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bzip2Zstandard
Free

Free and open source under a BSD-style licence.

 Free

Free and open source, dual licensed BSD or GPLv2.

Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
  • Better compression than gzip on many inputs
  • Limited recovery from damaged media
  • Compression close to zlib's ratio at several times the speed, and much faster decompression
  • The format is standardised in RFC 8878 with multiple independent implementations
  • Slower than modern compressors such as zstd
  • Releases are rare
  • A command-line tool with no graphical interface of its own
  • Maximum ratio is below xz or 7z at their slowest settings, which is the trade it makes on…
Downloadable app Downloadable app
Open source Open source
License: bzip2-1.0.6 License: BSD-3-Clause
No account needed No account needed
Works offline Works offline

Checked September 23, 2026

Checked September 21, 2026

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