ZIP tools that run in your browser

What the service is

Most ZIP services on the web upload your files to a server, pack them there, and let you fetch the result. That works, but it means your files pass through a machine you do not control.

Zipfile does the opposite. Your browser has compression built in, and we use it. Files are read from your disk, packed on your own machine, and the archive is created where you are sitting.

How it is built

• The compression uses the browser’s own engine. We load no compression library from a foreign content network.
• The ZIP structure itself we write ourselves, with support for large archives and for file names with accented characters and emoji.
• The work runs on its own background thread, so the interface does not freeze and «Cancel» actually works.
• The archive is built as a stream. In browsers that let you point out a save location, it is written to disk as it is created, instead of piling up in memory.
• Files that are already compressed — images, video, other archives — are stored untouched, because repacking them only costs time.

What works now

Seven tools are open: create an archive, open one, extract from it, view its contents, test that it is intact, split it and merge several. You can also edit an archive by removing, renaming and adding files.

They are tested with accented file names, emoji, subfolders and empty files, and the archives have been opened again with Windows’ own extraction to confirm that the contents come out unchanged. The reader has been checked against archives made by four independent tools, and against archives over 4 GB.

What is coming

The remaining tools are built into the same package, but stay switched off until they are fully tested. We publish a page only once the tool behind it works — an empty tool page is worse than no page.

• Password-protecting archives. Unlocking them already works; creating them does not yet.
• Converting from 7z, RAR and TAR where it is lawful and technically sound.

What we do not promise

• We are not an antivirus program. An integrity test says whether the archive can be read, not whether the contents are safe.
• We do not repair damaged archives, and do not promise to do so later either.
• We do not build password guessing or any way around protection.
• Should a future feature need a server, we say so before you choose a file.

Who is behind it

Zipfile is developed and run by ebizapple.no. The site is under development, and the content is updated as the tools are finished.