What is Keka?
Keka is a Mac archiver that both creates and opens archives. It compresses to 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, Xz, Lzip, DMG, ISO, Brotli, Zstd, Lrzip, AAR and WIM, and extracts all of those plus RAR, Zipx, Lzma, Exe, Cab, Msi, Pax, Jar, War, Ipa, Xip, Apk, Appx, Xpi and more. It can password-protect what it makes, using AES-256 for 7z and the older Zip 2.0 specification for Zip, and it can split large archives into parts. Keka is free to download from keka.io; the identical app is also sold on the Mac App Store for $6.49, which the developer presents as a way to support development rather than a different product.
Verified product facts
- Type
- file archiverEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Pricing
- FreemiumDeveloper-stated
- Price
- USD 6.49(US App Store)Developer-stated
- Developer
- Jorge Garcia ArmeroDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Current version
- 1.6.8Developer-stated
- Official website
- www.keka.io/
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What Keka does at a glance.
Compresses to 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, Xz, Lzip, DMG, ISO, Brotli, Zstd, Lrzip, AAR and WIM
Extracts RAR, Zipx, Lzma, Exe, Cab, Msi, Pax, Jar, War, Ipa, Xip, Apk, Appx, Xpi, Wpress, Is3, Cpgz, Cpio, Cpt and Spk as well as every format it creates
Password-protects archives
Using AES-256 for 7z files and the Zip 2.0 legacy encryption specification for Zip files
Splits very large archives
Into several parts so they fit an email or upload limit, and expands them back to the original file
Works from the Dock
Drag files onto the Keka icon to compress them without opening the window
Ships a separate helper
Sets Keka as the default application for archive types
Keeps an archive of legacy builds going back to Mac OS X 10.4 for older Macs
What you can use Keka for
- Compressing a folder into a password-protected 7z archive before sending it
- Opening a RAR, 7z, ISO or WIM file that macOS cannot read on its own
- Splitting a file that is too large for an email attachment into numbered parts
- Replacing macOS Archive Utility with something that also creates archives
Who is Keka for?
- Mac users who need to create archives rather than only open them
- People who want strong encryption without paying for a commercial archiver
Who is Keka not for?
- Anyone who needs to browse and edit the contents of an archive in place — Keka compresses and extracts rather than letting you work inside an archive
- Users who require published source code — the project publishes no licence for the app
Limitations
- The GitHub repository at aonez/Keka holds the issue tracker, translations and wiki rather than the application source, and no licence for the app is published, so Nuanyue does not treat Keka as open source
- The download page states macOS 10.10 or newer; the vendor does not publish a minimum for each individual release
- The site does not state whether the current build is a universal binary, so Nuanyue does not record Apple Silicon support
Strengths and trade-offs
What Keka does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Free to download from keka.io, with the Mac App Store copy presented by the developer as a way to support development rather than a different product.
- Creates and extracts a far wider range of formats than macOS's built-in tools, including 7z, RAR, ISO and WIM.
- Can encrypt 7z archives with AES-256 and Zip archives with the Zip 2.0 specification.
- Splits oversized archives into parts, which macOS's Archive Utility does not do.Developer-stated
Trade-offs
- The repository does not contain the application source and the project publishes no licence for the app, so the code cannot be inspected or built by users.
- It compresses and extracts rather than letting you add, remove or rename files inside an existing archive.Editorially reviewed
- The vendor's own pages do not state Apple Silicon support or a per-release minimum macOS version.Editorially reviewed
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Download the .dmg from keka.io and drag Keka into Applications, or install the same app from the Mac App Store.
- First launch Developer-stated
- Keka opens its own window, but the developer presents Dock usage as the intended workflow: drag files and folders onto the Dock icon or the window to compress them.
- System integration Developer-stated
- Setting Keka as the default extraction application needs a separate helper, KekaExternalHelper, which the developer provides as a download from the site.
What Keka does
Keka is a Mac-only archiver that does both halves of the job. It compresses to 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, Xz, Lzip, DMG, ISO, Brotli, Zstd, Lrzip, AAR and WIM, and it extracts all of those plus a long tail of formats macOS will not touch on its own: RAR, Zipx, Lzma, Exe, Cab, Msi, Pax, Jar, War, Ipa, Xip, Apk, Appx, Xpi, Wpress, Is3, Cpgz, Cpio, Cpt and Spk.
The workflow the developer emphasises is not the app window at all. Keka is meant to sit in the Dock: drag files or folders onto the icon and it builds a “slimmer version” of them without being opened. It also splits archives that are too large to send into numbered parts that expand back to the original file.
Encryption, and why the format matters
For 7z archives Keka uses AES-256; for Zip it uses the older Zip 2.0 specification. That asymmetry is worth knowing before choosing a format for something sensitive — the 7z path is the strong one, and the developer says so directly rather than implying the two are equivalent.
The site publishes two separate lists: the formats Keka can create and the formats it can extract. The extraction list is much the longer of the two, which is the honest shape of the tool — it opens more than it writes.
Free download, paid App Store copy
Keka is free from keka.io. The developer’s own framing of the Mac App Store listing is that “the app is the same as the version from this website only updated through the App Store”, and that buying it there supports development. So the $6.49 is a distribution choice rather than a feature gate: there is no Keka Pro, and nothing in the website build is locked.
If you would rather not pay, or do not use the App Store, the site also offers a tip jar, PayPal donations and GitHub sponsorship — and the same download.
Is it open source?
Nuanyue does not list Keka as open source. The repository at aonez/Keka
contains the issue tracker, translations, images and the wiki, and its README
describes its purpose as taking care of issues and the wiki. There is no
LICENSE file in the repository root and no licence published for the
application, so the source cannot be inspected or built.
Which Macs it runs on
The download page states “Requires Mac OS X 10.10 or newer”, and the site keeps an archive of legacy builds — 1.1.30 for OS X 10.9, 1.0.16 for 10.7, 1.0.4 for 10.6 and older — for Macs that cannot run the current version. The vendor does not state whether the current build is a universal binary, so Nuanyue records Apple Silicon support as unknown rather than guessing.
Release history
Dated releases recorded for Keka, newest first, each with the source it was read from.
1.6.8Developer-stated
Maintenance release; updates the bundled 7ZZ, XZ, UNRAR and BSDTAR tools and fixes Zstd extraction and password encoding detection.
Source: Source repository
Questions about Keka
Is Keka free?
Yes. Keka can be downloaded free from keka.io. The same app is sold on the Mac App Store for $6.49, which the developer frames as supporting development, and there is also a tip jar and GitHub sponsorship.
Is Keka open source?
No licence is published for the application, and the GitHub repository at aonez/Keka is used for issues, translations and the wiki rather than the app's source code, so the code cannot be inspected or built.
Does Keka create archives or only extract them?
Both. Keka compresses to 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, Xz, Lzip, DMG, ISO, Brotli, Zstd, Lrzip, AAR and WIM, and extracts those plus RAR, Zipx, Lzma, Exe, Cab, Msi and a long list of others.
Can Keka encrypt archives?
Yes. It can password-protect 7z archives with AES-256 and Zip archives with the Zip 2.0 legacy encryption specification.
Which macOS version does Keka need?
The download page states 'Requires Mac OS X 10.10 or newer'. The vendor does not publish a minimum for each individual release, and keeps an archive of legacy builds for older systems.
Alternatives to Keka
Apps that could replace this one — the same job, a different trade-off.
BetterZip
Mac archiver that opens, creates and edits archives in place.
Both are Mac archivers that create and extract many formats; BetterZip is a paid app built around browsing and editing archives in place, while Keka is free and centred on compressing and extracting.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
The Unarchiver
Unarchive many different kinds of archive files.
Both open archive formats macOS cannot read; Keka also creates archives and is free from its own site, while The Unarchiver is a closed-source extractor that does not create them.
ZipGood
A native archive utility with 14 output formats and AES-256 encryption.
Both compress and extract archives on the Mac and both offer encryption; ZipGood is distributed through the App Store around a Finder workflow, while Keka is a standalone archiver with its own window and Dock workflow.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
- Keka on the Mac App StoreGrade A
- Keka — official websiteGrade B
- Keka — documentationGrade C
- Keka — source repositoryGrade D
