ZipGood technology
Short answer: ZipGood is a native macOS app that bundles trusted open-source compression engines — 7-Zip, The Unarchiver (XADMaster), Zstandard, Brotli, lzlib and LRZIP — which run locally and make no network requests.
How ZipGood is built
ZipGood is a native macOS app. It does not reimplement compression algorithms itself — it bundles well-established open-source compression engines and drives them from a native Mac interface.
- ZipGood is a native macOS app distributed through the Mac App Store.
- ZipGood is sandboxed and hardened.
- Compression and extraction are performed locally by engines bundled inside the app.
- The app makes no network requests; archive processing works fully offline.
- Passwords are stored in the macOS Keychain and never written to disk.
- Folder access is granted by the user, folder by folder, and stored as a security-scoped bookmark.
- Licences for the bundled components are listed inside the app under Settings → About.
Why this matters
Archive formats are unforgiving: a single misinterpreted header can corrupt an archive or, worse, silently drop files. Relying on engines that have been used and tested for decades is safer than a bespoke implementation.
It also means ZipGood can support formats that macOS does not, including RAR and 7z, without shipping a command-line tool the user has to install separately.
Compression engines used by ZipGood
| Engine | Project | What ZipGood uses it for | Licence family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | 7-Zip project (Igor Pavlov) | 7z archive creation and extraction, including AES-256 encryption and solid archives. | GNU LGPL (with unRAR restriction for RAR code) |
| The Unarchiver / XADMaster | The Unarchiver (MacPaw) | Extraction of RAR and many other legacy and modern archive formats. | GNU LGPL |
| Zstandard (zstd) | Meta / Facebook | Zstandard compression and decompression. | BSD 3-Clause |
| Brotli | Brotli compression and decompression. | MIT | |
| lzlib | GNU lzip project (Antonio Diaz Diaz) | LZIP compression and decompression. | GNU GPL |
| LRZIP | LRZIP project (Con Kolivas) | LRZIP compression and decompression of unencrypted .lrz archives. | GNU GPL |
Frequently Asked Questions
What compression engine does ZipGood use?
ZipGood bundles 7-Zip, The Unarchiver (XADMaster), Zstandard, Brotli, lzlib and LRZIP. These engines run locally inside the app and make no network requests.
Do the bundled engines connect to the internet?
No. The bundled compression engines run locally and make no network requests, consistent with the app's documented behaviour of having no network access.
Where can I see the licences of the bundled components?
The licences are listed inside the app under Settings → About, and are also summarised on the ZipGood open-source page.
Sources
- ZipGood Privacy Policy Level 4
- ZipGood Product Description Level 2
Product facts on this page were last verified on October 2, 2026.