GZ

7Z is a high-compression archive format associated with the free, open-source 7-Zip archiver. It uses the LZMA and LZMA2 compression algorithms to achieve significantly better compression ratios than ZIP and RAR, often reducing file sizes by 30-70% more than competing formats. 7Z supports AES-256 encryption, solid compression, multi-volume archives, and can handle files of virtually any size.

RAR (Roshal Archive) is a proprietary archive format developed by Eugene Roshal that supports high-compression ratios, strong encryption, archive splitting across multiple volumes, and built-in recovery records for repairing damaged archives. It uses a specialized compression algorithm that often outperforms ZIP for many file types. RAR archives are widely used for distributing large software packages and are commonly encountered in file-sharing communities.

TAR (Tape ARchive) is a Unix file archiving format that bundles multiple files and directories into a single file while preserving file permissions, ownership, timestamps, and symbolic links. Crucially, TAR performs no compression by itself and is almost always paired with a compression tool such as gzip, bzip2, or xz. TAR is the foundational packaging format for software distribution, backups, and data transfer throughout the Unix and Linux ecosystem.

TAR.BZ2 is a TAR archive compressed with the bzip2 algorithm, combining Unix-style file bundling with high-quality block-sorting compression. Bzip2 generally achieves better compression ratios than gzip, particularly for text-heavy content like source code, at the cost of somewhat slower processing. TAR.BZ2 files are a common distribution format for open-source software tarballs throughout the Linux and Unix ecosystem.

TAR.GZ (also known as TGZ) is a TAR archive compressed with the gzip algorithm, and is the most prevalent archive format in the Unix and Linux world. It offers a good balance between compression speed and ratio and is universally available on all Unix-like systems without additional tools. TAR.GZ is the standard format for distributing open-source software source code and is understood by virtually every developer and system administrator.

TAR.XZ is a TAR archive compressed with the XZ compression algorithm, which uses LZMA2 to achieve excellent compression ratios that often surpass bzip2. It is the preferred distribution format for many major Linux distributions including Arch Linux and Fedora due to its superior space savings. The trade-off is slower compression speed compared to gzip, though decompression performance is reasonably fast on modern hardware.

TAR.ZST is a TAR archive compressed with the Zstandard (Zstd) algorithm, developed by Facebook to deliver the best balance of compression ratio and speed. Zstd matches or exceeds bzip2 compression ratios while compressing many times faster, making it excellent for both archival and real-time use cases. TAR.ZST is rapidly gaining adoption in modern Linux distributions, package managers, and developer toolchains as a superior alternative.

ZIP is the most widely used archive format, invented in 1989 by Phil Katz, that compresses and packages multiple files into a single container using the DEFLATE algorithm. It supports individual file compression with optional password protection and is natively supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux without additional software. ZIP is the universal standard for distributing files, software installers, and document packages due to its ubiquitous support.