Side by side
Ark vs lrzip
Both stand on file compression software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Free plan LinuxWindows
Ark provides archive creation and extraction alongside previewing and support for many formats. Linux installation options are listed, while the Windows download provided on the KDE page is a nightly testing installer.
Visit Ark Free plan LinuxMacSelf-hosted
Choose lrzip if you need a free, GPL-2.0 command-line tool for compressing large files and can work within its CPU and RAM demands. Look elsewhere if you need to optimize compression speed and output size at the same time, or need the main program to handle directories directly.
Visit lrzipThe facts
| Ark | lrzip | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Windows | Linux, Mac, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Free or on request | Free or on request |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | apps.kde.org | github.com |
| On file compression software | #5 of 36 | #9 of 36 |
Ark: what it does well
- Creates, browses, extracts, and modifies archives
- Previews contents without extraction
- Supports encryption and split archives
- Available for Linux and Windows
- Free and GPL-2.0+ licensed
What to know first
- Windows installer is a nightly build for testing
- Linux installation depends on stores or package managers
lrzip: what it does well
- Reduces long-distance file redundancy before backend compression.
- Offers LZMA, ZPAQ, LZO, GZIP, and BZIP2 backends.
- Multithreaded processing detects the available CPU count.
- Includes encryption using AES-256-GCM by default.
- lrztar can package directories for compression.
What to know first
- Users must choose between compression speed and output size.
- Compression needs substantial memory and a modern processor for best performance.
- Sliding mmap mode can be extremely slow.
- The main program works on single files.