Most archive utilities fuse three different jobs into one “make a zip” button: they bundle your files, compress them, and (sometimes) encrypt them — all baked into a single format choice. Purrchiver keeps them three separate tools, so you can use any one on its own or stack them in whatever order fits the job.
The three tools
Archive — bundle many into one
Packing files and folders into a single container: ZIP, 7z, tar, Apple Archive
(AAR), ISO 9660, CPIO, DMG. You can bundle without compressing — a plain
.tar, or the None option, which pairs with age encryption to lock a single
file without compressing it. See Creating a new archive.
Compress — make it smaller
Shrinking the bytes, two ways:
- Inside an archive — pick a compression level (Store / Fast / Normal /
Best), or a compressed-tar variant (
.tar.gz,.tar.zst,.tar.xz, …). - On a single file — the Compress File verb writes a
standalone stream:
gz,bz2,xz,zstd,brotli,lz4,lzip,lzma. No container, just a smaller file.
Encrypt — lock it
Protecting the contents with a password. Several tools, because different recipients need different things:
- ZIP + AES-256 — broadest compatibility.
- 7z + AES-256 — strong; filenames hidden too (header-encrypted).
- AEA — Apple’s Encrypted Archive (hides everything; Apple platforms).
- Encrypted DMG — an AES-256 disk image.
- age — the universal wrap that encrypts any container or single file, even ones with no built-in encryption of their own.
See Encrypted archives and age encryption.
Composing them
Because the three are independent, you mix them to fit the job:
| You want | Tools | Example result |
|---|---|---|
| Just bundle | Archive | Project.tar |
| Just shrink one file | Compress | report.csv.gz |
| Just lock one file | Encrypt | secret.pdf.age |
| Bundle + shrink | Archive + Compress | Project.tar.zst, Project.7z |
| Bundle + lock | Archive + Encrypt | Project.zip (AES-256) |
| Shrink + lock | Compress + Encrypt | report.csv.gz.age |
| All three | Archive + Compress + Encrypt | an encrypted, compressed 7z — or Project.tar.zst wrapped in age |
The standout is age: because it wraps the finished file, it composes over
anything — a .tar.zst, an .iso, an Apple Archive, a lone .gz — so you can
encrypt containers no other Mac archiver can.
Where each one lives
- Bundle + compress + built-in encryption together — the Create Archive sheet: choose a Format, a Compression level, and an Encryption, then create.
- One file at a time — the Tools menu’s Compress File and Encrypt verbs (and their Decompress / Decrypt inverses); see Compress or encrypt a single file.
- Automated — every one of these is also a Shortcuts action.
Free vs. the unlock
Bundling the common formats and compressing to gz / bz2 are free; the
advanced create formats, all encryption, and split volumes are part of the
one-time $9.99 unlock. See What’s free vs. the unlock.