BetterZip

About

BetterZip is a Mac app for opening, browsing, and creating archives. It can create archives in many formats, including ZIP, DMG, TAR, 7-Zip, XAR, and ISO, and it can modify existing archives in place by adding, deleting, renaming, or editing files without a full extract and rebuild. It opens and extracts over 30 formats, can join split files, decode winmail.dat attachments, and open and modify ePub files. Its view options include icon, column, flat-list, and outline layouts, and image archives and comic books can be viewed in a full-screen viewer without extracting them.

BetterZip also covers security and workflow. Archives can be protected with AES-256 encryption, a built-in password manager stores archive passwords in an encrypted vault, and it can generate and verify cryptographic hashes such as SHA-256. It integrates with Finder's contextual menu and toolbar, offers a Share extension, and includes a Spotlight importer that indexes filenames inside archives. Presets save archiving options so they can be reapplied from the menu, Finder, Shortcuts, or the command line, and filters can exclude clutter such as .DS_Store or .git folders by name, path, size, or age.

For automation, BetterZip can be scripted with AppleScript, driven through Shortcuts actions, a command-line tool, and Automator actions, and it works with tools such as Hazel, Alfred, and LaunchBar. A Quick Look extension previews archive contents in Finder. BetterZip is available as a free download with a 30-day full-featured trial, and a paid license costs $35 with no subscription.