bzip2
Shares rank 9 of 14 compression tools by recommenders
People recommend it for files compressed once and decompressed often where size matters. Common caveat: it is slow, and zstd beats it on speed.
People recommend it for files compressed once and decompressed often where size matters. Common caveat: it is slow, and zstd beats it on speed.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 18
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Praised as excellent, worthwhile work
“improvements like SSL/TLS, ssh, gzip, bzip2, lz4, Linux, etc. and so many other worthwhile innovations”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet” “does incredible work but nobody ever talks about”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow to compress and decompress
“It was just too slow for the incremental space saving gains offered.”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip” “Unfortunately, this is one of the major reasons why it's so slow.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Compression Is Prediction” “bzip2 is particularly slow because the transform it depends on”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip” - Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
- Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “bzip3”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
Beaten by zstd, xz and lzma
“Bzip2 and xz are just no competition for zstd or the gzip family”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip” “Bzip is slower than zstd and doesn’t compress as well as xz.”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip” “lzma gave a much better compression than gzip or bzip2”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “bzip3” - Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
Hard to seek in large archives
“searching for anything that isn't near the beginning of a large file is a pain”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip” “you need to seek the entire archive before you can decompress it”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “An Ode to Bzip”
Other compression tools people recommend
The four most recommended other compression tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zstandard (zstd) | 111 | 14 | 89% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Brotli | 24 | 18 | 57% | 7 | — | — |
| gzip | 23 | 13 | 64% | 8 | — | — |
| tar | 19 | 13 | 59% | 11 | — | — |
| bzip2This page | 9 | 18 | 33% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
28 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“bzip2 produces sequences that don't resemble human language”
“Bzip2 has also always be a pig on decompression”
“lzma gave a much better compression than gzip or bzip2”
“occasionally lz4 or bz2 or brotli”
“Unfortunately, this is one of the major reasons why it's so slow.”
“improvements like SSL/TLS, ssh, gzip, bzip2, lz4, Linux, etc. and so many other worthwhile innovations”
“It was just too slow for the incremental space saving gains offered.”
“Not that BZip isn't remarkably efficient for its simplicity, but it's not without limitations.”
“You can pry bzip from my dead cold hands.”
“it's so extremely slow at it”
“Bzip2 and xz are just no competition for zstd or the gzip family”
“BWT-based algorithms (bzip2) need the whole block in memory before the transform can run.”
“searching for anything that isn't near the beginning of a large file is a pain”
“Bzip is slower than zstd and doesn’t compress as well as xz.”
“it makes using bzip2 less useful in certain situations”
“Neither has been good enough for years.”
“bzip2 has a couple of extra steps which don't improve compression ratio at all”
“Yes, there are better compression options today.”
“bzip2 was considered slow even when it was new.”
“bzip2 is particularly slow because the transform it depends on”
“bzip2's is about 15% larger than zstd's”
“you need to seek the entire archive before you can decompress it”
“Bzip2 is great for files that are compressed once, get decompressed many times, and the size is important.”
“it fails actually account for the real cause of the diminished popularity of bzip”
“the catting issue might be more an implementation of bzip program problem than algorithm”
“bzip2 and xz are extremely slow to compress.”
“Bzip2 is slow . That's the main issue.”
“does incredible work but nobody ever talks about”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.