A free compression utility that works on Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and online.
Summary
Our Score | Our Score |
License | Free (Limited features) |
Link | https://www.b1.org |
Smooth and intuitive user interface; greatly customizable; across most platforms. | |
Support fewer formats than other archivers; bundled with unwanted components; |
Details
B1 Free Archiver is a free compression utility that works on Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. It will be highly appreciated by those of you who have several devices on different platforms, but would prefer to use unified software across all of them.
B1’s interface looks pretty alike on all platforms so you intuitively know how to use it at first sight. In fact, I would call B1’s smooth and flawless interface one of the most prominent features of this utility as compared to other players on the market. You can drag-and-drop stuff, use hot keys and key combinations. B1 Free Archiver for Android perfectly serves as a file manager and makes navigation much easier.
B1 Archiver unpacks ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, as well as its own B1 format. However, with B1 you can create only ZIP and B1 archives. My basic testing showed that compressing into B1 format goes a little bit faster than into other formats and delivers the same or better compression ratio. But you should remember that if you create a B1 archive you will be able to unpack it only with its native utility, which is B1 Free Archiver.
B1 Archiver has a handy online version, B1 Online Archiver, which is the best solution in case you cannot, don’t want or are not allowed to download any software to your computer, but still have to unpack an archive. The process is really easy – you click the big blue button, choose the file from your computer and then wait a few seconds. Unpacked files appear on the website, after that you can download them to your computer.