RAR vs ZIP

Several file formats available in computer file systems, and ZIP & RAR are the most common names among them. These two archive file formats store various files and folders in one container. But these file formats are different from each other. The basic difference between these two is that you can enable ZIP, a standard archive file format in any operating system. But RAR is an archive file format that needs a third-party tool called WinRAR for processing. Dig into the article, to learn about RAR vs ZIP.

What Is ZIP?

It is a standard file format used to compress files in the computer system. Gary Conway and Phil Katz developed this famous file format in 1989.

Just like other file formats, these refer to the data buckets for one or more files with the help of ZIP compression. Software companies like Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows use this. These types of files are accessible by those programs that are able to create ZIP files.

Apart from compressing files, this format encrypts files that are password protected. Then, it splits them with some taps. Every file is stored separately in the zipped folder to make it accessible randomly. As a result, adding new files has become simple without zipping the whole archive. You can zip files & folders using many methods such as WavPack, BZIP2, PPMd, DEFLATE, LZMA, etc. The Zip archives contain extra content which is unrelated to the archive.

What Is RAR?

The term stands for Roshal ARchive. It is a compressed file that Russian Eugene Roshal created. This proprietary archive file contains one or more folders in a single place. It serves as the regular folder in the computer system where people keep their documents.

This format needs a third-party software application to allow you to open files or extract them from it. This one is the native file format of the WinRAR archiver that stores the files in compressed form. Besides, the compression ratio is more than the ZIP compression. It can incorporate a compression algorithm that can handle file spanning, lossless data compression, error recovery, etc. Remember that any type of file with the '.RAR' extension is called a RAR file.

RAR vs ZIP:

ZIP	RAR
This one is an archive file format.	This one is a proprietary archive file format you can use for lossless data compression.
Phil Katz created it as a standard format for data lossless compression.	Eugene Roshal developed it.
This one is free, which means open standard.	It isn't free.
ZIP comes with several implementations and is supported in many places.	It needs a third-party tool called WinRAR Archiver.
Its compression rate is lower than that of the RAR format.	With the help of the WinRAR archiver, compressing or decompressing files is possible. Compared to ZIP, the rate of compression is better.
ZIP provides password-based protection.	ZIP does not offer password-based protection.
You can use the filename extension as  ".zip" or ".zipx."	In this case, filename extensions may be ".rar," ".rev," ".r00", or ".r01".
This one uses the ZIP 2.0 encryption algorithm.	RAR uses AES-128 encryption.
ZIP compresses data using the 'DEFLATE' compression algorithm.	Hence, the used compression algorithm is more efficient than the 'DEFLATE' compression procedure.
ZIP is a comparatively weak algorithm.	RAR is a powerful algorithm.
You can make files with programs such as WinRAR, WinZip, and Freebyte Zip.	In this case, files are limited to a program called WinRAR.

 Conclusion:

This entire discussion about the difference between RAR and ZIP concludes that ZIP is a standard file format you can use to archive & compress lossless data. On the other hand, RAR is a proprietary archive file format that needs WinRAR archiver, a third-party tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Are ZIP and RAR the same?

ZIP format compresses data at a slower rate compared to RAR. It can offer password-based security, but the RAR does not have such a feature.

Q. Is RAR faster than ZIP?

It has a faster compression rate than ZIP when the third-party tool WinRAR is used. However, the overall rate of compression is slower than WinZip or 7-Zip.

Q. Is RAR or ZIP more secure?

RAR format can't provide security with a password. But the ZIP 2.0 algorithm is used for encryption by the ZIP file format. RAR uses more efficient AES-128 encryption. Whereas, you can create ZIP files with different programs, including WinZIP, WinRAR, Freebyte ZIP, etc.