When sharing files, whether via email, the cloud, or through the old-school style of using a flash drive, you probably want those files to be as small as possible. This saves space on your drive, or it may be required to fit the restrictions of sending files over email.

Regardless, file compression is a pretty important tool to have, and there are plenty of programs that can do it for you. But if you're unsure of what to use, we're here to help. Here are some of the best file compressors you can use on your Windows PC.

PeaZip

The cream of the crop

PeaZip is one of the more popular solutions for handling file compression, and arguably one of the best ones out there. This is a very widely compatible app that does an excellent job compressing files.

In a quick test, we tried compressing a mix of files totaling about 1.63GB into a .7z format using LZMA2 compression and the highest compression factor (aiming for the smallest size). In 1 minute and 11 seconds, PeaZip gave us a file that's 1.50GB in size, nearly the smallest in all of our test, while also being one of the fastest.

Of course, encryption support is also available, with a lot of other compression options at your disposal. PeaZip is also a modern-looking app and it even follows the dark theme setting of your Windows PC, a couple of little touches that help this option stand out from the crowd.

• PeaZip

  See at PeaZip

7-Zip

The most popular option

7-Zip's reputation precedes it, and there's very little we can say here that most people don't already know. This free app offers some of the best compression capabilities while also performing it very quickly compared to most of the competition.

In a similar test to the one above, 7-Zip compressed a mix of files totaling 1.63GB in size into a 1.51GB .7z archive, taking just 1 minute and 9 seconds to do it. That's one of the fastest jobs we saw in our tests, though the final size is a little bit larger than other options we tried.

Aside from that 7-Zip offers the ability to encrypt files and it's also great at decompressing files, so it's an easy recommendation. The UI feels somewhat outdated in terms of visual design, and there's no dark mode, but it's still one of the best compressors out there.

• 7-Zip

  See at 7-Zip

WinRAR

A true classic

WinRAR is an option that's been around almost as long as I can remember, and it's a wonderful app to have. Despite technically being a paid app, the free version has no significant limitations, and simply put, it's one of the best apps out there.

WinRAR doesn't support compressing into the 7z format, so we had to try compressing into the RAR format instead for our test. WinRAR was, by far, the fastest option, taking only 38 seconds to create a compressed file. However, despite using the best compression method available, the resulting file was also the largest, coming in at 1.6GB, just slightly smaller than the raw set of files. Again, it's not necessarily a fair comparison considering the compression method is very different, but it's the best WinRAR offers.

Still, if your priority is generating an archive quickly, WinRAR is a very good and lightweight option.

• WinRAR

  See at RARlab

Bandizip

A solid alternative

Bandizip is yet another solid option for compressing files. It doesn't do anything necessarily better than the options above, but it's a solid option if you want to try something different.

We ran the same test we've run for all the other apps so far, compressing files with the best compression method available (going for a smaller size rather than faster compression). Bandizip took 2 minutes and 18 seconds, and the resulting file size was 1.51GB, sitting somewhere between PeaZip and 7-Zip in terms of compression factor.

Bandizip also has a fairly modern-feeling UI and all the options you'd expect. A paid version is available with some extra features like password recovery and archive repair, but we haven't tested these capabilities.

• Bandizip

  See at Bandisoft

8 Zip (Pro)

A more modern look

Some people like using apps that follow the native UI design of the platform, and if that's you, 8 Zip may be the best option for you. While it's not fully updated for Windows 11, 8 Zip is perfectly designed to follow the Windows 10 design principles, and it still looks pretty good today.

Performance-wise, 8-Zip is solid. Running the same test we tried for the apps above, 8 Zip took 1 minute and 58 seconds to compress the 1.63GB assortment of files into a 1.58GB .7z file. It's not the best compression ratio, nor the fastest app, but it's still decent performance, and it's a tradeoff for something that fits the Windows aesthetic a bit better.

8 Zip has some visual customization options and it can also extract files. The free version has ads and some limitations, however.

• 8 Zip

  See at Microsoft Store (Free) $15 at Microsoft Store (Pro)

The built-in Windows compressor

Only on Windows 11 version 24H2

I generally believe that the best tools are the ones you already have, and if you're running Windows 11 version 24H2, you already have a... usable file compression tool at your disposal. Windows has had the ability to compress .zip files for a long time, but it was very limited. The latest version of Windows 11, however, has a much more capable file compression tool, though it's a hard one to recommend.

We ran the same compression test here that we did for every other app, and Windows 11's built-in compressor was by far the slowest, taking a whopping 16 minutes and 25 seconds to create the archived file. However, to its credit, it did produce the smallest .7z file of the bunch, coming in at 1.50GB, just marginally smaller than PeaZip's file.

Is that difference worth the extra time it takes? No, but if you're only compressing relatively small files occasionally, there may be no need to clutter your PC with additional software. Windows can produce good results if given the time, and it's a way to keep your computer that much cleaner. Or, if you're using a PC where you can't install a file compressor, this is a nice fallback to have.

Plenty of different options

That covers all the best file compressors you can get on Windows PCs. Though there are many other options out there, these are really the only ones you need to check out. You might also be tempted by WinZip, which is a classic app that's been around for decades, but we generally recommend staying away from apps developed by Corel (now Alludo), since they tend to be pretty bloated.