Instead, each file is stored separately, allowing different files in the same archive to be compressed using different methods. ZIP files are archives that store multiple files.ZIP allows contained files to be compressed using many different methods and simply storing a file without compressing it. It was developed by a Russian software engineer, Eugene Roshal, and the RAR software is licensed by win.rar GmbH. RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery, and file spanning. zip file format permits many compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is the most common. zip file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression.