7-Zip
Archive utility
Free, long-maintained archiver that handles many formats and offers encryption and a simple UI. Critics point to unannounced security fixes and occasional bugs.
Free, long-maintained archiver that handles many formats and offers encryption and a simple UI. Critics point to unannounced security fixes and occasional bugs.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 66%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Supports many archive formats
“Software like 7-Zip supports many formats, even ones that are not usually treated as archives”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “What's in a PowerPoint File?” “Better compression format, unpacks more kinds of archives”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “Can gzip be a language model?” Simple, long-maintained, no-nonsense design
“There is something magical about those specialized, no nonsense tools using WINAPI, not chasing cross-platform, and maintained for decades”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Windows 11 adds AI agent that runs in background with access to personal folders” “There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” “I prefer the simplistic old design of 7zip”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “NanaZip: The 7-Zip derivative intended for the modern Windows experience” Free, with encryption and a UI
“7-zip archives multiple files/directories and supports encryption. It has the UI too”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format” “7-zip (.7z, similar compression to .xz) is a free download for Windows 10”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Make ZIP files smaller with ZIP Shrinker”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Refuses basic security hardening
“he refused to enable even basic hardening features like ASLR and DEP because they made the executables slightly larger”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “7zip.com Is Serving Malware” “the original developer refuses to implement”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “7zip.com Is Serving Malware” Bugs, including breaking old software
“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.”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Backups Aren't Simple” “7zip has been known to be buggy”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Anonymous GitHub account mass-dropping undisclosed 0-days”
What people said
24 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There's just something about their simplicity I've always loved on Windows”
“7zip outdoes bzip2 these days along every metric”
“it's really not a better format that RAR”
“I prefer the simplistic old design of 7zip”
“Better compression format, unpacks more kinds of archives”
“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.”
“Software like 7-Zip supports many formats, even ones that are not usually treated as archives”
“Benchmarks like 7Zip compression/decompression ... make much more sense than Geekbench.”
“7zip will do the trick for a lot of self extractors.”
“7zip has been known to be buggy”
“There is an awesome amount of software written by Russians”
“or 7z if I want more portability”
“You have to use 7-Zip instead.”
“7-zip (.7z, similar compression to .xz) is a free download for Windows 10”
“7-zip archives multiple files/directories and supports encryption. It has the UI too”
“7za (the compression app) does blazingly fast iteration over any kind of folder.”
“Really fun way to quickly carve out files and snoop around.”
“there are regularly security vulnerabilities patched in releases that don't get CVEs and don't get any mention in patch notes”
“Not that 7-zip was ever any better at that.”
“the original developer refuses to implement”
“he refused to enable even basic hardening features like ASLR and DEP because they made the executables slightly larger”
“It's an extremely weird flex, he thinks it's a frivolous waste of time or something.”
“not of any practical importance, unlike SSH, TLS, 7Zip encryption, etc.”
“There is something magical about those specialized, no nonsense tools using WINAPI, not chasing cross-platform, and maintained for decades”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.