WinRAR is an excellent tool for compressing and archiving files – it's fast, able to split archives into volumes, and offers secure 256-bit password encryption.
However, despite a generous 40-day trial, WinRAR isn't free (a license will set you back £28.45, US$34.71, AU$45.71) and there are lots of excellent free alternatives to consider before reaching for your credit card.
What is RAR format?
WinRAR's native file type, RAR, is a proprietary file archive format. The compression algorithm is the property of developer Eugene Roshal.
Roshal has published the code for extracting RAR archives, but not for creating them. At the time of writing, WinRAR is the only Windows desktop software that lets users make their own RAR archives, but many free tools are capable of opening them using the publicly available source code.
Here we've looked at programs that can extract RAR archives and offer a similar feature set to WinRAR.
Best alternative to winrar are given below
