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BetterZip for Mac

By MacItBetter Free to try Editors' Rating

Key Details of BetterZip

  • Archive and compress zip, tar, gzip, bzip2, rar, 7-zip, cpio, sit, hqx
  • Last updated on 09/21/20
  • There have been 3 updates within the past 6 months
  • The current version has 0 flags on VirusTotal badge_icon

Editors' Review

Download.com Staff Dec 16, 2013

BetterZip for Mac allows you to view, modify, add, and remove files directly from archives without the need to unzip them. This app also features its own implementation of a keychain but unfortunately does not integrate with OS X's keychain and thus cannot be synced over iCloud. Another potential drawback is the lack of Finder integration.

After a straightforward installation, BetterZip for Mac displays a clean and easy-to-understand interface that lets you quickly reveal the contents of archives without having to unzip them first. The transfer speed for files won't disappoint you: it took us a little less than 30 seconds to extract 300MB from a larger archive. One peculiarity of the app is that if you try to view a damaged archive, BetterZip treats it as a password-protected archive instead. The keychain, itself, works well enough, though; we were able to interact with password-protected archives without entering the specific password. However, we were required to set a master password and enter it to confirm our identity. A great feature is the "Clean" option, which scans archives for predetermined and user-defined files and extensions and automatically deletes them.

If you're working with large archives on a regular basis or have to enter complex passwords in order to access archived information, BetterZip for Mac can make your life easier. While this premium app is nothing exceptional, it accomplishes what it sets out to do in a satisfactory manner.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of BetterZip for Mac 2.3.2.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 5.0.3

Enhancements

  • Notifications in the macOS notification center are now clickable and will reveal the processed items in Finder.
  • When opening an archive, BetterZip now lists all paths of the archive in the transcript window to give you a textual file listing which can be copied to the clipboard.

Bug Fixes

  • Dragging a folder with a numeric path extension into a window's drop area led to a false error message.
  • Recursive extraction of all archives in folders was not working correctly.
  • BetterZip now allows extraction of folders in its submenu in Finder's contextual menu.
  • Suppress an error message when an archive has multiple entries for one item.
  • Don't only quarantine apps, but all executables.
  • The lock icon in the statusbar wasn't shown for encrypted zip files.
  • The BetterZip Finder extension would interfere with Dropbox's and OneDrive's extension and the sync icons would disappear. I fixed a small bug in BetterZip's extension, but I am not really sure that this was connected to the problem. I was able to reproduce this behavior only rarely after having my Mac run for a long time (weeks) without restarting which makes it hard to pin down. Since the problem also occurs with other extensions, my suspicion is that it's rooted in the extension system itself. I will keep investigating this. If your sync icons continue to disappear with BetterZip 5.0.3, please disable the BetterZip extension for the time being, and if you have any hints, please do let me know.

General

Release September 21, 2020
Date Added September 21, 2020
Version 5.0.3

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Macintosh
Additional Requirements
  • macOS Catalina
  • macOS Mojave
  • macOS High Sierra
  • macOS Sierra
  • OS X El Capitan
  • OS X Yosemite

Popularity

Total Downloads 124,425
Downloads Last Week 10
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User Reviews

4.4/5
11 User Votes
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Developer's Description

BetterZip lets you quickly inspect archives without first extracting their contents. This archive password manager helps you work with encrypted archives. You can have BetterZip collect a list of archive passwords in your keychain. These can be used automatically whenever you open an encrypted archive. Alternatively, BetterZip can display them in a list in the password panel, so you can easily choose the one to use.
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