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bzip3 vs bzip2: catalog facts
bzip3	bzip2
Free Free to use, with source code published on GitHub.	Free Free and open source under a BSD-style licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Aims for better compression than bzip2 Includes cat, grep and less style helper commands	Better compression than gzip on many inputs Limited recovery from damaged media
The .bz3 format is less widely supported than gzip or bzip2 Command line only	Slower than modern compressors such as zstd Releases are rare
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: bzip2-1.0.6
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.