Keka — The Complete Guide: Compressing and Encrypting Archives on the Mac, Free from the Official Site
Keka is a macOS archiver that works by drag and drop: pull files onto its window or Dock icon and you get an archive. It creates 7Z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, ZSTD, DMG, ISO and WIM, and also opens RAR, ZIPX, CAB, MSI and JAR. Settings such as format, compression level and the destination folder are chosen once in the main window and then apply to every drop.
Keka
aONe (Jorge Garcia)
Free macOS archiver that creates 7Z, ZIP, TAR, DMG and ISO with AES-256 encryption and splitting, and also opens RAR, CAB and MSI.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Drag and drop — compress and extract without menus.
- Many formats — create 7Z, ZIP, DMG and ISO, open RAR.
- AES-256 encryption — password protection for 7Z archives.
- Splitting — break a large file into parts for email or a server.
- Windows-friendly output — archives that colleagues on Windows open without trouble.
The licence
Keka is freeware, not open source. The download from keka.io is free for any use, with no registration. The same app is sold on the Mac App Store as a way to support the developer, and buying it there unlocks no extra features. There is no Windows or Linux version.
Related tools
For extraction only, including legacy formats — The Unarchiver. On Windows machines — 7-Zip. For a tool that runs on both the Mac and Linux — PeaZip.
The Unarchiver
MacPaw
Free macOS tool for opening archives: RAR, 7Z, ZIP, ISO and dozens of legacy formats — extraction only, no archive creation.
Get it from the vendor
7-Zip
Igor Pavlov
File compression and extraction — ZIP, 7z, RAR and more, with strong compression and AES-256 encryption.
Get it from the vendor
PeaZip
Giorgio Tani
Open, create and encrypt archives in 200+ formats, including splitting large model files.
Get it from the vendor
ezyZip
ezyZip
Archive compression and extraction in the browser, processed locally on your computer with no upload to a server. Opens 350+ formats.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
For an engineer on a Mac, Keka is the simple way to create encrypted 7Z archives and open RAR files. Download it from the official site to get it free.