The Test
We use xz -9 as our baseline — it's widely regarded as the strongest general-purpose compressor available and the standard benchmark for maximum compression.
We took a 2.3MB Linux log file — 25,000 lines of mixed kernel messages and syslog output — and ran it through every major compressor at their highest settings. Then we ran it through Smallest.zip.
Results
| Compressor | Size | vs xz -9 |
|---|---|---|
| gzip -9 | 208,604 | +77.3% |
| bzip2 -9 | 159,641 | +35.7% |
| zstd -19 | 120,520 | +2.4% |
| xz -9 | 117,640 | baseline |
| Smallest.zip | 40,712 | -65.4% |
Smallest.zip compresses the Linux log to 40KB — that's 98.3% smaller than the original 2.3MB file, and 65.4% smaller than xz at maximum compression.
How It Compares
The traditional compressors cluster together in the 120–210KB range. Even zstd at its highest setting (-19) barely edges out xz. Meanwhile, Smallest.zip produces output that's nearly 3x smaller than the best traditional compressor.
This isn't a synthetic benchmark — it's a real Linux log file with the kind of mixed content you'd find on any production server: kernel messages, daemon output, authentication events, and system status updates.
Why This Matters
Log storage is one of the biggest hidden costs in infrastructure. A typical server generates gigabytes of logs per day. At 98.3% compression, 1TB of logs becomes ~17GB. That's a massive reduction in storage costs, bandwidth for log shipping, and time for log analysis.
Try It Yourself
Upload your own files at smallest.zip and see the difference. Every account starts with free credits.