lzip vs Zstandard
lzip
nongnu.orgZstandard
facebook.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | lzip | Zstandard |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · File Compression Software | 7.1 (#26) | 8.0 (#9) |
| License | Lzip is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or any later version. | The reference implementation is dual-licensed under BSD or GPLv2. |
| Purpose | Lzip is a lossless data compressor based on the LZMA algorithm. | Zstandard is a fast, lossless compression algorithm for real-time scenarios, targeting zlib-level speed with better compression ratios. |
Plans
In their own words
Zstandard
Zstandard is a lossless compression algorithm for real-time workloads, with controls that let users shift compression speed and ratio in small increments. Its reference implementation includes a C library and a command-line utility that creates and decodes .zst, .gz, .xz, and .lz4 files. The format is stable and documented in RFC 8878; the implementation is available under BSD or GPLv2. For small, related samples, training can produce a data-specific dictionary to improve compression. The same dictionary must be present for both compression and decompression, and the samples need to be correlated; there is no universal dictionary. The project documents builds with Make, CMake, Meson, Visual Studio, Buck, and Bazel, plus installation using vcpkg and Conan. Community bindings and ports are listed for languages including Python, Rust, Java, C#, JavaScript, Go, PHP, and Swift. Zstandard is free, with a free plan, and supports Linux, Windows, and macOS.