7-Zip is free software to pack and unpack 7z or other zipped archives, also it builds in some useful features to work on packages. While, to open a 7z file on Mac, a tool that works equivalently to 7-Zip is needed. Is 7-Zip available for Mac version and are there any good 7-Zip alternatives on Mac? You will find the answers in this article.

• Nov 26, 2020 Remo Zip. One more interesting data compression software that offers up to 10 levels of compression for the chosen files is Remo Zip. The app has two modes - free and Pro. The free version has the most important features for working with archives, whereas the Pro version has some bonuses allowing you to add passwords and split the files.
• On your Mac, do any of the following: Compress a file or folder: Control-click it or tap it using two fingers, then choose Compress from the shortcut menu. If you compress a single item, the compressed file has the name of the original item with the.zip extension. If you compress multiple items at once, the compressed file is called Archive.zip.

Manage archives on MAC OS X. IZip is the easiest way to manage ZIP, ZIPX, RAR, TAR, 7ZIP and other compressed files on your Mac. Best of all it's completely free so you can zip, unzip & unrar your files without limitations! On your Mac, do any of the following: Compress a file or folder: Control-click it or tap it using two fingers, then choose Compress from the shortcut menu. If you compress a single item, the compressed file has the name of the original item with the.zip extension. If you compress multiple items at once, the compressed file is called Archive.zip. Express Zip Free Mac Compression Program v.2.30 Express Zip Free for Mac is an archiving and compression tool. Express Zip easily creates, manages, and extracts zipped files and folders. This product allows for fast and efficient file zipping and unzipping. Express Zip Free for Mac v.7.36 Express Zip Free.

Is 7-Zip Available for Mac?

No!

As you may have visited the official website of 7-Zip, this program can work on Windows 10/8/7/ Vista / XP / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 / NT. Also, there is a version designed for Linux, Ubuntu and other systems---the p7zip. But unfortunately, there is no Mac version of 7-Zip.

So, if there is any saying about 7-Zip for Mac, it is not true. But it is true that there are so many alternatives to 7-Zip on Mac that can work as outstandingly as 7-Zip.

5 Best 7-Zip Alternatives for Mac

#1. Cisdem Unarchiver---The Best 7-Zip Alternative Mac

If you are looking for a full-featured 7-Zip alternative, Cisdem Unarchiver is a good option. Cisdem Unarchiver is the Mac Unarchiver and archiver to batch compress files, preview the contents inside archives and unzip (entirely or partially) archive files on Mac. It has an excellent support on packing and unpacking formats.

Why BettterUnarchiver is the Best 7-Zip Alternative?

• Unarchive Zip, 7z, Rar, ISO, Tar, Cab, Wim, XZ, CHM, Com, Hfs, Nsis, Udf
• Archive to Zip, 7z and Tar
• Preview contents before unzip
• Extract from encrypted archives
• Encrypt zipped files
• Entirely or partially unzip files
• Batch zip or unzip files

How to Use Cisdem Unarchiver for Mac?

Step 2Import archives for unzipping on mac

Click Add button to import files for unzipping, then click “Extract” to save files from the archives to preferred location.

Step 3Compress files to archives

To compress files to archives, click on iPack and add files, then click “Compress” to zip selected files into archives.

#2. The Unarchiver

The Unarchiver is a free utility to extract files from archives, but is able to unzip files only. This program is probably the one supporting the most archive formats, it support 14 popular archive formats, 19 old formats and other 10 unusual formats. Also, you cannot preview the contents in the archives before extraction.

Main Features of The Unarchiver

1. Supports Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, RAR, 7z, LhA, StuffIt, EXE, ISO and total 40+ archive formats
2. Open certain archives with the program by default
3. Customize extraction: the location, create new folder or not, set modified date, move the archive to trash after extraction

Pros

• Set as defaulted viewer to open and extract files from archives
• Support 40+ archive formats

Cons

• No GUI
• Extract files from archives only
• Cannot preview files on archives
• No extended features

#3. Keka

Keka is a free archive utility to zip and unzip files into different formats. It is extremely easy to use, you just need to drag and drop files or archives to the program for packing or unpacking. Even, you can split the archive into several fixed-capacity archives for easy sharing. When the zipping or unzipping finish, you will get a notification from Keka.

Main Features of Keka

1. Archive files to 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, DMG, ISO
2. Extract files from 7z, ZIP, TAR, RAR and total 24 archives
3. Split archives
4. Drag & Drop to extract or create archives

Pros

• Easy to use
• Support extract files from 24 archive formats
• Add password to created archives

Cons

• No GUI
• Cannot preview contents in archives
• No extended features
• Large installer size

7-Zip VS Keka VS Unarchiver

For the reason that many users are taking much interest into Keka and The Unarchiver when looking for a good 7-Zip alternative on mac, here we have a brief comparison on these 3 archive utilities.

#4. Winzip 7 mac

Winzip 7 for mac is a rich-featured utility to zip and unzip files on mac. Though it doesn’t support as many archive formats as other 7-zip alternatives, it offers multiple functions to manage and customize archives. You can encrypt, resize photos, convert photos, add watermark, send archives via email and share anywhere.

Main Features of Winzip 7 Mac

1. Unarchive files like Zip, Zipx, RAR, LHA, 7Z, JAR, WAR and 12 formats
2. Archive files into Zip or LHA
3. Encrypt files
4. Offer basic editing features: resize and convert photos, add watermark
5. Send files via email or share anywhere (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, ZipShare, etc.)

Pros

• Both zip and unzip files
• Preview contents in zipped files
• Allow to edit and customize zipped files
• Encrypt files
• Easily share anywhere

Cons

• High price
• Relatively large installer size

#5. iZip for Mac

iZip is another utility to zip and unzip several archive formats, including Zip, Zipx, RAR, TAR, TAR.GZ and 7Zip. It is extremely easy to use, you just need to drag and drop the archives to the program, then a folder with unzipped files will be created.

Main Features of iZip for Mac

1. Unarchive documents in Zip, Zipx, RAR, TAR, TAR.GZ and 7Zip

2. Zip files into Zipx archive

3. Compress and encrypt archives

Pros

• Easy to use
• Batch support

Cons

• Limited input and output formats
• Limited features

Zip Compressor For Mac Free

Extended: What is 7z Format?

7z is the new archive format, providing high compression ratio. 7z has open architecture, so it can support any new compression methods.

The main features of 7z format:

• Open architecture
• High compression ratio
• Strong AES-256 encryption
• Ability of using any compression, conversion or encryption method
• Supporting files with sizes up to 16000000000 GB
• Unicode file names
• Solid compressing
• Archive headers compressing

Conclusion

Though there is no 7-Zip for mac version, the above-listed 5 7-Zip alternative on mac all are good choices to open a 7Zip or other zipped files on mac. If you are looking for a tool with extended features to work on different archives, Cisdem Unarchiver is worth a try.

Get a secure archiver app

Part of our digital day-to-day lives right now, whether personal or work-related, is the constant sharing of files. It could be a photo album from the latest trip or a collection of financial reports from the last quarter — our goal in all cases is to make sure the files arrive intact.

While it’s relatively easy to share one file over email or a cloud storage solution — sharing folders or multiple files at once is often a challenge. If you share too many files, they become hard to manage and some of them could get lost or overlooked. If you put them in a folder, it often arrives empty. Similarly, when you share an app (which is essentially a folder), most likely it won’t work on another Mac. So what do you do?

A great solution is to archive whatever you’re about to send before you send it. Archives keep the files and relationships between them exactly the same — with the added benefits of only having to deal with a single file that could also weigh less due to compression.

Converter and archiver, in one app

Deal with any file format with Setapp's hand-picked apps that help convert, archive, and compress files.

There are lots of formats for archiving files. Some of the most famous are RAR and ZIP. Let’s look at the differences between them, how to use them, and how to convert RAR to ZIP and back at any moment.

What’s The Difference Between RAR and ZIP?

Both RAR and ZIP are incredibly popular when it comes to creating archives. But they are also not the same and are used with slightly different goals in mind.

ZIP is one of the original archive formats created in 1989 by Phil Katz. It’s open-source and supported by all major operating systems right out of the box. ZIP also supports light compression and password-based encryption.

RAR, on the other hand, was developed by Eugene Roshal in 1993 (RAR stands for Roshal Archive). Even though the format is available to all, it’s not open source due to limitations set on reverse engineering. Unlike ZIP, you do need third-party software to open or create RAR formats, but you get the benefit of much better compression.

Historically, RAR has been predominantly used on Windows, while ZIP acceptance is universal. For this reason, a frequent question is how to turn a RAR file into a ZIP and what’s a good RAR to ZIP converter available for Mac.

How to convert RAR to ZIP on Mac

Doing a quick research online, you’ll come across dozens of websites claiming to convert RAR to ZIP archives for free. But it’s not always a good idea to trust a free website you don’t know. If the conversion works, it might not be of the best quality. More likely, however, that you might get some malware installed in your files or some of your files being copied elsewhere on the website’s server.

It’s much better to work with any kind of archives directly on your Mac. Even though you can archive and unarchive files with ZIP format using your Mac’s default Archive Utility (just right-click the file and choose Compress or double-click to uncompress), it doesn’t work like that with RAR files. You’d need to use some proven archival software.

BetterZip is one of the most powerful compression tools available on Mac today. With support for over 30 archival formats, this app quickly creates new archives and un-compresses pretty much any zipped file sent your way, including RAR.

The key feature of BetterZip is in how you can peek into the archive folders and files without even unarchiving them, just like you’d do with Finder. You can take files out of the archive or add new ones, rename things as you see fit, etc. You can even set strong passwords and automate repetitive workflows with AppleScript.

Freeware Zip

Here’s how to manage your RAR files with BetterZip:

File Compressor For Mac

1. Launch BetterZip
2. Drag and drop your RAR archive onto the app
3. Feel free to drag files out of the archive one by one, or use Quick Look to peek into the files, or extract all files by clicking Extract in the top bar

The only thing you can’t do with BetterZip is actually create RAR archives. For that, you need a special archiving utility like Archiver.

Archiver is a lightweight Mac app that is so intuitive you often forget how powerful it really is. This utility can archive and unarchive dozens of formats, including RAR, and also convert one archival format into the other without unzipping the files first. In addition, you can preview files in any archive, extract anything selectively, split one archive into many to decrease file size or combine a few archives into a single one. Finally, set passwords and fine-tune the level of compression you’re looking for — all in one app!

So to convert RAR to ZIP with Archiver:

1. Launch Archiver
2. Drag and drop your RAR archive into the app
3. Select Convert from the bottom menu
4. Choose ZIP
5. Rename your new archive, pick compression level, and set a password if you need to
6. Click Convert when done

How to reduce RAR archive file size

The only major advantage of RAR as an archival format over ZIP is much better compression (up to 11% better), since ZIP is generally regarded as lossless.

But what do you do when your RAR archive is still too large for your purposes? Here, a regular lossless RAR to ZIP converter won’t help — you need an app that would include some level of compression.

Archiver comes to the rescue again:

1. Open your RAR archive in Archiver
2. Select Convert
3. Choose ZIP, or even better 7ZIP (which has better compression)
4. In the Compression Level dropdown, pick Highest
5. Click Convert

If compressing your archive by conversion is not enough, your only other option is splitting it into a few equally sized archives. Luckily, Archiver can handle it in seconds:

1. Drop your RAR archive into Archiver
2. Choose Split
3. Set the “Chunk size” to a specific amount of KB, MB, or GB (select in the dropdown)
4. Click Split
5. Drag your resulting split archives to anywhere on your Mac

As you can see, there are more than a few ways for how to turn a RAR file into a ZIP. Sadly, there’s no easy way to do it on your Mac by default, and you should avoid all the free websites that claim to do so right away. Your best bet is to use BetterZip for professional unarchiver, and Archiver for all the archiving, converting and splitting.

Best of all, both BetterZip and Archiver are available to you absolutely free for seven days through the trial of Setapp, a platform with more than 210 top Mac apps for any task you can imagine, from surfing the web safely (ClearVPN) to managing your budget (MoneyWiz) to upgrading your calendar (BusyCal). Try every Setapp app at no cost today and see what you’ve been missing out on!