Alternatives to GNU Gzip
The GNU command-line compression program that creates and decompresses .gz files. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
GNU Gzip
The GNU command-line compression program that creates and decompresses .gz files.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as GNU Gzip.
pigz
A parallel implementation of gzip that uses multiple CPU cores to compress data faster.
pigz produces standard gzip output using all CPU cores and works as a drop-in replacement, though decompression gains little and it may need compiling.
Zstandard
Meta's compression tool that hits near-zlib ratios at far higher speed, now used across Linux and modern filesystems.
Zstandard offers similar ratios at several times the speed and also reads gzip, but its .zst files may not be recognised on older systems.
XZ Utils
The standard command-line tool for creating and reading .xz files.
XZ Utils gives higher compression ratios using LZMA2 and ships on nearly every Linux and BSD system, but it is slow and memory-hungry at high levels.
bzip2
A long-established command-line block-sorting compressor and library for .bz2 files.
bzip2 often compresses better than gzip and offers limited recovery from damaged media, but it is slower than modern compressors.
Lzip
A command-line lossless compressor using a simplified LZMA, designed for long-term archiving and data safety.
Lzip uses simplified LZMA for better ratios with integrity checking and recovery options, keeping a gzip-style command line, though it decompresses more slowly.
LZ4
A lossless compression format and command-line tool built for very high compression and decompression speed.
LZ4 compresses and decompresses faster than gzip and scales across CPU cores, at a lower compression ratio than zstd or xz.
crabz
A cross-platform command-line tool for fast parallel compression and decompression, similar to pigz but written in Rust.
crabz is a Rust parallel compressor for gzip, zlib, BGZF and more, available through Homebrew and Debian, but its author calls it a proof of concept.
Brotli
Compress and decompress data using the Brotli format.
Brotli is an MIT-licensed command-line tool and library for the Brotli format, though its stream format lacks checksums and original length metadata.
Also worth comparing
These listings name GNU Gzip as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
bzip3
A command-line compressor and library intended as a stronger successor to bzip2.
GNU Gzip produces .gz files read almost everywhere with a simple command line, but it has a lower compression ratio and is single-threaded.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
GNU Tar
The GNU command-line tool for creating, extracting, updating and listing tar archives.
pixz
A parallel, indexing xz compressor that allows random access into compressed tar.xz archives.
ouch
Command-line tool that compresses and extracts archives without format-specific flags.
bsdtar (libarchive)
Command-line archivers built on libarchive that read and write tar, zip, cpio, ISO and more.
