Ark vs B1 Archiver

Ark is a free graphical utility for creating and managing compressed files and archives on Linux and Windows. It can browse, extract, create, and modify archives, and preview file contents without extracting them. Its listed formats include tar, gzip, bzip2, zip, rar, 7z, xz, rpm, cab, deb, xar, AppImage, and CD-ROM images. Ark also supports archive encryption, split archives, and command-line tools. The listed plan costs nothing, with no plan limits stated, and the application is licensed under GPL-2.0+. On Linux, KDE offers installation through AppStream stores, distribution package managers, and Flathub. KDE lists Windows as a platform and provides a Windows nightly installer for testing. Its help links include the Ark Handbook, UserBase Wiki, and KDE Forum; KDE also provides a bug-reporting link and access to the source code. KDE describes itself as an international community developing free and open-source software, represented for legal and financial matters by KDE e.V., a registered nonprofit in Germany.

B1 Free Archiver creates and extracts archives, with desktop software, an Android app and an online archiver. The desktop application creates B1 and ZIP archives and supports almost 40 formats, including RAR, RAR5 and 7z. The online tool extracts files from B1, ZIP, RAR, 7z and other archive types. On Android, B1 also works as a file manager. The B1 format supports password protection using 256-bit AES encryption, and the desktop archiver checks archive integrity with Adler-32 before unpacking. B1 says files uploaded to its online archiver are deleted a few minutes after the page is closed. Its privacy policy says it does not knowingly collect identifying personal data, though it may collect non-personally identifiable server information such as IP address and browser type. The policy also says app and device usage data, including location and network performance, may be collected for anonymous ad-related use in B1 apps. Support is by email and in English only. B1 is free for personal and commercial use, with no registration.