it.
• Format breadth, weighted by what you actually meet. A list of twenty supported formats is worth less than support for the three you encounter. Judge breadth against your own traffic, not against the marketing page.

Our picks

• Keka — Its free tier compresses and extracts a long list of formats and supports AES-256 encryption and multi-part archives, which is more than most people ever need. Choose it when you want one free tool that covers the everyday cases.
• BetterZip — It is built around browsing and editing the contents of a ZIP, 7z or TAR without extracting first, which is a different job from compression. Choose it when you need to change an archive rather than unpack it.
• The Unarchiver — It extracts many different kinds of archive and does that one job without asking you to think about formats. Choose it when you only ever open archives other people send you.
• ZipGood — It compresses to a broad set of formats including 7z, XZ, Brotli and Zstandard, extracts RAR, and supports AES-256 encryption. Choose it when you want a native app, wide compression format support and a one-time purchase.

The apps

BetterZip

BetterZip is a file archiver for macOS. Paid Mac archiver built around browsing and editing archives: modify files inside a ZIP, 7z or TAR without extracting it first. It is one-time purchase.

Strengths. Modifies archives in place — files can be added, deleted, renamed or edited inside an archive and saved back. One personal licence covers up to five Macs in a single household. All minor updates are free, and upgrades from version 5 cost $15.

Trade-offs. Costs $35 up front, where several capable Mac archivers are free. It is closed source, so the archive engine cannot be inspected or built independently. RAR creation depends on an external command-line utility rather than being built in. A licence costs $35 and the free trial is time-limited. It is closed source, and the vendor publishes no licence text for the application.

Not for. Anyone who only opens a ZIP occasionally — macOS already does that for free. Users who want free or open-source software.

What it does. Modifies archives in place — add, delete, rename or edit files without extracting and rebuilding the archive. Creates ZIP, DMG, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TXZ, TZ, Zstandard, Brotli, 7-Zip, XAR and ISO archives, plus RAR through an external command-line utility. Opens and extracts more than 30 formats, including split files numbered .001, .002 and winmail.dat attachments. Encrypts archives with AES-256 and remembers archive passwords in an encrypted vault with a password generator.

BetterZip is listed with current version 6.0.6.

Full profile and verified facts for BetterZip →

Keka

Keka is a file archiver for macOS. Free macOS archiver that compresses and extracts a long list of formats, with AES-256 encryption and multi-part archives. It is freemium.

Strengths. Free to download from keka.io, with the Mac App Store copy presented by the developer as a way to support development rather than a different product. Creates and extracts a far wider range of formats than macOS’s built-in tools, including 7z, RAR, ISO and WIM. Can encrypt 7z archives with AES-256 and Zip archives with the Zip 2.0 specification.

Trade-offs. The repository does not contain the application source and the project publishes no licence for the app, so the code cannot be inspected or built by users. It compresses and extracts rather than letting you add, remove or rename files inside an existing archive. The vendor’s own pages do not state Apple Silicon support or a per-release minimum macOS version. The GitHub repository at aonez/Keka holds the issue tracker, translations and wiki rather than the application source, and no licence for the app is published, so Nuanyue does not treat Keka as open source. The download page states macOS 10.10 or newer; the vendor does not publish a minimum for each individual release.

Not for. Anyone who needs to browse and edit the contents of an archive in place — Keka compresses and extracts rather than letting you work inside an archive. Users who require published source code — the project publishes no licence for the app.

What it does. Compresses to 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, Xz, Lzip, DMG, ISO, Brotli, Zstd, Lrzip, AAR and WIM. Extracts RAR, Zipx, Lzma, Exe, Cab, Msi, Pax, Jar, War, Ipa, Xip, Apk, Appx, Xpi, Wpress, Is3, Cpgz, Cpio, Cpt and Spk as well as every format it creates. Password-protects archives, using AES-256 for 7z files and the Zip 2.0 legacy encryption specification for Zip files. Splits very large archives into several parts so they fit an email or upload limit, and expands them back to the original file.

Keka is listed with current version 1.6.8.

Full profile and verified facts for Keka →

The Unarchiver

The Unarchiver is a file archiver for macOS. Unarchive many different kinds of archive files. It is free.

Strengths. Free, with the developer stating it is ‘free and always will be’ and that there are no in-app purchases. Supports a wide range of formats beyond macOS’s built-in tools, including RAR and RAR5, 7z, and older formats such as StuffIt and DiskDoubler. According to the developer, reads archives whose names use non-Latin characters.

Trade-offs. It extracts archives but does not create them; the developer presents it only as an opener and extractor, so making archives needs a separate tool. It is not open source, so the extraction engine cannot be inspected or built independently. Some formats are only partially supported: StuffIt X has no JPEG compression support, Ace works only for pre-2.0 files, and ARJ has no multi-part support.

Not for. Anyone who needs to create archives — The Unarchiver extracts but does not create them. Users who need open-source software — the extraction engine is closed source.

What it does. Extracts RAR (including v5), 7z, Zip/Zipx, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2 and LZMA/XZ. Opens older formats such as StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ and ARC. Unpacks ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG and CDI disc images. Extracts some Windows .exe self-extracting archives and MSI packages.

The Unarchiver is listed with current version 4.3.9.

Full profile and verified facts for The Unarchiver →

ZipGood

ZipGood is a file archiver for macOS. ZipGood is a native macOS archive utility. It compresses to 14 formats including 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, XZ, Brotli and Zstandard, extracts RAR and other common archives, and supports AES-256 encryption. It is one-time purchase.

Strengths. Creates 14 output formats and extracts more than 25, including RAR and 7z that macOS cannot open with its built-in tools. According to the developer, adds compress, encrypt and extract to the Finder context menu, and quick actions run headless with progress on the Dock icon. Runs with no analytics, no tracking and no network access, and the App Store privacy disclosure is ‘Data Not Collected’.

Trade-offs. According to the developer, rAR is extraction-only — ZipGood cannot create RAR archives — and AES-256 encryption covers only 7z, ZIP and DMG, so other output formats can be created but not encrypted. Paid $3.99 up front with no free tier or trial listed, in a category where free extractors such as The Unarchiver exist.

Not for. Windows or Linux users — ZipGood is macOS only. Users who only ever need the built-in Archive Utility.

What it does. Compresses to 14 output formats including 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP and Zstandard. Extracts RAR, 7z, ZIP, TAR, LZMA, LZ4, CAB and 25+ archive formats. AES-256 encryption for 7z, ZIP and encrypted DMG images. macOS Finder context-menu commands for compress, encrypt and extract.

ZipGood is listed with current version 1.0.

Full profile and verified facts for ZipGood →

How to choose

• Free of charge. The Unarchiver — no payment is required.
• One-time purchase. BetterZip and ZipGood — you pay once.
• Freemium. Keka — free to use, with paid tiers for additional features.

Common mistakes

• Judging an archiver by its format count when you only ever handle ZIP and RAR. The number is a proxy for breadth, not for the coverage you need.
• Expecting a free extractor to also create encrypted archives. Extracting and creating are different capabilities, and free tools often provide only the first.
• Treating the extension as proof of the format. Files named .zip are not always ZIP, and a good utility is the thing that tells you so.
• Extracting into the folder you are standing in and burying the result. Set the destination deliberately — an archive that unpacks dozens of files is hard to undo by hand.

How this guide was put together

Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.

A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.

The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.

Verified 2026-10-05.