Free Alternative to BetterZip

I have used Keka for over a decade. The icon used to be a weird pillbug. Now it is a slightly better pillbug. You drop files on the dock icon to compress them. You drop archives to extract them. The preferences menu is dense. You can set it to automatically delete the archive after extraction. I tested version 1.3.8 on an M3 Max chip. It ripped through a 14GB ZIP file in seconds. The App Store version costs a few bucks. You can download the exact same version from their website for free. The developer relies on donations. It works reliably. The biggest annoyance is the default behavior. If you double-click a ZIP file, Keka opens a tiny window asking where to extract it. You have to go into settings and tell it to just extract to the current folder. Once you fix that, it fades into the background.

MacPaw bought this utility in 2017. They have kept it free. It does exactly one thing. It opens archives. You cannot use it to compress files. I tested version 4.3.5 with a folder of ancient StuffIt files from 1998. It opened them instantly. The interface is almost non-existent. You double-click an archive. A progress bar appears. The files appear in a new folder. That is exactly what most people want. It struggles with heavily encrypted 7Z files occasionally. I found it chokes on massive multi-part RAR files if the naming convention is weird. You will not find advanced features here. There is no password manager. There is no Quick Look plugin. It just replaces Apple's Archive Utility.

I want to love PeaZip. It is open source. It supports over 200 file formats. It has a built-in password manager. The problem is the interface. It is built on Free Pascal. It looks completely alien on macOS. The buttons are weird. The file browser feels clunky. I tested version 9.7.0. The performance is incredibly fast. It extracted a 4GB encrypted RAR file faster than Keka. If you can get past the ugly UI, it is highly capable. You can browse inside archives without extracting them. You can test archives for errors. It handles two-factor authentication for archives. It is a power user tool trapped in a Windows XP interface.

This used to be called eZip. A Chinese developer maintains it. It is entirely free. The interface is gorgeous. It looks like a native macOS Sonoma app. It includes a Quick Look plugin. You can hit the spacebar on a ZIP file and see what is inside. This is the main reason people buy BetterZip. MacZip gives it to you for free. I tested version 2.0. The extraction speeds are average. It relies on standard background libraries. The translation from Chinese to English in the menus is occasionally awkward. It supports RAR, ZIP, and 7Z perfectly. You can encrypt archives with AES-256. I use this on my personal laptop just for the Quick Look integration.

Igor Pavlov created 7-Zip decades ago. The official macOS version is strictly command-line. You install it via Homebrew. You open Terminal. You type commands. There is no graphical interface. I tested the native ARM64 build on my MacBook Pro. It is the fastest extraction tool I have ever used. It uses the LZMA algorithm. It compresses files smaller than any other app on this list. You have to memorize flags. Running '7z x archive.zip' extracts files. Running '7z a archive.7z folder' compresses them. This is not for casual users. It is for developers writing backup scripts. The lack of a GUI is a massive hurdle. The performance makes up for it.

This is technically a file manager. It has a dual-pane interface. It reminds me of Norton Commander from the DOS days. The free version includes built-in archive support. You can navigate into a ZIP file just like a regular folder. You can drag a single PDF out of a 10GB archive. You do not have to extract the whole thing. I tested version 3.5. It handles background operations well. You can queue up multiple extractions. The free version restricts some advanced features. It pushes you to buy the Pro pack. The basic archive browsing is completely free. It feels slightly bloated if you only want to unzip files. It is highly effective if you prefer keyboard navigation.

Trend Micro makes this app. You will find it near the top of the Mac App Store charts. It is free to download. It has a clean interface. You can preview files inside archives. It handles RAR and 7Z without issues. I tested version 7.0. The performance is decent. The problem is the constant upselling. Trend Micro really wants you to buy their antivirus software. You get pop-ups. You get warning messages about optimizing your Mac. The core extraction engine works fine. The marketing wrapper is highly annoying. I only include it here because it is incredibly popular. You should probably use MacZip instead.

This is an older tool. It is written in Java. It supports its own proprietary B1 format. It also handles ZIP and RAR. I tested version 1.7. The interface is dated. The Java backend makes it feel sluggish compared to native M-series apps. It takes a second or two just to launch. It does allow you to browse archives before extracting. It is fully open source. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. You get the exact same experience on every platform. That is a benefit if you switch between operating systems constantly. For Mac-only users, it feels heavy and slow.