# 7-Zip

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/7-zip/

16 people recommended 7-Zip in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 14 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, long-maintained archiver that handles many formats and offers encryption and a simple UI. Critics point to unannounced security fixes and occasional bugs.

Summary written by Claude from 24 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, long-maintained, no-nonsense design (3 comments in the sample): "There is something magical about those specialized, no nonsense tools using WINAPI, not chasing cross-platform, and maintained for decades" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45967411)) "There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50196794)) "I prefer the simplistic old design of 7zip" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799988))
- Supports many archive formats (2 comments in the sample): "Software like 7-Zip supports many formats, even ones that are not usually treated as archives" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49402238)) "Better compression format, unpacks more kinds of archives" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49798145))
- Free, with encryption and a UI (2 comments in the sample): "7-zip archives multiple files/directories and supports encryption. It has the UI too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48048171)) "7-zip (.7z, similar compression to .xz) is a free download for Windows 10" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48191073))

## What people warn about

- Refuses basic security hardening (2 comments in the sample): "he refused to enable even basic hardening features like ASLR and DEP because they made the executables slightly larger" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016269)) "the original developer refuses to implement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016417))
- Bugs, including breaking old software (2 comments in the sample): "7zip recently changed its handling of the FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE bit on unzipped files which caused an issue with some old software I was using." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49735763)) "7zip has been known to be buggy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48706039))

## What people recommend instead

- [WinRAR](https://hackerapproved.com/p/winrar/): 5 recommend, 2 mixed, 1 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "7-Zip", https://hackerapproved.com/p/7-zip/ (16 recommend, 2 mixed, 10 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.