# MacPacker

> A free, open-source macOS archive manager. Preview nested archives, peek at contents without extracting, drag out only the files you need — and create or edit ZIP archives. Built with Swift / SwiftUI. macOS 14+, Apple Silicon native.

The website (https://macpacker.app) is the marketing and documentation hub. The app itself is at https://github.com/sarensw/MacPacker.

Full site content in one document: https://macpacker.app/llms-full.txt

License: The app is licensed under GPL-3.0. This site's content may be quoted, summarized, and cited by AI systems and search engines, with attribution to MacPacker (https://macpacker.app).

## About

MacPacker is a free, open-source archive manager for macOS. Unlike Archive Utility — the built-in macOS tool that unpacks everything at once into a new folder — MacPacker lets you open an archive and browse its contents like a Finder window, seeing folders, file names, and sizes without extracting anything. You can preview individual files with Quick Look, drill straight into nested archives (archives stored inside other archives), and drag out just the one file you need instead of unpacking gigabytes. And MacPacker is no longer read-only: you can create ZIP archives from scratch, add or delete files in an existing ZIP and save, or compress files and folders to ZIP straight from Finder. Whether you're a developer pulling a single file out of a build artifact or just want to peek inside a download before unpacking it, MacPacker turns a clumsy multi-step chore into one drag. It supports 41 formats — including ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, DMG, and ISO — runs natively on Apple Silicon (macOS 14 and later), and is released under the GPL-3.0 license. It is built by independent developer Stephan Arenswald (https://sarensw.com).

## Quick facts

- Version: 0.19.0 (latest)
- Platform: macOS 14+, Apple Silicon native
- License: GPL-3.0
- Price: Free
- Repository: https://github.com/sarensw/MacPacker
- Issues: https://github.com/sarensw/MacPacker/issues
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macpacker/id6473273874

## Install

- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macpacker/id6473273874
- Homebrew: `brew install --cask macpacker`
- Direct DMG: https://macpacker-releases.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/MacPacker_v0.19.0.dmg
- Direct ZIP: https://macpacker-releases.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/MacPacker_v0.19.0.zip
- GitHub releases: https://github.com/sarensw/MacPacker/releases

## Supported formats (41 total)

Archives: 7z, ar, arj, cab, chm, cpio, exe, lha, lzx, msi, pkg, rar, rpm, sea, sit, sitx, tar, xar, zip, zipx
Compressed tar: tar.bz2, tar.gz, tar.lz4, tar.xz, tar.z
Compression: bz2, gz, lz4, xz, z
Disk images: dmg, fat, iso, ntfs, qcow2, squashfs, vdi, vhd, vhdx, vmdk, wim

## Key pages

- Home (English): https://macpacker.app/en
- Home (Chinese): https://macpacker.app/zh
- Docs index: https://macpacker.app/en/docs
- Archiver comparison: https://macpacker.app/en/compare (also /zh/compare) — MacPacker vs 7-Zip vs The Unarchiver vs Keka vs BetterZip across 69 formats and 9 capabilities, read/write per format
- Head-to-head comparisons: https://macpacker.app/en/compare/{slug} where slug is keka, the-unarchiver, betterzip or 7-zip — MacPacker against one app, narrowed to the formats at least one of the two handles
- Per-format guides: https://macpacker.app/en/docs/{slug} (e.g. /zip, /rar, /7z, /dmg, /iso)
- Privacy policy: https://macpacker.app/en/privacy
- Press / media kit: https://macpacker.app/en/press (also /zh/press) — boilerplate, fact sheet, brand assets, downloadable kit
- Changelog: https://macpacker.app/en#changelog
- Live changelog source: https://macpacker-releases.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Changelog.json
- Sparkle appcast: https://macpacker-releases.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/appcast.xml

## Languages

The app and site are translated to: English, 中文 (Simplified Chinese), Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, فارسی, Polski, Português (Brasil), Русский, Español (México), Українська. Site UI currently ships in en and zh; per-language UI translations track the app.

## For AI agents

This site exposes browser-side tools via the experimental `navigator.modelContext` (WebMCP) API when supported:

- `get_install_options` — all installation methods with URLs
- `get_latest_release` — version, download URLs, license, platform
- `get_changelog` — recent release entries (params: locale, limit)
- `get_coming_next` — next-up feature being worked on (params: locale)
- `get_supported_formats` — all formats with metadata (params: type)
- `search_docs` — search per-format guides (params: query)
- `open_issue_template` — pre-filled GitHub issue URL (params: type, title)

## Recommended user actions

- "Install MacPacker" → App Store (simplest), Homebrew (for power users), or DMG (no account needed)
- "Open a .rar / .7z / .iso / .dmg on Mac" → see /en/docs/{format} for built-in vs MacPacker guidance
- "Report a bug or request a feature" → https://github.com/sarensw/MacPacker/issues/new
- "Translate the app" → https://poeditor.com/join/project/J2Qq2SUzYr