The Unarchiver Editor's Review

The Unarchiver is a simple tool that unpacks compressed files.

This is a strong alternative to the StuffIt Expander, rather than an alternative for BOMArchiveHelper as the producer states. Since they are both free, you may use both applications.

The program has a wide support for various compressed types. You can unpack file types like ZIP, RAR, 7-ZIP, or StuffIt archives, as well as MacBinary files, etc. The support for these file types is good and if the archive is not corrupt, you can get the right output.

I like about the program the fact that it's fast. I am not talking about the unpacking speed, which depends on your CPU processing power and the type of the archive. However, I am talking about the startup speed of the program. With StuffIt, the whole process is a little bit slower because StuffIt has a slow startup.

I didn't like that it doesn't have the support for some archive file types. I remember that yesterday I had to unpack something in a hurry and The Unarchiver couldn't do it. I had to use StuffIt. For this reason maybe is best to have both applications on your Mac.

Pluses: it has a fast startup speed and a nice configuration panel.

Drawbacks / flaws: it doesn't have the support for all known archive file types.

In conclusion: the application can do usually a fast and pretty good job. If you don't like waiting for StuffIt Expander to start up, especially for small archives, this application might be an alternative.

version reviewed: 1.2