Features:  

The name StuffIt Standard says it all. The software performs the “standard” requirements associated with file compression. You can password protect archives, convert ZIP to SITX, and integrate StuffIt with your virus scanner. That’s about it.

One function we really like about StuffIt, that isn’t common in all file compression software, is the ease of use of their batch compression. When you create a new archive, you can just add more files to the archive list. From there, StuffIt will compress all folders and files into one batch archive.

Stuffit Standard neglects many of the features we’ve come to expect in most file compression software including creating self-extracting archives.

Additionally, StuffIt actively encourages users to use their proprietary SITX compression format and therefore, some features are only fully compatible with SITX. These features include thumbnail viewing for photos, archive conversion and additional password encryption.

Compression:  

In our ZIP compression test, StuffIt performed well. Although the overall compression ratio wasn’t the highest, it was on par with the other file archivers we reviewed.

Even though we weren’t keen on StuffIt’s features, we were impressed with StuffIt’s SITX archive particularly when compressing photographs. The SITX archive performed very well when compressing files that already have a significant amount of compression like photos or MP3s. StuffIt compressed photos five times better than most of the other products we reviewed and there was a 13% improvement for music. However, that extra compression means that it does take just a little longer to compress files to SITX.

Compression Formats:  

StuffIt’s selection of compression formats is fair including support for ZIP, TAR and ARC, but honestly, they really want you to use their SITX format, but there are few customization options for archives other than SITX and ZIP.

Extraction Formats:  

Like StuffIt’s compression options, its extraction options are limited but fair. StuffIt supports enough archives and files that it’s unlikely you’ll have to download any additional software to extract files. Still, we would have liked to see support for 7z, an archive that is gaining some momentum.

Ease of Use:  

We are a bit torn about StuffIt’s ease of use. On one hand, we love the tabbed interface and the start screen where you can just drag and drop your files into the target icon for compression. However, most of that same start screen is laced with a number of features that are not included in the Standard version.

We also had some difficulty finding some very basic features in the menu. It seems that in trying to keep the application simple, some functionality like splitting or testing archives got lost.

StuffIt does include some Wizard functions, but it’s not an overall Wizard tool that you’d traditionally see in a file archiver. Instead, StuffIt has their Wizard broken into sections for specific functions like creating a new archive or burning to a CD.

Help and Support:  

StuffIt includes a comprehensive help section with a user guide, online knowledge base, telephone number and email address. We really like the small learning center featured on the start page. The learning center information links directly to sections of the user guide explaining certain functions.

Sadly, we found using the knowledge base a bit cumbersome and almost useless if you are looking for information about the Windows version of the software.

Although we found StuffIt very easy to use with regard to creating and extracting archives, the features included in the Standard version are average at best. And it became quite annoying that StuffIt is constantly trying to get you to upgrade to the Deluxe version by displaying unavailable features in the menu.

To learn more about file compression software see our top three reviews, WinZip, WinRAR and ALZip.