The story of data compression starts back in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the publication of first papers on information and rate-distortion theories by Claude Shannon. In the meantime, the theory became practice and the data compression can be found everywhere, from mobile telephony to electronic devices in your kitchen.

I won't leave the computers behind today, don't worry! Size does matter, speed matters too, and above all these, if you could have a great archiver for free, that would be the best deal available...everybody knows that. The problem appears when you have to choose from a few hundreds of applications available for this purpose.

Today I picked two of the best free archivers available and I will try to discover their strong points, as well as the weak ones. As usual, my advice is to get them both, install and test them to see if they suit your needs.

First competitor is 7-Zip, the excellent archiver that comes with its own file compression format and can also be used as a file manager, and the other is IZArc, an archiving tool that supports a lot of file formats. Let's see what we have here...


7-Zip 4.42

While reviewing 7-Zip I was amazed by its set of features, ease of use, speed, but before everything, by the awesome compression rate achieved when using its own compression algorithm (it can even beat UHA, and it's much faster than that!).

7-Zip can be used to replace the Windows Explorer with success, its File Manager with a two panel interface and standard keyboard shortcuts being a great addition to this software.

Our problem today is archiving, so I will get to that. The only (small) issue with 7-Zip is that it can't handle ACE archives, but it makes up for that with lots of useful features, speed and compression ratio. For example, when you create an archive with password you can also encrypt file names in order to preserve complete confidentiality.

When talking about compression ratio, I will remind you the test I performed with this archiver. First I compressed the folder using Total Commander's ZIP compressor set to use maximum compression, and the archive that resulted was 134MB. 7-Zip got down to 99MB but could've done better if I had more than 1GB of memory installed on the test computer. UHA's best shot achieved 96.7MB, but can't get better than that.

7-Zip doesn't sacrifice too much speed when using the Ultra compression setting, compared to WinRar or UHA, but instead uses a lot of memory, so if you want to use it to obtain the smallest archives possible, then I suggest you to have 1.5-2GB of memory on your computer in order for it to run without problems (as you are probably used to by now when it comes to the requirements of a program, largest value is better...).

Needless to say that 7-Zip has full drag & drop support, can integrate perfectly with the Windows Shell and also has a very useful and powerful command line version. It is simply the best free archiver when we talk about compression settings and can fight WinRar or WinAce without any trouble on this field.

7-Zip is a program that can dig the graves for WinZip, WinRar or WinAce but that won't happen, of course...at least for now. I am not saying that it's much better than them, but it has the best strong points for an archiver: high speed and best compression ratio...and the strongest point for any good software out there: it's free!

These being said, I am moving on to IZArc now, but I can't say I expect it to beat 7-Zip, it's just different. Let's see how different IZArc is!


See 7-Zip at work:



IZArc 3.5 Beta3

I never used IZArc before, but my first encounter with it was a pleasant one. Its default interface reminds me of WinZip, especially the toolbar icons. It doesn't have the power of a great compression ratio like 7-Zip, but has the power that comes from its features and ease of use. For people who don't want complete control over all archiving parameters, this can be the right choice, considering the fact that it can handle even 7-Zip's archive file format, 7z.

So, what's special with IZArc?

First of all, it has an excellent file format support, being able to handle the most known archive types, including 7z and ACE and beating 7-Zip at this chapter.

Its interface has a fresh look and the toolbar icons can be changed as you wish. There are 15 available skins for the toolbar and you can create your own custom ones fairly easy.

A special feature of IZArc is that it can open and convert CD/DVD images like ISO, BIN, MDF, NRG and more.

IZArc can also integrate with the Windows Shell and fully supports drag & drop operations. Archives can be repaired, sent through email, converted or scanned for viruses using an external virus scanner.

The compression level can be set to Super Fast, Fast, Normal or Maximal but you can't set the dictionary size. The archiving method can also be selected manually.

Passwords can be added to archives, but file names from the archive can't be encrypted. A feature that may prove useful for many users is the UnSFX, a function that reverts self extracting archives to normal ones.

Wait, there's even more! IZArc can encrypt files using 256-bit encryption, create or merge multi-volume archive sets, decrypt IZE files...and the list goes on.

As I said, IZArc is not better or worse than 7-Zip, but just different. I can only advise you to get it, install it and draw your own conclusion, but until then, allow me to draw my conclusions.


Watch IZArc showing its goodies:



Conclusions

This is another head to head test that doesn't have concludent results. Why?

I think that 7-Zip is the best archiver when talking about compression ratio and speed, and its File Manager is a great feature. Unfortunately, it doesn't support many archive formats, its interface is a bit outdated and can eat very large amounts of your system's memory when using the Ultra compression setting with highest dictionary sizes.

On the other hand, IZArc is an all-around performer: it can handle a lot of archive formats and even CD/DVD images, has a nice skinnable interface and a lot of other useful features. Its main drawback is that the compression settings are not as customizable as 7-Zip's ones and it can't be used as a file manager if needed.

Today we had two great archivers running for the crown, but I guess we should have two prizes today. 7-Zip has the power and speed, while IZArc has the looks and the features. Since they are both completely free, the choice is yours, but I think that best choice is to get them both and, of course, use each one as needed. Good luck!