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Zstandard vs GNU Gzip: catalog facts
Zstandard	GNU Gzip
Free Free and open source, dual licensed BSD or GPLv2.	Free Free software from the GNU Project.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	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	Available on nearly every Unix-like system The .gz format is read almost everywhere
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…	Compresses single files or streams, not multi-file archives Lower compression ratio than xz, zstd or lzip
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: BSD-3-Clause	License: GPL-3.0-or-later
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

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