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pigz vs LZ4: catalog facts
pigz	LZ4
Free Free and open source with no paid tier.	Free Free and open source.
Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Uses all CPU cores when compressing Output is standard gzip format	Very fast compression and decompression Scales across CPU cores
Decompression gains little from multiple cores Distributed as source code; you may need to compile it	Lower compression ratio than zstd or xz Compresses single files or streams, not a full archiver
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Zlib	License: BSD-2-Clause (library), GPL-2.0 (command-line tool)
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.