How to zip files on mac?

The easiest way to zip files on a Mac is the built-in right-click > Compress method. Just select your files or folder, right-click, and choose Compress—macOS will create a ZIP file in the same location. It’s quick, simple, and works fine for most cases. But if you’re wondering whether it’s the best way, well… that depends on what you need.

If you’re trying to seriously reduce file size, macOS doesn’t give you much control over compression levels. It uses a standard ZIP format that’s decent but not the most aggressive when it comes to shrinking files. If you’re dealing with large files (like images, videos, or archives), you might get better results with specialized compression tools.

Now, if you want to password-protect a ZIP file, Finder won’t help you there. The built-in method doesn’t support encryption, so your options are either using Terminal or a third-party app. If you don’t mind the command line, you can do it through Terminal by using a simple zip command with the -e flag, which will prompt you to enter a password. That’ll create an encrypted ZIP file, but keep in mind that macOS uses relatively basic encryption (ZIP 2.0), which isn’t the most secure. If you need something stronger, you might want to look into other options.

For Windows compatibility, most ZIP files created on a Mac will open just fine on Windows, but sometimes you’ll see extra __MACOSX folders or ._filename files inside. These are just metadata files macOS adds, and they don’t affect functionality, but they can be annoying. If you’re sending ZIPs to Windows users often, using a tool that creates cleaner archives can help avoid this.

So, if you just need a quick ZIP, the built-in method is fine. If you want passwords or better compression, you’ll need another solution.

Zipping files on a Mac is straightforward—just right-click, hit Compress, and that’s it. It works well for basic needs, but if you ever need more control, like setting a password or choosing different compression levels, you’ll quickly notice macOS keeps things pretty simple. As previously mentioned by the other responder, if you’re sharing ZIPs with Windows users, you might run into those extra __MACOSX or ._filename files that sometimes show up inside the archive. They’re harmless, but they can be a little confusing on the other end.

If you’re working with ZIP files a lot, having something a bit more flexible makes life easier. I like Commander One because it treats archives like normal folders, so you don’t have to unzip just to grab one file. It’s handy when you just need to grab a single file from a ZIP without unpacking everything. If you’re looking for stronger compression or more format options (like 7z or RAR), Tools like BetterZip and Entropy are also worthy of your attention. You may find it more handy to use a separate software, though it is not my way of doing it.

For password-protected ZIPs, Finder doesn’t have that option, so if you don’t want to mess with Terminal commands, a dedicated app is the way to go. Also, if you’ve ever wondered why your ZIP files seem larger than they should be, it’s often because macOS includes hidden system files in the archive. Some compression tools let you remove those automatically, which keeps things cleaner and makes the ZIP smaller.

Overall, Finder’s ZIP utility is fine for quick tasks, but if you regularly deal with compressed archives, file encryption, or cross-platform compatibility, using a dedicated file compression tool will make things a lot smoother.

Be careful when using words like “better”. “Better” for what? Security? Storage efficiency? Ease of use? Different folks can and often will have different “better”.

zip and unzip is widely used, has some wrinkles, and specifically targets cross-platform compatibility well beyond Microsoft Windows. zip is underneath many common file formats too, including Java .jar files, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot Office whatever they’re calling that suite now “x” files including .docx and .pptx files.

Terminal gives you direct access to the zip and unzip commands. All of the capabilities of zip and unzip are available, including some higher-cost higher-efficiency compression, using -9.

zip security is an interesting discussion more generally, as it encrypts the files but not the zip metadata. That might leak information, and might not be what you want. (See that discussion of ”better”, above.)

There are far better choices for data security, including implementations of AES, and newer. I’ve been known to zip something, then encrypt it.

BTW: there’s a technical wrinkle here too: always compress your data before you encrypt it. Encrypted data cannot be compressed. I mean, yeah, you can try to compress it, but there’s no benefit to doing so, as robustly encrypted data is inherently incompressible.

Compression is an interesting discussion too, as the algorithm used by zip and unzip is old and is most definitely not the best efficiency around, but it was not encumbered by patents or contracts. Better compression algorithms were encumbered by patents back when many of these tools were coming into common use, including lzw. The algorithm used by zip wasn’t encumbered. So there are definitely better choices in more recent years, and well beyond lzw too. But these alternatives can be less than universally available. And then there’s the unRAR “fun”. (See “better”, above.)

“I’ve heard Terminal can do so e of this”? The command line is useful when you’re doing something often, when you’re doing a lot of something all at once, when you need to repeat some task or processing, or when you need access to some feature or capability that the GUI doesn’t have. There is a learning curve involved here with zsh and bash and related, as with most other tasks. (See “better”, above.)

The zip man page: https://ss64.com/mac/zip.html

Command line? There are lots of examples of using zip and unzip around, and of using the Apple and third-party GUI tools.

TL;DR:

The easiest? Zip and unzip files and folders on Mac - Apple Support

Alternatives? https://archiverapp.com/

File encryption, past what zip and unzip offer? I use the age tool and (with care, as there are wrinkles) the openssl tool for encryption and decryption, and sometimes other options.

I’ve been using the regular right-click > Compress method to zip files on my Mac, but I’m wondering if that’s really the best way to do it. It works fine, but does it actually reduce file size efficiently,

What type of files? Unless they are large text files, you likely will not see much compression from any tool as many common file types (especially images) are already compressed.