Free File compression software - Alternative to Winzip

If you are fed up with the Buy Now splash screen every single time you open winzip, then there are plenty of FREE option available and many are just as good !

Now Winzip itself isn't god sent, it is clunky, don't support .RAR format. Download takes 9 MB and above all really annoying when you have stare at its splash screen until it counts the number of archive opened till date !

Good news is there are tons of Free file Compression software which are as good if not better than Winzip.

• 7-Zip - Top of the list is 7 zip. Its free, open source and only 800Kb to download.
  Supported formats: Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR; Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
  
  For ZIP and GZIP formats 7-Zip provides compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
  
  What more do you want from free software !
• ZipWiz - The first impression you get from Zipwiz is RED ! I am not sure if the developer's fav colour is red but makes every effort to include the colour. The interface is a little tacky for me but hey its FREE ! Simple to use, easy to navigate. Also has a file preview which make life easier when you have many files with the same name. Download is 2 MB though !
  
  More Here
  
• FilZip - Filzip is free File compression software that supports roughly 15 archive types, including ARJ, CAB, RAR, TAR, and LHA. Pretty much all you want from a zip software including password-protect ZIP files and send archives over the Internet via the built-in e-mail function and last not the least the ease of drag & drop.
• ALZip - It is really neat, quirky little software. Looks impressive for a freeware ! Supports formats from RAR and ZIP to TAR and TGZ and nearly 30 other formats
  It can open CD image files (ISO, BIN), open virtual CD files (LCD), create 8 archive and compression file formats, create self-extracting files (EXE), split files for easy transfers, recover lost passwords from ZIP files. If you use compression all the time then this is really useful. And you get used to the quirky egg like logo !
  

You need to choose depending your usage and your preference. Well I am using 7 zip because I hardly use compression apart from that occasional mail attachment or to back-up hard disk.