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Comparison of compression/archive formats (7Z vs RAR vs ZIP)

Lucas Watson
Lucas Watson

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Archive file (compressed file) is a computer file, which can reduce the total number of bits and bytes in the file and save disk space. To put it simply, a file compressed by compression software is called a compressed file. At present, the three most popular compression file formats are ZIP, RAR, and 7Z. The principle of compression is to compress the binary code of the file and reduce the adjacent same code. For example, if there is 000000, it can be changed into 60 to reduce the space of the file. But this is just a simple example, there are different complex algorithms of different archive formats, which lead to different compression ratio and speed. Because they can encrypt files when compressing, the security is also different.

This article shows the comparison of compression formats (7Z vs RAR vs ZIP) through test compression speed and compression ratio of different size and type files. Meanwhile, we will tell you the security of these three archive formats.


In the following tests, we took different size files including 15MB, 100MB and 500MB, different file type including image, text, and video to test. To reduce the error as far as possible, we prepared four different image formats including PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WEBP, and MP4 video format, which is the most common.

Part 1. Comparison of compression formats of image file

Uncompressed iamges

image files

15MB image files

For 15MB image files, the three compression formats all complete in about one second, which have little gap. With regard to compression ratio, 7Z is about 88% while RAR and ZIP are both about 94%.

compressed image 15MB

100MB image files

Note: Because I used the built-in tool of Windows to compress ZIP files and there is no compression time displayed on it, I didn't make a screenshot of the compression time of ZIP format.

For 100MB image files, 7Z and ZIP take about 2 seconds while RAR takes about 10 seconds.

compression speed 100MB

With regard to compression ratio, 7Z still takes first place with 11% while RAR and ZIP are both about 94%.

compressed image 100MB

500MB image files

For 500MB image files, 7Z takes about 12 seconds, RAR takes about 10 seconds, and ZIP takes about 24 seconds.

compression speed 500MB

With regard to compression ratio, 7Z still takes the first place with 6% while RAR and ZIP are both about 93%.

compressed image 500MB

So, for image, the 7Z archive file format is the winner about both speed and compression ratio.

Part 2. Comparison of compression formats of text file

Uncompressed text

text files

In general, text file is the easiest file format to compress, which is proved in the following test.

15MB text files

For 15MB text files, the three compression formats all complete in about one second, which have little gap. With regard to compression ratio, 7Z and RAR are both as low as 0.09% while ZIP is 1.4%.

compressed text 15MB

100MB text files

For 100MB text files, 7Z takes about 5 seconds, while ZIP and RAR are both complete in one second.

compression speed 100MB

With regard to compression ratio, 7Z and RAR are both about 0.7% while ZIP is 1.4%.

compressed text 100MB

500MB text files

For 500MB text files, 7Z takes about 14 seconds, RAR and ZIP take about 3 seconds.

compression speed 500MB

With regard to compression ratio, 7Z and RAR are about 0.7% while ZIP is about 1.3%.

compressed text 500MB

As a result, for text files, 7Z and RAR compression format have a nearly same compression ratio but RAR is faster.

Part 3. Comparison of compression formats of video file

Uncompressed videos

video files

15MB video files

For 15MB video files, the three compression formats all complete in about one second, which have little gap. With regard to compression ratio, 7Z is about 70%, RAR is about 88% and ZIP is about 95%.

compressed video 15MB

100MB video files

For 100MB video files, 7Z takes about 5 seconds, while ZIP and RAR are both complete in four seconds.

compression speed 100MB

With regard to compression ratio, 7Z and RAR are both about 77.8% while ZIP is 87.7%.

compressed video 100MB

500MB video files

For 500MB video files, ZIP is the faster, which takes 17 seconds. RAR takes 26 seconds and 7Z takes 20 seconds.

compression speed 500MB

With regard to compression ratio, RAR is 61.9%, 7Z is 63%, and ZIP is 85.7%.

compressed video 500MB

As a result, for large video files, the compression effect of RAR is the best and ZIP is the fastest.

Note: The data effect of the above tests may not be very obvious, but the advantages and disadvantages of different compression formats will be amplified with the larger data.

Part 4. What archive format has the best compression

After reading the comparison of compression formats, I believe you must you have your own opinion. On the whole, except for image files, ZIP is dominant in speed while 7Z is dominant in compression ratio, especially image files. For video files, RAR makes a special optimization algorithm so that it achieves a better compression ratio. In terms of security, RAR is superior to the other two formats because it's not an open-source software with an excellent encryption algorithm.

Besides, 7Z and ZIP can be used for free but RAR need to pay. And as a built-in function in Windows and Mac, ZIP is still the most widely used, which is another advantage of it.