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GNU Gzip vs pigz: catalog facts
GNU Gzip	pigz
Free Free software from the GNU Project.	Free Free and open source with no paid tier.
Linux, Command line	Linux, Command line
Available on nearly every Unix-like system The .gz format is read almost everywhere	Uses all CPU cores when compressing Output is standard gzip format
Compresses single files or streams, not multi-file archives Lower compression ratio than xz, zstd or lzip	Decompression gains little from multiple cores Distributed as source code; you may need to compile it
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0-or-later	License: Zlib
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.