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Zstandard vs bzip2: catalog facts
Zstandard	bzip2
Free Free and open source, dual licensed BSD or GPLv2.	Free Free and open source under a BSD-style licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
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	Better compression than gzip on many inputs Limited recovery from damaged media
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…	Slower than modern compressors such as zstd Releases are rare
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License: bzip2-1.0.6
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

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