B1 Free Archiver Review

A product by Catalina Group Ltd.

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Overview

B1 Free Archiver is a relatively new file compression tool, compared with competition, being released in 2011. They are the creators of .b1 file format, one of the best formats to reduce file size after compression - see our tests.

The program comes with a pretty good speed of extraction, it has a very clean interface and supports well a large number of popular extraction formats. It lacks at supported formats for compression.

Compression Speed
4.23/10

It has a pretty decent speed while is creating archives, although is below the average of best programs.

Compare Compression Speed (higher is better choice)

B1 Free Archiver

8.39

8.10

7.13

4.87

4.85

4.39

4.23

3.17

2.94

2.41

Extraction Speed
6.26/10

Is able to extract archives faster than the average of its competitors.

Compare Extraction Speed (higher is better choice)

B1 Free Archiver

8.63

8.39

8.36

6.75

6.65

6.52

6.26

6.15

3.51

Compression Formats
2.35/10

Unfortunately, is able to create only .zip and .b1 (its native format) archives. It cannot create .7z files - the best format to reduce file size. .b1 format is very good, but isn't yet very popular and isn't supported for extraction by the majority of programs.

Compare Compression Formats (higher is better choice)

7.78

6.41

6.27

6.01

5.23

5.16

5.10

4.90

4.77

3.99

* B1 Free Archiver in not included in the above chart because is weaker than these competitors

Extraction Formats
7.39/10

This application is able to extract all popular formats including ZIP, RAR, 7Z, ZIPX, B1 and more.

Compare Extraction Formats (higher is better choice)

B1 Free Archiver

9.09

8.36

7.58

7.56

7.50

7.44

7.42

7.39

7.36

7.35

Features
5.56/10

B1 Free Archiver it has a really clean and friendly interface. You can split an archive in multiple files, set a password and choose between different compression methods.

It has its own interface where you can select an archive and test it against errors, it features a dual panel where you can preview files and add them to an archive using right click menu.

Compare Features (higher is better choice)

8.89

7.78

6.67

5.56

* B1 Free Archiver in not included in the above chart because is weaker than these competitors

Pro

real time details (time remaining, file size)

Cons

doesn't remember last selected options
can create only one popular compression format (ZIP)

Conclusion
5.88/10

The program looks very clean and is a pleasure to use it, but supports only ZIP and B1 as compression formats. A major plus is that provides versions for many operating systems and mobile devices. Also, their native .b1 file extension supports a high compression ratio.